Stooge's longer term car projects

[Stooge]

The airline doesnt go past the center of the control arms, and i dont have a steering box. Are you looking at the brake lines coming down from the master cylinder?

Wired up the electric fans and got them running over the weekend, and also found a small hissing leak coming from where the upper radiator hose connects to the intake neck so that will have to be sorted, installed some seatbelts and retrofitted them into the blazer seats, and did some brake work for a buddy who owns a finishing company, which bought me getting my suspension pieces all painted, and the dash trim, bezels and a few other things powdercoated. He said he would have done them anyways, but id rather do some trading than just getting.

I'll try and make a molex harness for the contrls and heat for the seats this week, and can finally start wiring some gauges when the cluster comes back this week.slowly all coming together!

 

[dlcwent]

Did you finally get the cluster back?

 

[Stooge]

Did you finally get the cluster back?

sure did! and I even found some free time to get it wired up! I did neglect to buy enough light bulb sockets from C&G Ford when I originally bought them, but managed to find some similar ones in napa for the remaining light holes and for the clock. the oil pressure, new voltmeter gauge which was placed in with the ammeter face to keep the general aesthetics, and water temp all seemed to work, couldn't test the speedometer yet, and the tach wasn't working but I think that's because I was using the msd control box tap instead of the terminal right off of the distributor so i'll need to swap that over. the directional lights on the dash weren't working but I also don't have the front directional lights hooked up yet so hopefully that will sort itself out when the front lights all get hooked up, but in the meantime the left one was just illuminated solid. also have to look at my wiper motor wiring, what worked in theory, on paper, with alligator clips, didn't seem to work when actually hooked up and installed to the aftermarket dash switch, I think I know what it is, just have to get in there and try again.

Pull the dash back out to get some breathing room and make it tidy.





took apart, cleaned and lubed the analog clock from 1948.



I always forget that my battery charger is old enough to have a 6volt option to test this stuff out, nice to hear it tick again





And the strangely eary looking gauge lights, in person you can see the speedometer readings although its not very pronounced but my phone wouldnt pick up on it no matter how many buttons that i dont know what they do that i pushed. I ordered a pack of similarly sized led replacement lights to brighten things up a bit and some for the clock so they will all match.








a little reminder of what it looks like, not exactly up to date, but its all I could find in my photobucket, moving along, I don't see it being on the road this year but I should be able to take it for a parking lot drive.

 

[dlcwent]

Nice Stooge. I'm sure you'll get the wiper motor straightened out. I never thought about taking a clock apart, the one in the Delta doesn't work. I guess I should give it a shot.

 

[Stooge]

I kind of went on the assumption that there would be close to 70yrs of gunk inside of it, but it actually was fairly clean, some long cotton swaps and isopropyl alcohol and some drops of low viscous oil and seemed to work for the half hr or so I had it hooked up. if it stops working, atleast it looks nice and I could always send it off to have it converted to quartz if I really cared to.

new high amp alternator along with new thermostat and water neck are due in today, along with the new leds, so that I don't have to charge the battery between starts since the air compressors and electric fan aren't too friendly with the stock replacement 78 amp one, and the cheesy chrome water neck was ******* coolant after 10 minutes while it got up to temp. all going pretty well other than that though, just a bunch of little things to take care of and a bunch of stuff that's nickel and diming me to death.

im also planning on finding/ starting an over the winter daily driver build so im trying to atleast get the truck buttoned up/ chassis painted, maybe put the body work on the back burner for the winter so I can put something together to daily in the spring. have a few potentials that I need to go look at, but for being single/ living alone, I've been pretty busy, and the Ty-rods old timers reunion show is sunday so i'll need to plan ahead a bit.

 

[chucklong55]

Stooge,

Real nice work on your C10, I look forward to seeing your progress on this.

 

[Stooge]

Stooge,

Real nice work on your C10, I look forward to seeing your progress on this.

hey thanks! its been a long time working on it off and on with a lot of life getting in the way and learning as I go and working on other's stuff, but I think im in a good place to get it on the road for early spring. I was going to try and rush it to take it for a drive this year but I just want to be as happy as I can be with it, so a few more months of taking my time is the right way to go for me. not much to update these past few weeks, October was pretty much a bust with having daily driver issues and some other projects, but here's a few more recent pictures.

finished the new raised bed floor frame, my measuring was pretty approximate when i was cutting the old frame out and i was regretting it when setting up the new one, but to my surprise, with the bed mounts im using, it ended up lining up perfect with the body lines when i got the bed back on. have a good idea of what i want to do to connect the gas cap in the bed to the gas tank, but the very limited space (like 2" from the bottom of the bed floor to the top of the tank) is causing a few issues.





With the tailgate down, i can still get to th battery and main fuse for the accuair stuff. Im planning on finding something similar to a master cylinder floor mounted access door for the bed so i can access the accuair manifold and ecu if necessary, just trying to find a locking door that's big enough and steel so i can blend it into the floor.











happy to say I have no air leaks anywhere in the system, can leave it aired up all the way for over a week and it doesn't move at all



shocks all mounted, I grabbed the right hardware after this. front were easy to find, but i have 11" of lift in the back from compressed to extended so finding some that weren't too limiting and would provide the right valving wasn't easy. i wasn't too sure how i wanted it to ride, and was planning on going ride tech ride quality shocks or adjustables, but wanted a starting point to decide which way i wanted to go as far as handling and ride quality. a lot of research later i ended up with mid 70's Jeep CJ shocks up front and 80's Ford truck/suv shocks out back.



Was already for a small sheetmetal project involving modifiying the second ashtray. I had been flipping back and forth with putting the stereo remote there or the 12v charger and lockup controller and it came down to how many people do i want basically reaching over my lap to change the channel? Remote stays in the middle. My brain wasnt working right at first, and i was about to start cutting it all up, adding half an inch to the top and cutting out a new opening, all basically to clear the female connections in the bottom of the box, until i figured out the support tab for the nonexistent ashtray does nothing anymore. Cut it out and i couldnt ask for a better accidental fit.





and also got the hideaway tachometer located next to the ignition to work

 

[Stooge]

Forgot take grab any pictures of the rear gto mocked up with the sail panels before i pulled it off to sand alot of bondo and find more **** repairs to fix. I can say the top of this car is going to be about an inch narrower with all of this missing filler.







Alot of rust further down than i was expecting so i may have to lengthen the new panel i made.

[/QUOTE]







And deciding that i should probably hammer out a new piece for this one instead of 2 seperate pieces to get rid of that awful overlap someone did and also the newly discovered old pitted metal at the base where the trim sits.



i did cut out the new piece of sheet from the template and did start a rough shape to it but not pictures and i haven't touched it in a few weeks as the owner hasn't been by to pay me so his car can accumulate surface rust until he does.

 

[MP&C]

 

[Stooge]

Still plugging away on some stuff, mostly wiring and bodywork, and lately have been trying to finish the dash i made for my c10. Still need a few more fill and sand sessions and make the last trim piece so i can have all of the trim and bezels powdercoated chrome and also start bodyworking the center console/ seat divider so i can paint the dash and console at the same time

Not bad for a scrap piece of metal shelving!

 

[BBChevro]

Not bad at all Stooge.

I hope that your Christmas was merry and that you have a great new year.

 

[Stooge]

after a few month hiatus from the owner of the GTO's spare money going to fixing up his daughter's new house, he dropped off some cash to get back on his car.

Mostly just replacing the previous owners patch work and some very pitted metal where the vinyl top ends and trim collects water and i figured it would just be easier to replace both offending sections with 1 piece rather than making 2 separate patch panels.
With all of the curves and no space behind to brace to keep whatever i cut out from spreading open and lose the original shape, i alternated cutting out the old section as i was welding in the new material, and also made for a perfect fit.



















some trimming and reshaping the sail panel i made since when i made it , i was referencing a out 1/3" of bondo that has since been removed.



After speaking with the owner, we opted to do away with the factory seam dividing the deck lid and sail panels and weld it smooth to lessen the chance of water having somewhere to penetrate, as this was a big reason for why there is so much damage to this car. Inner structure of the deck lid was pretty flimsy so that was reinforced and a few spots cut out and replaced with non-rusted metal. POR'd the whole thing with the exception of about an 1.25" lip on the side facing the backseat tray and the lip facing the trunk where the plug welds would be for the new outer panel, that was just rattlecanned with some rustoleum auto something or other. i Couldnt think of a good way to mask the spots for the plug welds as I didn't have any sheets of tape dots on hand so i just drlled all 40+ holes in the new panel, lined it up on the car and marked the holes and hit the marks with a ball end die grinder bit just enough to clear the paint off those specific areas, worked well and was quick.



I remember when i originally took it apart there was some sort of rubbery cardboard/ jute type mats inbetween the panels. I couldnt find them where the rest of the parts were, i didnt see any repro ones in the Ames catalog or what they did but for good measure just put some sound deadener on the backside of the new panel



A lot of plug welds and filling in all of the cleco holes



A few tacks to position the new sail panel


And sort of starting to look like something

 

[Stooge]

Not much to write home about with the C10 unfortunately but in an effort to finish off the wiring on the front after pulling and repairing the headlight/efan/ horn harness to get it to work with the new wiring harness




and that nice feeling of having working lights again!


I was tired of screwing around with getting the factory wiper motor to work with the aftermarket switch and after losing a few ebays for the Detroit Speed engineering system, ( I was thinking of buying new but I knew I was going to have to modify it a bit to work with the truck and they are too expensive new to not get that queasy stomach feeling of having to modify an expensive new part!) I bought a New Port engineering system for a 70's nova, I believe, along with the cheapest washer tank and pump I could find on amazon, $25 I think.



Wiper install was ALOT less than i was expecting. It came with a firewall mounting plate and linkage bracket attached and was meant to just bolt to the outside firewall, but with the ribbing in the firewall, i mounted the plate on the inside of the cowl and replaced the new linkage bracket with the factory one. All that had to be done was to drill out original slotted hole in the bracket, big enough that it would press fit over the spline of the new motor when you tighten down the retaining nut....i didnt take any pictures of this.



Next was to find a spot for the washer jug

I didnt like this



So i started making a cover, scribbled out a shape on a piece of oak tag, cut out some sde profiles and made some temporary braces to hold it together.



Bought a new punch and bead die from Mittler Bros, so that along with the $25 for the washer tank, and the not including the cost of the dimple dies, far exceeds the cost of a nice aluminum tank from summit or jegs, thus making my get off cheap plan a miserable failure. im happy enough with it, the tank will get spray painted black I think and I may add a dimpled hole on the sides of it but im not sure yet. those 2 straps tacked to the back of it will get cut off, just to help hold the shape during construction and while using the different dies.

also purchased a new cast aluminum shifter from Crafty-B to replace the extra long Lokar shifter I had. I was thinking of swapping in a Gennie shifter mechanism to make the swap easier in one aspect, but it would have made changing the led gear indicator mechanism harder so I went with just modifying what I already had. I really need to throw the dash back in sometime to get the full effect since its never been back in since I started bodyworking and primed it.

5/8-18 2" bolt with a 21/64 (if i remember correcty) hole drilled through about 1.75" of the threaded portion to allow for a short section of cable from the lokar assembly that i needed to keep for the detents. Then i made a 1/8" 'shackle' that i may or may not make over again since this was sort of a test one. Drilled a matching hole in the shifter front to back as insurance incase it ever loosens, it wont be as dangerous as a side to side bolt setup. A few jam nuts to hold the bolt to the shackle and tighten it down to the lokar threaded block.







I'll need to find a new boot/cover but in the mean time i just cut the end off to open it up enough to fit. Happy enough with it, feels good through the gears with enough detent engagement to give confidence that it wont slip out out of gear

 

[Jazz1]

Very nice work. That's a hellish pile of metal work you are getting completed.
You will appreciate the Lokar idiot light for shifter. I don't have one and just realized my neutral safety switch not working... surprise! vehicle will start in drive.

 

[Stooge]

Hey thanks! it was a lot to look at when it was all cut up apart, but i think where its starting to look 'car-like' again, it will be a little easier to start knocking things out.
the lokar will especially come in handy now that i don't have the markings on the knob anymore! plus if anyone else ever wants to drive it, it will just be easier than trying to guess or remember the shift pattern for it. the owner of the building has a 48 ford pickup with the lokar shifter but no indicator and it has an aggressive ford 460 that managed to shake some of the hardware loose so not only would it start in any gear, even when put in park, the weight of the arm was enough to pull it down into drive so you get a nice surprise when you start it up sometimes! i did manage to snake my hands in there to tighten it up an re-align it, but it wasn't a problem i would want if i could help it!

 

[BBChevro]

Top notch work as usual Stooge (on both the GTO and the pickup).

 

[Jcrapola]

Wow, Mr. Stooge... Just Wow.

I found this thread a couple days ago. I just caught up to the end. U r a BAD man! Nice work. Love the truck.

 

[Stooge]

Top notch work as usual Stooge (on both the GTO and the pickup).

Hey thanks! I know youve been following along for awhile now and i appreciate it!

Wow, Mr. Stooge... Just Wow.

I found this thread a couple days ago. I just caught up to the end. U r a BAD man! Nice work. Love the truck.

Please , please ; Mr stooge was my father! thanks for checking it out, i dont really know what im doing and have been mostly making it up as i go, glad to hear people like it!
Maybe i'll have to start updating this tread more regularly

 

[Stooge]

Trying to knock out little things here and there. Made some little ears for the washer tank cover and primed it and tried painting the tank itself, which seems to chip off just looking at it, i'll have to research what to use for cheap plastic.
Reused one of the rubber mount bushings from the stock wiper motor to clear the pinch on the firewall. I like how it looks here, but half of the bolts mount are to the inside of the cab and the rest i hve to squeeze my hands into the wiper cowl





Started on the wiring loom 'channel' . I wanted the wiring going to the front clip hidden but wanted it accessible, out of the way and didnt want to run it through the inside of the fender.
I had an extra trailer fender like the ones i used to tub the front fenders so it was sacrificed . 2" of the lip of the trailer fender cut off to add 1.25" t the outside of the existing tub without cutting the original lip off to create and inner and outer lip. The round edge takes up about .75" and i wanted about an inch of channel so i rounded up to 2"


I ended up fully welding the seem and ground it all down to hide it a bit but no pictures



The small zip tie brackets i picked up last month from member Motobuilt's fabrication website. I think they were 25 pieces for $20 or something so i bought 50 and can use them for the frame or whatever else needs securing.




And an empty plastic loom thrown in to show it will look but with heavier duty zip ties.




a little mud on it and a primer guide coat to see my screw ups

 

[xtremek]

Very nice job and a really nice trick. Consider it stolen.

 

[Stooge]

Hah, any ideas worth stealing in here, your more than welcome to! Just remember they're mostly not well thought out!

I always try and document and be a little specific about what im doing incase someone sees something they want to do something similar to

 

[Stooge]

Well i dont know what was wrong with the stock horns i had before but they would just make an awful screechy noise so i splurged and spent $16 and solved my mystery problem



Still need to add a small spacer to the bracket, or make a new bracket. this is just the small cheap one that came with the horn and I bent a 90* into it since I was feeling lazy and was just waiting for some welds on the gto to cool down.



Unfortunately Flaming River who made the steering column I'm using and Forever Sharp, who made the steering wheel don't use the same size blade terminals and I didn't have any .250" female spade terminals that I could find any in my cache. Also testing it was a little painful, being a loud horn inside of a concrete room and all.



planning on pulling the center console out soon enough to start body working it so I can eventually paint the dash and console at the same time. not sure if I have posted it over here but I'm going with a late 50's/ early 60's kustom style orage/ copper heavy flake on the upper dash portion and console/ seat divider and an off white/ cream color on the lower half of the dash to break it up a bit. the dash trim and gauge and clock bezels will be powdercoated chrome, (because its free) . (Hard to get decent pictures of paint and flake in my basement!)
Solar gold basecoat





House of Kolor Root beer candy







And a massive 2.5mm needle tip so I can spray the large cut flake.







And a little GTO work since i probably wont be able to make it down here this weekend but I'm slowly closing the giant gaping holes on the back of this car. it's coming along, i'm just not looking forward to all of the finicky little areas around on the rear windshield areas and getting the ends of the sail panels to be triangular enough, not interfere with the trunk lid and fit the chrome trim pieces for the vinyl roof.

 

[ilovevocs]

Nice work Stooge.

Flake going on top of the candy or under it?

Do you have a flake gun? Went to a flake gun years ago and really have not shot it out of my spray gun since. Really cuts down on millage and cuts the amount of I.C. clear back dramatically for flake jobs.... Just less work too IMHO.

 

[Stooge]

I bought a gun especially to accommodate a 2.5 tip, but if you are referring to the cups that sort of keep agitating the flake mix, then no I don't. if i was doing a whole car or larger body sections, i could see justifying it, but for a small dash im hoping it will be okay. this will be my first time spraying flake, but I was planning on going flake/ clear, non flake clear, then candy, then clear. if I screw it up, i'm good friends with the owner of a paint shop who will re-do it. he volunteered to do it the first time around, but I'd like to give it a shot. I plan on doing quite a few test panels before hand to see how dark the candy will lay down and figure out how i want it to look exactly

 

[ilovevocs]

I hope you don't take this as derogatory, figured I would offer a few pointers to save from mistakes I made when I first started working with flakes.

When I sprayed flake with a conventional gun ill put a few marbles or ball bearings in the cup so I can agitate the flake before spraying. With the dash you should be find just to mix and spray but don't let the paint sit in the hopper and then spray it; it will settle and make the first few sprays very heavy with flake.


Dont use a catalyzed clear for the flake; use an intercoat clear. Once you spray your flake your going to want to put another coat of ic clear on then allow it to dry and do a quick wet sand with some 800 grit to knock the surface flat. If you don't the flakes will protrude and the candy will stack up, when you go to wet sand and buff the potential is their to sand through the final clear and candy.


This is what I was referring to with the gun; yes not needed for a dashboard but they are relatively cheap if you take on a larger project or something with larger flake:

https://www.google.com/search?q=fla...LAhXK7yYKHUl0DVsQsAQIOg#imgrc=LJyegUj8PpnFeM:

Best of luck; really enjoy watching your thread and the way you approach your work. Cheers.

 

[Stooge]

I hope you don't take this as derogatory, figured I would offer a few pointers to save from mistakes I made when I first started working with flakes.
.

Not at all! I need all the pointers I can get, especially when it comes to painting, as I'm very much a novice with it.

I have a quart of HOK sg100 intercoat clear as well as a usc01 clear that requires a catalyst, so looks like i'll be using the intercoat for this. do you suggest using the same intercoat clear for the top coat over the candy, or finish with the catalyzed?

that dry gun seems pretty interesting, I have to admit when I had seen them mentioned before, I kind of skipped over them assuming they were for air brushing. do they actually spray on dry over a wet clear coat? I really like the idea of it, seems cheap enough http://www.tcpglobal.com/OSFFB-01-B...5YoheZog48FhpnAQ8nhsUaArn08P8HAQ#.VuwXq9IUWUk especially if it makes anything easier on me, (rather than doing it the hard way and possibly handicapping myself) and I have a feeling I will probably be getting a little addicted to flake after this

Also, thank you for the kind words and for following the thread

 

[chipss36]

Your fab skills are incredible, just in awe.

 

[Stooge]

Well I may not have heat or a/c, but atleast part of me will be toasty

finally took some time to make up the harnesses for the power and heated seats, everything works just might need to grease a few of the ball screws. of course after I finished, I realized I should have kept the seat heater on a different ignition 12v rather than the supplied 'power seat' circuit supplied in the American Autowire fusebox so it cant be on without the keys, or i'll just check to see if its on a timer, either way its nice to have the seat in a position that feels right, was a little squished before.

Even cleaned out alot of the junk that was inside!


Got my horn working, (just needed another ground), reveived my warranty replacement door solenoid for the passenger side door popper from AVS, glad it was an easy fix and not something i did and even bought a grille emblem off of ebay since they dont make repops for mid 80s trucks and it seems like alot of them go for big money so when i found one for $20, had to jump on it
Pulled the seat divider, forgot how many 'i'll do that later'spots i left on this when i first made it so i started filling some holes, finished some parts that i had been neglecting


And started on the little cubby underneath the console. Cut a section off of a piano hinge from lowes or somewere and a cut out a section of scrap that happened to have a nice rolled edge to help as a stiffener. Took a little finangling to get it close to clear everything






Still need to buy a spring loaded magnetic latch to keep it closed, i had bought one awhile back but i cant begin to guess where it is, theyre cheap enough to not waste too much effort. Have a few areas that needd be straightened out around the door but i have a long weekend so im hoping to have this in mud and primer soon.

 

[kbs2244]

I don't know if you plan on taking out in bad weather, but....
when SWMBO had the horns on her Grand Cherokee die from exposure
I put them into HD Ziploc bags before bolting them in place.
Still loud and now protected.

 

[Stooge]

I don't know if you plan on taking out in bad weather, but....
when SWMBO had the horns on her Grand Cherokee die from exposure
I put them into HD Ziploc bags before bolting them in place.
Still loud and now protected.

Good idea with the baggie over the horn, this will be a nice weather vehicle only and the new horn seems fairly enclosed and oem like in designso i'll probably just leave it be.

And some rage gold and primer to highlight my various screwups

 

[BassProCamaro97]

Nice work on the console. Looks great.

~Jim~

 

[Stooge]

Time to be a bit of a *****! First full fitment of all of the interior, even the carpet, although i havent cut out the spaces for the seat brackets and stuff yet. I did however cut it right down the middle and the seat divider will hide the edges....the whole reasoning behind the seat divider, so i could cheap out and not buy a new carpet or have to have one made

 

[dlcwent]

Awesome Stooge.(as usual). That is super sweet.

Sorry to hear about the issues with the GTO. Don't you love it?

 

[Stooge]

thanks! it was nice to be able to actually see everything all together after just working on bits and pieces of it separately. so far the only issues I see are the driver's side of the dash by the a-pillar needs to slope down a bit more and I need to make something for the sides of it to utilize the stock threaded inserts in the cab walls to get it a little more secure and at a correct angle. the center console is pushed up a bit from the carpet and should mostly fix itself when the carpet is trimmed a bit and secured to the floor, and when the shifter is in park its basically contacting the clock face so when I make a new 'shackle' for the shifter mount, ( I was planning to anyways but for a different reason) I will build in some angle to it to move it away from there in park. I think its in reverse or neutral in the pictures so it shouldn't take much to fix.

I like working on the GTO, but for how nice it looked when it rolled in, EVERYTHING has been f*cked with in the laziest ways possible so it just gets a little frustrating when you plan for something and go to do it only to discover you need to 3 or 4 things first beforehand. Add to that, the owner, after ignoring it for last 4 months, decided he wants to have close to ready for paint by the end of the month when im trying to finish the truck, and my shop landlord is looking into buying a Model A and was asking if I'd be available to do the metal work on it. Nice to be busy, but I work too slow for it!

Last night's GTO find. was planning on starting to secure the inner panel of the driver's side sail panel to the deck lid and original/ remaining panels. instead I found out how bad the original area was and how bad the windshield lip was so it all got cut out since it was held together with Steel Plumbers poxy, a few gobs of brazing and some pop rivets.

 

[Rockett69]

Stooge,
Just read through your entire thread. Fantastic work my friend, you are a true metal magician. I think I've run across your post on C10Forum once or twice. May have to go back and read it all (mostly on 67-72 forum myself). I can't wait to see what else you come up with!! Keep it up!

 

[Stooge]

Stooge,
Just read through your entire thread.:

Well that sounds like an awful waste of time!

Im not a member on the 67-72 forums but i am fairly active on the c10forum under a different username, (muttley) so you very well might have come across one of my ramblings over there. Not the biggest site, but alot of creative, homebrew builds.

Thank you for the compliments, its fun learning as i go and figuring out what i can do with some hammers, dollies and whatever scrap i have laying around, although im planning on making some equient additions in the near future

 

[Rockett69]

Well that sounds like an awful waste of time! :lol

Not in the slightest!!! Great ideas there, the console, dash.. I could go on and on but you took the time to build, document and photo the things, you know whats there. That's a lot more work than most think. I've tried to do it myself. And though I have most pics (some lost to time), trying to document it all and keep up with it for the world to see is just not a strong suit of mine.

Hard to mistake the truck, I've always enjoyed both forums but my poor truck has been back burnered enough times to put it in the back of the line, so I try not to get on too much or I'll start crying.. I'll just fabricate vicariously through you

I'm excited to see what you learn next then!! ... investing in some metal tools?? do tell.... love me some tools...

 

[Stooge]

Made some gto progress this morning to repair the inner sail panel section that connects to the rear windshield lip. Getting pretty close to being able to close up these sections and weld them in permanently.
Running low on old filing cabinet folder templates



Decided to make it one piece, bent in a vise because i dont have a brake and holes drilled because i dont have a spot welder



Joined to the previously made inner sail panel so i could make it look neater and do it on a bench rather than sitting in trunk



I rolled the top edge of the new piece but i didnt take a picture of it





While i was waiting for some paint to dry, i put in the bumper filler piece that i primed last night and semi installed the trim pieces to see what i was missing for when i get the new to me grille this week. The trim should clean up well enough, but i need to buy all of the sheetmetal retaining nuts since i could only find a couple of them, ( truck was a pile of parts when i bought it and the grille and stuff wasnt installed). Not sure if they are all the same size, they look similar enough, also might buy new headlight bezels sonce they are pretty chaulky and i think new ones are pretty cheap

 

[Stooge]

Got the new to me grille in the other day, pretty good shape overall, the stainless trim that i was most interested in is in great shape. I'll end up buying new headlight bezels and probably a new plastic grill piece and just put the trim and emblem on it so it all matches since its all pretty cheap,but this atleast gives me the trim, something to look at for a bit and figure out what hardware im missing

The most complete this truck has been in the 5yrs ive owned it!






Also fixed/made a new shifter clamp bracket to lay the shifter back away from the dash a bit since the first one was hitting the dash clock in park. Made this one slightly smaller to fit under a boot a little better and also added 2 small tab on either side to keep it from tilting if the bolt is loose.





And i noticed the fender mount for the hood strut were bending a bit. A quick 1/8" plate mounted on the back side of the fender to keep it clean looking and some button heads seems to have solved it, i'll need to pick up some longer coupling nuts to fully thread in the ball studs


Planning on pulling the interior back apart in the next few days to finish bodyworking everything, give the trim and bezels to my buddy for powdercoating and probably buy that flake gun that ilovevocs was suggesting in one of his replies.

Got most of what i wasnt looking forward to the most done, forming the end of the sail panel and making sure the stainless trim would fit because i had a fear that it wouldnt. Alot of trimming, massaging and grinding and im pretty happy with it, even made a little filler piece to eliminate the factory seperation line between the sail panel and trunk deck that had collected alot of water and rotted apart.





Had to sacrifice a harbor freight hammer from the back of the cabinet to get it to fit around the crevices a little better and also dressed the face and added a slight crown to it



Now i can ignore this for the next few free time garage trips and maybe pretend to do something to the truck

 

[BBChevro]

Nice work Stooge.