VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Mechanical - Engine, Trans, etc 1958 Bel Air AC and power steering upgrade

Good evening

We own a 1958 Bel Air with the 235 L6 with three speed standard . Living in Florida , my wife and I would like to upgrade this great car to a Sanden v belt drive AC compressor ,

and upgrade to power steering . Bracket kits and harmonic balancers , Alternator replacing generator ??? ....We love the generator but ....

Who out there in Chevrolet land has done this before and can give us some guidance on the best way to do this , not the cheapest , but something that has worked well for them

in the recent past .

AC is my specialty , so building an ac is not the real challenge , but we do want to add an under dash retro unit , we do not care to gut the dash at this time .

Any thoughts on a great under dash evaporator ????

That is our plan , thanks

Joe and Liz in Tampa , home of the free ....because of the brave !

guess nobody has a 235 with AC ???

235's with after market ACs certainly existed. I was stationed in Beeville, TX in 1964 and had a 1960 Brookwood station wagon 235 PG with an aftermarket AC. It was either a Frigid-Aire or Frigdid-King. Kept the front seat cool. For the back seat not so good. Had a vertical compressor that mounted just above the generator. Really loaded the engine when it was running. The car got about 10-12 miles per gallon when it was running. So they existed. It was traded in 1964 in Sanford, FL for a new Pontiac. Where to find one today????

I bought a kit at a swap meet some years back that had all the brackets to install a modern power steering unit and an ac compressor on a 235. I think it was from Chevs of the 40s.