It does complicate things. I was on the same fence a few years ago and I decided to skip brazing on real barbs. I didn’t trust my TIG skills to make a gas tight seal. And I am lazy. So I ground off the ferrules on the OE fittings and just crimped on new rubber despite being warned. This worked well on my hoses #6-10. I regret not doing so on the #12 suction line.

Another thing I learned in this process was not to do things piecemeal. For example I replaced my compressor, TXV and drier. Then later I discovered my discharge hose leaked. I rebuilt three hoses. Then I discovered my suction line was damaged. I rebuilt it. Then I realized my system didn’t cool that well on 134a. So I added a parallel flow condenser. Lots of recharging and evacuating. Drier swaps. Then my evaporator sprung a leak earlier this summer.

And I inquired here prior to all that. I was warned that I should consider a parallel flow condenser and a Sanden. Did I listen? No of course not. I just went ahead thinking it would work out differently for me and I’d magically get cold AC with the old serpentine condenser + R4 and R134a. . I discovered I was wrong on my own. I learned a lot but at great time expense.

There is something to be said about making a careful plan about what you want and how to do it before proceeding. Depending on your desired setup you may want to upgrade the condenser and compressor. This will require custom hoses but luckily Rollguy has all that figured out for you.

At the end of the day I needed all new hoses. A new compressor. New TXV ( I converted to 134a). A parallel flow condenser. It was a daunting task to do in one swipe so I stupidly did it one piece at a time. This isn’t even mentioning rebuilding two ACC boxes and five vacuum pods. It’s a big job and it can be done more efficiently if you take a step back and think more holistically. In retrospect it reminds me of chess. You need to look further ahead than the immediate move.

My AC is working pretty well now but I took an inefficient path to get it working. If I had listened more here before cutting I would have arrived at cold AC with a lot less charging and drier swaps. And as I said above I’m probably looking at another tear down to rebuild my suction line after summer ends.

Just my 2c. I’ve learned a lot over the past few years. Some of it the hard way.

__________________
79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles
97 C280 147k miles

Thank you, that makes sense. I guess I was perfectly ok with my cooling performance before this leak. San Diego is relatively mild, and my OEM compressor and condensor keep up decently. This is why I'm hesitant to buy the farm, so to speak.
Also, do you happen to have an EPC page handy for part numbers? My copy is missing this section.