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cuffs054

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The early to mid 1960's FoMoCo vehicles that came with factory air (excluding Lincoln and T-Bird) had what looked to be an underdash mount unit similar to aftermarket.
The question is, did these units offer "fresh" air or only "recirculated" air?
 
I'll bet they're fresh air only.  Because they're more or less the manufacturer's version of aftermarket I doubt there was any mechanism integrated for recirculation.
 
We had an AMC Matador, Ours was recirculation only, pulled air from the back, and shot it out thru 4 vents in front.....I also remember a "Desert Only" setting when the thermostat was turned all the way on....and I think only two fan speeds....
there was a hole drilled next to the tranny hump for the condensation drain tube....
 
Ford offered 2 systems for a time. Polaraire, straddled the hump, recirc only, cheaper, our 61 Galaxie had that. Selectaire, integrated with heater, fresh or recirc, 'upgrade'. Our 64 had the 4 round chrome vents, more compact than Polaraire. But I spent little time in that car (grad in 64) so I don't know how it worked.

IIRC, once GM abandoned the trunk mount, all except the early discount Chevy systems were integrated, fresh/recirc.
 
FOMOCO's and GM's still had the side air vents until 69 or 70 that was the fresh air the factory air was just recirculating  Then the GM's got the Astro air with vents

 
 
Then the GM's got the Astro air with vents

Oh my gosh!  I remember the much touted "Astro Ventilation"!   My oldest sister and her husband bought a new 1969 Chevelle Malibu in the fall of 1968.  Royal blue 2 door with royal blue vinyl upholstery and bucket seats.  Not only did it have the ignition switch on the steering column (a new standard on all GM autos effective with the 1969 models), but it also had the new "Astro Ventilation".  I remember the chrome Astro Ventilation slogan on the dashboard.  My other sister and her husband had bought a new 1968 Chevy Impala SS in 1968.  Gold with black vinyl top and SS hubcaps!  Loved that car!  The ignition was on the dash.  My dad bought a 1969 Chevy truck in the spring of 1969.  If I am not mistaken the ignition was still been on the dashboard.  I was so dissapointed that it wasn't on the steering column.  My brother bought a 1970 GMC pickup and the ignition was on the steering column.  I felt like an orphaned child.    For the record ours was a GM - mostly Chevrolet - family 
 
Jeeze, yeah now that I've read additional posts, it makes perfect sense that these units would recirculate rather than draw in air from outside.  Here I was imagining a more intricate system of flaps for intake control as 60's Lincolns used for recirculation, when these under-dash units were much more basic with intakes that drew straight from inside the cabin.
 
Westie2,
Actually, when you got factory air in the GM's of that era you lost the "astro ventilation", since it was now part of the climate control. You could choose between fresh and recirc on every dash mount GM A/C I can recall. Even my 61 Biscayne with manual steering and brakes and FACTORY AIR gave you the choice. And yes that car was not easy to park! In fact on all (most?) of the Frigidaire, Airetemp and Philco/Ford trunk mounts you could select fresh or recirc manually in the trunk using dampers.
 
aftermarket,tack-on ACs

seems aftermarket AC units were common in the '70s;used to find a lot of these
in '60s and 70s cars-some were pretty good, some were pretty klutz...Saab 99 was
one of the clumsier ones with a large blower/evap case jutting down under the dash
into the passenger footwell area,the 2cyl york compressor to the left of the head
driven by a long belt prone to fly off.Some of the '70s units also used a axial
5cyl""abacus international"sanden 508 style compressor.My'69 camaro had the"astro
ventilation"emblems,some '68s even had "astro ventilation"etched into the door
windows.
 
Dad's 64 Ford

had the deluxe under-dash mounted unit, called SelectAire. I just now pulled out of my files the 64 Ford sales brocure - I'm a big car nut as you can probably tell. The SelectAire unit is pictured on pg 23 and has 2 large rectangular vent outlets, one on each side of the 2 central control knobs. This is how I remember ours. It also mentions the lower price FordAir unit, I think this is the one that had the 4 round nozzles, iirc. After all the sweltering summers we suffered previously, going from Baltimore to Vermont for annual summer vacations, any kind of cool air producer was much welcomed by our family of 6!
 
Evolution of Automotive A/C, Windshield Wipers, etc.

I love old Chryslers, but I think you had to buy a 1974 model or later before "Vent" was a part of the A/C equipped climate controls, so there was no "Vent" air coming through the dash vents, but the floor vents on the left & right sides w/ the louvers still had the levers you pull, so if you wanted "Vent air" you'd get it, but down below, wheras "Strato-Ventilation" would be dash-level air, as well as standard heat & defrost, but you would have to go to after-market for adding A/C...

Delay or Intermittent windshield wipers weren't available until '74, either; same for GM, but Ford had 'em as early as '72 or '73 (and see the movie, FLASH OF GENIUS for history on that, too!)...

-- Dave
 
P.S. 'Desert Only' setting found on AMC A/C:

Saw a Chilton's Javelin repair manual at a library on the 1968-1971 (models before the 1972-1974 ones that I liked best!)

And the different climate control panels, in addition to the non-A/C & A/C ones, showed that "Desert Only" setting that one described...

A used/classic car dealer had a Javelin with that climate control in there (it was from state in the Southwest, maybe California or Arizona) & if not for it having a manual transmission (which I still don't know how to drive) I may have been able to test drive that car & maybe the A/C (though here in MI we are far from "desert climate" even in the soaring heat we sometimes get (& got on that particular day!)...

-- Dave
 
Whirlcool,
My Gremlin (don't laugh and worse it was purple) with factory air used the "desert only" setting to control fresh/recirc. Early Ford Rangers did the same with different labels an I'm thinking even some late model smaller Chryslers are doing it. Basically, you can't have recirc unless you choose the coolest setting
 
DaveAm,
GM had the same issue with the early "Comfortron" auto/temp systems particularly the dumbed down version used in the late 60 early 70 Chevy. No way to get 'unconditioned' air and a butt ugly temp sensor mounted right in the middle of the dash.
GM also had something called "Comfortron I" (?) that Olds used that was manually controlled with auto temp. My New Yorker had the same set up and Ford used it for years.
Things have come so far that my Cruze has "AQS" air quality sensor. If it detects odors outside of the car it will automatically switch the auto temp system to recirc! Hell, even my SRX didn't do that!
 
This ad claims Factory Air but it doesn't look 'fancy' enough. I wonder if Ford went the way of many early imports, or verse visa, and used 'dealer installed' as factory. Oddly enough, I know I remember seeing a mid 50's Ford in San Antonio back in the 70's that had factory air with vents built into the top of the dash that rotated.

http://www.oldride.com/classic_cars/704448.html
 
"Desert Only" envy...

I was intrigued by the "Desert Only" dialogue...
An Uncle had a 60's Rambler Classic in the then-popular aqua/turquoise/teal color combo...
Always thought you could never use that setting unless you're driving through Arizona...
Googled, and here's what I found, from a participant in the AMC Forum...

"Actually, my understanding of the "Desert Only" position was that it locks out the compressor thermostat. In a humid environment, the evaporator will freeze up if the compressor runs constantly, blocking airflow. Cycling the compressor avoids this. The "Desert Only" position is just a thermostat that controls the compressor, in a dry environment(like the desert) with low humidity, freeze up is not an issue."

Makes sense...

George
 
George, I'm not sure I follow AMC's logic in that. Why would they need to "lock out the themostat". If the themo was not satisfied it would not kick the compressor off anyway, right? The Gremlin would only allow recirc when turned to "Desert Only"
 
Deserts are hot and very dry. They could get along with running the compressor flat out without danger of icing the evaporator.

The Frigikings had a temperature needle that moved from hot to cold and at the far right of the scale "ice." I wondered it it actually made ice cubes. There was one at the service manager's desk in the Olds garage where were took our '59 and '62. No one ever explained that "ice" was not a good thing.

A friend of ours was a nurse. When she was working her way through school, she had been a legal secretary who typed up the patent papers for the first Frigidaire refrigerator. She had a black 55 Chevy. Her son had AC installed in it. The control was a knob mounted below the dash on the right side of the steering wheel. It had three positions for off and the fan speeds and was pulled out to make it colder and in to make it warmer as I remember.

I remember our neighbor's Galaxie 500XL and the cycling compressor as it sat in the driveway before they left on a trip.
 
To me----

Air conditioning and central heating are further proofs that The Creator** loves us and wants us to be happy.

That's my position, and I am sticking to it.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

** Your own definition thereof.
 

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