Vintage Air makes aftermarket air-conditioning kits for older cars and trucks. The host is talking about their newer “Gen 5” system and how it can be installed in classic vehicles.
“AC systems” means the full air-conditioning setup you install in a car, not just one component. The episode is about how Vintage Air builds kits that fit different classic vehicles.
The Lucid Air is an electric car, meaning it runs on electricity instead of gasoline. The episode talks about cooling, which is about keeping the cabin comfortable. It also mentions an air-conditioning system setup that can help with that.
“Gen 5” means the newest generation of Vintage Air’s air-conditioning kit. Newer generations are usually designed to fit better in older cars, especially where space under the dash is tight.
A “module” is a grouped set of AC parts that come together as one unit. They’re saying the usual Magnum unit is too big for the S-10’s available space, so they use a smaller one.
“Package area” means the space inside the truck where the AC parts have to go. If that space is too small for a certain AC unit, you need a different (smaller) setup.
A “blueprint engine” is a carefully built engine where the builder measures everything to match a precise plan. It’s meant to run smoothly and consistently because the parts are made and assembled to very tight tolerances.
A “G-body Monte Carlo” is a specific generation of the Chevrolet Monte Carlo. It’s a popular car for hot rodding, and here it’s mentioned because Rick Love put a special “blueprint” engine into his as a daily driver.
The Corvette is a high-performance sports car from Chevrolet. It’s designed to be fast and handle well, and it’s one of the brand’s most important performance models. The episode is bringing up news about what’s happening with the Corvette.
The Corvette Grand Sport is a special version of the Chevrolet Corvette. In this episode, they’re talking about a new engine plus an electric motor, which helps it launch extremely fast.
The S650 Mustang is the newest generation of the Ford Mustang. They’re saying Ford will refresh the look of the car, even if the mechanical changes aren’t as big.
“Hybrid assist” means the car has an electric motor that helps the gas engine. It’s not necessarily a full-time electric car—more like extra push when you need it.
That phrase means the electric motor only drives one set of wheels—either the front or the rear. It can help the car grip and accelerate better by adding extra power to that axle.
The Ford Mustang GTD is a special, high-performance version of the Mustang. The episode says they couldn’t find many details, but people are talking about it because it performs very well. It’s mentioned as a standout Mustang variant.
The Mustang Dark Horse SC is a more powerful version of the Dark Horse. “SC” means it uses a supercharger to boost power, and the host says they’re seeing a lot of them lately.
The Charger is a Dodge car model. The host is saying Dodge hasn’t announced a V8 version of it yet, at least not in the way some people might be expecting.
The Dodge Ram is a pickup truck, meaning it’s built to haul things and handle tougher jobs. The episode mentions it by name, likely because it’s part of a larger topic or story. It’s a common, well-known model in the truck world.
The Challenger is a muscle car, meaning it’s built for strong acceleration and performance. The episode mentions one with a Hellcat engine, which is a very powerful engine option. It’s being discussed as a high-performance example of the model.
The Chevrolet Express is a large van that can be used to carry people or cargo. The episode mentions it in connection with another vehicle called the “Little Red Express truck,” suggesting they’re talking about a related story or history. It’s being brought up as part of that broader topic.
The Plymouth Road Runner is a classic muscle car from the 1960s. People often talk about it because it was built for speed and performance. The episode mentions it while comparing it to other famous cars from that same era.
The Plymouth GTX is a classic muscle car from the 1960s. People talk about it because it was offered with different performance engine options. The episode brings it up while comparing it to other famous cars from that time.
A “VW bug” is the Volkswagen Beetle. People often customize them with body changes like scoops and different looks, so it’s a common reference point for hot-rod styling ideas.
Term
scoop of ice cream
They’re jokingly describing a hood scoop, which is a raised opening on the hood. It can help feed air to the engine, and it also looks like a performance upgrade.
A “late model” race is a type of stock-car racing. The cars are built for that class, usually based on the look of newer-style cars, and they race on short tracks with class-specific rules.
NASCAR is a major American stock-car racing series. The host is using it as a comparison so you can imagine the style of race car these late-model classes are based on.
“Pro late model” is a type of race car class. It’s a step below “late model stock,” and the cars can look very similar, so you often need to notice details (like spoiler differences) to tell them apart.
“Late model stock” is a higher tier of late-model racing than “pro late model.” It’s described as more like traditional stock-car setups, including a full-frame construction and more traditional hardware.
“Full frame” means the car has a real structural frame underneath, and the body is mounted to it. The host is using this to explain that some race cars are built more like traditional cars/trucks underneath.
The Chevelle is a classic Chevrolet model. Here it’s mentioned as an example of the traditional, more “frame-based” kind of car that some late-model stock race setups resemble underneath.
Recirculating ball steering is a type of steering system used in some older trucks and cars. It uses balls inside the steering box to help turn the wheels, and it’s mentioned here as a clue to the car’s underlying design.
“Truck arms” means the suspension arms that connect the wheels to the car’s frame. The host is saying the race car uses a more traditional, truck-style suspension layout.
A crate motor is an engine you buy as a complete unit, like it’s shipped ready to install. Racers use them to keep things consistent and predictable, and sometimes to meet rules without extra penalties.
Car
Chevrolet crate motor
They’re talking about a Chevrolet engine that comes as a ready-to-install package. In racing, that can make it easier to keep cars comparable and follow the rules.
A weight penalty means the rules force a car to add extra weight. It’s used to make racing fair when one car has an advantage, like a more powerful or modified setup.
Coil-over shocks are suspension parts that combine the spring and the shock together. Racers like them because they can adjust the car’s setup to improve handling.
It’s a type of late-model race where the rules limit how much teams can change. That usually makes the racing more about driving and careful tuning instead of unlimited budget upgrades.
Toe is a wheel-alignment setting that changes how the tires point relative to the car. Changing rear toe can make the car feel more stable or more eager to turn, depending on what the driver needs.
A restart is when the race pauses and then starts again with cars bunched up. It can change tire grip because the tires cool down and the track situation resets.
Legends Cars are a type of race car used in a popular racing series. They’re designed to be relatively affordable, so more people can race and compete on driving skill.
The “summer shootout” is a racing series that runs for most of the summer. It’s made up of many races, so you have to do well repeatedly to win overall.
Charlotte Motor Speedway is a famous race track in North Carolina. It’s the kind of place where lots of different racing series go to compete.
Term
Landeleros
Landeleros sounds like another racing class that runs at the same event as Legends Cars. It’s probably a different group of race cars with its own rules.
Term
AC
AC means air conditioning. For older cars and hot rods, adding A/C can be a big comfort upgrade because it helps keep the inside cool. It also takes some extra work to install properly.
It’s an air-conditioning system that sits under the dashboard instead of being built into the car from the factory. Hot rods often need this kind of setup because the original cars didn’t have A/C. It’s meant to cool the cabin while keeping the install relatively compact.
“Wiring” means the electrical work needed to make the aftermarket AC system work. It’s more than a simple connection—you have to route and connect the right wires so the AC controls and components function correctly.
Refrigerant is the substance inside the AC system that actually cools the air. They’re saying they experimented with refrigerant and parts like the condenser to get good cooling on the road.
A condenser is part of the AC system that helps dump heat outside the car. They tried different condensers to make the AC cool better for everyday street use.
Underdash units are small air-conditioning or heater systems that mount under the dashboard. They’re used in older cars and hot rods because there’s often limited space to install modern climate control.
A GTO is a famous Pontiac muscle car. This one is a 1974, and the point here is that the speaker removed the air conditioning to save weight and make the car feel less heavy.
Term
Robin Horsepower
The speaker is joking that the air conditioning “takes away” some power from the engine. When the AC is running, it can make the car feel a little slower because the engine has to work harder.
3D scanning is a way to digitally “copy” the shape of something using special equipment. Instead of measuring by hand and guessing, you can capture the exact geometry and turn it into computer files.
3D printing is making a real object from a computer design, one thin layer at a time. It’s useful for test-fitting parts so they line up correctly on the car.
This is a specific updated version of Vintage Air’s air-conditioning kit. “Gen 5” means the newer electronics and controls are designed to work the same way across many different cars, so installs are more predictable.
An “electronics platform” just means the same basic computer/controls are used across different parts of the system. That way, the kit behaves consistently even if the rest of the hardware changes.
The “control platform” is the part of the A/C system that handles how you operate it—basically the shared control setup. It’s helpful because it stays the same even if the physical A/C unit size changes.
The “under dash assembly” is the A/C hardware mounted under the dashboard. It’s usually a bundled set of parts, so upgrading it can be easier than changing individual pieces.
The compressor is the pump of the A/C system—it moves refrigerant around so the system can cool. They’re suggesting you may not need to replace it when upgrading the under-dash unit.
Gen 5 Magnum Max is a specific Vintage Air heating/AC unit. They’re saying the newer version moves more air and lets you fine-tune temperature better than the older one.
Dakota Digital is a company that makes aftermarket car electronics. Here, they helped create the controller system that can support auto climate features with Vintage Air kits.
Thermistors are temperature sensors. They change their electrical signal based on how hot or cold the air is, so the system can adjust the HVAC settings automatically.
ECU means the car’s computer. It reads sensor info and tells different parts what to do. In this case, the control panel kit needs wiring to talk to that computer.
“Billet” means the part is carved/machined from a solid piece of metal. A billet housing is the fancy metal cover that holds/protects the control panel components.
LED stands for light-emitting diode, a type of lighting that’s efficient and long-lasting compared with older incandescent bulbs. The segment contrasts earlier LED gauge setups with newer RGB options that can better mimic factory lighting.
This is when modern LED lights are adjusted to look like the older warm glow from traditional light bulbs. It helps aftermarket gauges match the original vintage style.
A cable converter is a gadget that turns a “cable pull” control into an electronic signal. That way, you can still use the old-style controls, but the car can run newer electronics.
The Chevrolet Chevelle is a classic muscle car. Here, they’re talking about older Chevelles that still use cable-style controls, and how you can update them with newer kits.
The Camaro is a classic Chevrolet muscle car. In this part, they’re saying that some late-60s Camaros use older factory control setups, and there are kits to modernize them.
“Electronic operation” here means converting a factory control panel from older cable-based actuation to an electronic control system. That typically improves integration with modern components while letting you retain the original look of the dash/controls.
An “upgrade kit” is an aftermarket set of parts you install to improve or modernize something. In this case, it’s used to update the control panel so it looks right and works with the newer setup.
Air conditioning is what cools the inside of the car and helps remove humidity. This matters here because the car originally didn’t have it, so someone has to add it later.
A heat calc is basically a calculation of how much heat the car’s cabin will pick up. It helps the installer choose the right parts instead of buying a few and hoping one works.
Package space means how much room there is to fit the HVAC parts. On older cars, the space behind the dash can be tight, so the installer has to plan around it.
Behind the dash is where the car’s heating and cooling parts usually go. The installer checks that area first to see what can fit before doing the retrofit.
A “factory heater” is the original heating system installed by the automaker. When retrofitting A/C, installers may remove it to free up space and to integrate the new HVAC components cleanly.
The evaporator is the part of the A/C system that actually “soaks up” heat from the air inside the car. Bigger evaporator coils can absorb more heat, so the A/C can cool the cabin more effectively.
Think of the coil heat exchanger as the A/C’s “heat transfer surface.” Air passes over it, and the refrigerant inside helps move the heat out of the cabin.
That means measuring the radiator’s main heat-exchange area. It matters because the A/C condenser has to fit in front of it.
LIVE
The Muscle Car Place, online podcast, episode number 651.
This week, Rick Loved from Vintage Air is here for the summer special.
Now Rick is a staple in our industry, he's a trusted name and people of all facets in
the aftermarket go to Rick, well A, because they trust him and B, because it always seems
to have more going on than you think.
Like AI using customer service, which they don't do at Vintage Air or OEM work, which
they do do at Vintage Air, or the fact that they have AC systems for Porsche and BMW
under their AC Solutions company, I think it is, they have that too.
But we will talk about here keeping you cool.
Vintage Air has a Gen 5 system.
It is plentiful.
It is available for most every popular Muscle Car platform and classic truck option out
there and now even S10s.
It's going to be a surprise at the point.
We're just fixing to release a system for the S10s, for the early S10 pickups.
And the Magnum that we use in so many of our shirt fit kits is too large a module for
that package area that's available in that S10.
So we're using a Gen 5 compact.
This is the Muscle Car Place online podcast brought to you by National Parts Depot.
This is the weekly show dedicated to people worldwide who love American Muscle Cars.
If you're buying, selling, restoring, even racing them, this is the place for you.
Now, here's your host, Rob Kibbey.
Yes, indeed, I am Rob Kibbey and welcome to the Muscle Car Place podcast.
Well, here we are.
Rick Love is here for the annual summer special and we'll hit a myriad of AC topics and a
myriad of topics just period.
Kind of like Rick Schmidt.
Rick Love is really tuned into this industry and every time I talk to him, I learn more
and I learn more about things that I just frankly didn't know existed.
You'll really enjoy it.
These interviews, I don't even know how long they go.
And afterwards, just like we always, we had a 40 minute conversation after the interview.
I was looking at blueprint engines for something and he has one.
He put one in his G-body Monte Carlo.
That's his daily driver.
I think it's an 87 aero coupe, either 86 or 87.
And he had just put one recently in his Monte Carlo.
I was just curious about it.
Anyway, that's all coming up here in the interview.
I got an interesting show for you and I have a hodgepodge of things I want to run through.
I am in week two of our nine week run of living in two states.
And right now I'm back home in Iowa from North Carolina, but in a few days I'll be
back in North Carolina.
I will give you the rundown of the Dallas Kibbey racing update of what's going on in
North Carolina here later in the show.
But the last week and a half, the value of being down there and all
the time and being exposed to all the people and all the connections that come down there is
obvious.
I know that if Dallas really wants to race for a living, that's where he's going to end up.
I'm realizing that's where I may end up too.
But I'm also realizing how much I like living here in Iowa.
Have you ever done that where you go out of town for a week and a half and you get home
and you're just so relieved to be home?
Like everything feels right.
All the stuff goes where it needs to go.
Like even things that you can duplicate down there aren't the same.
Like we sleep with a box fan in our room.
Anybody do that?
It's just for the noise of it.
But for some reason the box fan in my room here at home is better than the box fan in our
apartment in North Carolina.
I don't know how to say it differently.
But then in North Carolina, the car culture down there for racing specifically is just,
it's hard to think of where it isn't.
It's so cool.
Somebody suggests something and they tell you who to talk to and you call that person and you
can see them in an hour.
It's quite the experience.
It is weird ping-ponging back and forth here.
Now I'm going to do that because my wife and daughters are here and Dallas,
sure, I suppose he could be down there all the time but he needs to have one last summer as a
kid.
It's going to be senior in high school this fall.
See if we can stretch it out one more year here for the next dynamic changes.
Let's pivot here to some industry news, some new OEM news.
Going to give you something to look forward to in 2027 and we'll start with Chevy.
Now I don't have a clue what's going on with the new Camaro.
I don't but I do believe a new car offering of some kind from Chevy is coming.
What that is for anything but a Corvette, I don't know but here's the news on the Corvette.
Chevy has brought back the LS6 engine name to their credit.
They just keep finding new ways to make a new small block and the new small block is the old
name LS6 and they have a new Corvette called the Grand Sport but it's really the new name for the
primarily called E-Ray.
I had to google a summary to get it all straight here but here's how I've compiled it.
So the powertrain here for the Grand Sport is a 535 horse, new LS6.
The new LS6 is 6.7 liters and then with the Grand Sport you get 186 horsepower front mounted
electric motor.
So add all that together at 721 horsepower that's more than the E-Ray had but I think the bulk
of that is from the new motor and maybe get a little more new engine I should say and then
maybe get a little more cool electric motor up front.
But they're both all-wheel drive instant front-wheel torque.
The 0 to 60 is the killer here, 2.5 seconds.
That ain't bad.
Now you can accomplish that because it's basically all-wheel drive.
That's why you can do it that fast with what is somewhat of an entry-level Corvette.
The design and styling, I don't love the nose of the C8 Corvette.
I frankly don't.
I like it from the sides and the back more.
I don't know why I don't like the front end of it but I just don't.
It has never looked awesome to me but between the standard Corvette and the wide body,
the wide body is definitely the way to go and I prefer it without the big wings.
And the Grand Sport does have wide body and you can get it out without the big wing.
It does look good.
From a pricing perspective, the E-Ray which this replaces started at,
jeez, $109,000 in the Grand Sport.
It's supposed to start in the 70s but by the time you actually put trims and stuff on it,
it will be closer to $100,000 I'm sure.
But that's the news there.
I wish there was something that I could talk about from a muscle car standpoint but there isn't.
Now let's talk about Ford.
So Ford still has the Mustang, God bless him.
And the S650 Mustang is going to get a refresh here body-wise.
I think the car itself isn't changing too much.
There is rumors of a different 50.
What that is, I frankly don't know.
I know that there's some rumors that it would have some type of hybrid assist.
That could mean the same thing the Corvette has.
Just an electric motor sitting on one axle.
I don't know.
I have no idea.
I couldn't find any details on that.
The Mustang GTD, that thing is kicking ass.
People are taking more reservations for that.
The Mustang Dark Horse SC is currently the next model up.
I've seen a lot of those out in the wild now.
795 horsepower.
I don't know if it's the GTD or the Dark Horse.
But at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in the morning,
Ford rented the track for a performance driving experience.
And those things are always running around.
They must be able to uncork the exhaust.
And I think that's available on the car electrically.
Because when they are running wide open on the back stretch,
it sounds like a stock car.
It sounds good.
I dig the new Mustang very much.
That is a neat car.
Now let's go over to Dodge.
Dodge has not announced a V8 in the charger.
If that's what you're waiting for is it's not a thing.
Except they did.
Only they've done what they used to did.
They put it in the truck.
And this time the truck brand is under RAM.
So if you want to get a V8 charger, you can.
But it's going to be called a Dodge RAM.
Let's go to Jay Leno's garage.
Featuring the unretired Tim Kaniscus for a breakdown on the new RAM models.
6,000 pound pickup truck.
Got the aerodynamics of a brick.
And we're going to hit 170 with it.
Nothing wrong with that.
Welcome to that episode of Jay Leno's Garage.
The vehicle we're featuring today.
The RAM muscle trucks.
The rumble bees they called.
This one's got the big Hellcat engine.
This is a 27 model.
It's not released yet.
It'll be out near the end of the year.
You're probably seeing it here for the first time.
I know some spy photos have been released.
But I'm not sure anybody else has driven it.
So we're going to find out a little bit about that.
Let me bring in the gentleman responsible.
He's one of my favorite people.
He's the guy that turned Dodge into the whole muscle car thing.
He retired.
Now we came back.
I'm not seeing the godfather with the guy.
So every time I think I'm out, they pull me back in.
Well, they pulled him back in.
He's had the whole Stalantus, the American brands.
Tim Kaniscus, come on in.
Tim, how are you doing, my friend?
Excellent.
Good to see you.
Jay, good to see you.
I heard you were tired.
Yeah, right.
That'll last like an hour and a half.
Hilarious.
Hilarious.
Well, I'm glad you're back running.
Thank you.
Because you always had your eye on the enthusiasts.
I think that's why you're so popular with the Dodge and the Ram.
You like what the men and women on the street
are driving, what they like.
Analog, keep it simple, keep it fast, keep it fun.
So tell us what we got here.
This is a 27 model, correct?
All of them are going to be 27 models.
It is a full range of Rumblebee muscle trucks.
OK.
Starting with a 5.7 liter Hemi.
Right.
Which I like to laughingly say is the first Hemi with only one battery,
or first in recent time, with only one battery.
Only one battery.
Only one battery, if you know you know.
Ask your friends if that means just one battery.
But that keeps it simple, definitely.
Keeps that analog.
Keeps it simple, keeps it pure to what it should be for a vehicle like this.
Right, OK.
Then we step up to 6.4.
But not the 6.4 big gas that we've used in heavy-duty trucks.
The 6.4 Apache, the one that we used to use in the muscle cars.
OK.
Then we do a track pack version of that,
which is with the aero package and with the air suspension.
This is a steel suspension.
Then we go to air suspension on the track pack,
and then we stop, step up to the big daddy, the SRT.
777 horsepower, full aero, full air suspension.
OK.
And this would be the more affordable one, probably the two, correct?
This one, we haven't released pricing.
But I will tell you, our goal is to get this very much
hard of the market for a truck in the roughly $60,000 range.
Because, you know, I think that's sort of the stick of shock.
I know guys go look at trucks, it's $105,000.
It's $110,000, you know.
So if you can keep it in that, we're not holding it to you.
But that's what you're shooting for, who knows what's going to happen.
Everybody's going to get excited about this truck.
Right, right.
But this truck's very expensive.
I mean, let's be honest.
All the SRTs are expensive.
But when you can get the same proportions and the base platform
that you're going to be able to build off of,
that we're going to announce in the future with our direct connection parts,
for that price point, this is the one we're going to sell a lot of.
And no tariffs, because it's built here.
There you go.
There's no data for doing a car like this.
As a matter of fact, the data would tell you don't ever do this.
Because all the way back to the Little Red Express truck,
which was an awesome truck, every single version of a muscle truck
that's come, our street truck or sport truck or whatever you want to call it,
that's come after that, quite frankly, didn't do very well.
Yeah.
Didn't do very well.
So the data would say don't do it.
Well, they did well.
Performers, they didn't sell well, as far as you said.
Correct.
The performance was great.
We always thought the idea was great, but they never sold.
So when we got the band back together after my retirement,
we made a laundry list of things of wrongs that we wanted to write.
We wanted to bring back the Hemi.
We wanted to bring back SRT.
We wanted to go to NASCAR.
And this laundry list of things that we wanted to fix,
this wasn't on the list because there was nothing to fix.
It didn't exist.
And we said, hey, while we're at it, let's do this too.
Well, this is sort of like back in my day in the 60s, you had the Roadrunner.
You can give the GTX or the Hemi in it, or for another $1,500 last,
which was a lot more money than it is now.
You get the Roadrunners, which was kind of a strip model,
but it had the performance and the handling of the...
Exact, exact idea.
Okay.
Exact idea.
I think that's a great idea.
You know, it's a good looking truck.
You know, RAM has a nice presence when you see them parked on the street.
Hey, what kind of truck is that?
You know, people just kind of look, you know, it sits the right height.
And I like this color too.
Very nice, very nice.
That presence was an epic fight in our company because there's two camps.
There's the camp inside the company that wanted us to build it as a crew cab
because it would have been way less expensive and way faster to market.
And then there's the other camp, the enthusiast camp,
that said the only way to do it is with a regular cab.
Now, I agree.
A regular cab would be awesome.
I'd sell six of them.
Nobody buys those.
In the truck industry, 3% of the people buy a regular cab
because there's no what I call spousal alibi.
You can't say it's not a toy because there's no backseat.
It's a small backseat, but with a backseat,
you can put the pets back there, kids back there,
groceries back there, and you can convince your husband or your wife,
this is a daily driver.
This is something that I can get away with.
But by doing that smaller cab, we shortened the whole thing,
the wheelbase as a start, we shortened the whole truck by 13 inches,
dropped it, and made it six inches wider.
That's what gives it that muscular look.
Well, it's a good looking truck.
Very nice.
There you go.
Well, now that I know all that, now I kind of don't think we're going to get a V8 charger
because Tim found a way to get all those V8 chargers built.
He just is putting them in a ram.
But that's your OEM ministry news.
Something to look forward to to 2027 that has nothing to do with fuel economy.
And I want a new car that goes really fast and gets really sh***** gas mileage.
Okay, a couple quick personal updates here.
Unrelated doubts.
My daughter, Emily, my oldest daughter, Emily, is home,
and she has been overseas for three weeks on a trip with, I'll just be vague,
she was with a group that she applied to be a part of six months ago.
She made the cut while she was overseas.
I can tell you that this is the first time my kid was in a place where
if I needed to get to her in short order, I don't know that it could have.
It would have been difficult if not impossible.
It was not a trip without major incident, but she solved all that stuff.
I helped as best I could from remote.
She probably didn't need my help.
She met new people in a land far, far away.
She experienced a very different culture.
She saw probably living conditions and certainly poverty at a different level than she see here.
She saw a lot of world history.
She's back.
She's healthy.
I'm happy for that.
Now that means the Kermin gear is really got to get fixed because she's home for the summer.
She is self-employed.
She's a nanny.
So she's got a bunch of nanny and clients.
Wouldn't it be fun if she rolled up in the Kermin gear and wouldn't it suck if it's just
sitting out there puking oil?
So I've talked to a couple of buddies who know air-cooled VW engines better than I do.
It turns out if I'm lucky, all I got to do is pull things apart.
Probably got to get the heads off and if I can pull the push rod tubes out and just
put new seals and everything and stick it all back together, it might be okay.
That is apparently not too uncommon in air-cooled VW.
So I'm hoping to get that done here yet this month so that she can enjoy it for the whole summer.
My daughter Noelle, our youngest, she is 15 and ready to take her driver's test.
She has finished Driver's Ed.
She was our kid that was not interested in driving and she has mostly learned to drive
now because basically she has to or else she'd be that one 18-year-old kid still getting
dropped off at school.
Nobody wants that.
She does have to take and pass the driving test.
She's talking about getting a car to drive.
She also doesn't care that much about cars.
She would like one that is the right shape.
So she has started showing me shapes that she likes.
I think I've determined that small SUVs of certain shapes are appealing to her
and also cars that are in the shape of a scoop of ice cream.
Her words.
My butt is 5,000 bucks max here.
I'm thinking like a 2002 VW bug but I'm not that creative.
I can't think of anything that looks like a scoop of ice cream.
If you have an idea, I'm all ears.
I don't have any Chevelle or generally updates for you on this show,
but I have been doing a little cooking behind the scenes with Zip Simons of Street Metal Concepts
about the Chevelle, but more specifically about his 50th birthday.
Zip Simons has turned 50.
Happy birthday, Zip.
You're still a wonderful guy and a wonderful, wonderful friend.
Happy birthday to you.
Okay, let's get rolling to the Dallas Kibbe Racing Update presented to you by Lexani
Tires, Lionheart Tires, and Rolling Big Power Tires, all available for purchase easily online
at simpletire.com.
Burn cue the intro please.
The Dallas Kibbe Racing Update, driven by Lexani Tires, Lionheart Tires, and Rolling
Big Power Tires, all available for purchase easily at simpletire.com.
Now, here's the update.
Loose is fast and on the edge, you're out of control.
Okay, what hasn't happened in the last week and a half?
So first of all, last Saturday I should say he ran his first late model race.
And if you don't know a lot about late models, I'm not the best teacher for you,
but here's the gist of it.
The name late model.
So I had to go meet with my insurance guy about like some home insurance.
And he said, hey, there's a late model, you know, a pretty new car.
It's relatively new.
And I said, you know, that's confusing.
I don't know why they still call that car a late model.
But I would assume that when the phrase late model was identified for race cars,
that's because it was a relatively new, you know, the latest of models available at your
dealership.
So that works anymore.
It's a car that looks like a NASCAR.
There's a whole lot of flavors of that kind of car.
So Dallas is running what would be called a pro late model.
And a pro late model is lower in the ranking of things than a late model stock.
And a late model stock is closer to like a Bush series car, an O'Reilly series car now,
I guess, but that has a full frame like a Chevelle or a GM car.
It has a recirculating ball steering.
It's got truck arms.
It'll be it.
It's more like a traditional old school NASCAR.
A pro late model, the bodies on the two look the same.
When they're sitting there side by side, I mean, unless you know what you're looking at,
it's pretty easy to confuse them.
The spoilers are pretty different sizes.
Otherwise, the bodies kind of hang and look identically.
A pro late model is a car that you could drive at a track coast.
They're all over the country.
It's a more common platform.
It's a little more entry level.
We'll use a crate motor in this case.
We use a Chevrolet or sets or racing uses a Chevrolet crate motor.
I think it's a Chevy 410 maybe is what it's called.
But if you use a crate motor that isn't modified or doesn't have an upgrade for performance,
that means you don't have a weight penalty on the car.
That's what they prefer to do.
But a pro late model, if you pulled all the body and guts off of it,
it's two straight frame rails that kind of run on both sides of the engine front to back.
And then there's ought rigors that kind of spring off of there that run all the way over
to make rocker panel mounts.
And then the body is hung off the car.
But if you took it all off the rails of the car,
basically you're just on the left and the right side of the engine, they go front to back.
So the frame rails themselves are just a few feet apart.
That's a pro late model.
It runs coil over shocks, front and rear.
It's more of a modern setup.
It's maybe simpler.
At many tracks, they are faster than the late model stocks from a lap time perspective.
A late model stock, I think most people would say that's a harder car to drive.
And again, Dallas doesn't run that one.
So he's in a pro late model.
That's kind of the first late model you would drive.
Here in the Midwest, they have a version of that called a limited late model,
which is the same car just with a treaded eight inch wide Hoosier tire down south,
where he's racing now it's a 10 inch wide Hoosier slick.
That's the big difference.
So he did that 75 lap race.
He completed them all.
And when he got out, he kind of looked like a lobster.
He was hot when he got out, but the test was Friday.
It went really well.
Good practice at the end of practice.
He hit the outside wall barely, but enough to hurt the car.
Brandon Setzer and team fixed it that night on Saturday.
The speed was mostly there, but the rear bite was just a little off.
Brandon figured out he was able to adjust to make the rear end toe like he wanted it to,
but it was a little off.
So Dallas ended up, he was P1 in practice for a while, but he qualified third.
He ran third and fourth.
Most of the race needed a restart to get kind of caught back up, let his tires cool down,
and he was going for a second.
Nailed a mistake, washed up, and that was all it took.
And then he finished fifth.
The Carolina Pro Series is where he's racing.
If you've heard of the Dale Jr. download, you've probably heard of the Cars Tour.
That used to be an entry-level thing until Dale Jr. got involved.
And now it's more popular and definitely more expensive to compete in.
We're doing something lower called the Carolina Pro Series.
So in Dallas's race, I think there were nine cars competing.
Six cars finished all of the laps.
The top five cars were considerably faster than the remaining four,
but it was a good first start.
I was really proud of him.
You want to hear what his first late model start sounded like?
It starts on the back stretch while they're clearing out the carburetors.
Here, we'll give you a couple laps.
There you go.
That's pretty fun.
I don't know when his next late model race will be.
I'm hoping to fit two or three more in here this summer with Brandon while possible.
And go from there.
I will keep you in the loop.
The next possible one is the last weekend in June.
That one was kind of iffy on the schedule for Brandon.
The next more realistic one after that I think would be the first Saturday of August,
something like that.
And from here on out, they would all be at Hickory Motor Speedway,
which is northwest of Charlotte.
Very classic track.
A lot of historic names have won the track championship there,
including Ned Jarrett, including Ralph Earnhardt,
and including Dennis Setzer, and among many, many other famous names.
Okay.
So Legends Cars is what is running all summer here.
And Lexani Turbo Tires and Rolling Big Power Tires are on the side of his Legends car
and will be on his new suit whenever that shows up.
But the summer shootout is an eight week, 10 race series.
Yes, I said that right.
At the Charlotte Motor Speedway.
And it's for Legends Cars and Landeleros.
You know what?
Let's start here.
The whole series is sponsored by a local food chain called Cookout.
And if you're from the South, please tell me how to order out of Cookout.
The food is fantastic, as are the prices.
But I cannot figure out that menu.
They have everything.
They got burgers.
They got fries.
They got corn dogs.
They got cheese for the fries.
They got shakes.
They have hush puppies.
That's right.
I said hush puppies.
Bernie, just play it and get it over with.
You want a shake?
You want a hush puppy, daddy?
You got no time for that.
Thank you.
But the confusing thing is that Cookout, when you roll up,
it's like a menu where you pick one of 50 things for your packet.
Like you say, I want a platter.
And then they say, all right,
which one of these next 10 things do you want on your platter?
Once you've made that first column selections, they go,
all right, now what do you want for this next level of stuff?
Everybody there is ordering knows it inside now.
And they know just what to do.
But when I roll up on the drive, they're like, I get lost.
All right.
If you got advice for that, I'm all for it.
All right.
So in his first race on Monday, Monday and Tuesday this week,
we're double headers.
This was a two race week.
Here's why I got an apartment down there.
It's because it rains down there all the time in screw zippers scheduling.
You can never really quite plan for much.
You just got to roll with the punches.
It rained on Monday.
And they have stated that if the track is wet, but raceable,
they will race on it and they do not allow rain tires.
You've just got a deal.
So he went out and qualified somewhere.
He made the A main though.
That was a big deal.
He was worried he wouldn't even make the A main, but he did.
He finished, I think he got shuffled back to 19th.
And the guys there that are fast, are fast regardless of condition.
And Dallas is, he's working to get there.
He's good when it's dry, but when it was wet, he had some learning to do.
He finished 19th.
On Saturday it was raining again.
This time though, he qualified 12th.
After it stopped raining, but before qualifying was done,
they made an announcement.
They said, forget it.
We're not allowing qualifying times because the track conditions
continued to change during qualifying.
It's not fair.
We're going to let people just start wherever they finished last night.
So there's that.
So we started 19th.
He got up to fourth for a while, but he shuffled back during the last restart
and landed eighth.
Not too bad at all.
This is a big leap from a year ago.
This very race, this very time last year, he did not make it out of the B main.
He couldn't even get into the A main and now he can fight.
Now it's time to lay down really fast laps from the start.
That's why we're here.
There are other places that Dallas could go and I'm sure get some trophies,
but it's not helpful.
And what he's doing now is like lifting heavy at the gym.
The days of doing this easy are over.
You're not going to gain anything more by doing it easy.
Now you got to do it really hard.
And in short track racing, laying down a fast lap to start up front,
that's the name of the game.
So pretty cool.
There was one neat moment for Kyle Busch.
Brexton Busch, his son does race a legends car.
The entire Busch family was there.
Kurt Busch was there in the stands.
I realized it was standing right next to him.
And I believe his name is Tom Busch, the father of Kyle and Kurt Busch.
He drove Kyle Busch's legends car out to start the masters race.
And it looked like he was going to race the masters race.
He started on the pole when they dropped a green flag, the entire flag hit the gas.
And then everybody but Tom took the bail out lane.
And Tom did a solo lap around the track.
Actually couple all by himself and Kyle's car.
It was a very neat moment.
I suppose you had to be there to really get the impact of it.
But Brexton now wave the green flag for the whole field.
There were more than a few tears.
That was a very, very nice appropriate touching moment.
So that was neat to witness.
I had no idea that was going to happen.
I just happened to be there and get to see it all in person.
That was super cool.
There you go.
That's our first week and a half in Charlotte for you.
This concludes the Dallas Gibby Legends car race.
Well, this is the Dallas Gibby Racing Update.
Presented by Lexaunee Tires, Iron Heart Tires, and R.B.P. Tires.
Please give them a purchase at simple tire dot com.
Earn Q the outro.
Okay, let's get to the interview.
Don't forget that the interview like this show is presented by
National Parts Depot.
And we do have Mr. Richmond from National Parts Depot on
to talk all things National Parts Depot.
You can ask him anything you like, but it's got to be for August.
Because we've already done the July show recording.
Send in your questions to me, Robert at themusclecarplace.com.
And of course, visit nationalpartsdepot.com to prove
for all you muscle car parts needs because they find the source.
They expect the best.
There is a difference and they've got the goods.
This is Mr. Rick Love with the Vintage Air Summer Special.
Rick is a friend, a trusted voice and all around good dude.
And when you call Vintage Air, you are guaranteed not to get an AI
bought on the phone.
Enjoy.
Well, up next is a long time friend of the show.
I see him once a year, but I talk to him at least twice a year.
Mr. Rick Love, the Grand Puba of Vintage Air.
Rick, the more people get to know you, the more they're
overwhelmed by how much you actually do and know and who you talk to,
how big the Vintage Air facility really is.
And how much of your touch and feel goes into the vibe that's there.
You're just a nice dude.
You're a nice dude to deal with.
How has that permeated through the Vintage Air culture?
Because everybody I've ever interacted with there has been cool.
That's great to hear.
I mean, we've grown through the years.
I mean, when I first came here full time back in the 90s,
I mean, we were 28 people, I guess.
You know, now we're close to 160.
And we've always tried to maintain a family type environment.
That's a big part of what we do here.
A lot of the people here are car people, not everyone, but a lot of them are.
But we try to do things to keep the atmosphere here as good as we can keep it.
Again, the strength of any company, I don't care what you're doing,
comes down to the people.
It doesn't matter what you do.
You're only as good as your people.
What they care about, how they do, how involved they are in what you do,
I mean, in their whole involvement aspect of it.
That makes a big difference all the time.
I mean, so we do lunches for our employees.
We've got an ice cream truck coming in another week or two at lunch time.
You know, we'll do ice cream for all the employees.
And we just finished our open house several weeks ago.
Every year we have an open house for Saturday of May.
We have kind of a car show in conjunction with it.
But really the open house is for our employees more than anything else,
obviously for some locals.
But it gives our employees an opportunity to bring their families out,
show them where they work.
You know, normally they can't go in the back and everything,
but they can show them where they work, what they do, what we have going on here.
You know, they're building black boxes a lot of the times
and they're building brackets things like that.
They get an opportunity to see where these products end up in people's pride and joy.
And the cars they build, the trucks they build, all of that.
So it's really cool for them to walk around with their families
and see these really cool cars and say, yeah, man, I did that.
That's what we did here and everything.
And then so gosh, we had more than half of our employees
come with their families to the open house this year.
And we do kids games for them.
We do other things like that and everything.
So it's a really fun day.
That's a big part, I think, of keeping our employees involved
is it gives them an opportunity to see beyond the walls a little bit
where some of these systems go, where some of these kits
and where some of these parts go in people's cars that they're so excited about.
And I think that's a big part of it all the time.
You didn't grow up in Texas, right?
No, I didn't.
Got here as quick as I could, but I didn't grow up here.
I have to grow up in the Northeast.
How many people, you know, I'm kind of going somewhere with this, like,
there are locations across the country or a lot of people just end up.
Texas is one of them. Tennessee is one of them.
North Carolina is one of them.
They just end up there for other reasons.
Why did you end up in Texas?
You know, it's funny when I was growing up, I was a history guy
and the Alamo always fascinated me.
I grew up in upstate New York, a long way from the city in the upstate.
But my dad, after the war, after World War Two,
actually moved to San Antonio to go to school on the GI Bill and loved it here,
just loved it here.
His mom and dad kind of got sick and everything.
So after he was here for a couple of years in the late 40s,
he moved back up with them, but always talked fondly about San Antonio
and how much he really liked it here.
As I grew up, I became fascinated with Texas.
And then there was a funny movie called Urban Cowboy that came out in 79 or 80.
I guess it was, you know, some of the stuff that was I think, you know,
that Texas just seems like a great place.
I had had all the snow and below zero weather and stuff.
I had enough of that to last me a lifetime.
So when I was a senior in college, I actually was interviewing for jobs and all of that.
And a company came in that was interviewing for a job that was a transfer to San Antonio.
So kind of fell into place and moved me down here in 1982 and here ever since.
I actually met Jack, the founder of Vintage Air.
I met Jack the first week I was here at a rod run.
Okay.
He became friends and I had a 40 Pontiac, two door sedan at that time,
a chop 40 Pontiac, two door sedan.
And it didn't have AC.
And when I got to San Antonio, having AC in a hot rod was pretty important.
And again, got to be friends with Jack.
And I had bought an old underdash AC unit at a swap meet.
And I was living on peanut butter sandwiches and jelly at that point.
I mean, a share in the house and all that.
I was pretty austere.
And I took that unit over to Jack to try to find some parts over to Vintage Air.
You know, I've seen it in Street Rotter magazine and all of that and everything.
Vintage Air and it was cool.
And Jack actually looked at that and said, yeah, you can't be using this.
Let me see what I can do.
And he went in the back of the shop and found a unit that had some cosmetic damage
and all of this and everything that he just basically gave me.
And we used some parts and everything so I could have a car that was air conditioned.
So it was the beginning of a friendship that turned into a collaboration later.
The company I worked for then.
I think you and I have talked about this a time or two, Rob,
that I worked for a company that did simulators, driver simulators
and everything.
And I did a lot of international work at the time.
So I'd be gone for 23 weeks at a time.
Then I'd come back and have a couple of weeks off for a week off or so.
Again, not having any money.
What I was doing to make money on the side was I had a little shop at my house
and I was doing AC and wiring and cars.
You know, guys who were building cars, they could do the fabrication.
They could do everything else.
But there was something about doing AC and doing wiring that scared a lot of these guys.
So I started doing that, started selling Vintage Air and installing Vintage Air systems
and wiring the cars.
And then I moved on to a 39 Ford that I built, that I still have today, actually.
We started using that car through Vintage Air for R&D projects
and trying some new things here and trying some new things there.
In fact, my 39, I guarantee it was the first hot rod in the country to have one 34A refrigerant.
I'm sure it was.
I had different condensers and different ways of doing things
to make that refrigerant work really well in a street ride.
Jack and I worked with that.
And then I started doing more work with him.
And then finally in 1998, I came to work for the company full-time.
But that was after doing power tour with Jack and doing road tours with him
and things like that and everything.
And so it's been a long road.
That was a long answer to a short question.
Well, so I'm curious how many employees are at Vintage Air because,
oh, they were just in Texas.
Or, you know, Vintage Air is an old enough company with a lot of history now.
Some people may have moved there to work at Vintage Air.
We have several that have, yeah.
We have several that have moved here to work with us and everything.
Most of the people were local.
But we actually have several of them that have been here 30 years.
This is our 50th year this year.
Jack started this in 1976.
2026 is our 50th year.
We're really proud of that and excited about it.
I am 50.
So there has not really been a time in my lifetime
when there wasn't a Vintage Air.
Exactly.
But the first magazines, my mom got me a subscription
when I was in fourth grade to Super Chevy.
Yeah.
And I remember I'd get it once I'd read it cover to cover.
And I did not understand most of it.
But I loved looking at the pictures and I memorized all the lingo
and stroker this and mags that and locker rear.
I didn't understand any of it.
I don't recall seeing air conditioning back then.
Or if people were doing it, were people scavenging AC systems
out of factory junkyard cars and trying to mush them into hot rods?
Around that one.
In the early 70s and late 70s,
if you found a hot rod and Jack's initial target,
he was a hot rod guy.
So initially it was the pre-48 stuff that he targeted.
And a lot of guys were pulling maybe like a knee knocker,
you know, the old underdash units out of a Mustang
or something like that in a junkyard
or one of the aftermarket ones of Mark IV
or something similar to that and kind of rigged it up
the guys on their car.
And Jack was the first one that basically said,
look, we need to package a unit that's built around
the constraints that you have within a hot rod,
whether it be size, room behind the dash
and all of that and everything.
So his original systems were targeted to the pre-48 market.
And then as he got into the 80s, then, you know,
the muscle cars were becoming more popular then.
You know, I had a 74 GTO when I was a senior in high school
and took the AC out of it because it was Robin Horsepower
and it was weight and all of that.
So I mean, we took that out of there.
But as the guys got a little older
and you're down here in Texas and more in places, man,
if you wanted to go someplace,
it was a whole lot more comfortable to go there
with the windows up and some cool air blowing on you.
And so then we started seeing that we were getting inquiries
for or Jack was getting inquiries for newer cars.
So started out with the tri-fives,
doing some came out with this Surefit kit,
which was a system that was basically designed
for that vehicle and then morphed into the Camaro
as a 67, 68 Camaro was the next one, then 69 Camaro
and then kind of moved into the Mustangs
and everything as we went from there.
But it was kind of, you know, you followed
along that progression.
Here we are in 2026.
I got a couple of almost halfway through 2026.
I got some modern day questions for you.
The topic Dejeure AI has AI made its way into vintage air.
And if so, how and what for?
I've got to learn how to use it a little better.
We're kind of experimenting with it a little bit like that
and everything on some of the aspects of it.
I can tell you a couple of our sales guys are using it
to help them with their email responses and tighten them up
and things like that and everything,
which is where I could benefit from that a little bit.
As far as from a technical standpoint,
our engineering department is, you know,
there's some coding that AI can do,
some simple coding and some things like that
that we're experimenting with and just kind of touching on
at this point.
So I would say we're kind of in our infancy and that respect.
We're certainly not using it for any customer interactions
or anything like that.
Did I see other, no much within our industry,
but other places are using it for customer interactions.
You know, you see that that you're touching
based with an AI.
I mean, we still have real people doing all the interactions
and everything and I'm confident we'll continue to do that.
At the rate it's changing,
it's certainly going to be a part of every business at some point.
When I say I'm afraid, I don't know
because I don't know enough about it yet,
but it's going to be involved in most businesses at some point,
I believe, especially at the rate it's growing.
It's such a all-encompassing topic.
When I think of it, I still think of it as cleaning up
like a lagoorified spellchecker, you know.
Right.
But when you think of something.
Yeah, but when others think about it,
here's a good example.
One of my kids, who shall rename Nameless,
often takes tests by doing scan and chooses the answer.
And to me, that's cheating.
It certainly would be the way we grew up.
For sure.
The way we grew up, I was told to put the calculator down
and do it by hand, whereas today that's required.
You're not allowed to do it without it.
So it's a different time.
People learn differently.
I guess my age makes me fearful of being reliant upon it
in case it turns on me.
I'm a few years older than you, so I'm the same way, you know.
Exactly.
But we've played with it a little bit by going,
okay, contrast our website against such and such website.
Or, you know, what do you see here?
Or what do you see there?
Just to kind of see what ChatGDP or GROC has to say about it,
what it notices.
Some of it is really useless, but there's other things that,
you know, again, it's an outside perspective
on any question you ask.
100%.
How about this one?
A different thing.
And I'll bet you're doing this, 3D scanning.
So the ability to 3D scan something that you don't have drawings of
that you need to make drawings of.
Probably when you guys were developing your first hot rod kits
and Sure-Fit kits, you were working off of measurements
that you physically personally took.
Yep.
Trying to find something good like that.
You bring cars in and you measure them.
Yeah, now we 3D scan them.
You can check all your mounting points and do that and everything.
And yeah, that's become a big part of how we do Sure-Fit kit development
is using 3D scanning and 3D printing.
I was curious about the Sure-Fit kit,
because when I go look at the list of Sure-Fit kits,
it's almost overwhelming.
All the popular stuff is there.
Twitters are there.
Nissan's are there.
Your Monte Carlo's in there.
I mean, musta everything.
How quick?
I mean, now it's probably a market demand question,
but if you needed to spin up a new making model vehicle
just from scratch,
how quick do you think you could do a brand new Sure-Fit kit
for a model that you don't serve today?
We try to aim for 60 days,
something like that, to do complete development.
The actual mechanical part of it is only a small part of it.
What slows us down a lot of the times is doing the instructions.
Heaven on you.
Yeah, I mean, you've got to write instructions.
You've got to do all that and everything.
You've got to take all the pictures when you're doing it.
So, you know, installing a kit and a card and initial kit
and developing some parts for it, that's certainly become easier.
I mean, everything we do is in CAD,
so you can do a CAD design for a bracket
and send it down to our laser.
You can have that bracket within an hour to try on this
as we're mounting a unit or as we're mounting a condenser
or something like that.
I mean, that part of it is increased dramatically.
If you want a 3D print apart,
you can 3D print an adapter or something like that
to see how this is going to work.
Or we do a lot of that as well, they quickens it.
So, what it does shorten is that development time
on what you know whether this is going to work
or whether it's not going to work.
Before that took a lot longer.
Technology has definitely helped us in that respect.
And you can be a little more exact with everything.
It's certainly helped that for sure.
Let's talk about the Gen 5 Sure-Fit kits.
Is there anything left to update from Gen 4 to Gen 5
or are we done in there?
We're all Gen 5.
We're Gen 5 across our entire line now.
Even the Builder series units that we have,
the Compact Mini and Super,
they're all Gen 5 electronics now.
So, we have one electronics platform
that's across the board for all our systems now.
So, it doesn't matter what evaporator you're putting
in which car, the controls are all common now.
You don't have different control systems
and different electronics across platforms.
So, everything we have is Gen 5 now.
So, we're excited about that
because that's helping us as we're doing,
we're looking at some of these smaller vehicles
like you pointed out,
like the one example of that, the 240-26280Z Japanese car.
We've got a Sure-Fit kit developed for that now.
We're just fixing and it's going to be a surprise at the point.
We're just fixing to release a system for the S10s,
for the early S10 pickups.
Are you serious?
And the Magnum that we use
in so many of our Sure-Fit kits
is too large a module for that package area
that's available in that S10.
So, we're using a Gen 5 compact.
But still, we can use the same control platform
across that that we use in all the other Sure-Fit kits.
So, that's been helpful with that.
For a customer like me,
so I have a Gen 4 kit, there's frankly nothing wrong with it.
But if I just had to, you know, beat the Joneses,
what would I have to do?
Is it possible to take out my Gen 4 under Dash
and put a Gen 5 in?
Sure. Yeah, you can do that.
I mean, if you want to change the evaporator,
the whole under Dash assembly, you could do that.
You could retain your compressor
and take a couple different fittings on your hoses.
The connections are a little different inside the vehicle,
but your controls would remain the same.
The electronics, the ECU recognizes the control cable
converters that you have on yours, on your Chevelle.
The airflow out of the new Gen 5 Magnum Max,
like we use in the new Chevelle kit,
it's about 20% higher than that Gen 4 system you have in your Chevelle.
So there are some improvements there.
I mean, definitely with the airflow,
the temperature adjustability is a little bit better
between the Gen 5 to the Gen 4,
but I have a Gen 4 in my 39 forward
and I'm not planning on pulling it out anytime soon
to put a Gen 5 in there.
I'm happy with the operation and all of that.
So, but like you mentioned earlier,
I've got a Gen 5 Magnum Max,
our Sure-Fit kit in my Monte Carlo that I drive every day.
That kit works really, really well.
I mean, the performance of that is really good.
I don't know the answer to this and I probably should,
but do any vintage air kits have the auto climate control feature now?
We worked with Dakota Digital and the Dakota Digital KISS system.
They have a Gen 5 and Gen 4 compatible controller for that,
and you put the thermistors in line to measure your air inlet
and air outlet temperature and all of that.
So yeah, we have a climate control available for the systems.
Okay. How about this one?
What's the difference between a control panel
and a control panel kit?
Basically, the control panel would be the panel itself,
and a control panel kit would be everything involved in mounting it.
A harness to go to the ECU from the control panel,
any mounting assemblies or anything like that.
That would be the biggest difference between a control panel kit
and just the control panel itself.
We don't sell a control panel by itself
unless it's a replacement somehow or something like that
because you're going to need the harness
and everything to connect it to the ECU.
I've flipped through and I've certainly seen at SEMA
where you can see all the pre-made, factory-appearing
replacement panels for most popular applications,
and they really do look factory-made.
Maybe they all have the LED color control in them.
I think they're the same color as Dakota Digital colors.
That's something new we just actually engaged in last year.
We've got a new control panel kit upgrade for the 6768 Camaro,
and it's a billet housing and really cool.
The board for it, the PC board, is RGB.
They're red, green, blue.
That basically slaves with the Dakota Digital,
so it will match the color of the Dakota Digital gauges.
And the other cool thing that I like about it
is you mentioned earlier that all our panels were LED,
which is true in the past,
and with some of them now, there's still the white LEDs
because that's what was common.
But with the RGB, you've got the ability
to also do an incandescent light mimicking,
so which is cool.
I got a 66L Camino,
and I used our upgrade panel on the El Camino,
so now I can match basically the color
of the factory incandescent light in the gauges
with the aftermarket control panel with our control panel.
So it makes it look even more like the OEM one,
which is cool.
So even if you're not using some bright color gauge thing
or something like that,
that RGB allows you to match that incandescent light
more closely, which is cool.
So I did not know that.
Another new piece of fascinating information here
because I have found myself wanting the old look.
I don't want old bulbs that burn out.
That's no fun.
But I definitely have come to a point
where looking in an old car and seeing LEDs
and all this great functionality,
I probably wanted when I was 18.
I don't want it.
I want it to look like when my dad pulled the headlights on.
That's what I want it to look like.
I think that will look awesome.
For cars like mine,
I don't think there is a control panel made,
but I can still use the...
Yeah, your factory controls,
and we use the cable converters,
our patented cable converters
that convert that mechanical operation
to electronic operation.
How many of your Sure-Fit gets required
a cable control conversion?
There's less and less.
We're going more and more to replacement panels
just because of customer demand
and what people are looking for.
61, 62, Chevrolet up to 64.
In fact, actually 59 to 64.
Full-size Chevy's are all cable converters yet.
They're used at factory control panels.
The Chevelles, the 64, 65 Chevelles,
still use the cable converters.
66, 67 Chevelles as well,
but we've got a replacement panel available for that.
Same way with the 67, 68, 69 Camaros.
The standard kit will allow you
to convert your factory control panel
over to electronic operation.
And we also offer upgrade kits
with a newer looking panel,
depending on what the theme of your interior is.
And that's what we try to do,
have some options available
to kind of match the theme of your interior
that you're trying to do.
Okay, I got a couple of questions
from people who build cars.
They get a lot of oddball,
like total custom cars.
So in one case, a client-friend company is building,
I think it's a fire truck.
Okay.
And something old, something retro.
It's either a fire truck or a freight hauler.
I can't remember.
From the front, it looks like a fire truck to me.
There's nothing that's available,
nor was there any air conditioning ever available
in that originally like this,
from some 60s application.
What would they do?
Would they call vintage air first and say,
here's the thing, you designed me a system?
Or do they just peruse off the builder page
and try to select stuff and figure it out?
Because my engineering brain says,
I want somebody to have done the heat calc for me,
so that I don't have to just buy three of them and guess?
Yeah.
What's the process for a custom customer?
The first part of the process is always
seeing what kind of package space
you have available behind the dash.
So if the vehicle has a factory heater in it
or something like that,
you want to get that taken out.
And then let's see what kind of package space
you have available.
We always tell people,
and the first thing I tell people in seminars
is you want to use the largest evaporator
you possibly can inside the vehicle,
because a lot of people may not realize
how air conditioning works.
You know, it works by absorbing the heat
out of the air with inside the vehicle.
You don't have a box making cold air.
You have a box that you pull the air from inside
an enclosed area, run it across the coil,
and then you absorb the heat out of that.
They see.
So the larger evaporator,
the larger coil heat exchanger you have,
the more capacity you have to remove heat from the air.
So you want to use the largest evaporator
you can inside the vehicle.
So once you find out what kind of package space
you have behind the dash,
then you can go to our website,
go to the Builders series on our website,
and start looking at them.
I mean, always recommend the Gen 5 Magnum Max
or Magnum First.
And then if you don't have room for that
or depending on what kind of package space
you have available,
then you look at our Gen 5 Super Mini Compact,
see what will fit behind your dash.
Our guides are always available
to help step you through the program,
through the process on it.
Measure your radiator core size,
and then you're going to want to use
the largest condenser in front of the radiator
that you can as well.
That condenser is where you dissipate the heat.
You absorb the heat with the evaporator inside the car,
and you dissipate the heat,
and you get rid of the heat through that condenser.
That other heat exchanger is in front of your radiator.
So you measure your core size of your radiator,
and then you try to get the largest condenser you can
in front of that radiator.
Have people tried successfully
to make these work on air-cooled engines?
Yeah.
The AC is not the hard part on an air-cooled engine.
The hard part of an air-cooled engine
is trying to come up with some heat.
You know, the AC is basically independent of the coolant,
other than you modulate the temperature with the coolant
and things like that.
But there's been air-cooled stuff.
We're working on some things for the future
for that, too, some of the Porsches and stuff
like that that are air-cooled.
We're looking into that a little bit, too.
We've done some preliminary work with some of that.
The AC is not as hard as how you're going
to modulate the temperature, and what are you going to do for heat?
I have a carbon gear that my dad had, and...
Yeah, they look a little car.
It didn't have heat when he drove it,
because they all had the same kind of rusty, rusty issues.
But what was interesting was it had a dealer-added
air conditioning system,
and it had this massive compressor sitting on there,
and it never worked, ever.
I never once saw it work, but when we restored the car,
we pulled all the guts out of it.
And somebody found a way to mount a compressor
and evaporator and condenser.
It must have worked.
But there is a little niche of a out there
that has VWs that only are in hot weather, right?
But I'd be in that niche.
I don't really need heat.
I do need air conditioning.
Right.
The biggest challenge with those is the condenser.
Years ago, actually, when I was doing installs,
I did a kit in a VW Beetle.
It was a challenge.
I mean, there was actually two condensers.
There was one that went in the front,
kind of where the spare tire was,
and then there was one that kind of went behind the seat there
in that package tray area.
And you had two condensers and a lot of hose.
Then there was a compressor bracket and all that.
And I mean, it worked okay for the time.
It worked okay.
The problem at the time was, Rob,
that was a $2,000 air conditioning kit in a car
that wasn't worth $4,000.
So that was the biggest challenge of that.
Now you're getting some guys.
I mean, that Carmen Ghia that was out there
at the Grand National this year was absolutely unbelievable.
The same one's built a couple of bugs like that too.
They're talking about bringing that Carmen Ghia
to Triple Crown this year, I know.
And man, the workmanship on that Carmen Ghia was,
I said, do you see it?
I have.
It's amazing, isn't it?
The work on that rivals anything you see anywhere else.
It's amazing.
When you go to some of these larger profile events,
like Triple Crown's, one that you just mentioned,
do you see a lot of cars built without AC anymore?
You know, a lot is a relative term.
Any car with AC is not good.
Without AC?
Right.
At Louisville, I'll spend time walking around.
And because, you know, that's a big one
in Kentucky at the Street Rod Nationals.
I'm still surprised when I'll find,
especially when I find cars that we have Sure-Fit kits for
that don't have AC.
And sometimes I'll talk to the owners about it
and just curious, why have you never put AC in the car?
And you get everything from so much work to put it into,
yeah, you know, I don't drive it enough
to where I worry about that.
I drive 10 minutes to the local drive-in,
you know, for cruise night and then I drive home
or something like that.
It's everything, but, you know, having the wife say,
he's putting AC in it or I'm never going another place with him.
Again, you kind of get the gambit of that and everything.
Less and less all the time.
I mean, you know, we've become,
I don't know if spoiled is the right word,
but you know, when we drive our old cars or our hot rods,
you want to be comfortable.
And, you know, coming from a guy,
my 39 for several years was the only car I owned.
I drove it every day in all kinds of different weather.
And the traffic was different then around San Antonio
and everywhere else.
Man, you get out on the highway now.
And even on a temperate day, when it's 70 degrees or something,
man, run up the highway with your windows down
and every 18-wheeler you go by
or every 18-wheeler that goes by you
or every traffic that goes by you,
the noise is unreal and stuff coming in the windows
and your hair blowing all over the place
and all of that and everything.
It's not the fun ride that I remember.
I mean, it's so much more comfortable
to have a controlled environment inside the car.
It is. And old cars like ours,
they're fun with the windows down at about 50.
Yeah, maybe.
That's when they sit in their sweet spot.
But if you're doing 85 down the interstate,
like we all do now, no, it sucks.
It's not fun. It's stressful.
At times, not only is it not.
Again, everything coming in the window from bugs
to pieces of tire to gravel and things like that.
I mean, it's hard to talk.
It's hard to listen to the radio.
It's hard to do any of that
with all the noise that comes along with it.
So it's not just the cool air
that makes for so much more nice environment.
It's the quiet that goes along with it as well.
You, I mean, you've been the president of SEMA before, right?
If I'm not wrong.
No, no, no, no, nothing there.
I've done some a lot of volunteer work
through SEMA through the years
and then chair of the Hot Rod Industry Alliance
and everything with SEMA council.
But that's what it was, the SEMA council.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I've certainly done that.
And man, that was a great experience, great experience.
And I've been fortunate to be involved
with a lot of really good people in SEMA
through the years and learn a lot through them
and other people in the industry
from the council involvement
and the SEMA involvement with that.
Learned a lot.
One of the things that comes out from that
is you see a lot of other people
and you hear a lot of other people's issues
and problems and situation.
So I'm just asking you straight up,
right now in May of 2026,
we're about a year into the tariffs,
the change of the guard here.
Yeah.
The president of SEMA, Rick Spagnola,
had said on this show, he said,
you know, it'll be a wait and see.
We really don't know if it's going to help
or it's going to hurt or it's going to do nothing.
But it's been a year.
So Rick, sitting in your seat, has it helped?
Has it hurt? Has it done nothing?
It certainly raised prices on everything.
I mean, there's no question that tariff was effective prices.
And even if you don't buy foreign goods,
we buy our steel and aluminum here in the US.
As soon as the tariffs increased,
our suppliers raised their prices
to match what the tariff costs were.
So, and again, there's certain things
you can't even get here in the US anymore.
You're forced to buy overseas.
We buy American with everything we can.
I mean, our castings are done here,
everything we can, everything can.
But it has certainly raised prices.
Has it helped bring more business back?
It's too early to tell
because you don't know what the long-term aspect of it is.
I urge people to get involved with SEMA.
SEMA now has an individual membership available.
I think that's a great idea for people to get involved with SEMA
just for the legislative action that SEMA does.
I read an article the other day that really worried me.
And it was from Michigan.
And there's a state senator in Michigan
that's right now trying to run a bill through the legislature
that would restrict use of any vehicle with classic vehicle plates.
You could only drive it on the weekend.
Come on.
Serious.
Serious, yes.
Michigan already has a deal where if you have like,
you know, old army vehicles and things like that,
can't drive them on public highways.
Her, I think it was a woman,
but her rationale behind this was,
if you're using a classic car plate,
that means you're not using it as your daily driver.
You should be using that just to go to shows and things like that.
So it shouldn't be legal on the streets during the week.
Okay.
You know, SEMA gets after those things.
SEMA keeps you involved with that.
And they fight those things.
They help get fight for those things.
You know, those are the kind of things, you know,
that once it happens in one state,
you start to see a domino effect.
So boy, if nothing else, I think that's one thing
that SEMA does really well
is they stay aware of legislative issues that are going on.
Those are the things that scare me as a hobbyist,
not just somebody that's in the industry.
You know, I drive a little car every day is my daily driver.
And things like that always worry me.
The freedoms that we enjoy in this country,
they can go away in a heartbeat if we're not paying attention.
There's lots of other examples of that, I'm sure.
The flip side is sometimes some cool stuff happens.
The low volume production thing that I've been
so excited about for years is happening.
Now, I mean, there's little pieces still left to sort out,
but there are companies.
Taking more time than we thought it was.
I was actually involved with that as well.
I was on the task force for that as well for several years.
Yeah, we thought that was done five years ago, I think,
but it's typical with anything
that has to do with government entities,
especially Department of Transportation
and things like that, they take longer.
But yeah, and again, that's SEMA was at the forefront of that.
Those things are important.
It's real and it's happening.
So you don't have to say these people are doing it
better than others,
but there are several low volume producers out there,
I would say, today.
Oh, yeah.
And they're probably all your customers.
Part of the example is Velocity out of Florida,
you know, that are doing blazers and Ford pickups.
And gosh, now, remember at SEMA last year,
you and I were talking a little bit
when we did our visit there.
Who would have thought you'd have a market
to sell a completely refurbished Fox Body Mustang?
What you do?
And they are.
You know, you can buy a brand new Bronco body now.
We're working on a system for the Scout 2
because you can buy a brand new Scout 2 body.
100%.
My kid works at anything Scout here in Ames, Iowa.
They'll be thrilled to know that.
Yes, we'll be talking to them.
So yeah, we're excited about being more involved
in that marketplace and stuff.
Five years ago, if we'd have been talking at SEMA
or talking like this and somebody said,
yeah, you know, you'll be able to buy a brand new body
for a Mustang or a brand new body for a Bronco
or a Scout 2, who'd have thought?
And we're seeing more of it all the time.
And I think that's again, we're living in great times for that
as far as the new parts that are being manufactured is amazing.
Well, between classic muscle cars and trucks galore,
I mean, you guys serve us a lot of trucks up through the 90s,
which sounds crazy, but you do.
There's a lot of offerings out there.
Rick, I'm glad that you're at the helm here.
Vintage Air is a fun company to work with
because you're a jolly good guy.
So I will say thank you for one last thing.
I took my kid to PRI and I just wanted to show him around.
I'd like, if you want to work in this business,
you'd better see how a trade show works
and how people actually interact and do business.
And then the last thing I did is I got pictures with buddies
to make me feel good and show myself off a little bit.
And you gave me one with him.
So thank you for doing that.
It was great to meet him.
And I'm excited to see him being so successful
in his new racing career.
That's a cool deal.
By the time this airs, he will have run a light model.
Hopefully he finished the race.
Fingers crossed on that.
But start by finishing.
That would be good.
What sits up to me, though, is you were at the PRI show.
You were at a racing industry show
because you go to serve where your people are.
There probably aren't a lot of race cars with AC,
but there are probably some enough,
but the people that you interact with were there.
So you were there.
So I just think that's a good example of not only VA,
but your willingness to go where you're needed.
I mean, I grew up around racing and everything.
That was my first really entry into hot riding.
It all was racing.
And you know what, race car guys are hot rod guys.
They all are.
I mean, they're hot rod guys.
I mean, we're car guys.
We're car guys.
Racers are hot rodders at the same time.
So there's a whole lot of crossover there.
We use a lot of parts that are used in racing
in some of our systems.
And when we first developed that front runner drive system
and everything, the first guy that I got to try out
that system was Kyle Tucker when he was autocrossing.
Nobody ran him any harder than Kyle did.
I mean, our systems will work with there.
And you feel confident they'll work with anyone.
I heard Kyle was behind the wheel at an event
a couple of months ago, in fact, back in a truck.
And then the front runner kits, I mean,
I remember when the LT came out and everybody thought,
well, that's got electric air conditioning.
That's not going to work.
Well, that was salt.
Everything is going to work out.
Rick, how can people reach out to Vintage Air
for an easy need, like a sure fit kit or a tough need?
Like I need to make something that doesn't exist.
Just go to our website, vintageair.com.
And our phone number is there.
We've got a toll free number is always 800-862-6658.
And our guys, we got real live guys on the phone every day.
They love to talk about things like that.
But there's a lot of information available on our website as well.
You know, if you prefer to email, we're happy to do that as well.
Some guys, I'm an old guy.
I like to talk to somebody on the phone.
Some of the other ones prefer to communicate other ways.
So we're available any way that makes you happy.
Real humans, not an AI bot.
So far.
So far.
Yep.
All right.
See you, Rick.
Thanks, Rob.
Thank you, Rick.
Excellent as always.
What a guy.
No fooling.
We talked for 40 minutes after that.
I think I didn't know in the interview that they had that AC solutions.
And so I started chatting through that with him.
And he showed me all the stuff that they do for that.
And make it all right there in Texas.
It's awesome.
Well, that is it for this week's show.
I will be back next week.
We do have one more show for June.
That's next week between now and then.
Hit me up on Facebook or Instagram anytime.
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Like you've let me chase mine.
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About this episode
Rick Love from Vintage Air joins TMCP to talk about 50 years of vintage A/C innovation, from early hot-rod culture to today’s Gen 5 Sure-Fit kits. They cover how Vintage Air grew from “28 people” to “close to 160,” how kits are engineered using 3D scanning/printing and unified electronics, and why fitment matters—like adapting Gen 5 for early S-10s. The conversation also swings through modern industry news, including Corvette hybrid performance and Mustang refresh rumors, plus a late-model racing update.
Vintage Air is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and in this special episode, Robert Kibbe welcomes Vintage Air President Rick Love for an in-depth conversation about the company's remarkable journey from a small hot rod air conditioning supplier to an industry leader. Rick shares how a chance meeting with founder Jack Chisenhall in the early 1980s led to a friendship, collaboration, and eventually a career helping shape one of the most respected brands in the automotive aftermarket. Along the way, he reflects on the family-oriented culture that has helped Vintage Air grow from fewer than 30 employees to nearly 160 today.
The discussion explores how technology has transformed both the company and the hobby itself. Rick explains how 3D scanning, CAD design, rapid prototyping, and Gen V climate control systems have dramatically improved product development while making modern air conditioning easier than ever to integrate into classic cars. From Tri-Five Chevys and Camaros to Japanese imports, Broncos, Scouts, and custom one-off builds, Vintage Air continues expanding its offerings to meet the evolving needs of enthusiasts.
Rick also shares his thoughts on AI, tariffs, SEMA's ongoing legislative efforts to protect automotive enthusiasts, and the growing market for reproduction vehicles and low-volume production cars. Whether you're restoring a classic, building a pro-touring machine, or simply enjoy hearing stories from one of the hobby's most respected leaders, this episode offers a fascinating look at where the automotive aftermarket has been—and where it's headed next.
