Re: South Western US and Air Conditioning.

Posted by HH56 On 2012/6/9 13:20:26

Was it a large body 75 or a limo by chance. Don't think I have seen one at both ends unless in one of those.

In 53-4 Packard bought their units from GM's Frigidaire division & used pretty much the same trunk unit as I expect you saw in that car you looked at -- except Cadillac refined their implementation a bit more. Better air distribution with the roof vents and an actual clutch on their compressor while Packard's version just blew air out the top of package shelf and compressor ran all the time.

You're right about huge compressors -- at least in 53-55. Not sure about the 56. I'd have to look up the specs again but IIRC, the capacity of that roughly 10" diameter unit wasn't much more than the A6 type they went to in mid to late 50's which was approx half the size.

Cadillac also had a pretty refined heater system in some if not all their models. Two cores -- one on each side -- with air into the interior. An opening in the kick panels for front seat and an opening to feed a duct inside the door bottom with a vent at the end of that for the rear seat passengers. Limo's also had additional cores under the rear seat for their passengers.