51 Chev on a S10 frame, named Dale

[youngrodder]

The headliner looks great.

Marc

[olcarguy]

Good job.....

[Father&son56project]

Looks good and should also help make things nice and quiet in the cab.

Good work!

[Ol Blue K20]

Looks really good

[Tempest67]

Thanks for the comments.

For about $100 in material, it turned out OK, and the $10 sun visors that I purchased at a Swap Meet turned out OK with a coat of grey vinyl spray paint.

I am hoping that it makes it quiet in there, you can also see the Butyl window flashing that I added directly to the metal roof.

I plan to make a similar panel for under the rear window to complete the look. (not that anyone will see it)............. stay tuned

[Tempest67]

Time for an update,

I have been working on the interior, gauges, panels, radio...etc and was trying to come up with something different for the rear window. I looked at the slider rear windows that were available, but the opening looked small, and it was only available with dark tint. (I don't think that a 5 window with 1 tinted piece would look right)

Then, a friend called to tell me he was scrapping his Astro Van, and do I want anything?............ I said Yes, can I have the window and hardware from the sliding door.

So, I made a template of the rear window about 2 inches larger than stock, took it to a local Glass Shop, ordered a piece of tempered glass with 4 - 1/2 inch holes, ordered 10ft of weather stripping from Amazon, and this weekend, removed the old window, and put it all together.

[Driver_WT]

Nice job on the rear window and cool idea.

[Father&son56project]

Now that's some original thinking!!!!!! I love seeing the ideas that others come up with for these old trucks.

[Ol Blue K20]

That's thinking outside the box! It looks great!

[6DoF]

i freakin love that window idea!!! holy crap, i got like goosebumps when i saw it, well done sir.

i need that in my life

[dsraven]

I've often thought a roll up window would be fool back there too.
Nice job. Great thinkin.

[Tempest67]

I am glad you all like it. Thanks

I have been thinking about doing this for a while and am pleased with how it turned out. I may need to add 1/8 inch spacers to pull the window in tighter, but I won't know til I take it for a drive and see if there are any wind whistles.

Also, when I removed the old window I was pleasantly surprised to find no rust.

The weather is getting better so it is time to get busy and get this interior completed...... stay tuned

[dsraven]

If you get to driving maybe take a CO monitor with you and make sure you're not silently gassing yourself with exhaust fumes with the back window open. Depends where your exh outlet is I suppose.
Nice work.

[Tempest67]

that shouldn't be a problem, but thanks for pointing that out, as it could easily be overlooked.

I remember way back when I had a van to close the rear windows if I was on a dusty road.

[joedoh]

perfect solution and well executed! I would have liked something like that on my 65, only my thought was to have it open at the top!

[Tempest67]

I have been making interior panels this winter, and now that the carpet is in, and the seat belts are secured, time to install.

first, a bent piece of metal for the rear speakers.

2nd, I fabbed up a 'lid' to the speaker enclosure to help with the sound (base). the black piece of material in the pic is the back side of the carpet covering the speaker, before it was attached to the upper tab that I welded in.

3rd - 1 speaker done,

4th pic after completing the other side, added the middle panel

If nothing else, this should make for some good sound deadening.

[Tempest67]

I also added the 2 kick panels, and the parking brake assembly. they are kinda plain, (no panels)

Note - I went to my wife's 'alterations' guy with some vinyl and he made me the shifter boot.


I also fabbed up and welded a piece of metal to the dash for the front speakers

[youngrodder]

That dash speaker bracket is slick...

Marc

[8man]

Those speaker brackets are very nice. It's looking good.

[Tempest67]

and I added a black mesh grill under the speaker cover.


Thanks, interior work takes longer than I expected. I had all winter to do this and it is just coming together now.

[Tempest67]

D'oh, here's a better pic, sorry

[Jason 56]

That interior is looking awesome and I really like what you did to that back window. Damn now you got me thinking :lol :

[dsraven]

looking at post 239 and wondering how close the exhaust is to the box floor. looks close in the pic. is it close enough to warrant a heat shield?
keep plugging away and you'll be done. then you can use it to go and look for the next project, haha.

[Tempest67]

Jason56 - glad you like the rear window, - that is the purpose of this website, share ideas and "get you thinking". I sure have used a lot of ideas that I have seen on here.

dsraven - it is the angle of the pic, there is lots of room

[Tempest67]

Ok, The gauges were bothering me, as I tried to make the S10 gauges work in the original pods, but they did not read correctly (did not use PCM from S10) and my transmission is a 5 speed NV3500 with electronic speedo, so I was going to need a $300+ adapter to make that work.

I really liked the look of the original style NVU gauges, but just could not justify $1000 (Canadian) , so I looked for an alternative.

I found these Dolphin gauges, with mixed reviews on the board, but it seemed the majority of people were satisfied with them.

So , for $450, I ordered this set AND added little tach to match.

When they arrived and looked at them, I thought, how can I make these look better? , so, I opened them up, painted the needles antique white, and blacked out the 'Dolphin' name.


Then there was an installation problem. the factory holes in the dash were too big, and where am I going to put the tach?

so, I made 2 metal circles and welded them to the inside of the dash for the 2 large gauges.

For the tach, it fit perfectly in a scrap piece of a chrome tail pipe I had left over, so I cut a hole in the dash, welded the tailpipe in, used a little bondo to fill in the seam, and now the new gauges will fit.