Well, the transmission's together! The first/reverse and speedometer worm gears came in a while ago, as did an NOS governor drive gear (in the original box, which is kinda cool) I found on eBay, since none of the transmission places I talked to had one in stock. Assembly went pretty smoothly, or at least it did after I got the overdrive output shaft bearing turned the right way 'round, which only cost me a little time an an 88-cent Woodruff key. The two big gears arrived clean and ready to install, and all the governor gear needed was to have the pilot polished with some emery cloth on a lathe (as did the pilot on the transmission input shaft). All it needs now is the last case bolt (none of the "originals" matched, and several of them had threads that were pretty chewed up, so I decided to just replace all of them), and a plastic speedometer gear compatible with both the overdrive unit and my truck's speedometer. Tractor Supply was the only place in town that had the appropriate bolt in the correct size, but I cleaned out their supply when I bought the first four, and I've been waiting on them to get their hardware restocked ever since. No big deal, that bolt would be easy enough to install even if the transmission was in the truck. As soon as the paint class gets done practicing on it, it'll be ready to install (although I think it may be a while before I'm ready for that).
I got paid last Friday, and a new starter drive fixed my other truck's starting issue, so I should be able to take the engine to the machine shop here soon. The block, head, bellhousing, and associated covers have all been hot-tanked and cleaned, but that's as far as I've gotten with it. I want to check the head, deck, and line bore for true-ness before I take it in, so that I can get a better idea of how much I'll be spending, but I do know the crank needs ground and polished, the cylinders bored and honed, and the flywheel surfaced. I'm also having them fit the new pistons and bearings.
It's the time of year when the deadlines for all the big assignments, research papers, presentations, book reviews, etc., are bearing down on me in close succession, so I haven't had time to do much else with the truck. Things should slow down a little after this week, though.
Next January, I'm taking another sheetmetal class, and it sounds like I'll be able to bring my own stuff in to work on for class credit, so hopefully I'll knock a big chunk out of the bodywork then.
