Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

There has been some interest expressed here in the installation of AC on pre-1955 Packards. I recently visited with a friend in a nearby town who has a 1954 Cavalier with a vintage after market AC installed. This system and was probably installed in the first year or years of the car life. The car still has the original type compressor fitted. The installation is interesting because the drive belt for the compressor is driven from a pulley IN BACK of the damper. Getting photos of this drive method was difficult due to the cramped space on the front of the engine. I will break up the photos into different sections: engine compartment (included here), interior, and trunk. The photos are posted with the owner's permission.

(o{}o)

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Here are the interior photos showing the control panel, and vents on the package shelf. As can be seen, the system and car are showing their age.

(o[]o)

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Here are photos of the trunk mounted unit.

(o{}o)

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Here is another photo with a better view of the belt drive from in back of the damper.

(o{}o)

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That is an interesting installation. Too bad the space is so limited to get really good views of the damper pulley arrangement. Might be a salvation for others -- although IIRC, space is fairly limited so surprising they could go that way.

According to that Popular Science article on 50's AC offerings, FrigiKar sold units for all mfgs except S-P. Yet we clearly see they had something that worked. Wonder how much was custom install work and how much factory -- both Packard and FrigiKar -- support there was.

Howard, I agree, the key thing about this installation is the drive from behind the damper. At my next visit I'll see what I can see from underneath. However, it took us 3-months to get this visit done.

(o{}o)