According to the big book, Chrysler sold Airtemp to Fedders in 1978 under John Riccardo and Gene Cafiero, also sold an unfinished PA assembly plant to VW, disposed of a recreation area in MT, and got government subsidies from the UK. --Roger van Hoy, '55DeSoto, '42DeSoto, '66Plymouth, '73Duster, '81 Imperial, Washougal, WA ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Sealey" <mopar2ya@xxxxxxxxx> To: <L-FORWARDLOOK@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2001 7:02 PM Subject: Re: [FWDLK] Air Conditioners/Airtemp History | --- cpollock@xxxxxxxx wrote: | | (snips at will) | | > This is all I know about Airtemp. Airtemp was | > Chrysler's air conditioning division and they made | > air conditioners for almost everything. They also | > made refrigerators and freezer along with | > refrigeration units under the "Kelvinator" brand | > name. Anyone remember those? | | Kelvinator wasn't really part of the Chrysler story | until '87, being a division of Nash-Kelvinator and | later AMC before being sold to White Consolidated | Industries in the early '70s... ...Chrysler was, | however, in the appliance industry in kind of a | backdoor manner in the '60s, when they made Kenmore | sewing machines for Sears... | | > But Airtemp was also the brand name that all air | > conditioning units for Chrysler were put under. | > On factory air cars a small "Air Conditioning by | > Airtemp" sticker appears on the rear of the | > quarter windows. This was for all of the | > Chrysler cars. | | True from about '67 on. The sticker Charles is talking | about, which being later than the FL era has a | pentastar, also appeared in the lower RH corner of the | back window in '64-'66. Prior to that, and this | includes FL stuff, a larger sticker appeared in the | lower RH corner of the back window. This sticker had | "Airtemp" in kind of a "'50s modern" script, and | naturally no pentastar. Not sure what year that | started, I'm guessing '59 or '60 but could be wrong. | Earliest car I've seen this early decal in is a '59 | Imperial, latest was my uncle's '63 Polara. | | BTW, the '57 Plymouth owners' manual refers to the | factory AC as "CarTemp". Anyone ever seen stickers | saying this or know how long that went on? Seems to me | the Imperials were using the Airtemp name then. | Perhaps the Plymouth units came from an outside | supplier? | | > This sticker ONLY appears on factory air cars, | > not dealer add cars. | | Sorta true. '60s-'70s MoPar dealer add-on air had a | different sticker that said "Air Conditioned by | Chrysler", and had a pentastar but did not use the | Airtemp name. It was about this same time that | Chrysler started using the "Cool Aire" name on the | aftermarket units. These decals may have said | something like "Chrysler Aftermarket Sales | Corporation" (it's been years since I've seen one). | | > As for dealer installed air, they all hung under | > the dash. I have never seen them anywhere else, | > and that includes all of the various brands. | | My grandparents had a '67 Dart with dealer installed | indash air. It didn't use the control buttons the | factory unit used, controlled instead by knobs next to | the lower vent just under the ignition switch, but it | appeared to use the same vents as the factory unit | including the AC-specific defroster vents. Years | later, my parents had dealer installed indash air put | into their '75 AMC Matador, but that's a whole other | story. | | > As for when and how Airtemp came to be and their | > eventual demise, I don't know. I would speculate | > they were sold off in the early 80's as part of the | > federal restructuring of Chrysler Corp. | | Absolutely correct, at least as far as time period. I | always assumed the events were connected. | | ===== | Mike Sealey, San Francisco CA | '57 Plymouth Sport Suburban | | __________________________________________________ | Do You Yahoo!? | Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices | http://auctions.yahoo.com/ |
|