Time to hand off…

So, I’m handing off to a body/paint guy to complete the body. Let’s do a walkaround.

Maybe it’s also time to untangle and clean up a bit.

Still a lot to go once body/paint is done. It’ll be in another’s hands for a bit.

Sometimes I’m a plumber.

Push it — Salt-n-Pepa

In the end — Linkin’ Park

Tuckin’ — The Greatful Dead

Get It Together — Beastie Boys

Don’t back down — Mammouth WVH

Or maybe I’m just an emergency plumber. I’ve spent about 2 months making the “body shop” rounds. Today there appear to only be 2 kinds of body shops:

1- Buy replacement panel, paint it, put it on (insurance work)

2- Hot rod shops

Type 1 => Cheaper, faster, but maybe they are using finger paints?

Type 2 => Crack open the wallet and don’t set a timer. It’s gonna be a bit.

I decided on type 2. There were only 2 that I met which I felt really were type 2. With all the hours I’ve put in this thing I want it nice.

I told them I had about a month of work left before I was ready. They were all good… I make the call and pick who I will send big $ to….

So I’m thinking plenty of time to finish the plumbing, the body, and get all the mounts for plumbing in and hopefully finish the wiring… and then …

…as sure as NORAD tracks Santa I get a call, “I can get you started in about a week if you can get it to me.”

Ok. I won’t get the wiring done by then. Oh well. I can at least get the plumbing done and any mounts for the plumbing, etc. done. Oof… It’s been a busy time.

So, here’s the fuel system:

If it looks like gathered parts that’s because it is. Time to assemble the puzzle and get all the hard plumbing done. I had the tank mount already in, but I still needed to mount the smog box….so here that is:

After doing my first AN flare I remembered that I’d ordered some zinc coated line so I didn’t have to use this less-than-ideal painted line. Oh well, it was good practice.

This motor is a one-way system. It doesn’t have a return line. It does have a fuel vapor line, but that’s not really pressurized like the main fuel system.

Here’s the engine-end with a shiny AN fitting.

After doing some bendy bending, wiggle wiggle, bendy bendy stuff the end of the tube ended up here.

I go ahead and mark the pipe for cut and flare based on the length of this AN ended flexible hose:

In the land down under, here it is coming down into the transmission tunnel.

High tech temporary mounting: a re-usable zip tie

I found that this piece of scrap tubing I had from house construction (it’s a cutoff from house conduit that leads up to the turtle shell where the power enters the house) just happens to be about the right diameter to mate to the fuel filter. perfect.

I turn that into a fuel filter mount:

Just add zip tie and voila!

I knew I’d lost my tank seal, so I’d ordered another. So shiny…

To finish up the fuel tank I make sure the float is in there and has clearance before permanently sealing the tank. I get in there and vacuum it out… and what did I find in there?

Yep, confirmed, I’m an idiot. I was “smart” and put the old gasket in the tank! Oh well.

… and yes, I know this looks all chaotic. However, I do have a plan to make it neat. I just wanted to show work in progress. Here it is basically meeting the other end which also has a flex line coming from the tank to the fuel filter (which isn’t hard mounted yet).

I did cut and flare the hard line and actually got it hard mounted.

Sorry I forgot to get a final picture before I took it apart. Time was burning. I also needed to run brake lines.

Ebrake! Here’s one end of the line coming out from the ebrake pedal:

The other ends just run to the respective rear brake.

For the rear brake lines, I thought “oh, I’ll just mount the proportioning valve up near the master cylinder. “

Then I thought better.

• It kind of looks crappy right there.
• It’s 2 more places the fluid might leak and it’s right over what will be super nice paint.
• Short brake lines don’t get a chance to flex without stressing the flared fittings. Longer lines have a better shot at NOT leaking.

So, I relocated it to the frame rail.

Here’s where the front brakes split for left and right.

A couple of the brake lines:

Yes, I’m just using zip ties to hold things up until I’m sure of final spot then I’ll add mounts. Here is the rear line.

Again, pressed for time I missed a final picture before I disassembled it all. I also added either tabs or threaded holes for mount points. That’ll all come into play after paint.

Rear bumper.

The front bumper for the ’63 J200 is a 3 piece bumper. It’s actually in useable shape. My thoughts are to powder coat it to get it looking nice and just roll with it.

The rear bumper is a different story.

Here’s where it started:

Not much to look at. Honestly, not really what I want either.

I looked into 3 easier paths:

• See if I can find one I can buy
• See if I can find a takeoff (CL or FB Marketplace) JK or JL bumper I can buy and modify
• See if I can find a Wagoneer of similar vintage

What I found is that:

• Nope, can’t find one to buy of any kind of decent condition
• JK and JL bumpers are about 4 inches too narrow.
• Wagoneer of similar vintage are actually aluminum. Not so helpful.

There is an off-chance that I could buy a vintage chevy bumper and modify it to fit. As it turns out that’s terribly pricy and modification would screw up the chrome/powder-coat. At that price point (both new and also pay for powdercoat) it’s a bit steep.

That leaves fabrication. Here is a sketch of my thoughts:

First sketch is of the bed without bumper, then second is the top of the bumper and third is from the rear of the truck

Here’s first sketch on a piece of 4x6x3/16″ tube. Yep that’s heavy.

Time to remove some gravity.

I remeasured and carefully layed it out with sharpie, then first cut out the major areas (it also lightened the steel quite a bit).

For the center area around where the license tag will go I’ll need to weld steel on the angles to box it back in.

I don’t know if it still makes sense to taper “in” on the ends. From the bottom sure, from the back it’s less clear as I needed to remove approximately 2 of the 4 inches for it to contour around the bed.

I have not attached the clevis mounts. Just set them on there to get a feel for how it’ll look.

Here’s what else I will trim out per end.

It’s getting there.

More cutting/coping and then welding.

I also added some end caps.

For now it’s all just tacked in. I mocked it in with the hitch reciever.

I’m pretty happy with that. However…. the ends of the receiver are hitting below the frame. Drat!

I also wanted to firm up the frame (put some gussets in the corners) so I added the gussets, then added some dropped 1/4″ plate squares to weld the ends of the tube to. This picture is terrible… sorry I took it in a hurry… I’m pressing to finish so I can get it to the body/paint guy.

As the body is about to leave, I need to get this mounted so after body & paint it’ll be ready to go. I have a friend who will powder coat both the front 3 piece and the rear bumper pretty reasonably…so go go go!

Here’s the reciever in.

I’m debating welding some of these crosses onto the top of the bumper to give some character as well as some foot grip.

I’ll have to finish this another day. Too much going on!

More interior, more a/c, more seats, MORE!

T&C — Guthrie Govan

Buster Voodoo — Rodrigo y Gabriela

Keep Going — The Revivalists

You shook me all night long — Scary pockets covering A/C D/C

While I finished the driver seat (needed earlier to figure out the pedals, steering, etc.) I have the passenger side to do.

I have about 1/2 figured out the a/c and heat now…but I need to get it fully in (with everything else in to make sure there’s no conflict).

I have thought about a console between the buckets. The donor trucks is about 3″ too wide. Rats! I’ll have to get crafty.

I need to figure out where I’m putting all the controls. The A/C is easy but I need to figure out if I can reuse the original heat controls (probably for the temp yes but the fan speed…probably not?)

And:

• Interior under-dash lights (the original had very little)
• Radio/stereo
• antennae
• usb ports (I’m not a monster!)
• fuse block (since the original had only inlined glass fuses *shudder*)
• speakers for the stereo

Let’s get to it.

I got the passenger seat in:

For dome light and underdash lights, I just ordered a kit and that looks doable.

I did drill the holes for underdash. The dome is a direct replacement.

The original truck didn’t have an in-door switch that turns on the dome light so I added one. Long story short it took two tries as one was too long and got crunched in the door jamb. Of course, the other option was a smaller tapped hole so I had to drill out the first one and weld in a different (smaller) threaded bung.

Here is where the speakers are going but I’ll need to build some buckets so they aren’t exposed to the weather.

Something like this… oh, and you can see the fuse block mount there on the firewall and the heater fan mount to the left of that.

Here’s a pic with the fuse block and heater fan in.

Once cut out it looks like this:

I build a little rig for cutting circles. I haven’t been happy with what I’ve done in the past. That’s a plasma cutter head in a jig to hold it steady and an old XJ belt pully that I am going to use to turn the piece. I welded on a long but small machine screw to mount the center of the pieces.

It worked ok…

Adding a 2″ strip between the large disk and the 1/2″ circle…. voila a bucket. The speaker buckets are a bit shallow but I do plan to run a sub in the console.

Although I don’t have a picture for it, I carefully enlarged the radio hole until a modern single din radio frame slid in.

So, instead, here’s a picture I took while figuring out the transfer case shifter. You’ll have to wait until final assembly to see pictures of it all together because I forgot to take a picture of this being completed. Derp

I think this finishes the modifications to the interior body… :whew:

Engine bay body things …

Wild thing — Troggs

(Sittin’ on) the dock of the bay — Otis Redding

Don’t back down — Mammoth WVH

Here’s where the engine bay started…

I’ve spent a bit of time doing body work all over the truck.

Bed work

Rockers

No seriously, there’s a lot of body work

Yep more bed work

So much bed work

And more body work

Floors and doors

I put the bed to bed.

I’ve already done a bit of work in the engine bay:

Motor mounts

Finishing the passenger firewall

One of many details

Finish steering

Let’s get a bit more done.

I was able to re-use the air intake from the donor truck. It is an aftermarket K&N which isn’t terrible. It has 3 welded on tabs for mount points on the inner fender well. I still need to do some coping on the abs tube intake. The end that goes to the filter doesn’t really work yet.

It’s taped up to keep junk out of the mass air flow (MAF) sensor. They don’t like dust.

You can also see the engine computer mounted up near the drivers side of the radiator in the images above.

Once I’m test fitting the engine wiring harness, there will also be an engine bay fuse block to mount and maybe a power distribution bar. The power distribution bar will be here because there are several things that need direct always battery power and it’s very likely I’ll need to mount he battery behind the passenger seat.

The plate here is a plate for mounting a battery. It clearly won’t fit on the passenger side. This is as low as I can go and it would intersect the hood, the heater hoses coming off the heater box, and the coolant expansion jug.

Here”s a pic with where I think the radiator spill is going to go:

The brake master cylinder was a royal pain. There is only about an inch from the master cylinder to the riser for the front suspension. I had to really craft on the inner fender well to make it fit nicely.

You can kind of see it in the bottom right hand corner of this picture. The fenderwell wasn’t stair-stepped previously.

The battery fit here on the donor truck, but it doesn’t look like it’ll work. I still have a power bar, relay box, and wiring harness to go in here.

Similar to the other side, this is as far down as I can go reasonably and it’s too high, it will hit the hood.

One of my coaches mentioned that if I get a sealed battery it doesn’t have to sit right side up. It’s ok for it to be on it’s side. I’m not really ready to do that. Another option is to find a place under the truck to put it. That could work, but I’m not sure I want to do that either. Also an option is to go more exotic and use two 6V batteries in series… (no, too much).

Time to commit! It’s going behind the passenger seat. I made some “legs” and welded them into the floor of the passenger side behind the seat.

For the heater box, I finally got it completely mounted. My template was pretty good but I didn’t account for a lip on the cab frame near the hood. That lip caused me to rework some part of the top of the heater box. I’d say it changed “a little” but it was frustrating re-doing the work I’d already done.

In the end I think it looks pretty good. You can see the extra cut-out worth of work near the firewall if you look closely.

The reason for all the crafting is the proximity to the motor (seen above) and the proximity to the inner fender well… which you can see below is about a finger’s width from the box as I placed it here. The old truck’s interferred with the engine and the donor truck was all interior (and there just isn’t room).

I still need to fit a wiper-fluid bottle somewhere… if I had lots of time… but that’ll have to happen another time. It’s time for it to go to the body guy… so out comes the motor so I can finish up the firewall fiddly bits.

Removed all the body panels…

boop…

And since it’s best to deliver the vehicle all together as you expect your body guy to deliver it all together…..back together it goes…

Although the body guys don’t want any seats/devices/anything not getting painted (other than steering and wheels/tires).

It’s been a long time since I saw a bare firewall without a motor in the way. Still need to add a few things…

Transfer case shifting and transmission shifting mounts added.

Here is where I relocated the evap valve:

Near it to the right are a couple of holes.. 2 are for mounting a power block. The 3rd is for the main power entering the engine bay from interior. There’s also a couple of holes for a variety of mount point.

I also carefully put a bulkhead fitting cutout up near the driver’s side top of the firewall. It was the right place although I noticed just how boogery that plug of a weld looks like to it’s left… oof.

I have some interior things to do before it can go to the body guy…so much to do, so little time.

Why does it have to be so hard?

Maybe I’m referring to the tcase shifter shaft…

Sometimes all the things you try just don’t wanna work.

A little bit off — Five Finger Death Punch

Don’t stop believing — Journey

I’ve fit the donor truck transfer case in place.

I’ve modified it to have a slip yoke eliminator on the front (which is necessary as it’s changing from joining to IFS to a solid axle in the front).

Unfortunately, I can’t use the electric t-case shifter as it will interfere with the yoke that’s now on the transfer case. Why is that tough? Can’t I just build a little structure and make a manual shifter?

That’s what I thought anyway. Heck, here’s a mock up with a stepped shift lever!

Well, the shaft for the shifter has 2 flats so we can use that. It does not have any accommodation for a retainer (like an e-clip… a.k.a. “Oh Jesus” clip). There are 3 bolts that held the electric shifter on. There are 3 threaded holes in the case for those bolts to attach to.

Unfortunately, the only sufficient swing space for the shifter would swing through one of those bolts. (Hence the step in the mocked up shift lever).

2 bolts don’t make for a good connection. I could make a plate of steel that uses the 3 bolt holes (the bolts are too long though… but that’s solvable) but I need to NOT intersect with one of the bolt holes.

I cut out the bolt-on plate and took a run at cutting/bending the stepped arm. I found out a few things.

• One plate against the transfer case isn’t enough to retain the shifter arm.
• If there is any deflection in the arm then the stepped shift lever is likely to run into the turning yoke coming out the front of the case.
• Even if I could get the stepped arm to work, there’s no obvious way to retain the arm on the shift shaft.

So, for my next trick:

• I’m thinking that instead of a steel plate against the t-case, I’ll use a Delrin plate cut to shape against the t-case and counter-sink the swing-through-hole (and use a flat head bolt that’s flush or a little shy of the surface). If I get worried about heat or some sort of weird wear from vibration maybe I’ll put some sheet steel behind the Delrin.
• I’m also thinking to go with a straight shift lever that rides the Delrin. I don’t plan to shift this 10,000 … in my lifetime … so the Delrin should outlive my use.
• To retain the lever, I don’t think I have a drill bit that can drill something as hard as the shaft is in order to use a pin. I’m thinking to cut a groove all the way around the (very hard steel) shift shaft coming out of the transfer case to allow for an e-clip. Grinding is done with abrasion and will be slow going but should be fine for even very hard steel. I can probably just use a dremel tool to get a super skinny slot. I think a machine shop would do it right but at $100/hr that’s a lot.

Delrin (Polyoxymethylene or POM, more commonly known as acetal) is a tough plastic with good friction properties and it’s stable dimensionally. It also tolerates most petroleum based fluids (like gear oil in the tcase, etc.) It is a little sensitive to heat (it goes up to about 180 degrees F before bad things happen). As long as it’s in a non-hot application it should be ok…right? WCGW? it’s possible the tcase could get that warm. If it does I’ll have to pursue something else.

Regardless of whether it’s the final solution or not, I can prototype with it for sure. (I might decide it needs to be some lubricated steel something something later).

After I figure all this out… then I still need to work out the shift linkage. Fortunately, I’ve done that kind of thing before.

Yep. Some days it’s that hard.

So, I’m back at bat on the t-case now…ready to take another swing at it… and only 4 weeks to get the Delrin… sheesh. Who broke the supply chain? So once it came in I marked out a template to cut out, drilled some holes… and made and arm to swing. Maybe maybe?

So… here it is ready to give it a go. I even nicely counter-sunk the new bolt so it wouldn’t hand up the shifting… fancy…

but…. not really enough room. OMFG… ok. Plan … uh… .am I up to plan D?

Maybe plan E… let’s go with F… plan F….

Soon it’ll be T for T-case.

Ok. Let’s start with the electric shifter, remove the motor and see if I can somehow attach a lever onto the thing that does the shifting in the electric shifter.

Here’s the (turns out no surprise it’s a) gear that is used to shift. Dry fitting the case without the motor on gives about 1/4″ clearance to the drive yoke… so maybe? It is a bit tight in there. I think if it’s really a problem then I can clearance it a bit.

The gear is held in place by 2 brass bushings. That’s pretty good. The case is aluminum… I can machine it some without making it flaky. Where the gear sits in the housing seems like I might be able to cut away some of the housing and fit a lever going in/out of it.

Let’s give plan E a try. Here is the “window” cut out of the aluminum housing. Based on some shifting and fiddling it looks like this is about the minimum window size.

Just to get a feel for what would need to happen. The shift lever needs to swing from here:

to here:

The slot is big enough for the 1/4″ plate thickness to slip through it. I think I will need to (substantially) narrow the fat end of the lever… and probably widen the “window”… but I don’t want to do that until I absolutely have to. The aluminum is weakening with every cut.

The new challenge is to attach the lever to this gear.

maybe braze it on? bolt it on? Abra-freakin-cadabera it on? From this point of view it looks like maybe keep a wider area to attach to the gear to make that connection strong, but narrow through the window? I’ll keep whittling away at it.

A bit of grinding later it looks more sensible:

So now I’m starting to become a believer, so I also put a slight bend in it for clearance and to allow it to sit flat on the gear.

I keep working on it, then I work on figuring out 1- what’s the swing to fully shift (and mark it on the case) and 2- how much material to remove.

Here were my sketchy marks on the casing…

I took 3-4 runs at getting the marking correct, so there are many more marks than cuts.

Pre-welding it seemed a bit sloppy still.

The only real upside if it all goes badly is that maybe I can make it into a beer opener?

Here is an unwelded test fit.

I have to be careful not to violate the laws of physics and go through the tcase.

There’s only about 1/4″ clearance on this. egads…

It turns out the gear is oil impregnated steel. After heating it to burn off the oil my neighbor-pro-welder was able to get a good tig weld in there. Looks good to me!

I did have to do just a little more clearancing but it’s looking good and shifting good! For getting it into the cab, I’ll do the shifting linkage for the transfer case and the transmission in one post later.

I realized something … the other day…

Work that Body — James [Urban]

Rust — Black Label Society

The End — the Doors

After finishing the rust repairs on the front clip, there was only one place I hadn’t “fixed” the rust. Only one? Only one. Mostly only one. However, it’s a milestone.

Where is this mystical land of “last of the big rust” you ask? It is the most miserable place to work on this stuff.

I don’t have an auto body rotisserie so I can’t easily work under my truck. Most of the cab floor I could work on from the top (replace the floor pans, etc) but there is a large rib that runs across the cab. That rib covers part of the floor from the interior side. If there are holes (and there are) under that rib, I gotta get under it to fix it. Here’s the rib I’m referring to from the top with some patches around it. The big ridges are the back of the cab.

WARNING: My welds above my head (and in general for that matter) are ugly. If you can’t take it, quit reading. Wait until the carpet is in.

Pitter patter…

Here is where I stopped last time underneath. It looks like maybe the rust is just the showing bit…

I carved out a bit of the cancer along the ridge. I can only say, doing body work on an old body above your sucks. I cut until it looks liked I could just weld a strip in flat with the bottom (just ignore the bead rolled into the body ).

When you weld on this from the bottom, it’s a game of “dodge the hot mess” as any welding bbs or slag comes dropping at your face. Yes, I have full leather welding jacket I wear. Yes, I wear a welding helmet. It’s still the suck.

The other thing is that the weld puddle doesn’t want to lay flat (or sink in which wouldn’t be terrible). It tries to bulge and fall. The worst part is that when you’re grinding out an area of rust where you don’t have access to the other side, you don’t know if the rust started from this side or that. Why does that matter? The welding puddle is always trying to fall on you right toward where you are. If you’re laying on the ground you’ll end up laying in the splatted puddle.

The other suck in this case was that I couldn’t tell how much of the steel was left. I cut out the ridge in the welded-on-plate and a little relief on each side. This (in theory) would give me some space to weld to. It was a good thought. However, since I can’t see the top (it’s under the rib) I can’t tell if what looks like good steel is actually good steel. Here’s where I was after about 2 hours of start welding, cut away a little more when the weld just blows through, grind to shiny, cut more of the plate off. Here I was in the 2nd iteration.

This was the first cutaway. It looks kind of like good steel under there. I was feelin’ pretty good.

Things changed. Holes on the bottom are holes that “blew through” the body when I tried to weld it. I kept cutting back the plate and re-trying welding, and finding more and more rust. Eventually I cut out that crappy plate and put a patch on the patch once I got to solid metal again.

I think doing this job was the definition of suck in that welding bbs, slag, rust, grinding dust… pretty much everything is coming for you.

There was also a tiny spot on the drivers’ side. I just plugged it.

At this point I quit for the day. That sucked except for one point. It was the last known rust fix. THE LAST KNOWN RUST FIX!

These are not pretty patches. The welding is globby and ugly. The ones in the cab will be under carpet. The ones underneath will be underneath and not visible until someone goes looking. If they go looking they are in a different class of builder than me…with a different pocket book.

I’ll have to contend with just a little bit more rust damage in the cab but I think it’s going to get cut out for speaker enclosures… but that’s for another day. Regardless, I’ll be fixing it during the time when I’m doing the speakers.

Front clip / condenser / radiator

I don’t think I’ve posted much about the front clip. In fact, I don’t think I’ve really covered it. I’ve actually done a little work for a long time on it.

One — U2

One — Mike Dawes cover of Metallica (<<< this is what doing the work for this post felt like… watch him play it)

One — Johnny Cash cover of Metallica

One — Creed

One — Three Dog Night

Hit me baby one more time — Scary Pockets cover of Britney Spears

Although this is one post, it’s a very long post…covering a long period of time. There’s probably 2 weeks of work it in. Doing this over (some) weekends and nights that’s a very long calendar time.

Here’s the very starting point.

I did find a wrench in it.

Looking back, that was an omen of things to come… a wrench in the works…

Yummy crunchy and weird tar-ish flappy rubber grommet thingy?

After media blasting and priming, it looked a bit better. However, it definitely has some missing metal.

Yep more body work…

I also need to make some holes for the condenser lines. The bad version last time went out the other side of the grill.

Since I’ve changed from leaf to radius arm suspension with coil-overs a sway bar is needed. It’ll go here.

From disassembly there were a few bolts that just didn’t want to release, so they got shorter via grinder. That’s gonna need some attention.

the rust cancer ate a few nuts.

I bought some square weld-in nuts to replace the cronky ones from McMaster Carr. I can’t recommend them enough. From this post I was worried about getting what I needed. They fixed the order in no time flat. I’ll keep using them for a long time to come.

Yep. body work. The back half of the front clip is actually in worse shape just due to rust.

More shrapnel from disassembly. Will replace.

Based on trial and error, I think I’ll need to add a hole for a support for the condenser here on the top.

I also got a tap so I could clean up the nuts where dust/paint/whatever gets in it.

does this look better? The bolts in the nuts were there to hold the weld-in-nut while I welded it in.

Oof. Yep more to redo

It seems to never end!

It’s ok, I’m on the job!

The healing bench (welding table) doing it’s job.

Nooooo!

Radiator supports. Will need bracketry too.

A detail not easy to notice:

• The Top support metal cup points down (won’t hold water)
• The bottom one has the sides pointing down to shed water
• the bottom supports will have a piece of metal bar stock under them which will weld to the radiator supports

Mocked up…

Some details of how the rad will be held at the bottom. This is just tacked in. It’ll get more beef.

This is a wee bit close to the steering box. Might need to lop that knob off the top.

chop chop!

Radiator (without condenser) looks pretty tight!

Condenser is gonna fit. Really. It’s gonna fit… :squeeky tight:

Mocked in support for condenser:

Here it is tacked in. Yes, I’m using a screwdriver to hold it all in place. ha!

What to see here:

• Radiator is in place. Need to add just a little structure to add some down-pressure to the radiator.
• condenser is mocked in place. Needs some further adjustments but it’s there.

A second shot. It deserves like 20 shots. This is almost $2k in parts mounted which were ordered from measuring tape measurements.

Man… this makes me wanna get done and drive it!

This shot shows more than what’s apparent.

1- There is a support for the radiator (yes, I need to tie the left and right side together, but this was enough to test.

2- The marks on the front clip were some mods to clearance the sway bar.

Similarly on the other side:

1- there is the matching radiator support patch.

2- I used relief cuts in the body to clearance the sway bar. These relief cuts made sure that it bent where expected. then I re-welded them.

Oh man, new bolts are pretty.

Also the shaky marks are the landing spot for the horn support! I’ll add a weld in bug below so the horns will just bolt in later.

I bought a “u build it” kit which gives me lots of options. It came from Paul Horton’s (now welderseries.com). We’ll see how it goes.

After a dry fit, I’ll need to get this sucker to land on the frame where one end is fully boxed. For that reason I welded on a stud and drilled a hole (for the bolt through side).

Here’s the driver side

… and the passenger side…

These clamps (in my case outside of the bushings) hold the sway bar roughly in place left to right.

Now to weld the arm bungs on the arms..

If the closer one looks a bit shorter and shinier… well… it’s a bit embarassing… I welded the bung on the wrong side..and had to cut it off and reweld. Yep, it’s like that some days.

Steering clearances are tricky. Here on the passenger side from above, you can see from the end of the arm down to the hole to the right of the steering links… that’s where the sway bar drop link will go. JUST enough room.

Here it is with some threaded rod going through the hole for demonstration.

I’m feeling pretty good about it at the moment. I know they will interfere with the old bumper support. I’ll have to deal with that when I reassemble the next time.

Ok. Let’s get the front clip done!

Further put together the radiator support.

cover up that crappy welding with some self etching primer!

Of course, I was working on the rad support and thought “hey, I could use that little scrap of angle iron to help support underneath! Of course, that was one of the pieces I’d cut out for the condenser support. Dang. To add some fun to this, it was the last piece of my small angle iron. Put that on the shopping list. Since I’m now 100% sure the radiator will not interfere with the motor, I can take the effort over to the healing bench to make it more accessible.

A few days later, it’s time to get the condenser in.

A few weeks later, I’m still working on it.

Question: How hard is it to fit a bit of very sensitive (fragile) aluminum into a space barely big enough for it? When nothing is pinned down it kind of fits!

Answer: Can be particularly tough.

My guilt (why did this take so long?):

• I wasn’t thinking about the need for separating the steel from the aluminum. Galvanic action is a pain.
• 1/2″ clearance isn’t really enough space for rubber isolation when there are still lots of degrees of freedom in movement for the part.
• I super under estimated how much of a pain it is working with fragile aluminum. Any time there is something risky I remove the condenser and radiator to a safe part of the shop:
  • When grinding, the sparks will embed in the AL.
  • When welding, the steel will embed in the AL.
  • When bending (hammers are bad for AL) Mistakes can happen.
  • When fitting, any wayward bump can collapse the fins which reduces the utility of the cooling.
• The final-tacks for supports also require use of the welding blanket to keep any wayward sparks from eating your lunch e.g. fiberglass fragments in your forearms is a pain
• Sometimes it takes 3 prototypes before the 3rd one works.

In my defense:

• I am being good about putting the most important things in first (radiator) before worrying about the less-important things (A/C condenser)
• I started remembering about galvanic action as I started to finalize the supports. It wasn’t “at the end”… and finally it is going where I wanted it to
• Although it’s true it would fit in the space, the supports weren’t firmed to the front clip, so “getting it in there” had some extra degrees of freedom
• I’m still super excited it’s done, albeit quite a bit later than hoped
• I’m shoving a crazy amount of cooling in a tight space.. and it’s gonna work

For reference, here was the “safe space” I took the radiator and condenser to whenever I was working. Yes, I kept them covered in cardboard.

Let’s get this done! You’re getting the short version until the 3rd because they didn’t work.

Prototype 1: Use angle iron bolt the little holes on the side of the condenser up to the angle iron.

2 days of effort… because it’s so tight, there’s not much room and every little trim took time and thought.

The idea was to hang the curvy ends from the front clip and fasten the steel to the aluminum and isolate it with some rubber. After crafting these I found that there wasn’t enough clearance once I removed the degrees of freedom (the condenser wasn’t just floppy, it got a rigid connection).

Here’s one side attached. couldn’t get the 2nd to work without having contact somewhere.

Here is a subset of the little snippets of steel I trimmed:

I had to set it down for a bit.

Prototype 2: Build a pocket for it to sit in and just pinch something on the top

So I made a couple of pockets and figured out how to line them with rubber.

To tall I couldn’t figure a tidy way to attach it without it just looking like the cluster it was. Yeah, butt ugly, and honestly way over engineered. Couldn’t even get the condenser in to test fit it.

Yep, more trimed pieces:

Prototype 3: Just isolate and capture it

Finally, I took the approach of just giving the condenser a stop with rubber on it and rubber attached directly to the front clip. It’s the only way I could get it to fit without just absolutely destroying the top of the front clip.

Here’s the start of 3, with Prototype 2 in the foreground. Just no good way to do 2.

The big clamp wasn’t to give strong force, it was to have a deep enough throat to hold the rubber down with some silicon adhesive under it. Yes, I know that will prohibit paint later. I was “hopefully” careful not to spread the silicon disease too far.

The condenser is at an angle, so I don’t think I’ll need anything super special to hold it at the bottom. I could be sadly mistaken and have to revisit this later. For the top, I made some pockets that would hold the rubber. There is an end piece that keeps the rubber from shifting out to the “left’.

Here is how it will be used. it will capture the top corner of the condenser. Note how close this is at the top with just rubber holding it off the bottom of the front clip. Oof. No room at the inn.

I’ve nearly worn the primer off the bottom of the front clip putting things in/out. Here’s basically the first attempt at a landing pad. In the end, the bottom pad will be larger but this is the first go.

I crafted some top-caps that will snugly fit onto the front clip top, but also touch the top pockets. Here is the driver side in progress:

there is almost no room to do anything else without a lot of destruction. The passenger side is even tighter.

One thing I learned is that although the front (from the outside) looks symmetric, it is not symmetric at all on the back side.

One of the other confounding things was I needed to have a way for hoses to exit the front clip for the A/C coolant (no longer freon) to flow through this… so one more dimension of tedious attention to detail…

For the tack that holds the pockets onto the top cap, I needed to put that tack through this gap… and at the time a welding blanket was also draped over the condenser. I couldn’t get a picture of the tack with the blanket… not enough room! This is a pick without the blanket, but it’s at the angle I had to take to get the tack in.

There may have been some prayers… Here’s the pocket tacked to the top piece. Given the whacky angle I think it’s apparent why the horrible tack situation was needed. It needed a snug fit.+

The hole will be used with a body bolt to hold it down.

The passenger side was much more complicated in terms of shape. This is the side where the hoses need to come through the clip so it needed to be “barely” offset to the passenger side.

Basically, I started with a piece that’s too big, do some marking, put a bend in and start coping it to size and shape. Relief cuts were needed.

Trim a little, bend a little, relief cut a little…

From another angle…

I use a variety of marks for “cut this off” and “bend here”. You can also see where I’m using a witness mark to allow me to re-orient the piece repeatedly to the same position as work on it. One thing I’ve learned is that you make those marks in the spots where you know are spot on and you won’t need to cut/grind/weld those spots so that they don’t get sanded off half way through fitting a piece.

Here’s a similar “tack weld” shot from the passenger side. This one was tougher. (no surprise) the tack didn’t stick well. Fortunately it was “good enough” that I could tell orientation after removed the parts from the bad tack splatter and shape. In the end it worked out.

Finally, the condenser is in, with supports and it feels nice and tight.

Here’s a pile of trim from this the 3rd and final form:

OK! Here’s a test fit that includes the condenser and the radiator.

Dang this is tight, but looks good to me.

All that’s left is to finish attaching the support for the top of the radiator. I couldn’t finalize this until I was 100% on the condenser’s structure and location.

I welded a short length of angle iron into the back lip of the front clip, then tacked 3 weld-on nuts onto the front clip. One top dead center, 2 at either end of the angle iron. This forms a triangle which can be used to give some down-strength to the radiator support.

Here’s a test fit along the way.

The big black thing is shroud from the old ’63. I may be able to use this to cover up my ugly structure! I will wait until it’s in the truck to be sure I have all the clearances right. It’s pretty beat up but I think salvageable? I’m thinking something like this:

A bit more structure for strength and lots of crappy weld cleanup later I added paint:

All together now… Grinder, sander, primer and paint… makes me the welder I ain’t? (Well, this doesn’t have final paint)

I did dress it up with allen-head button bolts as the hex bolts were a bit tight around the head.

I’ll have to keep thinking about the shroud…

I’m glad that’s done… for now…

Figgerin’ Steerin’

I’m changing steering from “OMG did that even work” to “Old steering column” to “modern-ish” steering box and crafted drag link and tie rod. As scary as that sounds most of it is pretty much done. All that I haven’t figured out is the link between the steering column and the steering gear box (mounted to the frame). You can’t quite see the shaft coming out of the back of the box (bad angle) but it’s tucked in the front-driver corner of the frame.

Basically, I need to replace this black thing from the donor truck:

To be the right length and reach the end of the steering column … which on the Gladiator was a “rag joint”. Well, I’m not going to go with the rag joint, but you can see it in the image above.

Think of the rag joint as “eating the slop” in the steering. It operates as a universal joint, but also has just a wee bit of give. It’s not strictly necessary and the likelihood of matching the splined thing coming out of the rag joint is pretty low. So, I measure the chevy steering gear box shaft size (double-D shaft) at 3/4″ and do some shopping. Here is what the double-D shaft looks like. The steering box is mocked in (earlier) in this pic but it clearly shows the shaft. it basically is just a rod with 2 flat sides.

Doing this on your own, be aware of a few things:

• Modern steering columns are substantially safer as they have airbags, and the steering is meant to collapse.
• This old-school simplistic approach means the steering column can ram up into the driver’s face in an accident.
• The accordion looking thing on the black shaft which I’m not using would likely collapse in an accident where the “shaft” I’m buying will not.
• Using the old steering columns is a bit dangerous as the old steel centered steering wheels were famous for messing up faces/heads in accidents.
• I’m not advocating you do this kind of steering on your vehicle. I’m just showing what an idiot like me might do.

Now to figure out what to do on the steering column end… Let’s get the rag joint off. 😀

Taking off the 2 nuts:

It looks like if I clean this up and trim off (grind off / cutoff) the flange I can easily get a 3/4″ post.

Forgive my crappy sketch, but basically this is what I’m thinking:

Coming out of the steering box there is a 3/4″ double D shaft. I’ll put a new 3/4″ double-D u-joint (both sides double-D). I’ll attach the “front” u-joint to a new 3/4″ double D shaft which will lead to a new double-D u-joint where one end will be welded to the Steering column. The front u-joint I will weld to the shaft and the rear one will be welded to the steering column. This leaves the steering box and detachable and the shaft detachable. from the steering column u-joint.

A quick bit of searching at Speedway motors, crack open the wallet, and parts are ordered!

…and they showed up! A couple of u-joints and a shaft…

Mmmmm hmmm

This bit feels a bit tight. Crap, I think they made the leap to metric and my u-joints are imperial.

Yep, not gold. Mostly poopie. So, it just means I’ll need to somehow sleeve part of the old steering onto the new 3/4″ shaft. So first I’ll guess a little then mark and cut the steering shaft. If I’m going to do any sleeving I’ll need to know what kind of thickness of a sleeve if this is going to work.

After some clever use of a sharpie and zip disk:

So for this to make sense, I’ll need something like a bushing to eat that gap yet keep this centered. If it’s off center the steering column will be trying to move as I’m turning the steering wheel. That’s not the plan.

Pitter patter, time to get at ‘er!

So I cobble-fab’d something together… let’s put it in place. On the steering box, that little indent is a relief for the bolt that goes through the collar. Looks to be a pretty good design to be honest. Even if it gets some slop the bolt detent will help hold it on.

Bolt go vroom right here.

Here’s where it’s gonna go. You can see my imperial to metric sleeves that hold the bar in the center of the tube. One part ordered, one part made, three parts together make steering centered and weldable.

I feel like I’ve done a lot of sketchy things in my time. This is one of them. I’m convinced it’s the best path but I wouldn’t want to be my first passenger going 75 down the interstate.

It’s kind of a round peg square hole problem.

It’s round in there. Maybe if I just grind away the non-round bits…?

This still has some adjustment in it. They all overlap a little but are pretty snug. once I get the final lengths, I’ll do whatever adjustments then cut some slits and do some hard/hot welding.

The length looks pretty good, I think with some of the non-round bits ground away this might actually work.. maybe…

I just used this pair of vice grips for keeping the steering from steering while I trimmed and ground down the flange.

I used the vice grip jaws to get a consistent grind.

What’s the chances I can get this welded on here “straight enough” so the steering doesn’t lop?

I did wire brush all the gunk off. WCGW?

Figuring out how to ground for welding was tricky. This was all I could figure out. Anything else would send an arc through either a bearing or a seal or a u-joint.

The first attempt actually failed. It was lopsided. I broke the tacks and ground them off and retried… here’s the result.

I think it’s actually pretty centered and straight. TBH I think the steering wheel is more lopsided than this.

You can see a short video of me testing it here. Free wordpress doesn’t allow vid uploads.

Of final note (and entertainment)… while I was testing, I didn’t realize just how much power steering fluid I was puking out. At least most is in the coffee can! 😀 Sheesh…

This one may have gotten warm…just don’t look at my crappy welds.

The final product on this link wasn’t as bad as I worried it would be:

All that’s left is to cut the drag link to length and tack it in… oh yeah, should probably hard weld the u-joint too.

Before measuring/cutting the drag link, a few prep steps:

• Run the steering lock to lock and then center.
• Make sure every joint which can be adjusted is like 3/4 of the engagement in so that there’s plenty of adjustment.
• Turn the steering wheel all kinds of ways to be sure you like it. Then after you walk up front and step in the steering fluid, clean it up.
• Remember that it’s gonna puke fluid going forward as you turn the steering wheel.
• The drag link should be adjustable by twisting the link in place later (to get your steering wheel straight).
• The tie rod should have already gotten your wheels roughly aligned.

Once it’s all centered and threaded where you want it…

Here’s the steering box end with the threaded bung put on.

Get her up there and close before you mark it… last chance for adjustments… run through all the bits in your head… ready?

…then commit and do some welding…

For a freehand cut, I think this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to exactly lining up…

I committed the other end too… it was just tacked before.

And just like that the steering mechanical system is in essence done. Maybe some fluids, etc… but I did add some primer to cover up my crappy welds.

It’s come some distance from where it started…

Heater box

Heart shaped box — Nirvana

Man in the Box — Alice in Chains

What’s so hard about a heater box?

• Send air through a heater core
• Send air into the cab
• Done right?

Not so fast.

It also has a diverter so that it could send just fresh air into the cab.

It also has to fit in a smaller space than the stock (old) original one.

It also has to accommodate a larger (donor truck) heater core.

In another post here I showed the start of the buildup of the heater box. Let’s finish it out.

Here is where we’ll start…

Noice fit. Now let’s get the flapper in there that diverts to the heater core or straight to the cab. When it’s oriented this way, the air is diverted through the heater core.

When it’s this other way it’ll go straight to the cab. Let’s make that happen.

Start with some steel. ha! These will support the heater core inside the box. Not yet! They are just rough cut! I just noticed all the grinding wheel on the bench (the dust… it WAS the grinding wheel…)

I bent 2 of those pieces into “C” shapes and 2 into L shapes. The C shapes will be at the bottom once it’s hung. I had to trim them a bit. The L shapes will be at the “top”. I couldn’t get both to “just sit there” with it all just mocked/propped up. Hopefully you get the idea. I will add some straps that actually hold the heater core against the support (with rubber bits between the aluminum and the steel.

The cardboard above the heater core will be out of steel in a bit. This is just to make sure of clearance and that the heater core can actually be removed/replaced if/when needed. It’s a thing. Here you can see them tacked in.

Not terrible with the heater core in there. I did a little more trimming to be sure it would go in/out without too much trouble.

I’m going to get some flat stock but you can see with the scrap piece how the straps will basically run.

I intend to have them held on with screws.

The next piece I cut out goes to the right of the heater core to box it so that air will channel through the core. Maybe it’s starting to become more clear. The air will go down through the hole from above and come out toward the camera through the heater core.

I added the top cover plates (well, the cardboard) on top. It’s getting there. Below is the same condition, but a picture from above the workspace.

I think most of the top will be bolt-on “all at once”. It’s going to leak air like a sieve I think. I may have to hard weld most of the seams and use some foam tape wherever something is removable (between the core and the supports and the top cover) or moveable (flap). One wonky bit I didn’t foresee… the lever to flip the bypass flap couldn’t go to the “outside” of the truck due to clearance… so it’s gonna have to be inside the box. derp. Not the end of the world. Just another hole in the box. Just… another… hole… in the box…

I suspect it’s going to be tricky getting the in/out coolant lines area sealed with foamish-something. I can’t fight every fight before it’s time. First I have to get the box built.

I can’t even being to tell you how many times I put this together and took it apart… but then you have to just say “YOLO” and get on with it.

Here I got the far side (actually top in the truck) bent and tacked on as well as the right side (bent and tacked on). You might notice that I did a really bad job of bending the far side top edge… which of COURSE is the edge where the top will bolt/screw on rather than weld on. Once fixed it’ll be more bendy and even less smooth. The consequences are that the cover will need some foam tape to seal.

In case you missed it… right here is where I was a dork.

The diverter flap still works well. Sorry for the reverse angle, but it was better for seeing the flap operate.

So the next dorky bit is that this spot is about 1/4″ taller than the left hand side. I’d like the outside appearance to “look flat”… so I’ll have to shave down this divider piece before I bend and weld it into place.

Also, there’s this big stupid gap that somehow I missed.

These panels of the template are now kind of out of date now that I have hard dimensions of the box.

Maybe now there’s enough to sort of show how the hot and ambient/cold air will flow.

Between the dashed blue and dashed red boxes there is a divider which will seal with the cover (not yet built).

The ambient/cool air comes in from the firewall and goes out the hole-not-covered-by-the-flap, then travels to the cover, then to the right, then down and through the firewall to the fan box.

When the flap is in the other position (seen above) the air flows down behind the heater core, then comes through the heater core toward the cover, then to the right and through the firewall into the cab.

There are really only 2 pieces left to go. Getting the divider “just right” and then building the cover. (or maybe the reverse order?)

I’m gonna need a really good and accurate model for the cover.

Time for a new template.

I want the divider needs to be level and the top needs to just touch it. Right now it’s a little off.

Here’s the angle of the back (top) wall

Here’s the angle of the divider (roughly speaking)

So I shaved down the divider a bit to get it to the same angle.

Now when I lay this new template over it, I can get more accurate dimensions

I think I should do this in 2 pieces maybe? Here’s one…

then dangling bit on the right should be flat but my template crosses a natural bend from when it was a box!

From this angle you can see where the hot air should flow.

My first attempt at the second piece was to try to add bends, but that really didn’t work. *sigh* wasted steel:

So I ended up getting 3 triangles to match the contours. I think it turned out well in the end:

Here’s the cover. I still have a bit of work on it, but I think it looks pretty good!

I stitched a few more welds in and got the divider trimmed and in place. Here’s what the inside looks like.

I can almost feel the end of it. What’s left?

• Drill holes and weld in bungs for bolting the cover on
• Add straps over the heater core with some rubber to avoid galvanic action
• Cut some holes in the cover for the in/out of the heater hoses
• Mounter her up!

Bungs in,

Straps in,

holes cut…

Spent some time grinding/sanding to help it’s appearance…primer time! Those weld in square nuts are awesome for cramped spaces. Super helpful when you have to assemble like 20 times.

Ran out of primer 😦

That’s ok. I know it’s pretty much done. I will very likely make a cover that bolts on the outside to cover up where the pipes come out to reduce sucking air from the engine bay.