How to best restore factory A/C (need advice)

[CudaS0383]

My '70 Cuda came with factory A/C but everything in the engine compartment was removed due to compressor failure.  I want to get A/C working again in the car so am looking for suggestions as to the best path forward.  I do have all the original parts but am leaning toward putting in an updated system like Vintage Air or Oldairproducts.com mainly for efficiency reasons.  I would like to retain the original heater and A/C box under the dash and restore it like shown at this site (https://www.hotrod.com/articles/1971-plymouth-cuda-gets-heater-ac-box-refreshed-restored).  That way everything inside the car is still original equipment.
My dilemma is that it looks like Vintage Air only sells complete systems so would have to use their equipment inside the car.  I haven't researched the other company yet to see what they can do.  There is also the issue of matching new A/C lines to the existing line sizes coming through the firewall.  Has anyone done what I want to do or do you have any suggestions?

Thanks!
Tom

[Rich G.]

Classic air can update everything under the hood and you can keep everything original inside the car. I did that on my 71 Cuda and it works good.

[1 Wild R/T]

I've converted quite a few E bodies in the past few years.... I use a mix of OE, aftermarket & modified OE parts..... I make up my own hoses, I use the Bouchlion compressor mounting kit which sometimes is a bolt on but if there are other aftermarket parts sometimes that requires minor modification...

PM if you'd like to know more...

[JH27N0B]

Classic air can update everything under the hood and you can keep everything original inside the car. I did that on my 71 Cuda and it works good.

Another vote for Classic Auto Air here. My '70 383 Challenger is an AC car and the previous owner didn't restore and reinstall the AC when he did the car 25 years ago, but thankfully gave me a couple boxes containing most of the AC components when he sold me the car. A couple years ago, I decided to do a partial rebuild of the very leaky engine, and refresh and update my engine compartment at the same time. I had Classic Auto Air restore some of the original components for me like the compressor and the drier (they cut off the bottom and replace the desiccant, then weld the bottom back on and repaint, looks like new!) I bought a new heater core and evaporator (Rock Auto iirc) and they sold me a new condenser rather than rebuild the old one. I had a NOS water valve, and thankfully my original lines were still nice as big block E body AC lines are getting to be impossible to find.  The restoration shop doing the work on my engine installed my AC and charged it with 134, and for the last 2 seasons it has been blowing cold and hopefully this coming summer still will be!
My only complaint with Classic Auto air is that they dragged their feet for awhile on the rebuilt compressor, had to call and nag them a bit to get them going on that.
Other than 134 instead of Freon, it's 100% stock.