New guy, a 57 Country sedan and a question.

[Roothawg]

I am a newbie to the 57 ford world.  I just picked up a Country Sedan wagon for a grocery getter and a tow vehicle for my race car.  I am installing an under dash unit and I am trying to figure out where the factory a/c lines enter the firewall.
Does anyone have a picture that they could share?  Thanks

Root 

[Ford Blue blood]

Stock factory air lines entered on the passenger side cowljust infront of the door post.  Shoot me your email and I can send you a couple of pictures.  Better yet get the service manual and the electrical manual for the car, they are invaluable and answer many little questions in addition to the really big ones.  Best money you will spend on that car!

[Ford Blue blood]

I'll try this.  The heater lines go in on the front side, the big round hole is for the air return to the blower, the sloted hole is one of the A/C lines and the little round is the other A/C line.

[Roothawg]

Wow. I had no idea.  I had pulled off the panel above the heater but was a little confused because of some secondary structure inside.  I just got the service manual in the mail yesterday.  I haven't had much time to look through it.  I'll check it out.  Thanks.

[RICH MUISE]

If your car didn't come with air from the factory it won't have the holes in the side cowl as in Bill's pic. In fact I guess I've never seen a car before with the large side holes...interesting.

[Roothawg]

I was just trying to decide how to route the hoses.  Mine wasn't a factory air car.

[RICH MUISE]

Can't help there...haven't done mine yet. while you're poking around in that area though you might want to check you're cowl drain tubes..they are the cause of all fords needing floor pans.
I had planned on making an aluminum plate to go in the big square hole where my heater was that would carry the fitting for the air cond tubes. I closed off the top hole
but left the bottom one open for that reason. See pic in last post under "strange windshield wiper problem" further down in this category

[Ford Blue blood]

The factory air looks to have been assembly line installed including cutting the holes and blocking off the air vents under the dash.  The electrical assembly manual has the templates for cutting the holes for both the indash and under dash dealer installed units.  The factory air was strictly an add on as none of the structure was modified under the dash.  The vent controls were deleted with a simple round disk affair, still had "air" in the lighted panel above.  The lines for the under dash unit came through the cowl side as well, just didn't have the big return air hole there.  The glove box for the in dash unit is about 4" deep. 

My plans for the Ranchero will be an after market indash unit with both the heater and A/C lines running into the interior through the cowl side panel.  It will be modified from front to back so looking stock is not high on the list.  Just need to decide on drive train, keep jumping back and forth between 390/tri power/DAG 4 speed and an Explorer 302/auto with the EFI operational.

[Lou]

My neighbor has been using a 57 4 door Victoria to tow his daughters 2 horse trailer. Car is running a 55 HD 272 truck engine with 57 two V carb, a 57 Ford-0-matic modfiled to start in first gear and 4.11,9 inch rear. Car also had trans cooler, 7 leaf rear springs, and 54 Lincoln front drum brakes. I helped
him build the car (looks 100% original) in 2004 , it's seen about 20,000 miles with only minor problems.

[dgasman]

 Look under the master cylinder on the firewall you will see a few knock out plugs of different sizes. These are the holes that ford used for their under dash A/C units .

Welcome to the club