My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble

[rgunlock]

Yes SR, I am taking the doors on and off by myself. Here is my handy door mounting buddy - goes to show that my OCD really is selective Helps a lot that the doors are just empty shells right now.

[Mustard72]

I think the gap definitely looks better. I'm pretty certain mine are gonna take a lot of work to get anywhere near as good as yours.

[rgunlock]

Thanks Nick! How's the kitchen remodel coming along?

[Mustard72]

Getting there.

Meanwhile, Mustard waits patiently...

[y5mgisi]

Any progress? Also, I have a couple questions for you.

When you are priming, what grit are you sanding with pre prime?

Once it's sanded, how do you prep it pre prime?

What kind of paint gun are you using and what are you doing to dry the air from your compressor?

I'm hoping to get to a point before to much longer where I can start piece priming like you are, so I would like to dial in my habits ahead of time.

[rgunlock]

No new progress. I was out of town on vacation so lost a couple of weekends on the truck.

I am NOT the best to give advice on anything to do with bodywork and paint, but I'll try to answer your questions, even though those answers may be embarrassing to me I'm hoping that these products are actually more forgiving than the impression you get from reading a lot of threads on this site.

The gun I'm using is a Central Pneumatic Professional that my dad gave me. I'd guess this is Harbor Freight. Comes with 2 tips, 1.4 and 1.8. I thought I was using the 1.8 for the epoxy primer, but your questions got me to look at it and I've been using the 1.4 tip - go figure Seems to be working fine, but I think I'll change to the 1.8 tip for future primer spraying.

As far as sanding before primer, most of mine has been sprayed over bare metal which got that way with 80-grit. If I'm spraying over Rage filler, I've been sanding the filler down to 220 grit before spraying the epoxy. If I'm respraying an area that has already been primered, I'm scuffing it up with the purple 3M scotch pads. I don't honestly know whether or not that is going to provide enough "texture" for the new coat of epoxy to stick best, but seems fine so far.

You are supposed to be using a wax and grease remover compatible with your paint "system" prior to spraying the primer. I've been using mineral spirits - bad me! Actually, in most areas all I've done is blow the dust off with the compressor. At this point, the epoxy seems to have gone on fine - hope my laziness doesn't come back to bite me.

I'm drying my air with a setup I purchased from Eastwood. I do make sure I drain the water from these as well as the compressor before spraying.

One thing I've learned is that this is not nearly as daunting as you'd think if you do too much reading & thinking. Once you've done it a time or two it becomes pretty routine. Do make sure you know how to disassemble your gun and have the laquer thinner, brushes, toothpicks, etc. all laid out ready to clean the gun when you are done spraying. I watched several you-tube videos on cleaning the guns before doing it the first time myself.

[y5mgisi]

Excellent! THanks for taking the time to answer my questions! I'm hoping that when i get to that stage in my build that i will have similar thoughts to yours. I'm hoping to at least have the new bed for the 78 painted this summer.

[rgunlock]

You may recall that I got a Vintage Air system as an early Christmas present. The idea was to get it test fitted, drill all holes, etc. during the winter on days too nasty for bodywork or spraying primer. Well, I've procrastinated about as long as I could on that Now I'm going to bore you with a bunch of pictures!

Since I'd filled/covered all the original holes in my firewall I needed to know where the block off plate was supposed to sit so I could use it as a template to position the under dash unit. Couple of members were kind enough to provide pictures of how theirs mounted. I just needed to know the position of the top right hole. Marked it, drilled a small hole and ran a sheet metal screw through it. Then I was able to hang the unit from one corner of the mounting bracket knowing it "should" be in the right spot under the dash. Then wedged the other side up so the unit was level left/right.

[rgunlock]

I was concerned that the ducting for the passenger side defroster (that one staring right at you in previous post) was going to interfere with the glove box if I didn't get the unit located correctly, so I hooked that vent up.

Then it was on to surgery on the glove box. Using the template that came with the kit, marked the cuts on both sides, cut them, then cut across the bottom to finish it up. The kit comes with a bunch of s-clips. I started using all of them, but it just seemed like way to many for what was needed. Dragged out the instructions and found that 15 are needed later so back off they came. Only 4 are needed for the glove box modification.

[rgunlock]

The new back fits on pretty snug with just the 4 clips. I've stuck the old back on top for one picture in pretty much the original position so you can see that I only lost about 1.5 inches of depth. Then mounted it up. Turns out there was nothing to worry about. The duct work comes up right behind the really shallow area on the driver's side of the glove box. Door shuts nicely.

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to do the glove box mods all over again. I hadn't noticed before, but the "hinge" for the door is just a plastic strip extending down (and part of) the box. It's shot! Going to have to get a new one.

[rgunlock]

With that little exercise out of the way, time to finish mounting the unit. Drew me some level lines from that screw I put in earlier. Cleaned the primer off a couple of spots and welded the supplied mounting bolts right onto the inside of the firewall. The magnets worked pretty well for holding the bolt in place, but the actual welding under the dash was quite a feat for this fat man - please ignore the booger welding It ain't gonna show anyway!

Carefully measured and drilled some new holes on the mounting bracket.

[rgunlock]

Then the unit had to be leveled front to back. Instructions say to block it up, which was easier said than done given the slant of the floor under there. Then mark the position of the holes in the front mounting bracket. Note - there is a good flat spot on the bottom of the unit where the drain is to get a small level in there.

Now drilling the holes is a whole nuther matter. Fortunately, I remembered a gift I'd gotten many years ago and never had a use for until now - a right angle drill. This contraption just fit up inside the dash area to drill the holes.

Also used the supplied spacers, but had to grind about 1/4 inch off of them. They would have sat flush on the firewall if I'd been bolting through it, so needed to remove roughly the thickness of the firewall metal, a flat washer and the head of the bolt. I guestimated on this step

[rgunlock]

Finally, the big test that I hadn't given much thought to. Could I reach back up in there and get nuts on them bolts with the unit in place? Turns out, just barely, and I would not have been able to if the dash wasn't a bare shell with all those access holes. Turns out having a ratcheting box end wrench comes in real handy for this.

With those 4 mount points, the unit appears to be in very solid. I'd considered welding a piece to the bottom of the rear mounting bracket and welding another bolt for it to the firewall, but I don't really think it will be needed.

The final picture is with me sitting on the truck floor holding the camera about level with the bottom of the dash. Not much of this unit is going to show when you are sitting in a seat.

[Greenlee]

Nice work!

[rgunlock]

Thanks Greenlee! Next up is the scary part where I drill a bunch of big holes in my nice firewall for hoses.

[mjensen]

Good work Rick! I wish I could say I was making progress on mine!

[rgunlock]

Thanks Mike! Guess the day isn't going to get any nicer today so I better git to it. You'll find the time or motivation - just got to push yourself some days

[boynton]

If you run out of fittings for the a/c lines I have a bunch left over ill try to get a picture of them soon. For some reason my kit came with double or triple of what I needed.

[rgunlock]

Thanks Boynton. Since I ordered the fancy chrome bulkhead connector, I've got a ton of extra fittings also. Unfortunately, there are no alternate fittings for the suction and liquid lines coming off the evaporator (under dash unit), or the heater hose fittings for that matter. They want to go through the firewall holes assuming I had used the block off plate. Not really lending themselves to going sideways toward the bulkhead connector. Just got back online to see if anyone has described how they dealt with that.

[boynton]

I made rubber lines for the inside For the heater hoses and the a/c lines. Its kinda tight in there but I made them where the just fit. I did have to make one with a loop to get where it needs to go.

[y5mgisi]

Nice install pics!

[rgunlock]

Thanks y5mgisi - I aims to please. So here are some more. Finished testfitting the Vintage Air system this weekend. I had bought the nice chrome bulkhead connector dealy, but I could not find a spot for it that wouldn't require a) new fittings made or bought to point in the right direction from the evaporator unit, b) a lot of knuckle busting trying get wrenches into tight spaces to fasten connectors, c) trying to maneuver hoses over fittings only a few inches apart. I'm sure that a lot of folks have gone this route successfully, but it was smelling like a lot of aggravation to me!

So, I used the block off plate as a template to mark the hose holes originally intended by VA onto the firewall. I also used that plate to make sure my fittings were oriented correctly to go through the firewall holes when I fit the evaporator back in up under the dash. My wife was nice enough to pick me up a bigger step drill bit when she was in town because the one I had wasn't big enough diameter. Got things mounted up after making the holes and I think it will look just fine. That empty bottom hole will be for wiring to a heater valve. A grommet for it is include in the kit.

[rgunlock]

I bought VA's bracket kit to move the alternator to the driver side so that I could mount the AC compressor on the passenger side and avoid having hoses run across the engine.

VA did us a big disservice on this bracket. I'm using original drop manifolds on my truck, as well as OEM brackets for the power steering pump. VA's instructions say that if you use the OEM power steering brackets "you may have to trim the front spacer". Doesn't say how much. Apparently they don't figure that the average Joe will have the OEM PS brackets and just include the correct length spacer in the kit. Well, I estimated I needed to grind about 3/16 off the spacer based on visual of the PS bracket. Tried to mount the new alt bracket which bolts into the 1st and 3rd manifold bolt holes. Wouldn't line up to start the bolt. Screwed with this for at least a couple hours. Drilled bracket holes bigger to give more slack (probably not needed in retrospect), ended up removing all the manifold bolts to get the front one to start (the problem one). Bolted the rest of the manifold back on and mounted the alternator. Was pointing way off at an angle. Figure out it was that spacer I ground down. Off it all comes... grind some more... back together... still not right... repeat a couple time! Finally, got the alt pointing forward. That bolt went in easier and easier the more I ground off. Why oh why couldn't they have just included the right length spacer??? I think that I ended up grinding off about 3/8 inch on that spacer when done. I'll have to measure when I pull it apart to paint the brackets. Enough rant for this post, it ended up looking pretty good.

[rgunlock]

AC compressor went on a "little bit" better. The bracket that went into the manifold holes went on without a problem - no spacer grinding required. Picture in the instructions of the front bracket that bolts into the water pump was a bit misleading in my opinion. 1st attempt was backward. As you can see, the adjusting bolt had no place to go. Off came the compressor, flip front bracket around and all is good.

[rgunlock]

Time for the condenser. By this point, I'm starting to think I can't be trusted with wrenches anymore Mounted up the brackets and the dryer. Those with a discerning eye can spot my problem in the first picture. Took me mounting it and seeing it all caddywampus to figure out that the brackets actually do have an up and down (directions had good pictures, but no warnings for idiots like me). I hadn't even drank more than a beer or two at this point! Anyway, flipped the bracket and it mounted up better - whew, I thought my core support was jacked!!! Also, the grommet going through the block-off plate at the left of the core support would be much easier to put in from the engine side - not much room to maneuver from the front - trust me.

Last picture is a safety switch for the dryer. VA instructions had that as the last step. Why they didn't tell me to mount it on the dryer at the stage I was in my first picture beats me. Tough to tighten it down once the condenser is mounted in the core support.