'72 Buick GS with Vintage Air

[BulldawgMusclecars]

This is a car we worked on a couple months ago, and thought there may be some interest in it here. Vintage Air doesn't make a kit for the Buick, but offered a Chevelle kit as being "close", so we ordered one and started modifying. The total job wasn't too much worse than it would have been on a Chevelle, but we did have to fab a compressor bracket (from kit parts, as well as the factory Buick 350 bracket), alter 1 of the hard lines, and do a little work on the firewall panel and the control panel inside the car. This Buick has colder AC than my late models!

[steveracer]

Hey Joe,
Thanks for the post. Looks like y'all did a nice job and it's good to hear it cools that well down in GA. I have been browsing different forums for the last week for info on a buick install. I've been wondering if there was a better kit to buy, because I think the chevelle has the compressor on the drivers side. Thats gota be like an extra 8 ft or more of plumbing. I kinda like the rotary knob set up they have too. I'm just wondering if I could save a few bucks with the less plumbing and universal controls. Did the chevelle controls fit right in the buick dash?
Thanks again,
Steve

[BulldawgMusclecars]

The way we routed the hardlines and hoses (we didn't use everything in the kit), this kit actually worked out well...I would think better than any other kit. We did have to shorten one piece of hardline, and TIG the A/C flared end back on it, but other than that it was pretty simple. For the control panel, we had to cut the Vintage piece down, since the Chevelle panel doesn't have a lighter in the lh corner like the Buick does. It was pretty easy to cut it down with a Dremel, and make it look stock. If you don't mind giving up the lighter, its a little easier, but we wanted to preserve the factory look as much as possible.