Still waiting on the motor and trans to show up, but from what I am told its being picked up today and should arrive at my place sometime next week. Super excited, I probably watched this demo start of the drive train a million times.
This running pallet is coming from the guys over at Cleveland Power and Performance. This should be interesting to figure out how to get it from the palette to the truck. (yes I know I need a shop crane)
Managed to keep busy this week by grafting in new door latches to the doors. I ordered a small latch set from HOT ROD LATCHES.
When I got the truck home I gutted the doors as all the internal hardware was frozen or barely working. My plan all along was to replace it with newer stuff. I wanted to shave the handles and put power windows in the truck, cause why not.
It was a fairly straight forward install, was my first time really cutting into the “good parts” of the truck so I was a bit nervous. First I started by cutting down the mounting plate that comes with the kit. The mounting plates are really generous so you have lots of meat to work with. Once I figured out my location I marked it off on the door.
With the hole cut in the door for the new mounting plate it was just a matter of grinding and shaping until the new mounting plate fit in the hole.
Ended up getting a bit carried away and had some bigger gaps to fill with weld. Really had to turn the welder down to burn these in. I am new at this type of work so I was blowing holes through the original sheet metal until I got the welder dialed into the material.
Success I managed the new mounting plate in and the latch installed, everything is super solid but maybe not the prettiest. I will come back to this and finish touching it up. I really just wanted to get it functional and make sure it was going to work.
So now I had to turn my attention to the catch post. I had to first cut out the original catch to make room for the new one.
This is cut out and some holes drilled so I could plug weld the plate into place. Mounting the plate took several attempts. I need to get the catch far enough in so the door would be all the way close when it latch was fully engaged. The key I finally figured out was to put the mounting plate and catch together, engage it with the latch and close the door. This gave me the exact location I needed to be and how much of the plate needed to be removed.
Again not the prettiest job but its functional and the door closes. I can come back later and clean up the welds. I really didn’t like how the catch was so low so on the passenger side I decided to move things around a bit. I probably should have made them the same but hey this is a learning process and now I know for the next one.
Now when I did the passenger side I figured out why I wanted the latch a bit lower. There is a small bit of metal in the door that supports the window frame but would foul with the latch. Quick work with the grinder but was a bit of a pain to get cut out. So next time I think I will split the difference.
I have a bit of clean up on the welds and some bit of paint to protect the new metal, not sure what to do about paint on the cab yet, I don’t plan to paint it but I need to protect the new stuff I am adding.
The other small project I managed to get done this week was mounting the front sway bar to the frame. I had to drill and weld in some threaded bungs. I probably should have just bought a tap set and threaded the drilled holes, but whatever its done and it works.
