228 replies to this topic

[Chriss]

I really like this, there's just something about it..

Good job by the way

[Camshaft1982]

Very nice. Most of the glass is easy to cut cause it's flat, but be careful with those corner windows, they are even pricy over here.

I think the best headers for the v8's in these trucks are the shorty headers usually used on Camaro's and Firebirds, most likely the same generation that your front clip came out of.

[M44K TS]

Thanks Chris.

Camshaft, yeah, I'll take extra care when fitting the cab corners!


OK, so you'll be getting sick of these small updates, it's only as I'm getting the photos sent to me.

Redundant parking brake pedal removed


Drivers side floor patched and by the looks of it, the old pedal holes welded up


Bulkhead marked


Chopped out


Welded


Smoothed


Should be ready tonight so I can pick it up in the morning and get the floor painted

[M44K TS]

Got the truck back this morning and I'm more than happy with the work Si has done.

Pedal holes & removable panel above the steering column, (may want to take the whole column out to have it trimmed yet so pointless having the hole welded up)


Bulkhead, (I've since given it a very quick dusting of black paint to protect it until I can give it a skim of filler then paint)


And just because I can

[M44K TS]

I've asked a mechanic mate if I can borrow his 2 post lift one night when he's finished work for the night, (handily, he's my brothers next door neighbour and his unit is 3 doors away from ours!) to see if I can get the truck up in the air and attack the floor with a grinder so I can get it painted. The underside is looking pretty sorry for itself, it's had virtually no rust proofing/paint on the underside by the looks of it, so after all this time, it's covered in a thin layer of surface rust. Once I get it cleaned up, I had some weird looking chassis paint that looks more like wax, supposed to be very good stuff.

Anyway, had a bit of a mishap in the unit when I went to do some work on my van the other night, too much throttle to keep it ticking over from cold when I went to pull it outside which resulted in this....

Luckily the floor will be getting painted again in the summer, my pops thought it was funny at least, thought I was going to get a right bollocking!

Spent most of the night trying to figure out why I had no brake lights, I had indicators and side lights, but no brake lights, (indicators and brake lights are shared on old Yank stuff, hence red indicators), so knew it couldn't be the wiring at the tail light end. After much searching about, I traced back through the wiring harness to find that the output from the brake pedal switch that usually runs straight to the tail lights on a normal car, is fed via the steering column due to the indicators being shared with the brake lights. All it needed was this plug clipping back together. I was pretty pissed of at it being something so stupid, but relieved it wasn't something like the wiring harness being cut through when the welding was done.


Transmission access panel gaskets went on



And the panel secured with new screws which hopefully shouldn't rust


Gave the dash a quick rub back to bare metal where it had been repaired to protect it, then gave it a dusting with some satin black ready to be covered. (Crap pics I know, I forgot my decent camera so had to use my phone but you get the idea)


Ordered a new switch for the washer jets as I hate the one that was in, it looked like an after thought and just wouldn't look right when the interior is sorted (right of the speedo)


So ordered a nice new one.


I'll call in to the metal fabricators tomorrow to try and set the ball rolling with the seat frame too, I want that done asap if I can so I can finalise the wiring for the heated seats, electric lumbar support and electric headrests Swanky eh?!!!

[M44K TS]

Last night, I had the use of a friends garage so I could use his 2 post lift to get the truck up in the air to clean the floor up, that didn't really go well, the lifting pads didn't go high enough to reach the chassis without the arms lifting the truck vis the running boards. So back to plan B of either putting it on the drive on ramps in our unit or using my high lift jack and some high axle stands, both not ideal as the grinder will be pretty close to my face!

So, because I couldn't crack on with the floor, I carpeted the remaining section behind the seats where the original fuel tank was then set about sorting the new windscreen washer button. This is how the new windscreen washer button will sit in the dash.


Then, soldered the wiring on to the switch with some Japanese bullets so it can be removed if need be.



There was a suggestion of putting a couple of wooden chocks on the 2 post but when I worked it out, I would need about 4 chocks per pad to lift it, that would have been a little sketchy!

Anyway, I've been ordering a few shiny bits, my rough measurements means that this should fit round my steering column to tidy up the carpet around the column base. Looks fairly straight forward to remove the column, just looks like I'll need to disconnect the gear shifting linkage, steering box UJ and a few bolts holding in the column itself, how hard can it be?!


To tidy up the mismatched fuel hose arrangement to the carb, I've ordered a 90 degree banjo fitting for the fuel, at the moment, the fuel hose comes from the fuel pump, to the filter, then another length of hose to the carb, problem is, the jubilee clamps are rubbing on the rocker cover & it looks a mess so I want to replace the whole length of pipe so it runs behind the rocker cover next to the inlet manifold then up into the carb, that way, most of it will be hidden by the air cleaner and it'll save my rocker covers from getting scratched.

Current set up


The banjo fitting. I do want black braided fuel pipes in the future though, but for now, it can wait. I have other things to sort first.

[M44K TS]

Another couple of jobs off the list this afternoon, realised I had forgot to put the felt channel on the passenger window surround so removed the old one and fitted that. Should form a nice seal against the window when it's back in.


I'm going to try and get the rear windows back in soon, the weather looks like it's starting to pick up again so I'd like to get it back on the road for the odd small journey, one of the things that was stopping me from putting them in was I wanted to cover the metalwork behind the seats with vinyl. Couldn't be bothered to do any of the dirty jobs on the truck today so decided to tackle that.

Vinyl cut to roughly the right size


Interior panel spray glued


And after much messing about, it's covered, I still need to finish off round the window cut outs, the edged need some contact adhesive brushed on so they don't move when the window seals go on and the bottom edge needs another going over with the glue so I can stretch it round the bottom lip, but I was surprised at how it turned out. In fact, I'm was quite pleased with myself. I only hope the dash is as easy to cover.


If I can lower the steering column tomorrow, I'll have a look at trimming the dash.

[M44K TS]

Trimmed round the window apertures today and glued them down tight so the vinyl shouldn't budge when the windows go back in. Also cut out the interior light.



Ready for the glass

[M44K TS]

Fuel time!

Crap looking original set up looped over the rocker cover


Solved by using this


Now looks less crappy until I can get some nice black braided lines.



It'll look loads better with some new HT leads, some shiny manifolds and some chrome engine brackets and maybe a chrome alternator, (still undecided about that one)


Bought a shiny floor mount for my steering column so it will tidy the carpet up



In order to fit that, the column has to come out, but I can't figure out if the gear shift linkage arm thing can be removed so I can slot the floor mount over the column.

Pretty straight forward to remove really, first off, the gear shifting linkage, one nut & bolt that goes through the rose joint.


UJ's didn't want to budge so removed it straight off the splines on the steering box (I did try taking out the grub screws before someone suggests it!)


Moving inside, one nut each side of the column holds it in to the dash


And one floor mounted clamp, (now relocated to the other side of the bulkhead for neatness when the carpet goes in)


3 wiring plugs needed removing


There we have it, one steering column removed/


Makes it much easier to trim the dash too.


Moving on to the column itself.

I need to know if this gear shifting lever can be removed as I need to slide the mount over the column, I did have the idea of cutting it off and having it welded back on, would that be a daft idea? Just thinking it might save having to take the whole column to bits


Neutral safety switch isn't currently used so that's gone.



And the main mount is off to be cleaned up and painted


I have to work pretty quick with this job as I only have a few days before the truck is round at the fabricators to get the seat frame made up, they reckon by mid week, the seat frame should be made up, powder coated and ready to go in.

Tonight, just finished off the top half of the dash trimming.

Soft touch, almost nappa leather feeling vinyl, (read, posh vinyl!) Cut it roughly to size


Glued both the dash and the back of the vinyl then stuck it on.


Centre dash trim, ash tray and glove box areas cut and roughly in position, I need some brush on contact adhesive to tuck it in tight round the back of the dash then I can trim off the excess


Also got the gauges cut out along with the demister slots and the holes for the dash switches and glovebox lock


Should look ok with the dash trims back in.


Thats it for tonight really, got the steering column and floor mount dropped off to have the gear shift lever cut off, floor mount slid on then the lever welded back on, that should hopefully be done for Friday ready for going back in just in time to drive it round to get the seat frame sorted.

[M44K TS]

Couple of bits more done on the truck today, first off, I had bought a nice shiny chrome alternator bracket, went to fit it and realised that it wasn't the right one, so after removing the original to be cleaned up and painted, I thought I'd polish the water pump pulley and fit the new drive belts. The new ones are only long enough to fir the alternator, so will have to keep an old one on the power steering pump, not a big problem as the ones that were on were new, but had been sitting round on a shelf for a few year. Means I have a spare of each one. I was looking at a shiny water pump pulley too as mine is looking a bit ropey, so tried giving it a quick rub down with a scotch pad, it came up like new, so that saves me a few quid



Bought a new length of fuel pipe too as I wasn't 100% on the other stuff that was in, it looked a little bit perished, It now actually fits around the rocker cover properly.


Gave the alternator bracket a quick spruce up while it was off.


Started fitting the dash back together, realised I hadn't touched the demister vents, they're covered in dust/dirt inside and look quite ropey.



Cleaned them back to bare metal with the wire wheel on the bench grinder then a quick scrub out with an old alloy wheel scrubbing brush to get rid of the crap inside then finally a quick coat of silver paint to tidy them up, (they're tucked right under the dash and nobody will ever see them, but does no harm to clean them up. I also found a quick way of drying the paint too, the heat gun fitted directly into the vent so just blew hot air through it, they were touch dry in 2 mins!


On to the dash, headlight switch, wipers switch, gauges, glovebox catch, dash trims and windscreen washer button all in place. Just the glovebox itself to go in then that's the dash just about done.


Washer button illuminated with the side lights on, it looks like it should be quite a good match for the dash lights


The steering column was being sorted tonight so should get that back tomorrow so I can mark the holes for the floor mount and get the sound proofing down. I think I've figured out all the wiring for the heated seat switch, there was one wire unaccounted for when I first looked through the diagrams, looked at it again today and it would seem it's the actual 12v feed for the switch itself! I'll be making a couple of L brackets to go under the dash to mount the switches, ideally, I'd like them hidden a bit but there's not a lot of places to put them. I've opted for the far ends of the dash, should look ok. I'll connect all the wiring plugs for the seats tomorrow and see exactly what looms need made up, I think the electric headrests and electric lumbar support just need a live and earth to get them working whereas I think for the seat heaters, there's be 6 or 7 wires needing connected.

[M44K TS]

Steering column is back, the floor mount is on and I've trimmed the lower part that is on show in vinyl too just to tidy it up.


Ignore the spray glue on the chrome collar, that will be cleaned off!


Also got the floor and the majority of the bulkhead covered with the sound proofing.








I'll put the column back in as a temp. measure just in case I need to get the truck over to the fabricators tomorrow for them to make some measurements.

[rally515]

You should do the alternator in black chrome would look to bright in my opinion in normal silver chrome.

Great project by the way.

[M44K TS]

Cheers dude, I like the idea of the chrome alternator, they're pricey though.

[rally515]

strip yours & just get the body chromed ?

[M44K TS]

That's a possibility I suppose

Had the truck round at the fabricators yesterday, they've made a mock-up of the frame for me to have a play about with, get it marked in the right position on the floor to make it comfortable to drive. They want it back round on Monday to make the actual frame and get it powder coated.

Roughly how it will fit. It will need tweaking in a few places but not bad fit so far.