A couple of years back at a swap meet (before I really knew what I was looking for) I bought what I thought was a good set of inner fender supports. I dig them out of the back of the garage and it's only the top part of the support. Not the lower splash part. Look at the 4 inners that I have and I just can't use any of them. So I took the best 2 and cut the upper from the lower portion and welded on my swap meet "finds". What a pain. I kept blowing through for a few reasons.
1. The metal is thinner than 16 gauge and I just couldn't get the settings right.
2. I had to weld right on the 90 degree bend which meant the metal was even thinner.
3. I was trying to be very careful

After I did the first one, it was FUHGHLY. On the second one, I said screw it. Nothing a little grinding, seam sealer and por 15 can't cover up. I whipped that one out in short time and it turned out much better than the 1st.

It took me 1/2 the day just to clean them up for painting. 1 was nothing but dry surface rust that took hours with the wire wheel. The other was covered in cosmoline. Sure it may be a great rust preventer, but it is just nasty to clean up. De-greased, metal prep and por 15 on the inner fenders, tunnel cover, and inspection covers.

After clean up with patina. I kind of like the dark green patina look.


After rust proofing.

 

Is there supposed to be a gasket on the transmission cover or is just metal on metal?

When I was cleaning it up, I scraped off what looked like old permatex. I searched but couldn't come up with anything on the web.

 

Maybe I missed it but what are you using for rust proofing? POR15?

 

Yes. It's some tough stuff.

 

could us silocon chaulk

 

Cleaned up the heater box, blower motor, pedal assemblies, glove box door and ash tray door. Rust proofed the clutch/brake pedal assembly and the back side of the heater box. I am going to sand and paint the pedals to the point where you can see them. Painted the gas pedal assembly and clear coated. Wimbledon white on the glove box and ashtray.








Tomorrow I will put the heater box back together with the new seal kit. I tested the blower motor on a battery and it worked. Also I did a compressed air test on the heater core.

 

I got the heater assembly back in. It only took 2 times because as I connected the wire up, I forgot to clear off the spots for the housing to make metal to metal contact for grounding.

All pedals are installed. Just a word to the wise, install these things in the following order to make it easier on yourself, so you don't waste retainers and don't gouge up your firewall insulation.

1. Gas pedal - it goes behind the firewall insulation
2. Firewall insulation
3. Clutch and Brake pedal assembly
4. Heater
5. Insulation retainers

Wiring for the ignition to coil, temp & oil gauges is spliced and ran.
Clutch linkage is all connected.
Brake light switch is in - I will probably have to do some fine tuning on that.

Sprayed black on the upper edge and sides of the heater controller to match the all black instrument cluster.

Dash to do list - mount the instrument cluster, heater controls, fresh air vents, radio, antenna, and glove box.

I figure with the way it sits now, I can mount the solenoid, field relay, battery and try to get this thing fired up over the weekend.

Man all of these little things sure eats up a lot of time.

 

Here's a product that is overlooked by many. This stuff is perfect for transmission hump covers, door panels, air vents, just let your imagination run wild on the uses of this product. Not only is it useful on trucks & cars, it's also readily available just about anywhere, and it's cheap.

Sorry must have dozed off for a second. Now where was I?
Damn getting old sucks.

Butyl RV Putty Tape

I'm sure many have used this at one time or another. I picked this up for a project I was working on, then the need was there to use in a truck. After looking around my friends truck we discovered there's a lot of places we can use this on.
If you have an RV parts store nearby, pick it up there.

Did I take a nap yet? not sure, Uh oh talking to myself.

 

That's not a bad idea, and I have a lot of that stuff hanging around. At work, we use it to weatherproof antenna connectors on cell phone towers. It's not as narrow of a roll, but it cuts easily with a sharp utility knife.

 

Dirty dash pad. I used a hard plastic brush, warm water and soap to get it clean. Armor All after it was dried and it looks almost like new.



Dash all back together.



This was the best day I have had working on the truck. Mainly because my son was helping me for about 6 hours. It sure makes for some quick work on a lot of the little stuff. I made sure to tell him that this is what I wanted for this truck project since we started it. He looked at me kind of weird and said "The paint scheme?" I said "No, me and you working together." Here is a picture of my little helper.

 

Two thumbs up on father and son project time.

 

I'LL CERTAINLY 2ND THAT MOTION!!

 

For sure! All my kids have worked on mine with me. Much faster and more fun.

 

Things completed in the past couple of days.

Steering column painted re-wired and installed
E-brake assembly is in. I still need to order a set of cables from the rear drums to the center connection point.
Fresh air ducts are in - Should have installed the driver's side before the e-brake assembly. I had to remove the two firewall bolts and loosen up the under dash bolt of the e-brake to get juuuuust enough room to slip it in there.
Gas tank
Glove box - I tapped the radio power wire and ran a wire into the glove box for future radio upgrade. Still need to come up with a decent speaker mounting option.
Seat
New door seals
Doors are on but need some adjustment to have them fit correctly.

Does anyone know from the pictures below, what the bracket just behind the steering shaft is for?
The hole in the firewall in the center of the picture, I can't figure out if anything should be running through there.

 

My hump cover had some type of soft tar crap that was a B to remove.

I glued 1/4" bubble insulation to the bottom side..

Then glue my carpet over top for my setup as I did not want have to pull the whole floor carpeting out when pulling the tranny when needed..

Orich