Making my own A/C hoses?

You can buy the fittings and the hose online or local. Most FLAPS* can get the fittings and the hose. Some stock it. Summit has some (vintage air and other manufacturers as well).

@joe_padavano is correct that a lot of places can make hydraulic hoses, but many of them don't have the dies for AC hoses. The main difference is that AC hoses are double crimped. AFAIK, the diameters are the same, although some of the larger low pressure hoses are sometimes bigger than hydraulic folks deal with.

In a pinch, the dies for hydraulic fittings can be used, but you have to crimp once, reposition and crimp again.

You can also do a search for "mobile ac hose" or "mobile hydraulic hose" in your area. There are guys with the tools in a van, along with an assortment of fittings, that'll come out and make them on site for you. Most aren't as expensive as you'd think.

You'll spend way, way more on a good crimper setup with the right dies (you need at least two, possibly 3 or 4) that you'll pay to have someone crimp them for you.

I put my fittings and hoses together, wrap both the fitting and the hose with masking tape and mark with a sharpie so that the fitting is "clocked" correctly when crimped. Then take it in to my local NAPA that has the correct dies (and sells fittings and hose), and they crimp for me. If I buy the fittings and hose there, they'll crimp them for free.

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*FLAPS = Friendly Local Auto Parts Store

Racer-X- said:

My "Magic 8 Ball" comes up with "doubtful" for that question.

Click to expand...

Mine comes up yes.
One before and one after crimping:

I faced this dilemma a few years back (pre-Covid). I looked into all of the available options, and the reality was all of the shops I called (and I called quite a few) were unable, or unwilling, to do onesy-twosey jobs. And keep in mind, this was in the San Francisco Bay Area, not some rural backwoods. I figured I would have to do it myself, so I talked two of my gearhead buddies (who also were planning on doing some AC work in the future) into going in on a crimper set. Found a few on Amazon, ordered them all and kept what we thought was the best (at the time it was this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N9GS0QS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1).

The fittings and hose were readily available online. I got what I needed and made up all of the hoses for the AC installation on my 56 Chevy. It was easy. My buddy did the same for his 34 Ford. Its been a couple of years now; no problems, no worries, and best of all, no leaks.

Automotive AC theory was always one of those automotive 'black arts' that intimidated me, until I finally decided to get educated. Surprise, once you figure it out it's not that hard, so long as you have the patience and the right equipment (crimper, test gauges and a vacuum pump). Oh, and that Amazon crimper is plenty good if you are only making a dozen crimps a year. It's actually surprisingly well-built.

My advice: Buy the crimper and take charge of your AC installation & maintenance!

I made up my own A/C hoses, and used the AeroQuip E-Z Clip system that 123Pugsy mentioned.
Start here:

Vintage Air offers the E-Z clip system and it worked real well. Completely do-it-yourself, the only tool you'll need is a pair of specialized crimping pliers.

My project journal documents it here:

Although Vintage Air offers a lot of fittings, there are other fittings available from other sellers. For the fittings that I did not get from Vintage, I went here:

The system has worked perfectly, no leaks or any problems at all. Also, I think that the finished ends look nicer than the hydraulic crimp ends.

Steve