Project "Murdock"- '67 SWB GMC

[VA72C10]

Like the work and ideas on the taillights! Should be nice!!!

[Dingfodgy]

Well, 'tis the season- so not much time to spend out in the shop. However, I did manage to separate the dash skin from the support structure. Yep- more spot welds to cut out! This is going to be the basic foundation of my super-secret dash retro-fit.



That's about it for now. Hopefully once the Holidays pass- I'll be able to get a bit more done. Till then, thanks for the comments and:


MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR

[67cheby]

can we see some "SUPER SECRET PICS" ...LOL

[Dingfodgy]

Your going to have to be patient! I may not be good, but I am slow . One hint however.......think "Y" body- with some minor tweeks here and there to get the profile correct.

[Gokart Mozart]

Originally Posted by Dingfodgy

Your going to have to be patient! I may not be good, but I am slow . One hint however.......think "Y" body- with some minor tweeks here and there to get the profile correct.

Corvair or XLR?

[Dingfodgy]

You guessed it- Corvair! Got a dash unit out of a '64 Monza. Gonna have to section it to get the width right and do a bit of shaping at the ends. I'll post some pics once I get the dash over to my shop (it's at my brothers house now). I'll probably have to make a new gauge cluster for it or just swap out the old air-cooled gauges for some that are appropriate with a water-pumper. That's a ways down the road- I'll do the metal work first and get the interior in paint, then worry about the SLD's (5h!!ty Little Details).

[Dingfodgy]

Well, like most things...plans have changed a bit. I thought I was getting the dash unit out of a Corvair my brother has, but he's decided to sell the car complete and not part it out. Whatev's!
So with my stock dash removed I needed to find something stylish and era appropriate to fill the void.

Ta Da! I cut the dash assembly out of a '63 Nova....looks good huh?



After contemplating the task at hand....the surgery began! Here you can see how much I need to stretch it out (about 6")



I also need to fab up a filler at each end that will smoothly make the transition from the original dash mounting plate to the new sheet metal.



Once the misses got home and parked her car in my open workspace in the garage- I shifted gears and cleaned up the Nova gauge cluster and grafted a old Super Tach II into the blank hole. This took some doin' to get right....it's not perfect, but it will work until I can afford the repro SS tach and quad gauges.

[VA72C10]

Nice, looking good!

[67cheby]

cool twist, cant wait to see it come together !

[Dingfodgy]

Well progress has been slow this week, but I did make some headway on the dash. I am suprised at how well the Chevy II unit fits- the curve along the windshield is pert near a perfect match to the C10! This is not to say that this project is without a fair amount of fussin' around....but here's how I've been stitching it all together.

First I welded in a piece of 3/4" tubing to keep the top profile in line.


Then I had to bend up a strip of sheetmetal to use as filler to get the length correct.


Then I needed to relocate the defrost vents. If I would have planned a bit better- I would have section the whole vent instead of cutting them in half....whatever- I call it more welding practice!

[67cheby]

Looking good
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[Dingfodgy]

Well, I got a bit more done on the Giant Mess of Crap! Spent about 2 hrs. welding up the rear cab seam. Lemme tell ya' that's a whole bunch of stitch weldin' right there!


I also cut out some plugs to fill in the holes in the firewall I won't be needing. Still need to finish welding and dress up these areas...but progress is progress.

Lastly, I cut the ends of the original truck dash and will be slicing, sectioning, tweaking, welding and grinding to get them to integrate with the Chevy II Dash I will be installing. I'm pretty sure this is going to come out reallly sweet but daaaaang it's a lot of messin' around to get it right.

[fakerwade]

Sweet idea!! Some real nice metal work!!!

[fastcam1]

Any updates? Metal work was looking good!
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[Dingfodgy]

No updates thus far. Im bustin' my hump 70-80 hours a week, so theres not much time for the project. I have bought a few more patch panels and started clearing the misses crap out of the garage. Im hoping to get back at this in the next week or two. Stay tuned.