I have a 72 aussie assembled galaxie (rhd) with factory air con. It is the large compressor style that I have seen for sale from various other aussie fords on evilbay. My question is, did these things ever work well, as I don't want to do a lot of chasing, just to find they were marginal to start with?
I"ve had my dash out (for other things) and found all the vent ducting joins very marginal, so I bodgied that up to try, but while the air is cold it isn't freezeing and the fan is definitely not up to late model car specs as on high it would only be somewhere between 1-2 on my 96 fairmont for example.
I have some dramas with poor insulation in the floor letting a lot of heat in (i will sort that later when I fit the electric front seats and will take all the carpet out and reline), but there is still a minimal amount of cold air coming out to start with. The pipe/hose to it in the engine bay freeze's up so it is doing something. Are the heat exchanger cores big enough to do the job and can the fans be upgraded? My missus calls it a winter car and it is just as well summer is over as she will not get in it if it's over 25 degrees. Already done that in a 35+ stinker and that ruined it for her. Help any-one?

I had under dash air in a 1970 ZC Fairlane a few yrs back, and had to buy a new a/c pump from the states for it after a bit of hassle it worked pretty well. Can't see why the Gal shouldn't be as good really!

If the pipes are freezing up then you are propably short on gas.
With the age of the car it is more than likely R12 which is very hard to comeby these days.

I did an install on a XW sedan last year and ended up fitting a new compressor,condenser,receiver/drier and a 12" electric fan in front of the condenser.I also had to make a couple of hoses and fit foam tape on just about every join in the ducting.I also found that due to the age of the car that it wasn't airtight .As in it was like driving around with the a/c on and the window down.Also the evaporator needed a good clean,there's nothing like dog's hair to clog up the airflow.I had thought the compressor was as rare as hen's teeth but the JAS shop actually had a couple on the shelf.Take it to a professional to have a look at it .Cheers Kevman.

you're not wrong about the air tight, the doors shut with a beatiful sound but I think you could drive a mini through the gaps around them. If I can get some decent temp drop and fan speed, I will also have to reseal all the ducting as well as it had the foam tape but was very poorly done at some stage and i have only patched it up. How hard is it to get the evaporator out for a clean? I know I will have to take it to a proper shop at some stage as it could well need a re gas etc, it would just be nice to do all the time consuming stuff that I can to keep the cost down. That fan thing is a good idea. I have a decent radar/heat gun, so is there any temp readings on the pipes etc I can check as this may be a good indicator where it's falling down?

If you have a thermometer stick it in one of your vents and see how cold she gets when sitting still and what temp when you're cruising around.It should get colder when driving.The cars in Cairns get down to 6 degrees celcius which is ok .I can't tell you easy or hard it is to do the evaporator but most of the time it's a b**ch.But the early cars are easy compared to the dash out jobs you have to do on some of the modern cars.Kevman.