Ladies and gentlemen, the A/C Works! After much diagnosis, vacuum line tracing, splicing and gerry-rigging, I got the system functioning the way it's meant to. The air is not cold, rather cool-ish...I think it needs a flush and recharge, hopefully I can accomplish that sometime in the next few weeks. But I am rather pleased with myself at this point.

I also picked up a 14" Edelbrock Air Cleaner this morning. It took some effort to get it set up correctly, as it is so large it hangs over the throttle body...so a little 1/2 inch spacer to get the clearance I needed and I am all set. I do want to get a flat topped nut for it, since the wings on the wing nut stick up a little high...it clears the hood, but just barely.

Before:

After:

Air flow is so much better now...performance should increase quite a bit now that it's not struggling for air. More to come, but probably not for a few weeks.