A/C Lines

I see some people have used hard lines for the air conditioning.

Can anyone tell me if there is a way to make these up at home without welding (like aluminum fuel lines)?

If it is necessary to buy fixed lengths with the ends already on them, it seems like that would add more connections and in some places, extra length in the system. Does that defeat the purpose of the cleaner and smaller hard lines?

If the supplied rubber lines are used, are there any problems with getting everything to fit along the side of the car with the required insulation? It seems like there are a lot of lines on the passenger side (two heater hoses (insulated?), two a/c hoses (insulated?), a coolant line (insulated) and a brake line.

dforster said:

I see some people have used hard lines for the air conditioning.

Can anyone tell me if there is a way to make these up at home without welding (like aluminum fuel lines)?

If it is necessary to buy fixed lengths with the ends already on them, it seems like that would add more connections and in some places, extra length in the system. Does that defeat the purpose of the cleaner and smaller hard lines?

If the supplied rubber lines are used, are there any problems with getting everything to fit along the side of the car with the required insulation? It seems like there are a lot of lines on the passenger side (two heater hoses (insulated?), two a/c hoses (insulated?), a coolant line (insulated) and a brake line.

Click to expand...

Dave, I had no problem in running the two A/C and two heater lines along the outer side of the passenger chassis. I marked the horizontal rail before we removed the body, this told me exactly how much room I would have to run lines. I made some custom rectangular brackets to keep the 2-A/C and heater lines in a nice neat cube; see the pictures in post #85 of “Jimer's Build”.


Jim
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dforster said:

I see some people have used hard lines for the air conditioning.

Can anyone tell me if there is a way to make these up at home without welding (like aluminum fuel lines)?

If it is necessary to buy fixed lengths with the ends already on them, it seems like that would add more connections and in some places, extra length in the system. Does that defeat the purpose of the cleaner and smaller hard lines?

If the supplied rubber lines are used, are there any problems with getting everything to fit along the side of the car with the required insulation? It seems like there are a lot of lines on the passenger side (two heater hoses (insulated?), two a/c hoses (insulated?), a coolant line (insulated) and a brake line.

Click to expand...

Hi
Just a personal observation, but keep in mind that rubber hoses deteriorate over time so to avoid replacement problems down the track it would be advisable to run hard lines from front to rear in those areas that would be difficult to access later and use rubber elsewhere.
This saves a lot of work and headaches down the track.
Dimi

There is a tool for crimping a/cond line fittings.
They are not cheap enough to buy for a one off job.
I payed about 8-900 10 years ago.

It is used in the commercial a/con industry as well to join pipe lengths together.
They may do a house call.

I dont know of any reason why you couldn't use copper pipe and solder fittings on the end.
If copper is an issue I'm sure someone will chime in.

Jim

If you choose to use copper be careful with the solder you use and over heating the pipe. Copper is what is used all the time in refrigeration with 134a and other freons, but there is normally a good size filter/ drier for the size of the system. In automotive the filter/ drier could easily be stopped up if flux is used and too much gets inside and over heating copper can cause it to flake a little inside. If I used copper then I would make sure everything is extra clean and use something like 15% silver with as little heat as you can get by with. Keep the heat on the fitting more so than the copper to help reduce the heat on the copper pipe. Real clean and 15% silver should need no flux which can get washed out into the system by the freon over time.