What did you do to your truck today.The 3rd chapter

[69Penka]

Originally Posted by '68OrangeSunshine

I like the seat. Nice job.
Will you paint the Cab top White?

Thank you the upholstery guy did a great job with only a picture as a reference. Yes the top will be white... Hopefully next week!

[69Penka]

Originally Posted by 68bowtie

Looks great

Thank you, Bowtie!

[69Penka]

Originally Posted by Steeveedee

Sure is purty! I like that color.

Thank you!

[69Penka]

Originally Posted by Chevys4life

That's a nice color combination. It is going to look really good!!!

Thank you Chevys!!!

[69Penka]

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Nice, looks good

Thank you Blue!

[Rust_never_sleeps]

Finished carving out space in my garage and moving my benches and boxes around
Installed floor anchors so I can winch by myself
I've jiggered my divorced choke coil to make it kindasorta adjustable, and she smoked like a chimney on cold start, so I need to make a kindasorta adjustment ;-)
Asked for an electric choke for Father's Day :-D

Drilling concrete w/o a hammer drill is tedious and the drill wanders

[Rust_never_sleeps]

I also pulled the plug off one of the headlights to diagnose an intermittent fault, and the lug came off the back of the light with the plug.
Root cause identified

['68OrangeSunshine]

Originally Posted by Rust_never_sleeps

I also pulled the plug off one of the headlights to diagnose an intermittent fault, and the lug came off the back of the light with the plug.
Root cause identified

Was it LED or incandescent [incl. Halogen] ?

[Rust_never_sleeps]

Originally Posted by '68OrangeSunshine

Was it LED or incandescent [incl. Halogen] ?

Old skool sealed beam incandescents

['68OrangeSunshine]

Originally Posted by Rust_never_sleeps

Old skool sealed beam incandescents

Less than $10 buck fix. R&R headlamp.
Bulb manufacturers will tell you to replace the pair. Sure. They sell twice the bulbs that way. You could keep the used/good one for a spare.
How old was the failed one?
Here in AZ corrosion is at a minimum, but Packrats might gnaw your wires out overnight.
I left my Jimmy alone for about 3 nights. Rats chewed thru the #5 sparkplug wire. They were expensive blue silicone 8mm Taylor HEI wires. I found an old used yellow Accel wire and stuck it on. Works fine.

[Rust_never_sleeps]

Originally Posted by '68OrangeSunshine

Less than $10 buck fix. R&R headlamp.
Bulb manufacturers will tell you to replace the pair. Sure. They sell twice the bulbs that way. You could keep the used/good one for a spare.
How old was the failed one?
Here in AZ corrosion is at a minimum, but Packrats might gnaw your wires out overnight.
I left my Jimmy alone for about 3 nights. Rats chewed thru the #5 sparkplug wire. They were expensive blue silicone 8mm Taylor HEI wires. I found an old used yellow Accel wire and stuck it on. Works fine.

It's old enough I could have probably soldered the lug back on, but I already have the relay kit, so I bought two halogens to use with that.
Slapped some satin black on the headlight bezels while I'm at it

['68OrangeSunshine]

Originally Posted by Rust_never_sleeps

It's old enough I could have probably soldered the lug back on, but I already have the relay kit, so I bought two halogens to use with that.
Slapped some satin black on the headlight bezels while I'm at it

Great excuse for an upgrade.
Not as versed in the 69/70 look. I'll need a pic.
I guess you could still solder the lug back on for a backup.

[Rust_never_sleeps]

Originally Posted by '68OrangeSunshine

Great excuse for an upgrade.
Not as versed in the 69/70 look. I'll need a pic.
I guess you could still solder the lug back on for a backup.

One of the reasons my kids called this thing the "Indiana Jones ride" was because of the dim yellow headlights ;-)

[KQQL IT]

Finally got another stereo installed.
Last one locked up on a reset.
And got the cab corner mounts from Jeff Drew installed. May paint them eventually if I get around to repairing the rest of the rust.

[Rust_never_sleeps]

Originally Posted by '68OrangeSunshine

...Not as versed in the 69/70 look. I'll need a pic...

Quick scrape and spray with some Rustoleum off the shelf in the garage. There was black on the surrounding parts of the grill once upon a time as well

Relay kit was pretty simple, but the diagram left off a ground connection and it seems like the boss's nephew got the job of translating the worded instructions, so a little more challenging than necessary

['68OrangeSunshine]

Originally Posted by Rust_never_sleeps

Quick scrape and spray with some Rustoleum off the shelf in the garage. There was black on the surrounding parts of the grill once upon a time as well

Relay kit was pretty simple, but the diagram left off a ground connection and it seems like the boss's nephew got the job of translating the worded instructions, so a little more challenging than necessary

That is a cool look.
On the 71/72 GMCs, the center I is supposed to be black, I think, but it was natural chrome when I bought it in 1995. Never wanted to mess with it.

Re the Bosses' nephew -- If they sent him to the U of Az, he probably learned how to mix a Martini right, ESL not so much.

[Rust_never_sleeps]

Originally Posted by '68OrangeSunshine

That is a cool look.
On the 71/72 GMCs, the center I is supposed to be black, I think, but it was natural chrome when I bought it in 1995. Never wanted to mess with it.

Re the Bosses' nephew -- If they sent him to the U of Az, he probably learned how to mix a Martini right, ESL not so much.

Mighta been a frat boy at USC and went to Palm Springs every Friday instead of class

['68OrangeSunshine]

Originally Posted by Rust_never_sleeps

Mighta been a frat boy at USC and went to Palm Springs every Friday instead of class

Does 'SC even bother having classes on Fridays?
A friend's daughter went there for a semester, before she came back to U of A.
He told me she said it was Chinatown.

[Rust_never_sleeps]

I also discovered that my led-swapped instrument cluster won't light, so I'll be digging into that again. My incompetence is multi-faceted ;-)

['68OrangeSunshine]

Originally Posted by Rust_never_sleeps

I also discovered that my led-swapped instrument cluster won't light, so I'll be digging into that again. My incompetence is multi-faceted ;-)

If you mean the instrument bulbs in the dash:
LEDs are polarized unlike incandescent bulbs which flow either way.
You'll have to find a positive side and key all the LED globes the right way.
I don't know if, like old XMAS lights in series, if one is BO or out of phase, the whole string won't work.

Try the sockets one at a time flipping the LED polarity.

They also don't dim very well. Maybe the new ones can. IDK.
I switched back to 168 incandescents.

[EdwardSams]

At some point the previous owner cut the doors and put two 6x9 speakers in each. They sounded terrible so I decided to upgrade to Kickers which sound great. They are powered by a Kicker amplifier that is mounted underneath the passenger seat, also installed by a previous owner.

I purchased the speakers from Crutchfield, excellent customer service.

[68bowtie]

I finally finished assembling the front end. Wish I put the new grille hoops on before installing the grille. That was a pain!

[Rust_never_sleeps]

Originally Posted by '68OrangeSunshine

If you mean the instrument bulbs in the dash:
LEDs are polarized unlike incandescent bulbs which flow either way.
You'll have to find a positive side and key all the LED globes the right way.
I don't know if, like old XMAS lights in series, if one is BO or out of phase, the whole string won't work.

Try the sockets one at a time flipping the LED polarity.

They also don't dim very well. Maybe the new ones can. IDK.
I switched back to 168 incandescents.

Right, diodes are by nature uniderectional, but I'm pretty sure the wiring in the cluster is in parallel, not serial. otherwise all the lights would fail together even with incandescent bulbs
I'd be very surprised if I managed to get them all the same orientation even if I tried, but we'll see.

[71CHEVYSHORTBED402]

9 years from start to finish on this restoration. It really is a restoration, though, I dropped it 4/2.5, of course suspension and brakes are replacements, as well as the badges.

I did keep the Delco HEI, which I pulled off a truck in the 90s. Mini starter, 10SI. Heads are off a 1967 HP 396, and I favored vintage Wittek band clamps instead of tower clamps for water hoses. Matches what they installed onto the bypass, I'm anal that way. Some ARP bolts, other than that nearly all orig. fasteners restored or just cleaned.

It's been nearly done for 1-2 years. Last was the front bumper, which I installed yesterday. Quite an experience, and what's happened over nine years, oh my, so many losses and lessons. Anyway, glad to have done this once. I've owned it a long time, and the truck deserved it, but never again

[Steeveedee]

^ Sure is purty!