I'm working on a basically empty 73 SS. One of the things it still has is the air conditioner unit in front of where the radiator mounts. I'm considering dropping AC as unnecessary but would like a couple opinions. One, it is a black car. Am I going to regret not having AC in the summer in PA? With such a small cab, I'd think it would be easy to air out. My last car was a 65 chevelle sedan without AC and I didn't have issues with it, but it was a light turquoise and had lots of vents. My second question is a little more technical. There's a small boxy unit in front of the AC unit and I'm not entirely sure what it is. Is that an extra cooling reservoir for the transmission? I've seen auxillery cooling units in that position on other vehicles but the hoses coming off this looked a little large for that, almost like it was part of the AC. Thanks for any advice.

My 75 has one of those boxy units attached to the radiator too. I thought it was for the AC, but my dad thinks it's a tranny cooler...i don't know.

I don't think you would regret not having AC, like you said, the el camino's cab is small enough to have good ventilation with just the windows open. I took out the AC on mine and I'm in the middle of installing an American Graffiti AC delete box so I can keep the heating.

Hmm... what is a delete box and why would you need it to keep your heat? I'm curious, because I've never worked with an AC car before.

The delete box replaces the ac box and allows you to still use your blower motor for the heater.

This is what the 73-77 model looks like...
http://americangraffiti.biz/images/acdeleteimages/73-77-A_C-Delete-Box.gif
And you can get more info on it at their website...
http://americangraffiti.biz/

Ah, I see how it works now. Am I reading it right that I'm going to have to get a new blower fan to make it work as well?

Yes. You can use your old blower motor if it still works, but you will need to purchase the narrower fan for it.
I'm going out to work on mine in a little bit, I'll take some pictures so you can get a better idea of the setup.

I haven't finished installing it yet, this is just a mock-up.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/92283/noac01.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/92283/noac02.jpg

Thanks for the pics. Right now I'm in a bit of a money scrape (at college and no job) and I'm just trying to get the car running and inspected (which I estimate is going to cost me around 700 just for parts). I think I might skip messing around with that til I can afford everything. It's good to know exactly what needs to be done though.

For now you can still disconnect the ac and use just the heat. The car will run a little better without having to run the ac compressor.

That's kinda what I was thinking of doing. Later, I can always clean it up but that sounds best for now.