Hi Anne,
I suggest looking at the universal system sold by Vintage Air. I have one of these in my 411, which is very similar to the 409.
The Vintage Air units provide heating and cooling, so you can remove the Smiths heater box and that's where the evaporator goes, so it uses all of the existing heater vents. The original heater controls become redundant.
The unit come with a small control panel which was originally fitted below the dashboard in my car, but I am in the middle of trying to adapt the original heater controls to control the A/C unit.
I have the pipework to the condenser routed through the inner wing above the spare wheel.
I currently have an original Chrysler A/C compressor, but I would recommend using the modern compressor that Vintage Air sells. Either way, you have to modify the belt and ancillaries configuration on the front of the engine.
One problem you will almost certainly encounter is an engine cooling issue after mounting the condenser in front of the radiator, particularly with the original Bristol cooling fans. I would suggest removing both the original electric fan in front of the radiator and replacing it with two smaller modern electric fans mounted directly on the condenser, and also mount a slim electric fan on the engine side of the radiator to pull air through the condenser and radiator "sandwich" (I no longer have an engine driven fan on my 411). The electric fans should be wired to come on by thermostat but also always come on when the A/C is engaged. I actually had my cooling system re-modelled, but I'm not sure that is necessary.
I hope this helps!
kevin
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