Got to spend the whole weekend in the garage! Made some significant progress:
Took out the rug padding to see what needed to be done to remount the seats.
The PO had used a bunch of stuff (stacks of washers, several squares of 3/8" plate, old lap belt mounts, large nuts, etc.) to raise and shim the power capt chair mounts up several inches. Why I don't know unless they were midgets. They had run bolts thru all this "stuff" and thru the floor. One of the mounting bolts was thru the fuel tank sending unit inspection plate, a 6" diameter 20 ga flat plate that attached to the floor with 3 small metal screws!!! That was scary to see!
After clearing everything out down to the bare floor I set the seat back in place on the floor to decide on the new height of the mounts I intended to build for the seat. My wife and I both sat in the seat and decided the height was about perfect just like that as we would be looking out the center of the windshield, instead of the top 3" as before. The only thing needed would be a 1" high something to attach the seat rail studs to. I made a frame out of 1" square tubing that would bolt to the original seat mounting nuts in the rear and thru the floor just behind the crossmember in the front. The front bolts will have doubler plates added under the floor.
Once I had that completed, I turned my attention to the passenger's seat, expecting to build a similar frame for it. It turned out that the manually adjusted seat tracks on the pass seat were totally different from the driver's seat, both in height and stud placement. The rails were 2 1/2" closer to the seat cushion than the driver's seat. Looking around for ideas as to materials and design for the pass platform I noticed two heavy steel mounts in the stuff I had previously removed. I measured them and realized these were the mounting brackets the seat was supposed to sit on! I bolted then to the bottom of the seat and set it in place next to the driver's seat on it's new mount, and they matched height perfectly! Hoooray, all I would need to do for the pass side would be to drill four holes thru the floor and bolt the mounts down with doubler plates underneath, nothing else would need to be fabricated, problem solved!!!!
That out of the way, I took the seats back out and turned my attention to the 20 or so holes in the floor pan that were doing nothing, a couple were as large as a quarter! I spent a good part of this morning cutting filler plugs and welding them in place. I also removed a 2 way valve and some aluminum tubing that had been for an aux fuel tank that had once been installed in the rear, but since removed. I know why you should not use aluminum tubing for fuel lines! Where it had passed thru the frame, it had weakend from vibration wear, and simply snapped off when I gave it a tug.
Finally later this afternoon, I looked for another small project to tackle, so I decided this would be a good time to french the radio antenna into the cowl. Someone had previously installed a power antenna there, but decided to raise up a bump on the cowl around the hole, probably because the antenna mount would not fit the strong slope in that area. They obviously were not a skilled body man, and made a mangled mess they then tried to straighten with bondo, but the bondo cracked, likely from the vibration of the antenna in the wind, and moisture got underneath. Since I was going to need to cut out the damaged metal and patch it then mount a new power antenna I decided an old school look of a fenched recessed mount would kill two birds with one stone. I used a piece of 1 3/4" electrical conduit I picked up on my last trip to the scrap yard as the "can" adding a 16 ga plate and drain tube to cap off the bottom end. After cutting the hole in the fender there was still a few dings and dents outside of it that the "hammer happy" PO had put in, so I straightend them, then welded the tube into the cowl, Some work with the grinder dressed down the welds and a 1/2 round file rounded over the edge.
I test fitted the antenna before quitting for the night. I set it deep enough that none of it shows when full retracted.
Pictures coming up next.

 

Wow, you get a lot done when you put your mind to it!

 

AX, Sounds like you had a good productive weekend! When you are shaking you head at the PO work just remember what a really solid truck Gracie is. You got a little bad with a lot of good. I was suitably impressed. The seat mounted thru the plate was a beaut. Did your thoughts go back to the long trip home from New Mexico riding in that seat?

Glad to hear about your progress. Keep it up

 

Chuck, good progress, nothing like a productive weekend to keep you going.

 

Even worse was the bolt thru the inspection cover was also the one holding the seat belt...

 

Body mods gallery updated with pix of frenching the antenna mount and seat frame.

 

Very Nice Ax, thanks for letting us look in your shop. Jag

 

looks great! gotta love them vise grips.

 

Werd!
I think I have about 10 with different jaw configurations, and still want/need more. I clamped the seat frame to the welding table with some to keep everything square while welding and to hold it in different positions while I finish welded all the seams. Can never have too many vise grips or clamps!

 

Ax,

Your original seat configuration sounds alot like what the PO did to my wireing.
I'll try a put a picture up one day, I'll be ripping it all out one day and upgrading with a EZ21 or such

JimG

 

How long did it take you to write that post AX? LOL... It's always amazing what you find when you tear things apart, especially on old trucks. Gotta love those PO's... Thanks for the info.

 

Nice work!

 

The more that I read by you, AX, the more I realize how focused you are on perfecting anything you work on. CHEERS!

 

Wow did you ever get a lot done good job keep it up man

 

I've been a master goldsmith, handcrafting one of a kind fine jewelry for > 30 years. Perfection comes with the job. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm not making jewelry when fitting a piece on the truck, in jewelry every metal joint should be a perfect fit to the point no light shines thru when held up to a strong lamp before soldering. Gold solder will not bridge a gap. I keep finding myself reaching for a file to perfect the joints in the seat frame before welding for instance.

JimG, take a look in my making changes gallery for the quality PO wiring job I faced as well. It was quite satisfying ripping it all out. I'm using an EZwire 21 setup, and will likely use most of the circuits.
I have 4 self opening hide away AC duct outlets coming from Roddoors that I'll be putting into the lower dash valance.