Packard Forum Index » General

Yeah I remember reading about the prewar system on Packard and the need to remove the belt from the compressor during the winter season.....

John

Quote:
Postwars too. Packard and Cadillac used the same Frigidaire or GM compressor both 53 and 54. Cadillac also had the always on compressor in 53 but went to a clutch in 54 when Harrison started building their evaporator unit. Packard stayed with Frigidaire and the always on compressor until 55 when they changed and maybe even built their own system and used the Lehigh compressor.

No AC offered in the 46 to 53 time frame????

The answer to that to question mite be the same as to why noone had AC in their HOUSE or SHOP or FACTORY they worked in either.

There was scarcely a HOUSEHOLD AC unit prior to the early 1970's. Even here in the miseralbly humid south there were very few households with even just a ROOM ac unit.

AC in a car was very expensive even in the late 1960's IIRC a 65 Mustang with an AFTERMARKET AC unit was about $750 for the installation.

Also note that of the prewar era there were not many HOUSEHOLD refrigerators. Mostly something at that time known as an "ICE BOX" and as late as the early 1950's ICE was still delivered in the Detroit area.


Sure, people that afford Cadillacc and Lincoln and Imperial to them money no object. But J Q Average couldn't afford Ac in a car even if itwere offered.

I mean seriously folks, am i the only person driving a Packard today that can still remeber the 1940's thru 1970's??????

Or it must have been real nice to have grown up with indoor plumbing and a a floor in the house other than a dirt floor.

Point is Packard was not Ford or Chevy and their clientele could afford AC so why not offer it even if it was a crude prewar unit. The engineering was already done because the Clippers didn't change.

I guess I must be one of the lucky ones but our house had a real refrigerator, hard floors, some with carpet and indoor plumbing. It also had a monstrous swamp cooler that sat on a wood stand at the side of the house and blew air thru an opening dad made in one of the walls. I can't recall any friends houses that I visited that didn't have a swamp cooler. Granted the refrigerant AC units were not plentiful but they were around. This was all back in the late 40s thru 50s New Mexico.

That swamp cooler was some kind of commercial unit dad picked up cheap and would blow you out of that one room but didn't do much for the rest of the house unless you had the doors and windows opened just right. Of course if it was humid, forget it -- just noise and wet air on those days. He also had a Frigidaire air conditioner stuck up high in the wall of his office. That thing mostly made noise because it was so high and had only a fan instead of a blower. It was a good noise maker and would cool a space about 5 feet in front of it and that was about it -- but it was there and real AC.

I'll agree on the cars. HIs first real AC car was a 57 Olds. There were swamp coolers in the other cars before that. I remember one was horizontal tube that hung out a window on the side of the car. You poured water in it and every little while pulled a little cord to wet the pad again. You learned after the first time not to pull the cord fast or the water came out and landed in your lap.

The other unit I remember well sat on the trans hump. It was also a swamp cooler but was kind of unique in that you could put water in it but it also had some slots where you could put some tin can like things that were frozen. Those cooled a bunch of metal fins the air blew thru. You could get an hour or two out of a set of cans and then stop at a gas station that offered an exchange service. Pay a few cents per can and exchange the hot cans for some ready frozen ones and go on your way again.