I am leaning toward a street rod style system when my Comet gets A/C again. A few reasons ... Removing the original A/C box from the car was a bear. Halfway through yanking it, I started thinking that must be what pulling a molar out of a T-Rex must have been like. Very little wiggle room. A street rod system should be much smaller. I am hoping to still be able to run the non-A/C glovebox (my 72 has a later dash swapped in). The car had good running A/C in it when I bought it in 92. That lasted two years, then pieces started failing one by one. Put a new strong compressor on it, blew the hoses off within two weeks, and so on. Through about four episodes, I don't think it ran more than a month at a time that year. I spent $600 that year trying to keep old junk running and not doing a very good job of it. Half the price of all new stuff. Since the refrigerant has changed from r12, the old equipment is not as efficient and may not work up to spec. In a northern climate, that may be OK, but here in FL, you would grumble about it. A new matched system will be designed to work with r134. The newer compressors soak up a lot less hp and are much smaller and lighter. The old York that was on my car likely used 20 hp to run. New Samdens (sp?) can run on just 3 if info that I read is correct. I my mind it is better to spend a bit more now and not waste the time and aggravation later. You might save $$$s up front, and then again, you may have to spend that same amount again later if it fails.
I think the biggest downfall to the factory system is the vacuum controlled system. The switch is prone to breaking and its not reproduced. Also the 30+ year old heater/ac boxes and vacuum motors are deteriorating.
I just roll up my tinted windows and people think I have AC. They can't see that inside I'm sweating like a pig.
