a hamber is trying to help a friend find some A/C brackets for a '57 Ranchero Y block. Issue is he is wanting the compressor on the driver's side, and all he's found are passenger side brackets. Anyone know of a source?
Very interesting! I have a factory air unit on my 57 skyliner. I found a guy in my area who had a 1957 Ford wagon with factory air who was willing to sell it. Over a weekend, I pulled the factory air off the wagon and put it in my 1957 Ford Skyliner. This was back in the early 1970's. The car was put in storage for later work in the mid 1970's and there it sat for about 40 years. I wanted to put power windows and seats in the car and it needed a complete restoration. After looking high and low for the parts, I finally came across a Skyliner with all power but no air. A couple of years ago the unit was pulled from my original Skyliner and put in my newly purchased vehicle with the full power accessories.
I never realized that my factor air unit was different from the parts shown in the books and manual. This factory air has the bracket on the left. The only parts that are different form the normal or earlier factory air is the bracket for the compressor and the hoses. I had to replace the hoses because they had been cut when I first acquired this unit in the 1970's but they still had the Ford part numbers, interestingly that part number indicated it was for a 58 Thunderbird.
The compressor bracket is obviously factory made and is professionally formed. It is definitely not something fabricated in someones home shop. I have seen the brackets used by aftermarket units and they also lack the fit and finish of this bracket.