Nothing to do with sound deadener, but I just finished installing a Vintage Air in a 69. I hope you are ready for a fight and are a contortionist! One of the tightest I have ever done! This evaporator was extremely hard to get in position. Also, I would suggest installing the wiring through the firewall first, I did and am glad I did!
Have fun, and good luck!

 

I found that out when I went to do a test fit. Decided if I got it in I may not be able to got it back out. So decided to wait till it's time to install for good.

I's still working on electrical. Adding Deutsch connectors where needed, tail lights, front turn/park. Went through all my old original light fixtures and ordering replacements for the ones needed. Mainly needed new gaskets/seals for every thing.
New jam switches and connectors since the plastic is crumbling/brittle.

Ant one added Power windows and locks to these old trucks? If so who's did you go with? Seeing 2 type. One being a retro which actually use the original manual operator. The other replacing the manual mechanism with a electric.

 

I bought power windows (motor and regulators) from Nu-relics. I'm using door lock actuators from AVS on the web.

 

I'm leaning toward the Nu-Relics widow actuators. Just need to decide if I want switches or use the original crank/switch.

I found a set of power locks set I bought 20+ years ago, looking for something else. I need to test to see if they still work. They probably have the old technology form of security.

 

I set the bed back on to check for exhaust placement, All good ~ 1.25" clearance below the finder. I measured for wheel clearance for new tires and rims. Just need to know how much space I need for clearance between the tire and tub. Factory has about 1.5" clearance, which I think is excessive. I can get that real easy with a 17" rim, 4.5" back spacing on a 9" wide rim with 12mm offset. This will give me a tire width 245-255mm. If I go to 10" wide rim, 265-275mm tire, I'm concern about the tire getting into my finder when lowered. I only have about 1/2 - 3/4" clearance. If I got a 5" offset I gain a 1/2" on the out side where finder contact may happen. I need to get the actual tire and recheck my fit.

I have some repairs to do to the bed. The right front support cross beam is rotted off, dropping the corner a good amount. This I can repair pretty easy just need some bed metal to out back in. If anybody got some they want to sell contact me.




Bed eaten up, top side.

Support beam rusted away.

The other area I have to deal with it the wheel tub on the right side. Would be easy to buy a replacement and cut the corner out, but a waste since I'm only needing the corner.


Right wheel tub.

The left side is good. I do have a few pin holes in a few areas which are easy to fill. I probably should media blast the bed to find what I'm missing.

 

Dug out the front bumper to prep it to fit my new frame. My dad had a front hitch on it at one time and bent the bumper. So my first task is to see if I can straighten it out.


Bent bumper

It's bent about 1 inch

Into the press it goes. I have a heavy piece of steel backing back side of the bumper


Got it pretty close.
This steel is 1/8 " thick so it does not bend easily and spring back is big. I will probably have to apply some heat so I can fine tune it. The inside is pitted pretty bad is some areas, surprisingly its the top side. I'm going to fill the mounting holes and weld on mounting brackets. Once done I will have it re-chromed.

 

Nice work on getting that bend worked out.

 

I had to cut my frame rails back in order to get the bumper to fit up over the lower grill valance. Need to raise it 2" over my rails to clear. Which is not a problem since I'm filling the bumper holes in.

I did a test fit this afternoon and it does need tweaking. It low in the middle (1/4") where the plate goes and has a slight bow on the lower side. Will have to go back to the press and see if I can spring that last 1/4" out of it. Hopefully that will make it align up as it should.

Now I'm trying to decide if I want to french in some fog lamps into the bumper. Now's the time to do it. Already have a feeder ran for them when I did my wiring.

I've got to make the mounting brackets for it to fasten to my new frame. All the steel I have to choose from is 3/16"x3", 1/4"x6" flat bar and some scrap that is 5/16" thick. Leaning toward the 5/16" and reinforce with the 1/4" or 3/16" toward the outer edges.

 

I vote yes on the fog lights

 

I put the bumper back into the press and worked a few areas. Have every thing real close now with the only spot being low is where the main bend was at. Used a 2, 3. & 5 # hammer/hammer (dolly) to work the steel. It took some heavy blows to move the steel, glad I did not have to move it very far, <1/16". Bumper is now straight on the upper and lower edges. Progress...

Will cut the openings for the fog lamps once I have the mounts made. I cut some bolts down to weld into the bumper for mounting into the frame brackets.

 

Still messing with the bumper. The small crease that is left = 1/2" tuck at the end of the pumper where it wraps around. A press is not going to work on this, since mine is no where big enough to do this. So time to heat it up..



Crease left straightening on press.

Edges now straight

Shows how far it's tucked in.
Got the rose bud out and started heating, concentrating the heat on the sides.

Used c-clamp to pull it down after I heated the bumper up with a ruse bud.



Same gap on both ends now, straighten
1/2 studs welded in from the front.

Mounting studs welded in. These are welded from the front.
Brackets ready to mate to frame.

Mounting bracket shaped.

Took me more time to setup than to straighten the bumper, than to do it. I cut some bolts down, turned and beveled to fit drill hole in bumper. Then TIG welded them in place from the front, which was beveled for full penetration. I had a hard time doing the bend in the 1/4" plate. My home made break was maxed out, 12 T . Then had to add a spacer to allow for spring back. I had only done small strips 2" wide with no problems up to now. Now I know my limit of my setup.

Now to decide on what to use for fog lamps. There are lot of options to choose from these days. But I need the rectangle shape to look right.

 

Are you going to have it rechromed or what is the plan?

 

Yes. I'm planing on having it rechromed once all the mods are done. Also thinking of having the rear step side bumper chromed too. The original chrome is full of holes and blisters in a few areas. Approx 50% of the bumper was covered in rust when I dug it out of my storage. I'm going to change the profile of the ends a little too, where it goes around the finder for a better fit.

 

Did some work on the dented grill. My did hit a tree here on the farm decades ago. Dented the hood and grill. I ended up cutting the dent out of the hood and putting in new metal since the dent went into the seam.



Tree damage.

The dent I'm trying to work out.

Getting it close


Still need to do some smoothing and small dents out of some of the runners.

 

Looks pretty good so far.

That 68-69 grill with the Ranger emblem has always been my favorite.