Crushing Gumby 71 Shortbed Patina build

[jasonvw]

Just to catch my thread up, the booster is on and looks much nicer and works much better than the stocker too! I plan to flush mount it to the firewall later on but for now its on and working. One more thing I love about original paint trucks, the factory inspection markings on the firewall!

[jasonvw]

I got most of the interior done yesterday and I will post up photos and step by step later on today after I edit the photos.

[SCHRUMGMC]

Looks nice man ^

[jae]

very cool. I'm starting on my suspension this weekend, hoping I can get it done in two days...

[shawno72]

Any more pics of the booster?

[SCHRUMGMC]

Booster pics ?

[Heavy Evy]

nice rig and awesome build thread! How's the truck turn and handle with the increased caster after lowering?

[jasonvw]

Originally Posted by Heavy Evy

nice rig and awesome build thread! How's the truck turn and handle with the increased caster after lowering?

I will post up some more pics of the booster soon. Its a CPP item and it fits like stock but works great all the time, unlike stock.

As for driving now that its lowered, If I had not gone with the Tubular A arms, it would have way too much Camber up front to be able to ride well. The Arms have 5 degrees of Caster built into them so even with 5.5 inches of drop up front, the camber is almost stock! Thats the big bonus you get with the arms. That and extra ground clearance. Now you can shim the stock arms, a lot, to get close to stock but I highly recommend the arms. Just makes everything easier! So to answer your question, it rides like stock, turns like stock, nice and light with power steering, and it really takes turns so much better. No more leaning over, just hugs the road. Turn in is much more precise than I had hoped for.

[jasonvw]

Ok, interior resto, here we go. I have seen people on the forums here ask over and over again, how do you get the dash pad off, how do you swap the gauge cluster etc, so if this is you, here is your answer. To start with, this is what Im working with. My truck has the original dash pad still on it and the Pole position video game steering wheel just wasn't cutting it for me so thats going too. The gauge housing was all faded and the face was yellowing as well so all that had to get swapped out too.


The first step is go disconnect your battery! Seems like common sense, but this will be important in a few minutes! Seriously go do it. Now you need to get your glove box open and take off all the screws that hold the door to the dash. Once those are out there are 4 other screws that hold the glove box to the dash, 2 on the side and 2 on the top. Get all of them out.


Now pull out the glove box itself. Mine was all brittle and broken so I trashed it as it was getting replaced anyway. Once the box is out this is what you have. If you are doing any heater box work, now is the time! Also if you need to access your radio for swapping it out etc, this is also how you get to it best.


Now that you have the box out, go over to the drivers side. This is why you disconnected your battery in the beginning. Take your left hand and reach up behind the left most part of the dash and feel for the back of the headlight switch. Once you have your hand on it. take your finger and poke around on the top of the switch for a knob that you can push down with your finger. As you do this pull the headlight switch out from the front with your other hand, It will stop in the ON position, Once you find the knob on the back of the switch top and push it down, it will release the switch in your right hand and the switch will pull out from the assembly.


Once that is off, you can unscrew the collar from the dash. Again, make sure the battery is disconnected or your lights will be on and kill your battery.

[jasonvw]

Now to the other side of the gauge cluster. Get the smallest flat blade screw driver you can and release the set screw on the wiper knob. Take it off and unscrew the collar just like on the other side.


Now around the perimeter of the gauge face itself are a series of screws. Take all of them out and save them. I cleaned mine up with steel wool so they look new when I reinstall them.


After you have those out the gauge face itself will be loose. Now pop under the steering column and undo the 2 large screws that hold the plate on under the column. This plate secures the rubber donut that is on the column.


Once thats out, slide the donut gasket up the column and out of the way.


Now you have everything loose and out of the way. Go back to the gauge cluster. If you have a 3 gauge cluster, skip this step. For those of us with multi gauge clusters, make sure you undo the oil pressure line from the back of the gauge right now.

[jasonvw]

So now you have everything loose and ready to come apart? Well not quite. Now you need to reach up behind the speedo and loosen the speedo cable from the back of the gauge. Once you have that off, reach further up on the gauge cluster and locate the large wire loom that is clipped into the top right side of the cluster. Grab both sides of it and push the clips in and pull out. The plug will come out and now the cluster is free! Carefully pull the cluster out of the dash.


Now that you have that big cluster out of the way, you can see the inside of the dash. Take some time and look around, clean things up and make mental notes of how the wires are routed. I noticed some interesting things on mine. Can you spot the non stock "upgrade?"


Yeh A Super Mario soda can used as a heater vent tube? Thats gotta go!


With that in the trash, you can now take off the dash pad. It is too hard to get pics of this part of the process to turn out, but here is how its done. Feel directly under the dash pad and you will see there are threaded studs that stick down from the pad into the dash. On each of these are are speed nuts. You need to undo all of these, I believe there are 7 of them. Now on the front side of the dash pad are 4 screws that go through the pad and into the dash, Take those out and now you can pull the pad off.

[jasonvw]

Once you have the old dash pad off, take some time to wax the paint all over the dash. Once you have that done, just stick the new dash pad on and screw it on.


And this is what you have. Fresh Dash pad on the dash and looking good. Next I will show how to rebuild the gauge cluster.

[SCHRUMGMC]

Man that Mario Cola is worth something

[71K20chevy]

Just got done looking through the thread, very nice.

What radio is that in there?

[jasonvw]

Funny what you find stuffed in trucks right! So now that you have the gauge cluster out and on the bench, start by taking off the small hex head screws around the perimeter of the cluster.


Once you have that undone, you can lift off the actual gauges from the face and set it aside. Try not to touch the gauges but spend some time cleaning them off, getting all the dust off. I also took off the green metal backing and cleaned that up too.


Now take the new gauge cluster and lay it face down. Take the new gauge face cluster plastic and don't get your prints over it. Lay it down on the cluster and make sure it slots in straight. After you have that in, take the green metal backing and lay it on top.

[jasonvw]

Thanks, thats a tape deck that was in there when I got it. Still works great too! Its getting swapped out for a classic Auto one that takes Ipod Aux hook up.

[jasonvw]

After you get the gauges screwed back to the new cluster face this is what you have. Much better than before don't you think?


And here it is installed. Looks much better right!

[SCHRUMGMC]

Awesome man

[jasonvw]

Thanks glad you like it. I also got rid of that steering wheel so I could put on a correct one.

I never could get used to the foam grip and small size. It just looked wrong to me so it had to go. Kind of a pain to get the hub off but I won!

And here is the correct wheel installed. I kind of like the green on green look. I was a but worried that it would clash too much but hey, its a 70s truck, its all about clashing!

[butternut1972]

Cool truck...Nice work

[sduckworth13]

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Nice work
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[jasonvw]

Thanks! I also finished off the door panels yesterday as well. The ones on there were done up with aqua and gray tweed, which I wasn't really into. A bit too 80's for me.


The arm rests were shot and the handles were done too so all of that came off and right into the trash.


I took the panels off and cleaned up the area behind them. Also its a good time to lube up the window mechs!


I got the new panels on with new arm rest and handles. Looks so much better. I think the top support rail is going to get chromed. Its silver now but its not cutting it for me. I really like the look of the new panels though!


And just on a whim I stripped the tweed off the panels I took off the doors and wouldn't you know it, the original painted panels were under the tweed. Someone took a lot of time to pinstripe them too. Shame they got covered up. I kind of like them.


Next is the seat cover and I will take care of that today. I have the carpet here too but Im holding off since the impending drop member install means I have to covert from small hump to big hump floor section so carpet is on back burner until thats done. Still plenty more to come. Stay tuned!

[SCHRUMGMC]

That's pretty neat man love the wood grain

[67cheby]

nice upgrades and work !

[LEX]

Looking fantastic.