More small updates;
I accessories are finished. The alt bracket is basically unaltered, save for removing the idler pulley. I was going to switch it with a ribbed pulley because I was woried that if I ran the belt straight from the alt to the power steering pump that it would be too close to the water pump. After everything was mocked up, it turns out there is plenty of clearance, so I ditched the idler. One other small thing to note: if I would have ran the idler, there would not have been much alternator engagement, and might have caused slipping. Now that Im certain its not needed, I may trim off the mounting boss from the bracket to clean it up just a little more.
The power steering bracket turned out well. I did oops on one spot while cutting the top portion of the bracket for the a/c pump (you can see the partial cut mark on the lower mounting hole by the water pump where I cut in a little more than I intended too). Other than that I rounded some corners and roughly polished it up a little. Now it doesn't seem like the accessories block the view from the engine so much.
After its all said and done I cut the stock belt down and with some handy dandy zip ties, I ended up with an 85" belt. I orded a new one today, so there's another thing to cross off the list.
On a side note, don't you hate when your working in sort of a mess of stuff, but you are in too much of a hurry to make sure you don't knock things over while your working. I was trying to multi task while doing the accessories, and decided to land the distributor for some reason. So I set the cap on the rad support right next to me, and sure enough while rolling the engine over to tdc, I kocked the cap off, and it broke on the ground:nono: Guess I will need another new cap...damn it!
Anyways another small but satisfying update on the gauges. I prepped the gauge panel, and sprayed it in semi gloss black and it looks way better now. I also picked up some pilot lights for turn signals and one for high beams and put them in. I also grabbed a volts gauge to match now so its complete.
To wire the gauges, my plan is to splice the factory cluster harness for illumination, left and right signals, high beam, and ground. Then run the other output wiring through a new firewall grommet to the sending devices.