So Saturday I pulled into the driveway with the vette and 5 minutes later I heard a hissing coming from the car, the A/C ruptured a hose. The 1975 Corvette A/C was pretty crappy from the factory. I have actually read a book my uncle gave me on the A/C's in these vettes. They suffer from small condensor, small evaporators, inadequate blower fans, and an odd kind of like expansion valve system. When you convert them to R134a the cooling just gets crappier.

The book I read suggested replacing the blower motor with a different one that puts more air out, swapping the odd expansion valve, and adding an electric fan in front of the condensor, along with a lot of other things.

The hose that blew is part of an assembly that is $130. Since the freon is out, I need to change the dryer, which is built into the wierd expansion valve (called a VIR), they do not make the VIR anymore, instead you buy the replacement thing mentioned above for $155. The blower is $70. I would probably also go ahead and replace the compressor since it is an original 1975, this costs about $350. Additionally I would throw a fan on the condensor for $40. This totals $745 and I still end up using the existing condensor, evaporator coil, and heater core

Or Option 2, they make complete replacement systems, new inside ducts, all coils, compressor, hoses, blah, blah, blah, designed to work with R134 and cool like a new car for $1299 (list, might be able to find it cheaper thru random connections, like 10% off). So for about 500 more everything is new and probably cools better.

Or Option 3, replace the hose for $130 and it probably kind of works for another year and then something else goes out and I am back looking at option 1 or 2.

Thoughts? Junior, don't you know about corvettes and stuff?