49' Patina bagged in PA

[Advanced Design]

99 truck looks really good. It has fought you about every step and you just keep digging in and getting it done. Awesome! I looked up determination in the dictionary and they had a picture of you there....

[Coach529]

I must have missed it. What material did you use for the inner door panels?

[99 to Life]

4-27 thanks guys, didn't get a notice that there were replies. anyway.... coach529 I never posted any info on the door panels. Its just vinyl. I made the backing out of luan board. I coated it with sealer just incase any moisture gets to the wood. I used 1/4 staples, had to double up the vinyl on the back so the staples wouldn't go through the back. I counter sunk the holes for the screws and somehow had countersunk washers laying around. I used some spray adhesive to keep the vinyl nice and tight to the wood.

today I got a little time in on the Pass side bear claw. Much better efficiency and overall outcome. its all bolt on. I'll be painting the outer piece when everything is done. I was and am a bit nervous the window would hit the latch. So I started putting it in. I never did a one piece window, so it took me a bit to get it in there (missed the 3rd track piece on the inside that rides on the door. So the window isn't really going up and down in its proper position.

I had some luck with it going down but I'll know for sure when I get it on its final track and see whats up. My window track is out of the door on that side, so I'm really cutting it close. If it don't clear, I'll have to move the latch
but I think I may have dodged a bullet.

[Coach529]

Thanks for the info......they look great!

[IWanna49]

Coming together really nicely!! Tach conversion looks great in the dash. I def want the info on how to do it, both for the tach and speedo. Looks and sounds great!!

[99 to Life]

thanks guys. 49' I actually didn't really take any pics of the conversion oddly enough. But all you gotta do is tear apart both mechs. cut a 3.5" or bigger hole in the OG gauge. It will interfere with the bottom light (high beam indicator). IF..... you are using the speedo mech and not the gauge cluster mech.

So once your sunpro unit fits in your mechs new hole. you'll realize the sunpro unit needs cut down. SO as carefully cut about and inch or so off of its plastic housing. You are going to need a very very small screwdriver set BTW. The needles are hard to pull off, you just got to work them and be careful.

You'll need sand the numbers off your OG gauge plate (if your using the speedo one) then repaint it. I have the decal numbers you can hit me up for. I then centered that plate up to the sunpro mech (two tiny screws will bolt them together) they almost don't line up, so you have to bore the OG face plate hole a tiny bit. once your faceplate is centered on the sunpro tach. You'll take the sunpro faceplate and center it up ontop of your newly painted blank faceplate. Then with a light pencil, you'll make a reference for the 0 and 4 rpm positions. This will help you locate the decal to put on the faceplate.

Thats all it really is, I did the hardest work which is making the decal to size and line up with the sunpro numbers. You'll have to super glue a new needle ontop of the sunpro needle. before you mount in your unit, test it. Run the engine and it helps to have another tach hooked up so you know your at say 800rpm or whatever, then hook up your converted tach, keep taking the needle off and on until your in the ball park. You can't put the needle on too hard though.

Then once that is on, you fit it back into your OG housing, then you can make a tab to bolt them together or epoxy it or if your hole is nice and snug, the unit will stay put. (me, impatient as I am sometimes, didn't have a big enough hole saw, so my hole is oversized).

I'll def take a detailed photo stream of the speedo conversion, which... will be harder because I have to drill a hole in the glass for the trip reset ( I think it will be worth it)

[e015475]

Interesting - trying to do the same thing with a little different approach. Here's some vector art for the gauge faces to fit in the AD gauge. My plan is to find some plastic sign-making laminate that is a combination of black and translucent and have the numbers lasered in the black to reveal the translucent material behind so I can back-light the gauge. This image would be a negative of the actual gauge face.

The window in the speedometer will line up with the Speedhut programmable speedo. I had them add a remote reset button for the trip odometer so I don't have to drill a hole through the glass. I called Speedhut and they told me I could remove the needles from their gauges and how to reset them to zero when I reinstalled them (after telling me it would totally void their warranty)

Happy to provide the vector file for anyone who want to experiment with gauges for their AD.

What is everybody else doing for fuel, oil temp and volts?

[99 to Life]

not sure why I'm not getting email notifications on my thread.
e015475- your idea sounds cool, I can envision it. but for my approach using the stock backlight lights is cool with me.

The biggest problem folks will have in doing these conversions, is lining up the new faceplate in accordance with the gauge. Easy to do for people with graphic skills. Unless what your saying with the speedhut is, no matter where the needle falls you can set that location to zero. I personally wasn't planning on using speedhut gauge, but that's pretty cool if theirs will do that.

as for the other gauges, not sure if you'v seen them on my thread or not. I just ran 2" aftermarket analog gauges in a custom console I made that is somewhat outta sight. So as your driving I'll have the tach and speedo in the two large clusters. as you look down to firewall/trans tunnel, I have my oil, temp, volt, vac, fuel. I have two bag gauges right on my cup holder, I then have tank pressure gauge by turnsignal, I'll also put air fuel ratio gauge there too. Its quite possible one might feel like a pilot with all the gauges!

[99 to Life]

5-4 nothing exciting, just moooore patch work. Been putting this off until last but I can't take it anymore. I just want all the metal bolted down and secure. i went to canfield swapmeet over the weekend to maybe score a little better fenders (I actually have better sets, but they are for other builds). came up with nada, so..... 3 hrs in on this fender already. The backside has quite a bit of holes and weak metal. and some other areas. I'll prolly have another 3-4hrs of work on this fender. Pass fender is in better shape.

worked on door a little bit more. Got inside door handle to work with the bearclaw. Unfortunately the claw is mounted just high enough to interfere with the outter handle. So, in a pickle with that. I'm thinking of getting AVS actuators and keyless entry. Didn't really wanna hit my wallet anymore than this build has, but its home stretch and I gotta get it done.

Still shooting for inspection by end of month, worse case early june.

lastly, I will be investing in some more tools soon. I was thinking of a cheap set of shrinker/stretcher. but I'm going to go with a top of line brand. I don't wanna risk getting something that isn't gonna do 18g. which is what I used on this patch. so its a bit of work getting it to do these curves.

[oldman3]

Looks good....Jim

[iowaboynca]

Nice work as usual

[lower50's]

Nice patch. Ya spend the bucks on tools they will work better and last longer.

[Advanced Design]

Nice work 99. 18 gauge is tougher to move around.

[BlueJeep]

Looks like you're past that point, but FWIW my untouched original rear fenders were 20 gauge. Measured in several different places to confirm that it wasn't just thinned from the original forming.

I'm also pretty happy with my Harbor Freight stretcher/shrinker, no problems with 18 gauge. Research also told me I can replace the jaws with USA made jaws if it ever becomes a problem.

[99 to Life]

thanks guys. bluejeep, hahah yeah I almost went with 20g, but thought might as well just do beefier on that bottom portion. oh well. glad to hear about the shrinker, maybe I'll give em a try. I really wanna support some better brands out there but some of the prices are outta my budget cause I'm not using them everyday to make up the money. Im most likely selling this truck if all goes well. Was going to reinvest in another build and some tools.

[Advanced Design]

I have the HF shrinker and stretcher and it works fine for no more than I use it.

[reaper71]

Nice job on the Patch...

[IWanna49]

Yep, nice patch work. Gonna have to do the same on mine as well.

With your tach/speedo conversion I thought I'd share my thoughts on another idea.

I love the Biscayne dashes, so much so that I seriously considered getting one to replace the OG in my truck. But I really wanted the original. So I bought some of the gauge pods. Thinking about doing something like this in mine (sorry for the terrible pic quality)





If I do the speedo/tach conversion, thinking about temp and gas in these and hide the others. Or buy another gauge pod and put all of them on the dash. I think that would clutter it up too much, tho. Def takes away the clean look!

[99 to Life]

greg, yeah the OG dash is just one of my favorites. I personally like seeing it as is, but with no radio. I even like the delete plate. I had a set of finned aluminum clusters I was so bent on using and it just isn't gonna flow with my dash. So I just hid everything.

Those clusters are cool, to me though. I think they would look better utilized with the the two OG gauges, just to keep it symmetrical, but that is hard to do without digging into the speaker assembly.

As for the patches. I got more done to the fender. the whole bottom back is all new metal and some duraglass to cover some welds and imperfections. I got alot of fender lip area patches that had to be done too. I'm just about ready to coat the inside and then hit it with herculiner. I made this fender brace too, because 49hardtimes just has to be difficult and create all the work it needs to for me. So I made this outta 18g and with no shrinker. so its far from perfect but you'll never see it. I got 10hrs into the fender so far, I think. I'll add some color to the fender to blend everything in.

[99 to Life]

5-22 nothing exciting at all. Been spending allllll my truck money on our car this month, so can't really buy the stuff I need to finish. but.... luckily I have moooooore annoying metal work on this garbage fenders. Got 10 in the DS fender so far, and I'll prolly have 10 into this one. Here are some patches I made and some more areas that I have to work on. I'll have more pics tomorrow. I'm almost done with this fender, then I gotta make an inner brace for it.

check list is, ebrake, speedo, door seals, glass etc, wrap up bear claws and the keyless entry, carpet, headliner, seatbelts, cosmetic stuff like kick panels and little things here and there.

[Sim6]

Looks great 99.

[Advanced Design]

Saving the fenders, way to go 99!

[99 to Life]

5-23 got fenders coated, ran out of bedliner, so that is up next. I had to make fender braces for both fenders. Also made a patch for the rear stake pocket. Not pretty but I may feather it all in. Getting all the holes to line up was a treat but it works.

[iowaboynca]

I think i'm going to come out and say it...your level of patience is amazing! You keep doing the right thing, in a timely manner whereas many of us may cobble it together just to get it done. But you keep slugging at it to save a great truck!

Stay with it and keep being such a great motivation for all of us!

[lower50's]

Great job !! If more ppl would save the old trucks the world would be a better place.