Grey? That's kinda weird. Maybe it's normal, I've never used bedliner. My grandpa used to paint his tire walls white. He would clean the dirt off the side walls then spray paint them white so they looked like white walls. Then he would go take a drive on the town with the ladies.

 

Matthew,
I am planning on doing the same thing to my truck when it comes time to do the bedliner. I am going to use a spray-on rather than a roll-on liner. I have some diamond plate bed rails that I will continue to use afterwards. But, I will also spray the underside of the diamond plate bed rails with undercoat too. The spray-on liner that I am going to use allows me to tint it with the same paint that I will use to paint the truck. I will also keep using my plastic liner to protect the spray-on liner, at least until it cures. I can't wait to see what yours looks like after it is all done.

 

It should look pretty dang good. I don't know why parts of it would be grey and parts of it black? I'll give it a few days, but if it stays that way I'll get some Duplicolor gloss black spray paint and give them a nice light coat to make it all gloss black.

 

I took the valve covers off today and sprayed paint stripper all over them, I'll finish getting the paint off later.





Looks like the passenger side cylinder head was made May 18,1980 and the drivers side cylinder head February 14,1980

 

Got my valve covers, breather cap and dipstick painted and put back on today.

 

Looks pretty good in blue.

 

Matthew - It looks great! Good job.

 

Thanks! sure turned out better than the first time I did them.

 

Well I got an exhaust system installed today, here's some pictures.








Oh yeah, the whole exhaust system has a lifetime warranty on it too.

 

Sounds nice! You can definitely tell it's a small block by the sound. There are several pictures of my system in my build thread. I am not putting headers on mine, I lived with headers on a 1966 Shelby GT-350. Back then we could still get asbestos header gaskets, but even with that about once a year I had to change them.

It looks like the shop di a nice job, but rather than you fight with the shift linkage, I would let them re-position whatever is interfering with it.

 

I should have warned them stronger about the clearance, but what they did was fine, but they bent it just slightly too far and the linkage doesn't have enough adjustment, so when I put a shift kit in it soon I'll pull the bracket off and bend it back slightly then adjust it. I got it almost perfect with it where it's bent now so 1/4-1/2 inch bent back should fix it up nicely. They should have bent the pipe but they didn't discover it wouldn't go in to drive until after it was all done, oh well nothing I can't easily fix. I got it working better for now.


BUT, all of that loss of torque it used to have, laboring and retarded sound is all gone, it runs so much better with tons more power now.

 

Exhaust sounds really good, looks good too.

 

Thanks! I couldn't hardly keep from smiling when I was watching them build the system and ripping off the old glasspacks lol.

 

Well I finally got the Autolite 4100 electric choke conversion done, here's some pictures and I'll explain how and why I did some things.



I got a free Motorcraft 2150 carb for the piston style choke housing, but I wound up with the style where it had an external choke pull off, no biggie. I just used the piston out of the Edelbrock 1406 and made my own (crude but works) linkage.



There's the Edelbrock piston, fits right in! and my crude linkage, it works and should work just fine.



I left it a big loop with some slack because when the lever would come to the top it would bring the piston up, I got it to where when it pulls the choke off it goes down just enough, then after that the thermostat cap can take over the rest of the way. Ignore the hole drilled in the bracket, I did that. Then discovered it wouldn't work right.



YES, that is the Edelbog choke cap! I had to shorten the arm it connects to slightly and cut out the notch inside longer, doesn't even look like I did it! carb sure look good too eh?



Just a picture of the other side, it's an 1957 EDC model.

I made a new ground wire, and right at the last second after finishing it I put a damn scratch in the top of the choke housing, pissed me off. But over time I guess it'll become less noticeable. Tomorrow I'll be able to install it and burn some gas and make the adjustments, oh and YES I do have the proper PCV/base plates for that carb.

Top view of the carb.

 

I'll be sending you my carb tomorrow! lol