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AC Control Knobs Con't & New Chrome Grill

After fiddling with the knobs to try to get them to look better, I decided that the recessed lettering was not the way to go so I changed the lettering to be raised instead. This was easier to sand and to paint the letters and maintain a fairly sharp line. The internal edges on the lettering were too difficult (impossible) to get straight. So I 3D printed all four of them with the raised letters. I then wiped them with some glazing putty to fill in the minor ridges and sanded them smooth. I then primered them a few times and tried to level it all out with some tiny block sanding (with a popsicle stick) between coats as well as mounting them to a drill bit and spinning it on the drill motor to level out the curved sides. I then sprayed them with the same gloss black paint that I used on the steering wheel. After the gloss black dried I used a white oil marker pen to paint the raised letters.

Today I took a few minutes to see how they looked temp mounted in the dash. I think they turned out pretty good. I may have to do the same treatment to the cowl vent knob, side vent knobs and the wiper knob so they all match.....but I'll have to think about it some more.

I also wanted to see how the new chrome grill looked and fit so after I got the knobs installed I worked on the grill. It lined up fairly well (considering) but the front end still needs some tweaking so I didn't fine tune it and just hand-tightened most of the bolts.

I had about an hour left in my day so I crawled under the truck and took some 2” wide tape and made some templates for boxing the portion of the frame where I removed the stock cross-member. Next I plan to cut the boxing plates and tack them in place. This will then allow me to start routing and fabbing the exhaust as well as making a replacement cross-member to support the hanger bearing for the two-piece driveshaft.