It's been terribly cold in the shop up so not much work has gotten done until Saturday when the temperature in our area suddenly went up to almost 60 degrees. My son came over and we decided to put in a little time on the project. As we were hoping to get the wiring harness installation finished (under the dash) he gave me an early Christmas present: an NOS heater switch. When we initially stripped out the cab two years ago, I inadvertently destroyed the original switch trying to remove it from the bottom of the dash. I had been looking for a replacement ever since. He found one on an eBay store. Unfortunately, we didn't get to work on the wiring as we had hoped.
I had previously installed the gauges in the dash and just needed to install a new line to the oil pressure gauge. I received a new kit last week, so with that in hand I dove in under the dash. I knew I was in trouble when that funky tapered compression fitting didn't ever get tight. Then suddenly the fitting popped right off the back of the gauge. I had bought this gauge some months ago at a huge wrecking yard that only deals in American made vehicles, and specializes in having a lot of pre-1960 stuff. They always have a lot of new restoration parts at the counter. My original oil gauge had an issue with going to "O" so I bought a replacement. Anyway, after some mild theatrics and various choice words, I removed the gauge cluster to take home. There, I compared the fitting on the back of the old gauge with the new one and noticed that the hole machined in the new gauge's block was much larger than the original one. That allowed the compression fitting to work its way right on through and basically pry the block off the back of the gauge. I was a victim of poor quality control. So at this point I am just going to put my original oil pressure gauge back into the cluster and get the thing installed. For my test runs I had a small gauge mounted right at the engine tee fitting. I'm going to keep that in place for peace of mind.
To keep the day from being a total loss we did install the passenger side fender, headlight and turn signal housing. Photos to come when I get the other side done.
Brian
'51 Chevy 3604 Project '28 Chevy LO basket case '83 GMC Sierra 4x4
