My 69 Cat is a non factory air convertible with a 351W. While searching for others who may have done this job I didn’t find a whole lot of information either for 69 Cougar or Mustang.
What will the finished job look like and is it worth all the money and effort?
I’ll break this post up into a couple of installments to fit it all in.
So, if you’ll forgive some of the blunders I stumble across, I’ll try to share my experience installing the Classic Auto Air Perfect Fit kit. Please let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions.
As above, this kit ships in two boxes….which does add to the shipping cost. The big box contains most of the components, the smaller box contains the compressor and engine mount bracket. It’s well packed……after traveling a considerable distance, it arrived in good condition.
I started by punching out the holes in the core support. My support is an original, so it conveniently had the pilot holes marked. Even better, the cut-out was partly stamped so when I cut out the bottom hole the whole thing popped out making a near perfect opening….thanks Ford!
Next thing to come out was the hood latch and horns, for the Cat I think is a bit easier to remove than the Mustang.
One major concern for this installation is the potential interference between the headlight actuator and the condenser, once installed. I didn’t run across this problem as I have an electric headlight conversion kit mounted. It may, however, be an issue for those with a vacuum dashpot.
Next, off with the upper dash and disconnected the lower dash at the arrows shown. That gave me enough wiggle room to get the heater box out and new assembly in, without removing the whole lower dash assembly. A big job otherwise.
The defrost duct has to come out for modification as shown above. The instructions ask to measure 4 inches from the top and cutting off the bottom half to fit the supplied adaptor. Exercise care where this measurement is taken. The instructions are not clear on this.
Measure from this side (front side)….
Not this side (back side)… otherwise you’ll take too much material off and the adaptor will not fit.
End Part 1
