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Does anyone have pictures of a 1953 Packard with factory
air ? Outside and inside of car. Would it be possible to
add factory air? How good would it work? I don't think they
make a new 6 volt system. Any thought about this.

Thank You

There are a few photos of a 54 in the photo archive but I have some from a parts car I'll try to find unless someone beats me to it. Adding the trunk unit is a job and unless you have a complete parts car, there will be lots of fabrication. Most of the components are not available so if anything needs repairing or is missing or totally not repairable, there would be your first issue.

The compressor is constant on unless the belts are removed so always moving refrigerant. Only thing the on/off switches do is control blowers and close a solenoid valve (very important piece and NLA) It uses a method called hot gas bypass for temp control. There is a heated glass thermostat in the unit which controls the solenoid valve. When cooling is called for, it closes the valve allowing the refrigerant to circulate to the evaporator and when not cooling, opens and refrigerant short circuits and essentially loops in and out of compressor. The actual changing or lowering of temp is done by heating the thermostat bulb (amount controllable by operator) which in effect fools the thermostat into thinking it is warmer than it actually is. It takes a good AC person to diagnose and work on these units because a malfunctioning gas bypass valve or thermostat mimics many other problems.

Being in the trunk, you lose the effect of nice cool air blowing on your face for the immediate cool down. After the unit is on for awhile it does cool the car nicely but I would miss the face breeze. There is a slight discrepancy in the vent area so there may be two that are correct. The car I had only had flat outlets on the package shelf similar in size and shape to the fresh air vents under dash only with straight facing louvers--not the "V". I have never seen the transparent plastic vents on Packard units that were common on aftermarket and GM cars but others have. They do not appear in the parts book but some of the vendors had them new. Without them, the rear seat passenger gets the full blast on his neck and is uncomfortable in a hurry. With them, a little more of the air is shoved toward the front seat--but still not in your face.

You are right in that no one makes 6v units. Lots of people are looking for one and many have converted to 12v just for AC reason alone. Finding a 6v aftermarket hang on unit out of the junkyard might be one option and they do pop up from time to time. One of our regular posters mentioned finding one last year. The compressor clutch is the big deal. All aftermarket temp control methods today rely on the cycling clutch and no 6v clutches seem to be available. There was one supposedly on a York compressor for a VW but I have yet to find it. Finding a 6v heater blower motor is not that difficult and if a clutch could be found, with some work and maybe a pair of blower motors due to their smaller size, a modern aftermarket unit could be adapted.

Can't speak for postwar cars with factory AC, but prewar the cars were shipped untrimmed to the AC maker (Babcock & Bishop if I recall) because the installation involved extra body insulation, in the roof before the headliner was installed, and probably elsewhere. I don't know what the practice was postwar but the extra insulation installed prewar was likely an important part of the performance of the system.

Turbopackman and I had a whole thread discussion on this.

We found you may be able to use a sanden style compressor with or without some sort of voltage step up if it's not consistent because they require 7.x volts to hold closed and a good 6v charging system could do that.

I toyed with the idea of welding the clutch permanently on and removing the belts as per the factory but new hot bypass valves are hard to come by and as was mentioned, troubleshooting is tricky.

It comes down to the fact that you could recreate a factory always on AC system (you won't find 6v clutches, we looked EVERYWHERE) with hot gas bypass etc but you'd spend a fortune and not really be correct and have an efficient system anyway.

You could convert to 12v and put in a basic GM system with a cycling clutch very cheaply and easily, and the old GM A6 compression looks a lot more period correct than a new shiny sanden.

I want to say it was a compression, a switch, and a drier with the POA valve built in with some kind of evap setup and condenser and you're in. You could go old school where the components are all separate but the modern units are nice in that a lot of the smaller pieces are right on the evap box or with the drier, making less small pieces to clutter the engine bay.


If i was going to add this to my packard, i'd mount the sanden compressor first and see if the system would hold the clutch closed. If not, i'd go 12v and with an A6 compressor for looks.

Also, consider that you'll need to go dual belt pulleys if you're running single like my 50, and have to get the right balancer to clear everything to go that route. Almost more of a pain than the AC :)

The extra insulation in the roof is pretty easy to do (even I managed). Current materials do not look identical, but once the headliner is in they do!

I would think one of the hardest pieces to find to have a correct looking installation would be the external air scoops that on the rear fender near the C-Pillar. That is how you can tell if a 53-54 has A/C. Those are just about unobtainable. I have never seen one in person.

Do you have a picture of the scoops? I would like to see them on the car.
Thank YOu

The roof insulation is something i am most interested in. BUT i do not want to remove my good original headliner to do it. It is very old and fragile!!

It would be most convenient if there were some kind of blow in or spray in insulation material that could be introduced thru the sunvisor hole and the rear courtosy lite cavity.

THe rear OUTside fender mounted scoops mite be obtainalble from one of Limosine manufacturers.

AC air intakes on a 1954 Derham. Photo taken at the PAC National in Providence RI in 1985.

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