Freon 12 only makes baby seals be born naked in America... if you go across the border into Mexico you can buy it across the counter by the gallon if you want.
Arizona Refrigeration will sell me as much R-12 as I want, as long as I show my required license. It is, in my opinion the better coolant gas for air conditioning. I have worked a bunch of 134 systems that have been converted from R-12 and the temp drop is never as good. Arizona is the mother lode of air conditioning. If you want a job for life, start an AC car repair shop here. Something about 120 +° days that makes people want their cars air conditioning to really work hard [which wears them out faster].
Freeze 12 and the other replacement gases that were forced into the market with EPA regulation contaminate R-12 holding tanks so shops refuse to vacuum systems with those gases. R-12 recycled is worth as much a new R-12 and at this point it's like gold, so they don't risk contamination. Also, once the tank has R-12 and "some other gas" in it, it becomes a HAZMAT disposal issue to an EPA approved disposal site which means that tank now costs $300 new, and something like $1,200 to dispose of [or more if it's in CA, where R-12 causes cancer and all babies to be born naked].
Add a can of leak check dye, run your system and see if the dye shows any connections or leaks under black light.. if not.. jam it with more R-12 and drive on.. unless you live in CA. then drive to AZ, get it charged and drive on.
Something I learned at Arizona Refrig some time ago is the old style hose used will allow coolant to pass through the walls over time and is the cause of most coolant loss. The fix is to use new style hoses [they will make them up on site] that does not do that. System should stay charged. If you have the system open anyway, it's a good time to replace the old hoses with new kind. They've also stocked all the other replacement parts for IDI Fords consistently.
