Connect heater and upgrade A/C

My AC actually cycled on, but had no cooling - I could see the clutch engage and all. The system probably just needed charged, but I hummed and hawed too long, and then one day I was driving the car to the office and pulled up with smoke barreling out of the hood. Turns out my compressor had gone up in smoke. Bear in mind, it's supposed to come on with the defrost, so it was engaging regularly, but with no charge I guess it wasn't getting oil. This was just as summer was getting started.

So I looked and looked at my options. Needed something - the car was unbearable in the heat. Yes, I'm a baby about my AC. Found out PAG is compatible with the r12, the oil an r12 system uses, and the r134a. Also found out the r12 replacements are propane based, and that propane is a really, really good refrigerant. Even found a pic of a dude filling his system straight from a propane tank for a grill. Now, maybe in a modern system propane is ok, but I didn't want a potentially leaky bomb under my hood. Opted for the r134 upgrade.

Bought a reman from rockauto - the Four Seasons one with a clutch. That was the best price I could find. It (supposedly) comes preoiled with PAG. Bought necessary r134 and a proper AC manifold. Bought AC system flush too. My drier (E in your diagram) is part of the hoses, and to replace it I would have had to buy new hoses. Didn't bother.

My AC system was completely empty, didn't need to recover anything.

Replaced the compressor. That was a bitch. I managed to do it without removing brackets. Some of the bolts were real tough, though. Pulled old valve cores, added adapters for the r134 fittings. Did not flush the system because I am a lazy bastard. Pulled a vacuum, found the system held negative pressure just fine. Opted not to mess with the drier and hoses this time around.

Charged it up. Tore my hair out for 2 hours wondering why it wouldn't blow cold. Realized I had the system set to heat, and then viola, cold air. It's not amazingly cold, didn't quite keep up with the nastiest part of the summer, but it dang well works. Cheap compressor makes a weird noise at 1200rpm, probably needs more oil. My brother has a 351w that he's been through 3 reman compressors on, so this may be a buy once cry once type of deal - we'll see. For now I'm happy. The r134 is cheap and readily available, so I'm happy with the decision to modernize vs running around with a propane based system.

From your pictures it looks like you'll need hoses, a drier, and a belt, you're missing the tensioner pulley and braket, and your coil is mounted to your AC bracketry. Hoses may be the trickiest part to source for this. Good luck! This was long winded, but I hope it helps.

I think you won't find an original-style drier such as the one in the diagram, so you'll be adding it kind of wherever makes sense to you - so long as it's in the proper order in the system.

I didn't really think about getting a kit, since all I needed was the compressor, but I have to believe there's something out there that will work. Lots of Fords used this setup, or something close enough to it. If you're going that route, I would go for the evaporator and condenser as well. The new ones are optimized for the r134a, whereas the ones in your car may not even hold pressure. I see your heater core is capped off properly, but the AC components may have been open all this time.

One other note, I don't guess you've got the wire from the HVAC controls to the compressor anymore. That shouldn't be hard to add back in, just one more little thing on the list. You've also got an electric radiator fan, which you'd probably want to wire up with a relay to come on if the AC is on.

I definitely used a compressor that came precharged with PAG 46. Oh well. Hopefully the majority of the  mineral oil went with the old compressor. I guess I'll necro this thread if (when) the whole system seizes next summer.