Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I finally got that damn window channel in the drivers door! WHOO HOOOOO!!!

It may have looked like a simple problem if you didn't have it in front of you but this was not a quick fix. I couldn't get into the door to see it's location, and it was damaged when I removed it without thinking, 20 years ago! Thank goodness I had the extra, stock door, I tried and tried to see in there to get some kind of measurement, no luck, it was just impossible to get anything, I gave up and cut a hole, solved that problem! And it wasn't even close to what I was doing so I am damn glad I did that. It still was a muther of a job, I must have pulled that sucker like putting a crochet needle threw a pot older out of the door modifying it and putting it back in about 30 times! Geeez, but it's in and done deal, the window looks perfect. Thank goodness my door has the extra hole from a speaker that I could get a little more access. I finished up by cutting the inner frame and shaping it as needed and it's ready for welding. Now all I need is to get my oxy tank filled.

One thing I screwed up on was I had an extra pair of window frames so I could eliminate one cut by using the other frame and cutting it long. I did this and couldn't figure out why it wasn't fitting well. I then took the pieces of the two fames to find out that one was a different shape! Geeeez, it was from a 51-54 and it had knotch cut at the bottom for the vent window used on the later truck. What I didn't realize is the whole thing was different because they didn't use the thicker window frame around the glass! So I cut up the darn thing I could have sold.


Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

ordered my vintage air kit. hope to have it for my week off. will be a perfect time to get some real progress made.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Got the door back on for the first time in many months, good to see it.

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

looking good, like it was made that way.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

yesterday I ordered my vintage air kit. ive got a week off coming up and it should be a great time to get it installed along with finishing up the interior lights. once that's done I may start getting it ready to run through the summer. I plan to put several thousand miles on it this year.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Thanks, that's the goal! :metal:

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Inspiring to see you still plugging away on the old girl, Brian. That's some fine looking metalwork on that top chop.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Thanks so much, I am back at it and it does feel good.

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I installed the rear big window on my 57 myself, only to break it at the very last second, :(

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Oh crap! Sorry to hear that.

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I had the one on my 54 successfully installed by a shop. I could absolutely not bear to watch or listen to the sound of hand slapping it in and the justifiable profanity. Sorry for your mishap.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

sad part is, I was done, the glass was already installed, there was a small piece about 1/2 inch of seal that wasn't just right and I put a screw driver between the glass and the seal to pry the seal out and the rest is history,,,,,,

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

my vintage air kit showed up today. that was quick. I'm going to start the install tomorrow. I read through the directions completely. it doesn't look like its going to be to crazy to get installed. the directions seem to be pretty complete with several pictures. we shall see how it works out.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I got to start my install tonight. it didn't go as well as I wanted but its not a disaster yet. I got the defrost ducts installed, and started putting everything on the evaporator to get it ready to install on the firewall. I realized/ discovered I'm missing a few parts I thought I had. 1 hose, the a/c compressor bracket, and two hard lines for the condenser. I feel stupid that I over looked these parts but I will get it handled. I'm calling vintage air in the morning to order the parts. they got me the kit in 2days so I should still have plenty of time to finish the install.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

After welding up all the unneeded holes in the bottom of the frame, grinding flat and cleaning up all the welds, I got the rest of the frame painted!!!

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

The frame is looking nice! What year clip is that?

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

77 Nova, same as Camaro. However it is grafted in differently then most seem to do it!

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

You literally took my breath away with that description, holy crap! Yep, tempered glass will take a LOT of certain pressures, and then only a tiny bit of others, wow.

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Had only a little time last night, got the drivers door inner frame prepped and tacked in place, will finish that up today and post a photo. But I am getting out there every night!

I also worked a little showing my son how to gas weld, he had never done that.


Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

man that looks good!

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Fixed my hood oil canning issue. Thanks to the folks on this forum.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Right on Bosco, looks good!

I feel so damn good today! I have been concerned with doing these mouldings good enough to be chromable. It has been so long since I did this with such delicate stuff and I had such fun doing it! I fought at first and then it got easier and easier and viola! I am sooooo blessed to have worked at the "Early Ford V8 shop" in 1979 under a master restoration man Nick Cassaro. He taught me how to metal finish stuff like this and it's just like going back in time doing it, using the torch I bought at the same time and using the skills Nick taught me, it's therapy for me. I have been able to tell him how thankful I am for those lessons, he is a good guy. I slipped the moulding into the box with the glass frame FINISHED and hope to fill that box with all the others soon.

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Mocked up the box today, more pics in my build thread...

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Saaaweet, love the wheels.

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

spent some time working on the vintage air installation. the directions they sent are great. if your starting from scratch this would be great. however I'm starting from NOT scratch and trying to get this kit to mate up with another companies stuff. spent a great deal of time removing the incorrectly installed brackets from the last unit. the brackets had been welded in badly instead of using bolts. the bad welds worked in my favor as they were easier to remove than correct welds would have been. once all that crap was out I started following the directions from vintage. right off the bat I found I was missing my compressor bracket which I thought I had. I was also missing the hard lines from the condenser. I decided that instead of letting that stop me I would work around that as best I could. I got the defrost vents in which was straight forward. next they have you prep the evaporator for installation. that includes hooking up the a/c hoses. well without the compressor I cant route the hoses so I skipped that. I mocked up the evaporator brackets which wasn't easy because I have a smoothed firewall and none of the land marks they tell you to use are there. I was able to get it figured out and drilled the 4 or 5 holes they required. next I need to hang the evaporator on the bracket and drill a couple of holes for the additional bracketry, and start setting up the vents and controls. I will be able to get every part on the interior set up and mounted. once I get the compressor mounted I will have to remove the evaporator and install the two hoses and bolt it back up. the old holes for the heater and a/c hoses are in a different location than the new ones. once this is in I will have to make a block off plate.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

'51 panel truck: installed the body bolts, then built a filler door in the bed floor to accommodate my newly-installed rear gas tank. Used a sealed cap, vented tank to wheelwell and sealed around the filler door to prevent fume intrusion into cab.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

nice work. I have mine in the bed as well. I built a bracket on the tank to hold the vent tube

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Thanks Kevin Mac and evilokc

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Installed my MC/booster, pedal bracket and steering column today. They're all tied together in a triangle so needed to be assembled all at once. Also cut the double D steering shaft to final length. BTW, the places where you see blue tape are to remind me to tighten bolts!

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Drive line shortened and installed

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Brackets to hold hoses and lines

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Another

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I just about have this frame saved so I can cut it up LOL. DAAAAAAMN these super thin pieces are a MUTHA to work with, holy crap they are hard to work with. I hope it can be chromed without being folded in half.

It sure was nice walking into the garage with all the lights working, wow what a difference!

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Very nice. I've never seen anyone do it like that before.

Will the drive shaft clear the crossmember when the suspension compresses? I've seen people notch them for additional room.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Should be just fine, C4 suspension and diff center never moves much if any.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

working on the a/c install. today sucked. you know what that's not correct. today REALLY sucked. I mentioned a day or so ago that my firewall didn't have any of the landmarks to locate the mounting bracket for the evaporator but I was able to find one. well I was wrong. I went to install the evaporator and it was hitting the wiper motor mount. it was probably 3 inches to high and 3 inches over towards the driver side. what to do? well I had to eyeball it. I measured the height of the evaporator and then removed the bracket from the evaporator. I moved the mounting hole 3 inches to the passenger side and down by 1.5 inches. simple enough BUT the hole I had cut in the fire wall for the hoses had to be moved several inches. I then re-drlled all of the holes for the firewall mounting bracket and made sure it bolted up correctly. I'm ready to re-install the evaporator and I'm confident it will fit now. however the giant, misshapen , disgusting, embarrassing, insert 5 more negative descriptives here hole that's left in my fire wall is killing me. the hole had to be cut over sized to allow me to adjust the evaporator while I was trying to locate its proper position. I knew I would have to make a patch for the old holes but this ones gonna be special. it looks like I'm going to have to move the alternator to the driver side and put the compressor on the passenger ide. the lower location of the evaporator bracket also interfered with the fuel pressure regulator and that will have to be moved down about 2 inches. the good news is that its located correctly and I should be able to move through the remaining steps at a good pace.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Oh, you have Corvette IRS - sorry, I couldn't see that in the pic.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

'51 panel truck. Bent some brake lines from MC to prop valve. The factory lines were a convoluted mess of spaghetti (see inset) so I reversed the prop valve and made some cleaner ones. Then I primed and sanded my dash - I guess I'd better decide on a color...

Anyone know if that pressure switch on the prop valve can be used as a brake light switch?

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

today was a much better day. the evaporator sits in the right spot now. I was able to drill and mount the dash and cowl brackets that triangulate off of the main bracket. doin this made me install and remove the evaporator 4 times but that's just how this stuff goes. I went to install the control and vent bracket (all one piece) that is supposed to follow the line of the lower dash and it didn't fit right. this one was my fault. I had to install and remove it about 9 times. however with a couple of power tools a trip to the hardware store and about 2 hours it fits beautifully. better than they intended I bet. I had to remove it one more time to install the knobs and decals. that's where I'm at now. I'm hoping tomorrow to start the wiring. I knew this install would be non-standard since my truck is a Frankensteins monster of a truck but I momentarily forgot. I'm back on track and feeling good. I called vintage air and asked about a driver side compressor bracket and they do have one but its a real Hassel to install. you have to remove the alternator and water pump to install the bracket and then you can mount the compressor. I can extend the alternator wires as quickly as I can remove the whole front of the motor. so I'm going to just move the alternator. its really not that big of a deal I just hate undoing work that's been done and is working.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Not 100% sure, but I think all it does is let you know something isn't right with the centering valve. It should be hooked to a warning light on dash, if used...Jim