I dont but ive heard great things about vintage air.

 

Thanks, I like their stuff but I'm having a hard time finding an evaporator box that will fit. I'm half sold on their slimline products but haven't pulled the trigger yet in hopes that I can find something else I like better.

I haven't been getting much progress done lately. I shortened up the stock Superduty lower steering shaft just to make sure that I could. I need to switch to one that has a u joint on each end rather than a rag joint on one just because of the slight angle at the box. I also had a friend spin me a bushing on the lathe so that I could use a standard sized bearing in the bottom of the steering column and I welded that bushing into the column. I also welded the bottom of the Superduty steering shaft on the 77 steering shaft so that I could use the Superduty lower shaft.



I have been battling the rad support recently. I am very pleased with how it is turning out so far but it has been a heck of a chore to modify it in such a way that I can stack all of these rads in here, everything is mounting using the factory mounts so any parts replacement in the future will be easy.. I still need to mount the trans cooler and AC condenser. The trans cooler is going to be straight forward but I have run out of room behind the grille after that for the condenser. I am unsure whether I could find one that is shorter and thicker. The way the grille curves in at the bottom is messing things up for me. EDIT. I did a quick mock up with the grille on to see just how tight things are in there and the picture is not much good but it is way too tight to even dream of getting the condenser up there.

 

Are your tunnel mods what make the vintage air not fit? They have a bolt on for these trucks.

I bet you are running a rear bench, but if jumps I’ve considered an industrial unit. Like used in heavy equipment, not a refined look but those things freeze you out.

 

You are correct. I did have to push back the firewall a fair bit. Because of that I haven't got enough room between it and the dash to run the evaporator through that space like most do. This means that I am stuck using only the space in the passenger footwell to mount the box in. The measurements on the VA website only show the maximum extents of their products and don't show the size of the cutouts and stuff. I am afraid to buy a unit and then not be able to make it fit though.
I am using a rear bench seat and want this truck to end up looking fairly nice when it is all said and done so the industrial unit is out for me.

 

I have come up with a plan for my dilemma up front with the space available for the rads. There is a Canadian on YouTube, Deboss Garage that I try to watch when I've got time, long story short is he is building an OBS with a 3126 CAT in it. He didn't have room enough up front for all of his coolers either and used an auxiliary trans cooler mounted under the box with a fan on it. Seems like the best course of action for me as well. Disappointing only because I now have a $300 trans cooler that is useless to me and I've had it too long to send back.

 

I've been slowly puttering away at this still. I did ed up ordering a Vintage Air Gen II Mini evaporator. I measured up a cardboard box with the dimensions on their website and it is really, really tight but I think with some modifications to the passenger kick panel I will be able to just squeeze it in there.

In the mean time I've cut up my old intercooler pipes and mocked them up and sent them off to a local welder. Now I'm working on the brakes. I've got the hydroboost mounted and managed to get the ABS pump mounted up under the drivers wheel well. In the next little while I'll get the lines bent up and run down the frame.

Slowly but surely.

 

Progress is Progress!

 

A little update. I have been buttoning some things up. The intercooler pipes are back and installed, I have extended the tube for the upper rad hose and got it hooked up. Brake lines are all run and mostly tidied up. I have new pads and rotors all around. The interior soundproofing on the floor is done with a new rubber floor and the seat back in. I have got the transmission cooler installed and just waiting for some fittings to get the hoses run. The box that houses the PCM and IDM is finished and mounted. I am finishing up the gooseneck hitch in the back now and then I can mount the brake line to it and be done everything back there.
I have next week off and plan to have this thing running and hopefully moving by the end of it.
A few pics.

 

I found that my oil pan is still leaking even after being resealed when it was out of the truck. I only jacked up the front of the truck and oil began dripping out of the back of the oil pan. It appears when the previous owner replaced the oil pan he bought a poorly fitting replacement. I have splurged and purchased a Moroso pan and gasket. If my pan comes in time my father in law and I are going to pull the motor in his shop and get it sorted this weekend. Because of this I never bothered to put the wiring into the truck or fill up any of the fluids.
Beyond that I have most of the big parts all sorted out. The truck is all bolted back together, the hood latch is in and the rad support is finished up with the condenser installed. She's all pretty tight behind the grille and will need slight trimming once the AC lines are run. I got the rear bumper I built for my 72 modified and bolted up. I finally decided on a position to mount the front bumper that I can live with. The frame rails stick too far out the front of the truck to tuck the bumper up where it would sit stock so I held it out about 6 inches and will build a fill plate in behind it.
Some pictures of how she sits. I love the looks of this rig.

 

Nice build so far. Keep up the good work.

 

Exciting stuff is happening finally. My father in law and I got the oil pan sealed up and I got the wiring into the truck. To my surprise and great relief after plugging everything in and supplying power to half a dozen wires the old girl fired right up. I got the brakes bled and the wife and I took it for a spin around the yard. We are going to "drive away" in this truck from our wedding in the end of August so I have a few things to tidy up, get a proper transmission shift cable in it, plug in the diff speed sensor so it will shift and get a muffler on it. Now that it works though it is getting pushed back on the priority list and other wedding stuff is taking over. I'm still collecting parts for the next steps though, I priced out all the gauges from Autometer for the thing and it hurt. Over a grand in gauges. I looked around at other brands but they don't offer all of the gauges that I want and I really don't want them to be all mismatched.
Here are some pictures, I am trying to attach a video of it running too.

 

Nice job - alot of work/hours for this conversion I am sure.

 

Again progress has been very slow. This truck got pushed back on the list and I have done very little with it since August beyond move it under cover in the backyard for the winter.
I have started working on the dash for the thing though. I have had to make a custom dash panel for it to fit my custom gauges and the new heater controls and stuff. It isn't quite finished yet but just about. I still need to decide what AC vent I am going to put into it and cut that hole and then I have to figure out where I am going to mount all of the warning lights for Engine, Oil Press, ABS, WIF, Brake etc... I'm thinking on the upper right of the cluster following that curve down.
I am very happy with the way it has turned out so far. I have left room beside the HVAC controls for the Aux port for the radio and maybe another 12v outlet or I might leave it open in case I have something else to mount there in the future. I used the plastic light holder from the original dash for the Light and Wiper, Once it is painted I will have to glue that on behind there. Still have to drill the holes for the high beams and WTS light in the center of the cluster.

I also have the in cab wiring from the 77 all cut down and ready to go back in the truck and get married to the 99 stuff. That is going to be a bit of a project though to get that in there and all the lights and gauges working and tidied up. Likely a project for spring.

 

Lot's of work and time is right, I want to do a good job on it though, I don't want a hack job so a lot of the issues I have had have been because I want it to look nice, almost factory. I don't want people to see it and think it was thrown together. I plan to drive this truck for pretty well the rest of forever if fuel prices cooperate

 

The dash is pretty much finished up. I'm still waiting on the AC vent to cut the hole. I don't like the unfinished look of it in the the dash without any sort of trim surround but I can't come up with any tidy way of adding trim around it. I am planning to do the same type of trim around the glovebox as well to keep it looking symmetrical. The issue is that the cluster is pretty well at the extents of the opening in the dash and I used small screws to hold it in rather than bolts and holes. The other issue that will make this tricky is that everything is going to need to be hooked up with the cluster already mounted in the dash. I think I will likely run all of the wires on the cluster side to a few deutsch connectors and then I will only have a half dozen connectors to do up rather than a thousand little wires onto the gauges. It is going to be work to make it clean back there with all of the wires there will be though.

What do you guys think? Looking good?