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Rear Wheel & Tire Fitment

Finally had a little time today to try and get the rear differential re-installed and measure up the backspacing needed for the wheel and tire combo fro the back. I had the differential partially installed a few weeks ago but I noticed that I had to cut out the inner wheelwell to clear the disc brakes. So I made a quick cardboard template and just hacked out the bare minimum to get the rear suspension to full travel. When I pull the body back off the frame I'll have to beadroll a new piece to weld in but for now I'll just have to live with the ugly.

As it stands right now, I have measured that I need 18x8's with 4” backspacing on the front and I have tires for 18x9's on the back. After I centered the rear diff with the panhard bar the right rear fender seems to be a little tighter fit than the right hand side by 3/8” or so. I believe that I have a little slop in the bolt holes that hold on the rear fender that will allow me to pull it out a little bit. If not then I will have to stretch it out a little with a little more persuasion. It is only tight in about the 10 o'clock position of the wheel/tire on the right side so I don't think it will be a difficult thing to adjust.

Since it was slightly tighter, I used the right fender to set the backspacing. I started out with a 4” backspacing and then had to move to a 4-1/2” backspacing to get it to fit within the fenderwell. I then crawled under to check the clearance to the inner fenderwell. It looked to have a little over an inch of clearance. It is pretty tight in there but I think it is going to fit ok. I went ahead and checked the same fit with 4-1/2” backspacing on the left side and articulated suspension at all three positions....full down, full up and ride height. It looks good as well. Now to place the order for the wheels and wait for the FedEx guy.

Rear Wheel & Tire Fitment Pics

Front Bumper & Brackets

Temps here were near zero earlier in the week (Xmas) but now they are in the 50s and 60s so time to get a few things done. I'm also battling a cold but I hate to let my week off go without hitting a lick on the project so I thought I'd sort out the front bumper and brackets in the time remaining.

First I had to put in the old front grille and dig out the old bumper brackets. I also had a repro filler panel and chrome bumper that came with the truck that I could possibly use. After mounting the grille and digging out the old brackets and mounting them on the frame it was pretty evident that one of the brackets (LH) was mangled quite a bit. A closer look at it and it looked like the damage was confined to the inner/center bracket...the outer bracket looked ok. Since I was going to have to modify the brackets anyway I decided to see if I could salvage these brackets instead of fabbing new ones from scratch.

I removed 4” out of the back bumper so I figured that I was going to want to shorten the front bumper as well. I set the bumper on top of the brackets and determined that I needed to remove 3” from the front bumper to tuck it in to the fender. It also looked like I should also move the bumper back about an inch as well. So I cut a 3” section out of the center of the bumper and welded it back together to start the build.

After the bumper was the shortened I went ahead and split both of the stock two-piece bumper brackets by removing the rivet so I could at least use the outer portion. I then mounted the outer portion of the brackets to the frame to see how things aligned with the shortened bumper. Of course they did not align but it did allow me to verify that I did need to pull the bumper in an inch.

I removed the brackets and then shortened them 1” in the fore/aft direction to pull the bumper back closer to the grille. I then remounted the shortened outer brackets and bolted up one side of the bumper to see how far the other side was misaligned so I could shorten the brackets in the L/R direction. With the bumper shortened 3” and removing the inner bracket from the stock set my measurements showed that I needed to remove 2-1/4” total, so I needed to remove 1-1/8” on each bracket. I then cut both sides and shortened them to align to the existing carriage bolt holes and temp mounted the bumper to the shortened brackets using the carriage bolts.

Like I said, one of the inner brackets was significantly bent and I could not use it but luckily I could use the slotted end portion that mounted to the bumper so I cut off about 2” of that area on both brackets and fastened it to the existing holes in the bumper so I could measure and fit a new piece of 1/4x1-1/2” bar that I had bought. After it was cut to fit I tacked the new metal piece in place, I then removed the brackets and did the final weld and grinding on these brackets and reinstalled it all back onto the truck to make sure it all still fit properly.

With the brackets completed and bumper fitted the next task was to cut the heads off the carriage bolts and weld them flush into the bumper opening to smooth out the look. The next task will be to fab a new front bumper filler to match the new bumper geometry.

Front Bumper & Brackets Pics

Front Bumper & Brackets Pics Con't

Great write-up and pictures to help show what you are doing.

Just a note that the number of pictures you can add with each post is now up to 10.

Might make your posting a bit quicker/easier (more time for the project ya know).

Fwd Filler Panel

With the front bumper mounted, the next job in the queue was fabricating a filler panel between the bumper and the grille. I took some cardboard I had (you can never have too much cardboard laying around) and made a template for the panel to see how it should look.

The shortened and shifted front bumper will require a different mounting scheme than the stock filler panel so I decided to try to pick-up the fasteners on the bottom of the grille that attach the lower radiator support. I would like to sneak the back edge of the filler between the grille and radiator support but I'm not sure that won't create a problem so I'll just leave that area until later. If it does create an issue then I can always tuck it under the radiator support. The only mod that I'd have to do would be to trim the small flange bent down on the radiator support to allow the part to sit properly under the support...but for now I'll leave the part long in that area and figure it out when I get the front sheetmetal dialed in better.

I plan on supporting the front edge of the new panel by mounting 4 small angle brackets into the bumper brackets. I will slot or oversize the holes in the small brackets that mount to the bumper bracket so I can adjust them up/down to level out the panel on final assembly.

After the cardboard mock-up was done, I transferred the edge trim to a piece of lumber I had laying around (you can never have too much lumber either) to make a buck. The board was a little too narrow but I was able to make it work. Once the perimeter was cut out on the board I then took my router and created a rolled edge with a radius bit for the hammer forming. I then took the cardboard template and scribed the perimeter +3/8 of an inch onto the metal I had for the panel.
With the buck and blank panel cut-out I then clamped it all together and slowly walked the edge down slowly by a body hammer. Once I had the large gradual curved edge hammered down then I had to make a small buck for the tight radii at the two ends and the concave curve since my board was too narrow. I ended up needing to make a few relief cuts in the flange in this area to get it to lay down properly and then I just ran a few beads on the mig to close them back up.

Once the part was completed I then dropped the bumper and slid the filler panel in place and just used some small c-clamps to hold it into place for now. I haven't installed the new lower radiator panel that I just got and I don't have a ton of confidence in the old front grille so I'm going to wait on re-trimming the edge & drilling the holes on the aft edge unto I get the front assembly closer but you can see how it turned out.

The next thing on the agenda will be fabbing the small brackets and attaching them to the bumper brackets. Hopefully I can get to this in the next few days to wrap up this small project.

That's some nice work.

Very slick.

You have very creative skills, exceptional work.

Fwd Filler Panel Clips

I had a little bit of time today so I focused on making the clips to stabilize the forward unsupported edge of the front filler panel that I made a few days ago. I had some small sections of 1/8 x 1-1/4 hot rolled steel in my scrap bin so I took a quick measurement of what I needed to fit the filler panel and cut four of them 4-1/8 long to use to fab the clips/brackets.

Yesterday I had soaked 4 zinc plated 5/16-18 hex bolts in vinegar to remove the plating so I wouldn't have to contend with removing the zinc when welding them. I then cut the threads a little shorter (so they would not stick out too far) and cut the hex head off the bolts to create a short threaded stud. I will use these to weld to the bumper brackets to attach the clips.

I then drilled the steel strips.... a 3/8 hole in the top flange and a 3/8 wide slot on the lower flange (to allow up/down adjustment of the clip). I also took a cut-off wheel and scored the clip at the bend line to make sure the part bent where I wanted it to bend. Once it was bent, using a hammer with the piece in a vise, I welded up the scored edge to add back some strength.

With the clips finished I then crawled under the bumper and laid out where to place them on the bumper brackets. I temp clamped them in place and marked the hole and slot locations on the filler panel and the bumper bracket with a white paint marker. I then removed the bumper, bumper brackets and filler panel and drilled the bumper bracket 5/16 dia for the threaded studs and the filler panel 3/8 dia. Next I welded the threaded studs into the bumper brackets at the marked locations.

Lastly, I remounted everything back in place, using some stainless button head socket screws to attach the filler panel to the new clips for a clean look. I then took a few pics to show you how it all ended up.

Next up will be to blow it all back apart and remove the rust and mill scale from the parts and prime everything....then on to the long list of things left to do.

Transmission Crossmember

It was 70 degrees during the week but back to winter this weekend with the high around 39, so I fired up the heater to knock the chill out (and warm to a toasty 45) and continue inching toward the finish line.

Earlier in the week I took the front bumper, brackets and filler panels back off and soaked the rusty bumper brackets into a vinegar solution. I also cut out the boxing plates that I was going to need to strengthen the frame for the transmission crossmember. The boxing plates had some mill scale on them so I soaked them in the solution as well. Unfortunately my pan was not large enough for the bumper brackets so I'll have to do one end at a time. Also, while the front bumper was off I went ahead and mounted the new lower radiator panel.

On Saturday I removed the boxing plates from the solution and wiped them clean with some lacquer thinner and painted the inside surface with weld-thru primer and put them in front of the heater so they would quickly dry.

The truck had an aftermarket tubular crossmember when I purchased it. It was just sitting between the frame rails (wasn't bolted in) but it looked like it might be usable. I had a 2x4 between the frame rails to prop up the aft end of the transmission while I welded in the motor mounts during the front suspension fab but that was just to get it close. I had shimmed the engine to be within a degree or so of where it needed to be but I needed to get the transmission final mounted prior to redoing the transmission tunnel so I could make sure it cleared.

I replaced the 2x4 with a floor jack to hold the transmission up to get better access to remove the paint on the frame in the area where I planned to weld. On the right side I had also mounted a drop down battery box on the outside of the frame so I had welded some 5/16 threaded square nuts on the inner frame surface so the battery box could blindly bolt to it. I sprayed some primer on those welded nuts while it was accessible. After the boxing plate paint was dry, I crawled up under the truck and tack welded the boxing plates into position, managing to set my sweatshirt on fire only one time (yea!).

With both sides boxed, I took a measurement and cut the crossmember to fit between the boxed frame, taking into consideration the addition of an angle welded on each end as an attach flange. I then mounted the shortened crossmember to the transmission, final adjusted the transmission angle with the floor jack to match the rear diff angle and located the attach angles that I cut to fit and tacked them to the ends of the crossmember. I then removed the crossmember and final welded the assembly.

Next, I reinstalled the crossmember noting that the attach flanges were even with the lower flange of the frame. This was not ideal and I was tired and it was getting late so I snapped a pic and decided to think about it a little more before continuing. After studying the pic a little more it was evident to me that I need to cut off the center portion of the bracket (the part that attaches to the transmission mount) and relocate it to the side of the mount instead of sitting on top of the mount. That will raise the entire mount relative to the frame and transmission, yielding more room for the exhaust and more mounting surface for the frame attachment..... so that will be the next portion of the build.

Transmission Crossmember Part II

Today I took the crossmember back out and cut off the booger welds on the center bracket so I could raise the crossmember up higher into the chassis. I then re-weld it with my own booger welds. I also decided to shorten the center bracket a bit so it wasn't cantilevered as far and tuck the crossmember a little tighter to the transmission..

After I finished the crossmember fab I then located it between the boxed frame rails and tacked in the mounting brackets after I got the engine pinion angle dialed in with the floor jack. When I eventually take the body back off the frame I'll finish boxing the frame, finish weld the mounting plates as well and add some gussets to both the crossmember and the mounting plates strengthen and stiffen them up... but they'll do for now.

Next up is installing the new wheels and tires that I just received and setting in my garage....and attempt to get this thing to sit on it's own 4 wheels.

Wheels & Tires

I finally got a break so I could get the tires mounted on the new wheels. I'm itching to install them on the truck but there are a few things that I really need to do prior to mounting the tires. Last week I bought some 2x4s to make a few more blocks to raise the truck off the ground while I am working under it.

First up was disassembling the front sheetmetal and priming a few things. I pulled the forward filler panel and soaked it in a vinegar bath to strip off the mill scale so I can prime it. I also went ahead and pulled the rotors back off to paint the center section since they were starting to rust a bit.

With the front sheetmetal removed I also went ahead and temp plumbed the front airbags so I can manually raise and lower the truck with my shop compressor once the wheel are on. I also had to swap out some hardware on the airbags while the area was more accessible.

Since both fenders were removed I took the chance to pretty-up the inner fenderwells where I had cut them out to clear the IFS. A bought some 3/16 dia round rod to weld along the cutout to stiffen the trimmed area and to make it less sharp when I'm working in that area.

I've got a few more parts to de-rust and to paint before I reassemble the frontend but it shouldn't be too long now....fingers crossed.

What size tire are you using? The profile looks pretty low, they would fill up the wheel well nicely.

I went with 18's all around with 235/45Rs in the front and 245/45Rs in the back. I'm hoping that my backspacing will all work out. I've had the tires for a while now and I used the tire fit tool to check the offset/backspacing in the wheelwells. They we pretty tight when I mocked them up so knock on wood that my "measure 6X and order custom wheels once" methodology was good enough.

Rear Wheels

Today I had about a half a day where I could work on the truck but I got a little sidetracked. I have been repainting the brake calipers during the week so I went ahead and mounted them without the pads. I also wanted to mount the brakeline tabs which is why I mounted them/ calipers but I ran out of time on the tabs.

I did have time enough to mount the rear tires to see how they fit and looked. I had to adjust the panhard bar a bit but they cleared everything. The RH rear fender looks like it needs to come out some more (by slotting some holes) to even out the gaps but everything else looked real good. I'm going to wait until I get the front sheetmetal back on to mount the front tires.

Tires and wheels look good. Do you have it mocked up at ride height or is that dropped position?

I think it is currently sitting about an inch or so lower than the designed ride height. It is actually resting on the jackstands that I rigged to catch the back of the frame to keep it from sitting on the bumpstops. I raised it all the way up to get the wheels on (tight fit) then lowered it down to check clearances then set it on the jackstands.
I have two wooden blocks that I have been using to place between the rear axle and frame (right beside the bumpstop) to set the ride height during the build and when I stuck them up in the gap as it currently sits they looked to be about an inch shy of fitting. Once I get the front wheels and sheetmetal on I intend to get the truck at the desired ride height while on the raised wooden stands (and fine tune the differential angle on the 4 bars linkage) then take out the stands and see how she sits. That was my goal for this winter....get it on its tires.

Front Sheetmetal, Brake Hose and On the Wheels

I've been looking forward to this day for a while now. Earlier this week I mounted the brackets for the front brake hose (and of course it hit the inner fenderwell that I had just completed so I had to massage them)...but that cleared the way for getting the front sheetmetal back on the truck and getting the front wheels mounted. Getting the truck on the wheels was my winter project goal.

I went ahead and mounted the front headlight assemblies while I was reassembling the frontend metal. The panels will all need some tweaking but I wanted to get the frontend back on so I could check and make sure all my suspension measurements were good. Plus I need to wait until I have the new grill to work with before adjusting to the old grill...but the old one should do for now.

Once the sheetmetal and bumper were back on (sans the hood) I mounted the front wheels and lowered the truck off the front and rear wooden risers to sit directly on the floor so I could see how everything looked and sat. Everything looked really good to me. I lowered the truck to the lowest setting to see if it all worked together (no scraping or binding) and it all looked to function properly. This lower setting will just be a static setting at car shows (hopefully) so no need to check the steering because I know it won't work.

I then manually raised it to the designed ride height via the temp air hoses that I mounted previously. At ride height the front edge of the runningboard is about 5 inches off the ground and the back edge of the runningboard is about 6 inches off of the ground.... which is what I was aiming to get.

I now need to place it back up on the wooden blocks and continue to check all it out from underneath it. I also need to dial in the rear pinion angle with the 4 link as well as take some measurements on some of the frame crossmember fab that I have to do to clear the driveshaft travel. Also on tap is to start figuring out the exhaust routing as well as the air bag pumps and tank location. Maybe I can chip away at those as we head into spring.

On the Wheels Pics Con't

Puppy approved!

I just saw your recent pictures of your bed floor and had to go back and read how you did that.
Awesome work and excellent write up. I’m not usually a fan of tubs but yours is just WOW!!!

Thanks for the comments. I'm not a fan of the tubs either but I am a fan of a low slung truck...so something had to give. I considered a raised bed floor, which I really don't care for either, but I wanted to retain the beads on the interior bed panels since they seemed to give off a factory appearance.
I wanted to make the floor boards one-piece from front to back but my limited experience on steaming and bending wood quickly caused me to dismiss that notion. Thankfully there were some good Youtube videos to help me along on figuring out some of the issues.

You did extremely well with just the single curve. If you had done reverse curves for one-piece boards, you'd have been required to set up a steam bending shop and do it full time.

Again, that bed floor is awesome.

Like the others I'm amazed at the details you have in this build. I don't care much for wheel tubs either, to me they say 80's Pro Street, was never really a fan of that look. Your floor is unique, I have seen a build where this was completed in steel but it doesn't hold a candle to what you have fabbed in wood. I really don't like a lot of the builds with an Air Bag system, most look like miss matched parts slapped on a cut up frame. Looking at your Air Ride system and the stance your truck has it's easy to see the craftsmanship and care going into this build. I would love to see it up close, at the rate your going that should be possible soon.

This things gonna be killer once done! Really diggin the Kindig/smooth-side idea you're going with.

Driveshaft & Trans Tunnel Rework

I jacked up the truck and placed it on the riser-blocks today so I could crawl under it and start figuring out all the driveshaft angles and such. After taking some measurement and looking at the surrounding structure that I needed to avoid with the driveshaft I have decided that I will need to use a two-piece driveshaft with a center bearing. The total span between trans yoke and diff is just a tad under 54” so a single-piece driveshaft would need to be 3.5”-4” diameter, which would add to my clearance issues, whereas a two-piece could be 2-2.5” diameter.

The first step was to adjust the engine trans angle some more. It was set it up for 3.5 degrees to clear the floor but that was a little more that the 1-3 degrees usually recommended by driveshaft manufacturers. I was able to find an old driveshaft and yoke among my junk pile so I cut it up so I could test the yoke clearance to the cab floor. It showed ample space so I then made a few 1/8” thick aluminum shims to place between the trans cross-member mount. Raising the mount 3/8” changed the engine angle to 2-1/4 degrees...which was just about perfect.

The plan is to set the fwd driveshaft that will pass thru the center bearing up about ½ degree from the 2-1/4 degree on the engine/trans (so the u-joint will work & not wear prematurely) which will be at about 1-3/4 degree angle. The center bearing will be located approx 18-20” aft of the yoke pivot point so the rear driveshaft will be approx 3 feet long....this should be close enough to the 40/60 ratio of front to rear driveshaft length that I also read was recommended.

I set the rear diff on some 2x4's cut to rest the truck rear diff at ride height so I could see how it will all route. Everything looked good. I will need to cut the crossbrace that holds the four link (I just installed it straight across) so I can add an arch to it to clear the driveshaft. I will try and start fabbing that next. I also need to buy two more bumpstops for the rear diff since I apparently cut these off too short earlier.

I also surprisingly received the Lokar shifter that I ordered a week or so ago from Speedway Motors. When I ordered it they said it would ship from the vendor in early April so I did not expect it so soon but it arrived earlier this week. Since I had cutout the trans tunnel that I had installed a while ago I went ahead and temp installed the shifter. This is needed so I can get an idea of how the new tunnel will need to look. The Lokar shifter can be located fore/aft anywhere along the mounting rail but the fwd-most position more closely replicates the original position so I placed it there. The instructions stated that using this position might require the need for an additional bellcrank to keep it from binding...and that looks to the be the case. I might try to move it back one space and tilt it a little further forward (it is adjustable) to see if it will miss the seat and eliminate the binding. If not, then I guess I'll buy the bellcrank kit.

Trans Tunnel Rework Continued

I moved the shifter back one space on the transmission mount and that looked like it would work so then I just removed the shifter and left the mounting bracket so I could start fabbing the transmission tunnel. I made a cardboard mock-up of what I needed and once I had that dialed in then I went about constructing the tunnel out of sheet stock. I wanted to keep the tunnel tight to the transmission, to resolve my gas pedal clearance issue, but I also needed to leave some clearance just to ease installation of the transmission.

I was able to make the main base one-piece but I decided to make the tunnel-portion a separate piece and weld it in place. I cut out of the main base and went ahead and ran a lip around the perimeter of the main base on my bead roller and did a brake/bend for the kicked footwell and clecko'ed it in place to check my clearances. I then fabbed the arched portion bending it using a dead-blow hammer and a large pipe section (that I used to roll the inside corners of the bed). Once I got it formed and dry-fit onto the main base then I started working the tight curved portion at the rear of the tunnel.

After using the hammer and shotbag to rough in the contour in the back portion I then resorted to making a few pie cuts in that section to get the material to shrink a little quicker then welded it up. I really need a planishing hammer and shrinker/stretcher to round out my metal working tools but since this is not a visual piece then this will work.

Next I need to fab the rest of the tunnel and weld it all into place. I also need to make a hole for the shifter and I'll probably have to add a local bulge in the tunnel for the shifter lever arm on one side.

You'll be able to remove the trans while in the vehicle?

I'll have to pull the engine and trans together or at a minimum unfasten the engine mounts and tilt the engine/trans down to get it out. The engine had to be raised to clear the crossmember and rack & pinion so it protrudes up into the cabin a little more than a normal V8 swap. If I left room to slide the trans back then the space for the throttle pedal would get smaller at the firewall and I'd start getting into the seat riser structure at the rear. I'm still not 100% sure the throttle pedal will not require that I rework the brake pedal yet so hopefully I left enough room. The packaging of all this custom stuff is tbe real challenge with the fab being a close second.

Transmission Tunnel Rework Continued

With the basic tunnel completed I needed to make a hole for the shifter. I slowly opened up the hole until it cleared the shifter and the shifter swing. The hole was rather large due to the shifter arm and the need to be able to install the shifter from inside the cab so it was obvious that I needed to make a local bulge in the tunnel to close up the opening.

I decided to make a top ring around the shifter and then fill in the lower area as required. I cutout and tacked the upper ring in position and then made some templates to fill in the sides. Once I had it all tacked in place then I went ahead and finished welding the seams.

With the tunnel pretty much completed I needed to figure out the transition to the firewall. After a few attempts at making a template I finally zeroed in on a pattern that worked and looked ok. So I cut the piece out in metal and formed it to fit. It was then time to weld in the tunnel as far as I could. I went ahead a sprayed the seams with weld thru primer and plugwelded the tunnel into place. Next I just tack welded the firewall transition piece into place. I will weld and grind the rest of the seams when I take the body off the chassis a little later.

Next up is to put in the steering column, brake pedal and seat and figure out the throttle pedal mounting.

With the trans tunnel welded to the cab are you going to be able to get things apart if/when needed?

I can't believe the skills you have, the tunnel cover looks as if it was factory stamped. Fantastic work!

Yeah. I can remove one bolt and pop the shifter arm off the shifter and it drops down and hangs by the connection to the trans. Then I can unbolt the shifter assembly (handle, knob and mechanism) and remove it from the top.

Thanks for the props.

Throttle Pedal Mount

I had plans to get more done today but I started looking for some things in the shop and it was obvious that I need to do some straightening up before I could proceed. So I made a small dent in the messy shop after a few hours which left me just a few hours to work on the truck.

I installed the brake pedal and master cylinder, steering column & wheel and the seat so I could sit in the cab and see if I could assess where the gas pedal needed to be mounted. I was hoping that I would not have to redo the brake pedal and luckily it was in a good position.

I sat in the seat and took a marker and scribed where my shoe felt comfortable on the firewall. I then centered the pedal onto the footprint. I again lucked out and the place where the pedal base needed to be mounted to the firewall was in a flat location right next to the reworked hump portion of the trans tunnel. The only immediate issue that I saw was that the pedal needed be to elevated/offset from the firewall so the pedal had enough room to articulate properly.

I grabbed some 1-1/2” square tubing and cut it into a u-shaped configuration an inch high and then drilled it to the match the pedal mount and welded some 1/4-20 nuts on the backside. I then covered the seat and shifter with a welding blanket and wrapped the brake pedal with aluminum foil so I could tack in into place. I'll final weld it in place and closeout the top and bottom when I weld the rest of the firewall... after I remove the body from the chassis in the future.

The only other thing that I may need to address is that it looks like the throttle cable will need pass thru one of the u-channels on the interior of the firewall. If I can get it to align with the center of the channel then that will be no problem. If not, then I might need to tweak the channel a bit. Hopefully my luck holds up.

AC Control Knobs

It's been a few months since I worked on the project since I've been doing a few other things around the house. I had a day off over the 4th that I could blow off the dust and do a couple of things. The big project that I have been dreading is cutting out the center crossmember on the chassis and drilling out all those steel solid rivets. It took about 6 hours to get it out but it finally came out after giving me a good fight. Next will be to box the frame and add in another crossmember to mount the hanger bearing support for a two-piece driveshaft. More to come on that effort later.

I have also been working on another smaller portion of the project in my scarce spare time. Earlier in the build I made a metal extension on the lower center portion of the dash to mount the future AC controls. I didn't really like the plastic bolt-on extension that came with the AC kit that I intended to use plus I really wanted to make the controls look as period correct as I could and integrate them into the dash. So I went ahead and bought the Vintage Air controls so I could build the extension around them.

The other thing that didn't look period correct were the knobs that came with the kit. I had always planned on replacing the knobs either by machining new knobs or finding some that fit. After searching around the internet and not seeing anything to my liking I decided to try to 3D print the knobs. After looking at what it would take to outsource the effort I determined that I could just buy a 3D printer and try to do it myself. Being a “screw-it-up yourselfer” always seems to be the road I travel.

After reading reviews I bought a cheap but decent 3D printer (Ender 3 Max Neo) that was on sale and started printing a few objects to see what it could do. Once I got relatively comfortable with it I went ahead and designed and printed a test knob. The knob is shaped pretty close to the knob on the old choke cable. I will eventually need 4 knobs. One for the fan, defrost and hot and cold adjustment. I want to just put a simple block F, D, H & C on the surface of the knobs for the labeling.

To attach the knobs to the shafts of the controls, I bought a brass press-fit grooved insert with a set screw to place into the plastic base. The first knob off the printer was basically to test if the brass insert worked and to see what type of surface quality I could expect. The insert worked great but the surface quality was a little rougher than what I expected. I had used the standard out-of-the-box settings so after reading up on it it was obvious that I needed to use a higher (and slower) printer setting. I also took the test knob and sanded on it to see how the plastic reacted to the sanding. The sandpaper that I had on hand was too aggressive so that told me that I needed to use a finer grit (600+) or higher. I also had attached the knob to a shaft mounted to a drill so I could sand it while it was spinning. I learned that if you go too fast the plastic melted and just smeared instead of being sanded smoother. So in the end the test knob was totally trashed but I learned a ton.

I increased the settings on the printer to the highest resolution settings and then printed a second knob. This time the quality was a bit better but you could still see some of the layer (which apparently is typical, especially on smaller pieces). I tried to use what I learned on the first knob by sanding the second knob and it looked pretty good but I think the wall thickness was a little thin so when I pressed in the brass insert I had some unintended deformation. The 3D printer actually only builds the outside shell and then does a lattice internally to support the shell...or that was how I had the machine set to print. The first two knobs only took about an hour each to print since they were basically empty shells. I went ahead and cut the second knob in two pieces so I could see what it looked like inside. I then decided to print a third one but this time make it 100% solid. This increased the print time from 1 hr to a little over 2 hours.

So far I have sanded it down a bit and primered it black to see how it looks. Each one is getting better than the last and the third one looks close but I have changed the profile and I'm printing a new one. I made the edges on the one being printed as I type this a little more rounded and next I want to see how the lettering works out. I think my approach will be to slightly sand it, do a high build primer on it and sand it smooth and then touch-up any of the larger voids with some glazing putty. I plan on painting the knobs a gloss black with white letters. I ordered a fine tip white paint marker that has oil based paint in it so hopefully I can dab it in the letter pocket and let it cure and then overcoat it with a gloss clear.

I'll update with some pics once I get further down the road.

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.

Frame Boxing & Hanger Bearing Cross-member

The other day I got around to cutting out the boxing plates and placed them in a vinegar bath to remove the mill scale. Today I was able to pull them out from soaking and cleaned them up. I then masked the edges and primered them so I could tack them in place. I'll have to final weld them and grind the welds when I take the body back off the frame. I then took a little time to prep the inside of the frame prior to installing them.

Earlier in the week I received the hanger bearing for the driveshaft that I had ordered. With the boxing plates tacked in I then started working on the fabbing the bearing support out of some square tubing I had laying around the shop. I will need to wait until I get the driveshaft ordered and in my hands before I can locate and tack it in place.

While I'm waiting and working on the driveshaft stuff I also want to start getting the exhaust routed and fabbed. So I temp bolted one side onto the collector and then supported a long straight run of exhaust pipe to see how it looked. I still don't know if I will be able to get the exhaust to go over the rear diff but going under the looks doable as a back-up plan.

Next up, finish the fab of the hanger bearing cross-member, order the fwd driveshaft, mufflers and exhaust hangers and start routing the exhaust.