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Restore Your Mopar's A/C System, Part I

Maybe It’s Time To Give The A/C System A Thorough Going Through And Get It Working Again
By Brad Ocock, Tom Shaw
Photography by Brad Ocock, Tom Shaw
AC System Restore Part 1
Here are all the old lines and fittings we started with. Even if yours are bent and mangled, don't throw them away! Classic Auto Air can salvage them. Notice that the crimp fittings that attach the rubber hose to the hard lines are part of the actual hard line itself.

AC System Restore Part 1
It starts with cutting the old crimp fittings and rubber hose off right at the end of the hard line. Here, Classic Auto's Rob Starling is shown separating the pieces. After the fittings are cut off the hard line, the hard line's ends are de-burred.

AC System Restore Part 1
New A/C hose fittings are readily available, but they can't attach hard tube directly to rubber hose. They need a pre-installed male end on the hard line. But we just cut the ends off the hard line, right? Classic Auto Air starts with new A/C fittings and chucks them into a lathe and machines them down until they are just like the ends that were removed for a nearly correct resto appearance.

AC System Restore Part 1
The machined fittings are then placed on the old hard lines and silver-soldered together.

AC System Restore Part 1
These restored/recreated fittings are buffed and replated in the correct finish and are ready to have the new hoses crimped onto their ends.

AC System Restore Part 1
All the components of the system with hose fittings on them go through the same procedure of having new ends soldered on.


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AC System Restore Part 1
 
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