After recently purchasing a ’62 Thunderbird, it became obvious very quickly that the car needed a new engine. Our plan was to turn the car into a daily driver, and so, as long as we needed a new engine, we figured we’d add air conditioning to the car while we were at it. And if you really know your Ford history, you also know that the ’62 was the last model T-bird to come with a generator rather than an alternator—one more reason to consider an upgrade.

After checking out several stand-alone alternator and air-conditioning conversions, it made more sense to get an all-in-one system, and we found exactly what we were looking for from Concept One. This company offers an awesome line of pulley kits featuring multiple accessories, billet aluminum mounting brackets and more designed to fit small-block Ford (including 351W), FE big-block and 385-series big-block applications. Each is available with alternator only, and power steering pumps and A/C compressors are both optional. You even get your choice of polished or machined finish. 

For this engine we wanted a machine-finish FE kit with all the accessories—the alternator was necessary; the A/C compressor is almost always necessary in the summer months; and we had absolutely no desire to drive this car without power steering, so we opted for that, too. In just a day, Concept One got us the kit, which included a polished Powermaster 100-amp one-wire alternator, a polished Sanden SD-7 A/C compressor, aluminum pulleys, an aluminum power steering pump with billet reservoir, aluminum bracketry, Goodyear belts and even chromeplated hardware. The kit will fit 352-428 FE engines, but you’ll need a ’68 or later 390-style harmonic balancer (427 balancers and a few others won’t work), and an Edelbrock or ’68 or later Ford water pump will make installation easier and faster, too.

Installation of the kit is remarkably easy, though in our case the kit was installed on a new, remanufactured long block not yet installed in the car. As such, it took Mike Fetherston, of Fether Auto in Dayton, Tennessee, only about an hour to install the kit. It will take a home builder installing the kit a bit longer, especially if the engine is installed in the car. Even so, this is an installation you can do in one or two nights after work with no problems at all. All of the kit’s parts fit together with no problems, and after installing the engine back into its ’62 Thunderbird surroundings, everything fit just fine.

Now the ’62 is ready for some real cruising, with a reliable charging system and power steering that lets us turn the car with one finger. And once we find an A/C kit for the car, we’ll be able to use the Concept One kit’s compressor to help us keep cool. This kit also helps transform the look of the car from bone stock to mild hot rod, and that’s just fine with us, too. If you, too, have been looking for more function and more style out of your accessory drive, you owe it to yourself to give Concept One’s systems a look.