My first priority is to get her mechanically sound again, and able to function and be a good round town ride. As I started Driving Her around a bit I noticed a U-joint click, so I narrowed it down to the jack shaft and when I started to pull it apart it fell apart in my hand. Amazing it was still holding the shaft up. Anyway figured as long as I had it out I would strip and paint it. Looks and drives a lot better now

 

Well, the dash lights went out... So I figured this was a good time to pull the dash apart and clean it up.



Figured as long as I was opening up the dash, it would be a good time to put in a new radio, and if you get a new radio you better get new speakers...






As I pulled the old panels they all but disintegrated so..



Off came the panels from one of my donors



A Little scrubbing,






And some paint



If you give a mouse a cookie

 

I like the way this is going.

 

Love the truck and the story.. It will turn out awesome!

 

subscribing, awesome to hear that its staying in the family.looking forwards to this build.

 

very cool, i like that brown color a lot. sounds like a few of me and my dad's road trips!

 

Nice looking truck Brijuana. Looks like a fun trip up the Alcan. My dad has a 75 hiboy that is in need of a new life, but it is in MT, I am in AK.
I've been thinking about driving a 79 that I have in MT, but am too scared of breaking down in the middle of Canada with my young sons. I'll probably drive it over to Seattle and put it on a boat.
What part of AK are you in?

 

I'm in Wasilla. I don't blame you for not wanting to drive it, particularly with kids in tow. I schemed for several years about how to get mine up here. The initial way my trip started out was I was going to buy a new company van and tow it up with that so I could write most of the trip off as business. But the van fell through while I was already down there and I had to punt. Luckily my dad was feeling generous with putting miles on his truck (which is still stuck up here). If you haven't already you might try scouting out someone who is moving up here and offer to pay fuel if they tow your rig up. In my experience you can sell a car hauler up here for about a quarter more than you bought it for, which usually pays for gas. Just my two cents.

 

great thread thanks for sharing...looks good so far...like the door panels.

 

So, for all you folks with small kids around, I just learned a valuable lesson... when repainting sensitive pieces, like the silver on the dash pieces, and you 3 yr old is watching you, and the phone rings. Be sure to replace the cap on the paint, or you will come back to a paint covered toddler, table, and dash piece. You all have been warned. (Thought about getting pictures, but not till I had it all cleaned up. I seem to be chalk full of hind sight today)

 

Need a like button for that! At least you have your 3YO "helping" My 3YO loves helping me with my tools, usually by moving them around so I can't find them.

 

Well, I finally got a day to do some work again. so I started putting my dash back together. Got my new radio in and working.



Looks and sounds pretty good if I do say so myself. Unfortunately sometime during install I managed to short out my dash lights. So I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out the problem with no luck . so I guess my next project will be stripping down the harness to find the problem. Nothing like electrical problems to make you want to shove dull pencils in your eyes

 

Had some more time to work on her today.

Replaced the old clearance lights


and got my new set put on.





and my new tach


I also found a new NOS dash pad that i'll pick up tomorrow, and hopefully a new aftermarket bumper and grill inserts assuming they aren't to cheaply made.

Just a few more odds and ends and some more cash, then I get to dig into power train and brakes. One day I will get to tear it all down and start paint and bodywork.

 

Signing on for the build. I too like the history aspect of it and my dad has a 79 F350 drw cab/chassis rig I plan to acquire if he'll ever let me (spent a lot of my youth in that truck)
Now I noticed that your truck looks to have the same rubber plug in the roof as my supercab, any idea what these plugs were.?

 

Back in the day there used to be a old moterola style company radio installed. When my dad went out on his own he pulled the radio and plugged the antenna hole