49' Patina bagged in PA

[99 to Life]

4-17 Oh there is just no way I could go without locks. For one I hate thieves, the truck will be in the city quite a bit, and lastly its a selling point for the truck. Today was a good day, considering I didn't even work on the truck. I had to shovel about a ton of gravel up to the garage for my ramp. I drove it out the garage almost 17months to the day I started it.

Still plenty of things I need to iron out and do. I need to mount DS running board, get some wheel spacers for rear so tires don't rub bed and get a smaller PWS belt and or clearance the pump so I can tighten the belt. thats the only thing keeping me from tearing down the road. Then I need to finish interior and the door latches. also need to fix my hood spring and get my latch on.

I think I'm going to bring the front of the bed up and inch bc it looks like it rakes (in garage was showing level) also rear wheel placement isn't terrible but it can come forward a bit. I adjusted my lower link bars out since my driveshaft was a tad long. But I think I can go forward and still make the DS work. If worse case I'll have the DS cut shorter.

I may post up a vid of it but its really nothing too exciting.

[oldman3]

99, looks great, nice pics, thanks for sharing....Jim

[Advanced Design]

Awesome 99! Looking very good outside!

[99 to Life]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr9MTvyJVOs
thanks guys, here is a little vid. nothing special. hood isn't latched, PWS belt squeeling cause its too loose and Efan is loud as hell. but you get the idea

[lower50's]

Oh so cool 99. Looks great out in the wilderness. Congrats

[Advanced Design]

Thanks for the video. Good feeling to have them moving under their own power. The loud efan is the sound of the modern hot rod I think. Way to go 99! Be glad when my Burb gets there.

[oldman3]

99, Thanks for the video, nice to see it moving around...Jim

[IWanna49]

Man, they sure look good sittin' together!! Gotta feel real real,good to get it out of the shop and in some fresh air.

I hear ya on thieves. I grew up in a small town and we never locked the cars or our house. Moved to the city and have been hit five times over the years-every time because the vehicle was unlocked. Real PIA. I lock everything now.

[99 to Life]

4-18 thanks guys, yeah yesterday was a good and loooong awaited day. Lower50's we are def out in the wilderness, miles of dirt road, its where I grew up for alot of my life. My mom lives there, so I have a compound all fenced in that I store my stuff and work on them in some rinky dink garages.

Today kinda sucked, go figure. I have a good day and feel kinda weird "like when is something wrong gonna happen" cause I deal with alot of that. So I spent hours on this bear claw set up.

Lets just say it looks sooo ghetto right now, but its just temporary. I'll be making a custom plate for the bear claw that mounts to the door. The plate shown was the factory plate I hacked up and as is the plate with the striker in it. I had to widen that plate and relocate the striker alot, and then plug weld the old hole. It took forever trying to figure out where it was gonna land and was restricted by the fact that I wanted the striker plate to use the existing 4 bolts holes that are already there. Needless to say, it actually works as of now, like I said I'll be making a custom plate for the latch to bolt and bolt up to the door. I just don't wanna weld to the door and deal with all that. Plus how the hell do you get the latch in there? Remove the window track? I didn't like that, so it really kept me on the "bolt" on version. I'm gonna make a nice version when its all said and done. Prolly get some nice allen bolts for all of it too.

The pass side, I made a striker plate from scratch. Just copied the one I wasted so much time on and boom, took like 20 min to cut drill and test fit and weld a filler piece in behind. So the pass door should take way less time and hopefully come out really nice. Then onto the interior latch and figure out what I'm gonna do for the rest of the system.

[Sim6]

Looks great. Great work.

[Advanced Design]

Nice work on the latches 99. Hours...I've spent hours last two weekends getting Lokar shifter and brackets to work on the 56...so I feel it too.
We are in the sticks here, 10 miles from a small town, only lock house door if gone overnight, vehicles usually unlocked.

[MIKESAD50]

They both look great 99

[99 to Life]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkWp9d6i3HY

4-20 Mon, I didn't get the claws all finished up. I spent some time on the pass door getting it set. Of course it isn't fitting so well and needs some tweaking. I'm thinking its the hinge. Spent some time mounting my DS running board. My dumbace forgot to drill the holes in that side (custom made brackets) so I had the brackets and nests all done just couldn't actually bolt it on. So that is done.

Got a vid for ya, some tach action with my one tach and then the tach conversion I made. also tossed in the bear claw in action.

gonna keep posting videos. hopefully get some better ones next weekend of it on the road. I got a smaller belt for my PWS so that is finally fixed. Gonna bounce around with metal work on rear fenders and interior soon. Just alot of little things to address still but its almost road worthy. Need to button up the exhaust asap.

[Advanced Design]

Love the video, nice job on the latch...good solid thunk...and engine sounds great!

[lower50's]

Great job on the tach!! I'm thinking of something similar. The motor revs nice and quick.

[99 to Life]

thanks guys, i'll get some clips of the tach installed should look pretty cool. Lower 50's hit me up if you need any help, its a cheap conversion. I'll be doing the speedo soon.

[iowaboynca]

nice job. Everything is coming along great.
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[99 to Life]

4-25 thanks guys. Not much to report. Got tach in and lite for the most part. PIA doing the conversion, got to get the needle perfect while its idling. I had the unit a tad too far inward and the needle was touching the glass, so I had to tear it apart and reset the unit.

Got inner door panels done for the most part too. Just need to get door handles and windows in and get the handles on. Pics don't do it much justice. Got my seat being made with this material and another. I'll post pics when it is done.

another outside shot. spent a couple hours on the hood and as with everything, NOT exaggerating one bit, everything fights me on this truck. my 51' was a dream shutting and lining up good. this one I knew I'd have problems since through the years they had a bad hinge and forced the hood down so bad, it bent and broke it. So now lining it up and getting it to latch is a PIA. I got some tweaking to do still. I even jacked up the grille to make sure its not a height issue and it doesn't appear to be. Infact the hood is hitting on the pass side when I put pressure on it, yet it won't latch well.

list is still a bit stout, need some dang money to get the rest of the things I need. Heater, work on wipers, carpet, door crap, exhaust straps and turndowns.

[oldman3]

99, work got done, that's the good part. Everything looks great...Jim

[Advanced Design]

99 truck looks really good. It has fought you about every step and you just keep digging in and getting it done. Awesome! I looked up determination in the dictionary and they had a picture of you there....

[Coach529]

I must have missed it. What material did you use for the inner door panels?

[99 to Life]

4-27 thanks guys, didn't get a notice that there were replies. anyway.... coach529 I never posted any info on the door panels. Its just vinyl. I made the backing out of luan board. I coated it with sealer just incase any moisture gets to the wood. I used 1/4 staples, had to double up the vinyl on the back so the staples wouldn't go through the back. I counter sunk the holes for the screws and somehow had countersunk washers laying around. I used some spray adhesive to keep the vinyl nice and tight to the wood.

today I got a little time in on the Pass side bear claw. Much better efficiency and overall outcome. its all bolt on. I'll be painting the outer piece when everything is done. I was and am a bit nervous the window would hit the latch. So I started putting it in. I never did a one piece window, so it took me a bit to get it in there (missed the 3rd track piece on the inside that rides on the door. So the window isn't really going up and down in its proper position.

I had some luck with it going down but I'll know for sure when I get it on its final track and see whats up. My window track is out of the door on that side, so I'm really cutting it close. If it don't clear, I'll have to move the latch
but I think I may have dodged a bullet.

[Coach529]

Thanks for the info......they look great!

[IWanna49]

Coming together really nicely!! Tach conversion looks great in the dash. I def want the info on how to do it, both for the tach and speedo. Looks and sounds great!!

[99 to Life]

thanks guys. 49' I actually didn't really take any pics of the conversion oddly enough. But all you gotta do is tear apart both mechs. cut a 3.5" or bigger hole in the OG gauge. It will interfere with the bottom light (high beam indicator). IF..... you are using the speedo mech and not the gauge cluster mech.

So once your sunpro unit fits in your mechs new hole. you'll realize the sunpro unit needs cut down. SO as carefully cut about and inch or so off of its plastic housing. You are going to need a very very small screwdriver set BTW. The needles are hard to pull off, you just got to work them and be careful.

You'll need sand the numbers off your OG gauge plate (if your using the speedo one) then repaint it. I have the decal numbers you can hit me up for. I then centered that plate up to the sunpro mech (two tiny screws will bolt them together) they almost don't line up, so you have to bore the OG face plate hole a tiny bit. once your faceplate is centered on the sunpro tach. You'll take the sunpro faceplate and center it up ontop of your newly painted blank faceplate. Then with a light pencil, you'll make a reference for the 0 and 4 rpm positions. This will help you locate the decal to put on the faceplate.

Thats all it really is, I did the hardest work which is making the decal to size and line up with the sunpro numbers. You'll have to super glue a new needle ontop of the sunpro needle. before you mount in your unit, test it. Run the engine and it helps to have another tach hooked up so you know your at say 800rpm or whatever, then hook up your converted tach, keep taking the needle off and on until your in the ball park. You can't put the needle on too hard though.

Then once that is on, you fit it back into your OG housing, then you can make a tab to bolt them together or epoxy it or if your hole is nice and snug, the unit will stay put. (me, impatient as I am sometimes, didn't have a big enough hole saw, so my hole is oversized).

I'll def take a detailed photo stream of the speedo conversion, which... will be harder because I have to drill a hole in the glass for the trip reset ( I think it will be worth it)