Vacation is over and I got back to it today..... A couple weeks ago I got my new power window regulators from Nu-Relics, very nice pieces..... Today I made a carb return spring bracket an welded it to the shock tower(when I changed to the Lokar throttle cable it eliminated the return spring that is made on the stock cable, so something had to be done) and put the shock tower braces back in..... I got the new brake master mounted and put the brake pedal back in place..... Then I assemble the newly painted steering column and bolted it in place.....

Here are the new power window regulators.....

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Here is the return spring bracket.....

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Here is the master cylinder and steering column.....

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Welcome back to the regularly scheduled build.

 

Today I made a bracket to mount the brake pedal stop, brake light switch and cruise control cable - also needed to bolt to the brake pedal bracket..... After making and test fitting it I removed the bracket and gas pedal so I could paint them.....

Here is the bracket on the bench, installed, then the bracket and gas pedal hanging for paint.....

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Today I got the brake pedal, switch/stop/cruise bracket and gas pedal all installed..... Then after moving some stuff around I got my dash panels down and finished taking the last components out of them..... Last thing I got done today is set the original dash in place for mock up purposes..... I am trying to decide if I want to use the gauges I have or opt to get a Racepak display.....

Here after getting everything installed.....

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Here's the dashes I have and the original sitting in place in the car.....

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I brought my driver seat, steering wheel and gauges to the shop for some mock up..... I bolted the dash in place, then put the seat and steering wheel in..... I put the speedo/tach in place and then propped a gauge up in the ash tray hole to get an idea what it would look like..... I have to make a decision to use the gauges I have or to just get a Racepak display.....

I took everything back out and make patch pieces so I could fill in the headlight switch hole, ash tray hole and fasten seat belt light hole..... Then I welded in the patches and ground everything smooth..... This was no easy task because the dash is only .032 thick.....

Here it is with the seat and steering wheel in place.....

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Here it is with the instrument cluster added and one gauge propped in the ash tray hole approximately in position.....

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Here the dash is back out and I cut the needed patch panels out of the extra dash.....

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Here is the progress welding the patches in and grinding them in.....

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Movin right along again. Looks great so far.

 

Thanks.....

 

slick looking dash I say go ahead and smooth it up and racepak it man itd look bitchin

 

I made the decision to go ahead and use the gauges I have already bought, mostly for the fact that digital gauges are not easy to read on the fly.....

Today I started modding the dash for the gauges..... I got the first gauge cup fitted, welded in and ground down.....

These are some gauge mounting cup blanks I made during the week.....

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Here I made some sample test holes in the extra dash I have.....

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Here Is the gauge cups after marking them up in the extra dash, then cut down close to size(final fitting will be done in actual dash holes).....

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Here is the first hole going in the good dash, then with the cup fitted and welded in.....

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Here is what the dash looks like with the first gauge cup in place, in the second pic I dusted some blue paint on the bare metal to help the pocket show up better.....

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Here it is with the second hole fitted.....

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I wish i had the patience to do stuff like that. That looks really nice.

 

Thanks..... Some of this stuff is definitely very time consuming.....

 

Great idea Frank looking great are you still building a motor for it?

 

Thanks..... I have sold some of the stuff I had going, right now I am up in the air about what I am going to use..... I still have made no final decision on motor or front suspension, for now I am just trying to get it together again and running with the stock 6..... I am putting some money away, once it's up and running again I am going to start getting everything together for the engine swap.....

 

I could not work on the dash today because I ran out of gas for the welder yesterday, so that project will continue next week..... Today I removed the inner door release mechanisms and cleaned all the goo off the door panel areas..... I did find a little rust in the bottom of the drivers door, nothing too bad but I did clean is up and treat it with some Ospho.....

Here is before and after of the driver side door.....

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Here is before and after of the pass side door.....

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Here is the rust I found in the pass side door.....

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That Ospho stuff is some good stuff I used it on my frame on the Dakota it eat the surface rust right off and then the following weekend I sprayed right over it came out great.

 

This going in a museum when you get dun lol? Going to be clean enough to eat off when you finish it

 

Worked on the dash today..... I got all 4 gauge cups welded in and cleaned up..... Then I did some of the body work and got a good coat of primer on it..... Tomorrow I should be able to get all the finish body work done and get paint on it.....

Here it is with the second cup welded in and cleaned up.....

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Then the third.....

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I decide to throw a couple in of the forth cup welded in from both the front and rear.....

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Here it is with all the metal work done.....

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Body work in process.....

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Here it is in primer.....

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what a great car, you do awesome work. love to see it coming along!

 

Thank you.....

 

I went back to the shop this evening and sanded the dash down..... Did a little more filling and sanding, then got another coat of primer on it.....

Here it is after sanding, filling and sanding again.....

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and here it is primed again.....

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