Vintage Air is owned and operated by experienced street rodders who have been involved in the sport for over thirty years. Vintage Air offer you the most comprehensive line of high performance air conditioning components available. Every Vintage Air product incorporates the very latest technology available and offers you the greatest efficiency and reliability available. Vintage Air goal is to help you cool your specialty vehicle in a more informed way with parts specially designed for street rods, sport trucks and performance cars. Vintage Air want to supply you what you really need to get the job done right!
As The Inventors Of Street Rod and Performance Air Conditioning, Vintage Air are determined to continue setting the standards for industry. For Vintage Air to continue its leadership, Vintage Air must continue to evolve. In infrastructure, and most importantly, in quality personnel. For the past 12 months Vintage Air have concentrated on bringing in the absolute best, most qualified people to help Vintage Air meet the challenges of Vintage Air growth. Vintage Air team is the future of Vintage Air's success. Vintage Air has always taken a "complete system" approach to product line. In fact, no other company offers the range of integrated components and accessories. Last year Vintage Air introduced improved automatic temperature control panel called the Series II Comfort Control. This new panel has more functions with a smaller control panel that may be remotely mounted. This year Vintage Air are also introducing award winning Streamline and Streamline II series of dash vents and control panels and knobs. These beautiful new accessories will give you more design choices for your interior finish. Additional "system components" come in the form of Vintage Air new fan shroud line and improved switches and engine cooling packages. The "World's Fastest Air Conditioning Company" is committed to supplying customers with the very best components and product knowledge available. Vintage Air worked hard to become the most respected name in performance air and have received more industry awards than any company in street rodding. The depth of the Vintage Air product line is designed to provide integrated solutions to every vintage and performance air conditioning application need. The goal of official Vintage Air clothing and accessories line is simply to give you the gear to "Live The Cool Life"!
Jack Chisenhall, owner of Vintage Air, was recently awarded the 2011 Robert E. Petersen Lifetime Achievement Award at the 13th Annual Hot Rod and Restoration Trade Show. The Robert E. Petersen Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded to true innovators in the hot rod industry. Jack created the whole aftermarket air conditioning market in the hot rod industry when he founded Vintage Air back in 1976.
Jack Chisenhall is a lifelong car buff who created a whole new market sector that has helped make year-round rodding possible. After nearly 35 years in business, Vintage Air, the company he founded in 1976, continues product innovation in high-performance air conditioning components through its full in-house R&D, in-house engineering and manufacturing facilities.
Jack was born in 1947 in Fort Worth, Texas. His father was a master sergeant in the Air Force, so the family moved to New Isenberg, Germany, shortly after Jack's birth. The family was transferred back to the United States in 1954, settling in Schertz, Texas, while Jack's father was stationed at Randolph Air Force Base.
Jack was a car guy from an early age, and grew up reading Hot Rod, Rod and Custom, Car Craft and the other car magazines of the day. Even as a young boy, he told his father that he was going to make hot rod parts for a living when he grew up. While his father spent long hours at work and had other overseas duty, Jack's mother would take him driving in the country looking for old cars. He bought his first old car, a 1936 Chevy, for $20 when he was 13 years old. Six months later, he sold the coupe for $100 and rescued a 1930 Model A sedan from a local junkyard because it was as close to a Deuce as he could afford. He rebuilt the Model A, eventually installing a Pontiac engine and Corvette rear end. Like most hot rodders, he also spent a considerable amount of time at the drag races once he got his Model A on the road.
After graduating from high school, Jack enrolled at Southwest Texas State University and joined the ROTC program. While he was in college, he started his first business, a small hot rod shop that specialized in engine swaps, custom tube headers and all kinds of hot rod fabrication. He graduated in 1970 with a BS in Commercial Art and as a first lieutenant in the Air Force, where he received his pilot's training. Upon his discharge from the Service, Jack worked for several furniture companies in the design and engineering departments while he nurtured a plan to start his own business. As he had told his father, he was trying to think of something he could build for old cars that would be really innovative. Living in the heat of south Texas, Jack decided he wanted air conditioning for his own hot rod, and saw that aside from adapting some type of factory OEM system, there were no real options. He thought that if he could find a way to air condition his sedan, surely others would be interested as well.
Jack started Vintage Air in 1976, initially installing air conditioning systems in late-model vehicles and trucks while he was growing the company. The business continued to grow and expand into several buildings over the next few years. In 2001, the company moved into a new purpose-built 40,000-square-foot manufacturing facility. In addition to developing and manufacturing kits for street rods and muscle cars, Vintage Air also has worked with several OEM companies to satisfy their needs for performance climate control systems.
In 1995, Jack ran 241 mph at Bonneville in his 1953 Studebaker with the air conditioning on to demonstrate the reliability and performance of Vintage Air air conditioning systems. Immediately after the event, he changed tires and gears, and drove the Studebaker from Los Angeles to Detroit on the Hot Rod Power Tour. Jack was recognized with a Pioneer Award from the Mobile Air Conditioning Society in 2001 for innovations in the automotive air conditioning industry.
Jack was one of the founders of SRMA (Street Rod Manufacturers Association), which later became the HRIA SEMA council. He was instrumental in establishing the original SRMA winter trade conference that became the Hotrod and Restoration Trade Show. Jack is a strong supporter of Goodguys Rod and Custom Association's Young Guys program, and he sponsors the NSRA 29 Below program. Both programs provide special parking areas at events for younger enthusiasts to gather, meet and mingle with their cars.