HVAC Boxes

We're in the process of gut renovating a one-bedroom apartment in a high-rise co-op. In the apartment are two HVAC boxes (I think that's what they are called - they are the 2ft x 3ft metal boxes under the windows). They still work fairly well, but the building was built in the early 1970s, and I don't think these boxes were updated since then. So they are almost 50 years old at this point. They... [more]

We're in the process of gut renovating a one-bedroom apartment in a high-rise co-op. In the apartment are two HVAC boxes (I think that's what they are called - they are the 2ft x 3ft metal boxes under the windows). They still work fairly well, but the building was built in the early 1970s, and I don't think these boxes were updated since then. So they are almost 50 years old at this point. They are also dented, beat up and generally grungy looking, so something needs to be done about them. There is only one company authorized by the building to replace them, and they want $7k to replace the two of them. We also looked into just keeping them (because as old as they are, they do still work), and just getting custom covers. Custom covers will cost $3.5k for the two of them. Custom covers will look nicer than new metal boxes, but we are leery about spending so much to cover boxes that are almost 50 years old and that may break eventually, at which point we may have to get new boxes anyways, and the custom covers may not fit the new boxes, and so $3.5k will be wasted. We'd appreciate anyone's thoughts on one or more of the following questions: 1. Should we be replacing these boxes given that we are gut renovating, or should we just cover them given that they still work? 2. What is the life expectancy of these HVAC boxes? Can they continue working indefinitely (more than 50 years), or does it make sense for us to take the opportunity to replace them now that we are renovating? 3. Does $7k make sense? It seems really high to us, but we can't shop around because the building only allows this one company to replace the boxes. 4. If we do replace the boxes for $7k, we intend to leave them bare and not get covers (to avoid the extra expense and because we think that the new metal boxes will look clean and neat on their own without covers). Given that we are gut renovating, will it look incongruous to just have bare metal boxes (even if they are new)? We'd appreciate anyone's thoughts on the subject. [less]