Bed slats secured. “ fixing” hail damage. Removed rear window with minimal rust👍🏼

 

Nice work man! Maybe you could put a functional jerry can on a piano hinge just like you have it? You'd have to be careful lowering it over every time you filled up but maybe. Maybe a rubber bumper on the can?

 

I think I'll just leave the flush mount as is and put an actual functional jerry can on the opposite side of the bed.

 

Got the gauge cluster out yesterday. It’s dusty back there! Going to swap out the bulbs with brighter LEDs. I read that there’sa polarity with the newer bulbs. Is there any way to know which direction to put them in or is it a trial and error thing? My plastic fortunately isn’t too crispy and the circuit board looks good

 

for anyone looking, found this diagram online. My circuit board is the bottom left one. Interesting how the polarity on the far right light is different than the rest. The LED bulbs have a slightly longer wire which is the pos one from my research. I haven't had a chance to plug the dash back in to see if everything works. I also didn't have turn signals or hazards prior to pulling the dash out. I suspect that it's related to the turn signal switch, but my rear harness has also been cut. I'm thinking this would affect turn/hazards as well if there's not a complete circuit. I have some instructions to trouble shoot this but havent' had a chance to chase down electric issues yet.

pulled out a totally disentigrated center vent hose.


Found this old sticker on the back of the stereo.

Old glovebox had to come out to remove dash pad. Cardboard started crumbling and will order a new replacement.


Dashpad out, cleaning things up. A tremendous amt of dirt/dust behind the dash that I blew out w/ compressed air. Made quite a mess. Planning on painting the dash with a gloss finish on the vertical parts and a matte finish on the pad and part adjacent to the glass

Pad out. It was extremely difficult to get to the PS nuts. I have smaller hands and really struggeld getting a 1/4" ratchet on those nuts, which are 11/32" btw. I'm not sure how anyone w/ larger hands woudl be able to get to those.


Center stud fell off the brittle foam. Reattaching w/ fiberglass bondo.


Starting to address the deep cracks in the dash. Very brittle vinyl/foam.


Digging out old foam. Planning on repairing w/ bondo, shaping, then adhesion promoter, primer, paint and then matte 2k clear.

 

several rounds of bondo later, we have a functional looking dash again. Creating a new radiused edge was interesting. Got the underside of the hood in primer. I'm not worried about the scratches from sanding as it's the underside. spraying w/ high heat rustoleum. I started sanding my dash as well in preparation for new color.

 

Got dash primed and painted. In retrospect I should've put a skim coat of bondo on the entire dash. Despite feeling nice and smooth, you can definitely see the spots of bondo despite 3 coats of primer and 2 of paint. I'm going to spray a matte 2k clear over top, so maybe this might hide some of the texture discrepancies. I figure this is a driver, so I'm not that worried.

Anyone know what this red wire is for? attached to the wires for my climate control module, but seems like it's not attached to anything. I'm also thinking of deleting my radio and using that space for something else, possible in dash USB chargers. I might keep the ***** there as a faux finish to basically plug the holes in the dash cover.

 

Keep the progress pics coming.

I removed my DIN radio and installed a Kicker KBTR Bluetooth receiver in the dash. This looks cleaner and kept me from cutting up a new surround. I used some carbon fiber kydex sheet and installed it, a Aux input if needed and a USB port.

 

thanks for the idea. I was thinking of doing something similar. I actually found a USB adapter that plugs into the cigarette lighter that has both USB B and C ports. I'll see if there's something else I can come up w/ for that area. Perhaps a magnetic wireless cell charger or mount. For audio, I was just going to get a large bluetooth speaker hardwired into a 12v source.

 

Finally warming up here in Ohio and I decided to get some paint on parts. Got the glove box door and ash tray door primed and painted. I’ll need to sand a couple runs before clear. Got the dash taped off and primed. Laid one coat down before I realized that I needed to change out the carbon filters in my respirator. Hopefully I didn’t inhale too much solvent.

while first coat of primer was drying, I turned my attention to the dash lights. I swapped the bulbs with LEDs but haven’t gotten my dash to work yet. I figured that I needed to check my cab grounds but decided to test each bulb for correct polarity. I used a12v battery from a cordless drill and found that I had to bend the tabs in the bulb holders as well as the wires coming off the LEDS to ensure proper contact and get them to work. This was true for every single bulb. I figure the original glass bulbs have a much thicker footprint.

 

Looking good

 

Hey there. I enjoyed looking over your build. I enjoyed the detail of the gas cap in the gas can! That was great! The image of the bent and broken p. rods hurt me. I felt your pain. I also liked the Kicker blue tooth receiver. (Blue Tooth is named after a Danish King, Harold Blue Tooth, who made the waring tribes talk together and unite). Had to throw that in there, ha ha. The truck is looking very good, even though it has a V8. Good luck.

 

thanks for following. I do have a double spring for my throttle lever. The single spring is for my kick down lever. I’ve abandoned the concept for the hidden fuel filter for now. I’m just going with a flush mount on the bed floor itself. It was going to be too much of a hassle filling it with the Jerry can. Plus it was going to take up a good amount of bed space.

 

Got color on the dash and pad. Used a satin 2k clear on the top of the dash and pad to reduce glare. Front of the dash with gloss 2k. Can of 2k clear has a 48hr pot life so I decided to clear the old rear light lenses and glovebox door cover. I need to get new vent hosing and start reassembling the dash and gauges

 

Feels good to be putting things back together. I should’ve been better about keeping all the screws labeled. Hard to remember what came out of which hole.
i got the plastic glovebox from LMC. A few more $ but well worth it compared to the cardboard alternative.
i clear coated the wood veneer face. Has a few dust specks but it’s going to be a driver.

got the dash reinstalled and don’t have dash lights. Replaced lights with LEDs, and ensured that the individual bulbs were working. I thought I had them all oriented correctly as far as polarity but could be 180 out on all of them. I’ll grab the multimeter tool or test light.

i bought a USB charger that plugs into the cigarette adapter. I noticed that it lit up even with the key off. Is this circuit hot all the time?