NJ Suburban

[pwdcougar]

Finished off the clutch linkage today. Original lower rod was shot and also was poorly lengthened. New rod from LMC was also too short. Cut it apart and welded in a 4" section of grade 8 bolt of a similar diameter. Came out pretty good. Also finished off the emergency brake cables. Finally got the correct length rear cables from Classic. The center cable was too long so it got shortened.

[pwdcougar]

Still at it. Installed the spark plug heat shields, carburetor and sandblasted and painted the battery box, radiator clamps and hood latch assembly. Not sure what's next. Maybe install the interior wiring harness or restore the cluster.

[pwdcougar]

Carb linkage

[LockDoc]

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Looks good. Keep pluggin' away at it....

LockDoc

[pwdcougar]

Originally Posted by LockDoc

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Looks good. Keep pluggin' away at it....

LockDoc

Thanks Leon. I'm trying to figure out what can be done over the winter. Not sure if it's ok to put the wiring back in under the dash. The interior is painted already.

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by pwdcougar

Thanks Leon. I'm trying to figure out what can be done over the winter. Not sure if it's ok to put the wiring back in under the dash. The interior is painted already.

It would certainly be easier to install the wiring before any of the dash components were installed. ie: Inst cluster, heater controls, radio, etc....

LockDoc

[pwdcougar]

Originally Posted by LockDoc

It would certainly be easier to install the wiring before any of the dash components were installed. ie: Inst cluster, heater controls, radio, etc....

LockDoc

Got it. The issue going around in the noggin here is that the truck hasn't been painted yet. On one hand it would be great to have the entire truck painted body color before doing the work under the dash. It's too cold to paint now so I'm trying to find things to work on during the winter. The inside of the truck has been painted already.

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by pwdcougar

Got it. The issue going around in the noggin here is that the truck hasn't been painted yet. On one hand it would be great to have the entire truck painted body color before doing the work under the dash. It's too cold to paint now so I'm trying to find things to work on during the winter. The inside of the truck has been painted already.

That certainly limits you a little bit but I would just finish out the inside then. I have the same thing going on with my '70 Short Bed and I have been putting the interior parts in it.

LockDoc

[richard2717]

Paul
I would think you would want to completely tape up all the openings before painting the exterior otherwise you will have a lot of over spray inside the cabin area. if you do that you should have no issues with doing the wiring now if the inside is already painted.

Richard

[pwdcougar]

Originally Posted by richard2717

Paul
I would think you would want to completely tape up all the openings before painting the exterior otherwise you will have a lot of over spray inside the cabin area. if you do that you should have no issues with doing the wiring now if the inside is already painted.

Richard

Thanks Richard! I was bummed that I wouldn't have anything to work on over the winter.

[HO455]

Are you going with a completely stock wiring harness?
If not have you considered using part of an A/C harness along with the bigger A/C blower motor for more heater output? It's just something I've been considering for mine.
It might be a good winter project.

[pwdcougar]

Originally Posted by HO455

Are you going with a completely stock wiring harness?
If not have you considered using part of an A/C harness along with the bigger A/C blower motor for more heater output? It's just something I've been considering for mine.
It might be a good winter project.

A few months ago I repaired the original harness using the spare that came with my 68 parts truck to replace any bad sections. When this was my daily driver in the 80's trying to heat the entire truck was as useless as cooking thanksgiving dinner with a match. I used to hang a heavy blanket just behind the rear seat from roof to floor to keep the heat up front. This truck will be a summer driver though when finished so it wont see much need for a heater. Both of my 69 Cougars have rarely had need for the heater in the last 25 years. Thanks for the tip though!

[pwdcougar]

This weeks project: the cluster. Touched up the chrome with a silver paint pen, repainted the semi black, polished the lens (400-5000 grit then polish) and added a tach from a Camaro as outlined by Grincoloco in the truck forum. All I need is the needle paint and I can pack it up for when it's time to install it!

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by pwdcougar

This weeks project: the cluster. Touched up the chrome with a silver paint pen, repainted the semi black, polished the lens (400-5000 grit then polish) and added a tach from a Camaro as outlined by Grincoloco in the truck forum. All I need is the needle paint and I can pack it up for when it's time to install it!

Looks great! I have a couple I need to do. I have all of the stuff, I just need to get off my duff and do it....

LockDoc

[HO455]

That came out awesome! Good work!

[kev2809]

same route I plan on going with. I too have all the stuff but too nervous to tear into it.

gauges look great btw

[pwdcougar]

Originally Posted by kev2809

same route I plan on going with. I too have all the stuff but too nervous to tear into it.

gauges look great btw

Thanks!

It's not a really tough task to install the tach. Grincoloco has some good pics and tips on how to do it. What I had trouble with was cutting out the hole in the back of the gauges for the circuit board backing to stick through. It had to be enlarged a couple times to get the tach in position. Another problem was that the studs on the back of the gauge assembly stick out and interfere with the blue circuit board on the stock assembly. I wound up trimming the studs down even with top of the plastic covered attaching nuts and covered the ends with silicone. Drop me a line if you want any info.

[kev2809]

well I'm going a little further since I'm going ls. I'm doing the s10 speedo swap...the camaro tach...and swapping the ammeter guts to put in a volt meter. and, ditching the circuit board and making a wired harness. lol dreading the entire thing....

[pwdcougar]

That's a lot of work but all do-able. Take your time and it will work out. Grincoloco has a bit about doing the amp volt swap and it looks pretty straightforward. It might be something to do on my 70 since it may be years before the cluster is installed. Good luck and keep up the progress and updates in your build thread!

[HO455]

I did the voltmeter conversion with square body guts. It was pretty straightforward and the only real challenge was getting the needle on the shaft in the right place so the meter showed 12 volts with the needle on the center mark of the old ampmeter face.

[BigBird05]

Originally Posted by HO455

I did the voltmeter conversion with square body guts. It was pretty straightforward and the only real challenge was getting the needle on the shaft in the right place so the meter showed 12 volts with the needle on the center mark of the old ampmeter face.

How did that work out? Did you come up with away to do it or was it just trail and error.

[HO455]

I used a variable power supply to get exactly 12.00 volts. Then it took 5 or 6 tries to get the needle in the correct orientation on the shaft. As I didn't see a good way to hold the shaft while pushing the needle on the shaft. I had to redo it as the shaft would move and the needle would not be where I wanted it. It took maybe 15 minutes to make it indicate satisfactory.

[kev2809]

that's great idea

[pwdcougar]

Tonight's project.

[LockDoc]

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I would like to try the voltmeter conversion on one of mine. I will have to read that again.

LockDoc