Wow! Nothing for a while and suddenly I have something to write about. My headlight buckets came today and they are soooooo much better than what I have. Thanks Dean and the letter is in the mail.

I haven't had time to take pictures, but I will.

All I am waiting is for the parts to come in and then I send the gasket to my son-in-law to make the wedges and we are in the headlight business.

I almost forgot. I got those F-3 front fenders and I got an e-mail from my friend in South Carolina that can pick them up and hold them until I come down this spring/summer to visit.

Life is good.

jim

 

Always nice when things start to come together! Now you can think about the next hurdle. We must be insane for putting ourselves through this.
Brian

 

Next hurdle? Oh how I wish there is only one.
But seriously when I get the wiring done I will be really relieved. next step is to install the electric fan controller. Something I had from an old project.

"Why do we put ourselves through this?" Easy I am addicted to working and then driving my truck.......

jim

 

I made a decision last night and I will see if I can convert the original set of lights I have from the truck and try to put in later model tail light socket in the housings. I am either going to either press out or cut out the socket and then enlarge the hole enough to put in in the tail light socket and be done with it.

The vender is sending me another fix to try on my new park lights.

Simply put I am going with the way it works best. I will let you know.

jim


PS: to those of you who are wondering [or not] the computer icon I add to my post is what I do for a living. I wish I could put that into my signature. I am going to work on it.

 

at least is some progress....i was going to ask you if you could gimme some info on your electric speedo sender...

 

The one to get is Autometer sender 5291. It just bolts in where the cable would go. It has an extra port on it if you ever decide you want to add cruise control. Itis my understanding it is three wire deal. What I am waiting for is my tax refund and then I am going to buy eletric speedo Autometer 5988. I believe in electrical things to stay with the same manufacture. Side note I chose this speedo because in the day it is black and white and at night it is red lights which improves you night vision and I need all the help I can get.

A number of people ask why go with electrical speedo when a cable is so much cheaper?? The answer is simple I can calibrate my speedo myself by pushing buttons on the speedo. I know I am not at my final place on gearing and rear tire size all of affects the accuracy of the speedo. I can re-calibrate when I make my changes and all is good.

When I get the speedo I will take pictures and post.

Here is a question: I see the billet insert for instrument cluster and notice that the prices are from $90 to $130. they all look alike and probably are made by the one source and just resold. Anybody know about these inserts. AND no I won't leave mine stock. That's just how darksiders are.

jim

 

As promised here are the pictures to convert my single park lights into turn signals and park lights. This is so easy it is almost embarrasing. This first picture is of the light and the housing with the hole cut out. I just measured and went slowly till I got the right size hole using a big unibit and drill press. I got the light socket assembly from car quest and part number EC S44 and I paid 6.98 for each, I could have gone cheaper but I decided to put in a really good part so I won't worry about it.

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This is with it assembled.

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A couple of more pictures here.

front lights pictures by hellfirejim - Photobucket

They only had one socket so I am waiting on that. I will clean up the housing and paint it white and bolt the sucker it. Piece of cake and I highly reccomend it.

jim

 

A little bit more info on these light sockets. They are for the following:

American Motors 72-80
Buick 71-72
Dodge 75
Oldsmobile 66, 73, 75

I know a bit different but they work perfect. Speaking of which I am going to have to cut into my new housings as the PO butcher the old screw holes in the old ones. At least I know it is going to work.

With them cut the turn sig / park light saga is done and now I work on the headlight buckets getting them ready for when the "wedges" appear. Then I can bolt them in and finish the front wiring... Yeah..

Just trying to do what I can since i can't get to the truck. Perhaps next week, we shall see.

jim

 

Not all posts are about work done on the truck. This is one of those posts so it you want to head on out, that's cool.

This is better titled lessons learned. When I got my taxes done my mind started racing with whatever parts I could buy with the money left over after paying bills. However this stopped when I realized there was a problem with my tax return.

Back Story: My regular accountant had moved and somebody else did it. Not good as it reduced my refund a couple of thousand. Spare me I know that the govt gets the money all year but it is the only way I can get a bulk amount of money to do something with.

So with the reduced amount I had to pull back and re-evaluate what do I really need to do and in what order. Certainly opened my eyes. You learn what is important and what is not. In my case it was finish wiring and get the windshield and rear window replaced. I can live with the rest.

Well my old accountant contacted me with his new info and he took a look at the tax form and found the problem so the money will be there but in about 6 to 8 weeks. Because of this I am much more careful on what I spend my money for and try to get the max out of every penny. I also will be working on it in order of need.

These old trucks are great as they teach you something everyday.

jim

 

Ok back to the trucks. Just to show you that every piece is not done until it is on the truck the saga of my front park / turn signals continues. I was putting these together and I came to realize that the PO had buggered up the screw holes for the lenses. Yes I can make this work with 4 different screws and a redrilled cover plate to make it work along with the modified screws.

A better choice would be another set of just the housing for thr 48 - 50 front park lights. I have a set of re-pos but they can't be used because it puts the light 3/16th an inch closer to the bottom so when you drill out the holes for the sockets it goes into the bottom of the housing...

if anyone has just the housing please let me know other wise I will used these cobbled up units as I need to get this done.

Even though the rear tires and wheels look cool they are simply not practical. This weekend I am looking at some new [to me] rims. This I will tell you is that they are 15 x 10 rims. If I get them I will post pictures.

I have noticed that it got quiet around here, something I said??? I guess so be it but I will continue anyway as it helps chronical the build of my truck. Not with just what i did but what i was thinking.....

jim

 

What would the possibility be of having the holes welded up and re-drilling them for the correct screws? It would probably get you going with them until you could find some others to use.

 

So what size tires are you thinking about? What style rims are you thinking about?

 

I agree that is one fix but if I am going to do that i will just use the odd screws until I can get a decent set of housings to work with where I will just drill the back hole and transfer everything over. The housings I have will work just not the best.

Thats why I am looking for a set of just the housings for the 48-50 front park lights. Thanks for the thought.
jim

 

The tires I want to use will be a radial tire [street not a drag radial] that would be 29 inches tall on a 15 inch rim with 12 inches of tread. That is what i want so we shall see. I don't care about brand. maybe some comp TAs.

As for the rims I will get pictures this weekend if I decide I want them...

jim

 

I have been at the shop working for about 4 hours [my limit] and spent the entire time working on wiring. Due to some money shortage I am going to keep the dash panel in place for now. So I pulled the panel down and repainted the actual panel. I also rewired the panel gauges and lights for the gauges.

Yes I am going to paint the rest of the dash black to match.

I also did some more work on the ignition switch you can see under the steering wheel.

All that work and it looks like I spent 15 minutes on it. oh well, here is a shot of the panel and the ignition switch.



I am going to look at the rims tomorrow and try to get back up there to work on it some more tomorrow.

jim