Hi everyone - sorry it has been so long since the last update on Marvin! Work has certainly continued, and progress is happening every day - slowly but surely. It is so exciting to see Marvin coming together! I've been super busy these last few months, so I kinda fell behind on the updates. Here's a bunch of pictures to catch up, though. These are from 4 or 5 different trips to the shop over the past few months. Please forgive the image quality on some of these - I only had my cell phone camera at times. On to the pics...
Starting to mockup more of the sheetmetal to check fitment. Marvin is starting to look like a truck again!
Made a final decision that most of the original sheetmetal from both Marvin and the bed I picked up in Michigan was too far gone to realistically save. It could be done, but it would be a huge amount of labor, and would have ended up mostly new metal patched in anyway. So, command decision to get a new repop bed from Bruce Horkey. Very high quality parts, looks like a fantastic match to original pieces.
Here you can see how the motor will sit in the engine bay. You can see that the inner fenders had to be cut for header clearance. The new openings will be finished off with appropriately shaped sheetmetal.
New radiator and electric fan shroud from US Radiator. It was here that we realized that the standard truck items on the front of the LS motor (water pump, alternator, pulleys, etc) were going to cause clearance issues with the radiator fan. So, I ordered a set of accessories meant for the Cadillac CTS-V version of the LS motor. Should bolt up to my block, and give a couple extra inches of clearance.
Pedal location mockup. Going to stick with pedals that go through the floor, rather than firewall mounted. Wanting to keep a lot of the "original" traits of the truck, and this is a good example.
Mounting the master cylinder and brake booster got a little tricky because traditional mounting inside the frame was going to cause clearance issues with the exhaust. The guys at the shop realized there was the perfect amount of room outside the frame, between the frame and the cab overhand. A fabbed linkage that runs through the frame puts the pedal in the correct location. In the first picture here, you can see the Wilwood hub and rotor have been installed, and you can see the master cylinder linkage through the frame at the very right of the picture.
Continued...