A '54 named Busty

[Gregski]

I think this is after the third round

[Gregski]

I was soooo nervous heading into this project, but man, I am loving the way these are turning out, whacha all think?

[Gregski]

now just to pull off the other one

man I apologize for the bad lighting, my garage door faces west and no matter what I do leave it open or close it I can't win

[Gregski]

I only gotz the four gauges so far ( hinted at the kids to maybe go in on a Volts gauge for my B day, fingers crossed )

[Gregski]

here I'm just testing all the holes after the welding, as things did get distorted and a bit of manual tickling with a hand file was to be had

[Gregski]

squirted some primer on 'em and called it a day

[oldman3]

Came out great...Jim

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by oldman3

Came out great...Jim

Thank you Jim, pushing the large circles to the edge makes them look funny but I was trying to squeeze out the most real estate that I could out of those factory circles, and the gauge bezels cover it all up nicely anyway

[Gregski]

well guys and gals, here we are It's Hell Week and I'm still aiming to have Busty ronnin' and drivin' by my birthday - May 25th!

Left Ta Do: (as of Saturday May 23nd, 2020)

1. ☑ Finish driver side tailpipe
2. ☑ Install sending unit & plumb fuel line
3. ☑ Install drive shaft
4. ☑ Bolt down bed floor
5. ☑ Put front clip back on
6. ☐ Wire electric fan
   
7. ☑ Replace ignition switch (a bit of scope creep)
8. ☑ Finish painting inside of cab (it was do it now or never)
9. ☐ Check / Bleed the brakes (probably just a good idea)

[8man]

Good luck with the drive! Totally agree, get it done now or it won't happen.
The gauges look good.

Oh, and the 25th is a memorial day, my dad was born then, it was a bit longer ago, 1931.

[Gregski]

a little each day - I nuked and paved the extra holige in the dash

A little Top Tip: I know logic tells us to put the backing plate on the back or the magnet on the back of the piece to hold it in place, but if you front it, it does make the piece flusher as not all 16 gauge sheet metal for example was created the same thickness and what not

[Gregski]

I am upgrading from the two position OEM ignition ie OFF and ON to the four position ACCESSORY - OFF - ON - START more modern universal ignition switch

and it really took some work to make the larger cylinder fit into the stock location as there was plenty of grindage to be done behind the scenes, I tried three different hand files before crawling my 5'11" 190 lbs butt behind the dash armed with a 4 1/2 angle grinder determined to make some fine adjustments

I also welded up the keyed notch in the round hole and made the East and West sides of it flat, man I kept burning through that paper thin dash wall, it seems like it was only that thin by the ignition and not around the other holes, yet its solid no rust at all, go figure

[Gregski]

afterwards I vacuumed all the fine metal shavings off the floor for what I hope was the final time, wiped it all down with Denatured Alcohol, and finally, and I mean finally spray bombed the firewall KRYLON gloss black to match the rest of the floor (I used two cans on the firewall and the kick panels - a dozen thin coats or so)

all this will be getting the SEM undercoating treatment as soon as it arrives, (I'm looking at you AMAZON)

massive, massive amount of work, but ladies and gentlemen who have done this so worth it, am I right?

[Gregski]

I usually find something to do in between coats as I am painting, this forces me to wait for the coats to become tacky - so the column of the steering needed attention so it got it, which involved a good green scotch bright pad scrubbin first

[8man]

The dash looks good. Nice work.

[NorCalGal]

You get stuff done, wish I could just say what year I’ll be done.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by 8man

The dash looks good. Nice work.

Thanks Robert, it's all B+ effort, ha ha

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by NorCalGal

You get stuff done, wish I could just say what year I’ll be done.

Ha ha, thanks, and I've been there with my '68 Mustang and burned out, so I learned I am capable of B+ effort and B+ results and I rather have a running and driving truck, than try to do everything perfect and never finish. This is not a knock on your build by any means, your craftsman(woman) ship is great, I just know my limitations.

Also I learned that you just forget about the imperfections over time and they bother you less and less. Not saying don't do your best folks, but does it really matter if you take the inside of your inner fenders down to bare metal or leave the OEM tar on there and just paint over it type of thing.

[texxxan]

The dash looks awesome. It has a factory look to it. That's how it should have been made back then.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by texxxan

The dash looks awesome. It has a factory look to it. That's how it should have been made back then.

Thanks bud I appreciate that, one thing I noticed is that in my home office on my desk the 2 1/16" gauges seemed tiny so I was a bit worried, but when I went to try them in the big open factory circles in the dash early on in the project I noticed just how small the cabin is, and how little real estate there actually is to work with on the dash in the cluster area in particular, so as much as I prefer the larger 2 5/8" gauges, these smaller ones will do just fine, and I still have the area in between the Speedo and the Tach for my BOOST gauge (Say What!?)

[texxxan]

Woah!! You're locked in now. Boost it is!!!!

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by texxxan

Woah!! You're locked in now. Boost it is!!!!

now I've done it

[Gregski]

here at If It Aint Orange Peel It Aint Real Auto Body we treat your Rat Rod like we would your not Rat Rod if you let us touch it, let alone paint it

[Gregski]

it was one of those lots of work and not much to show for afternoons / evenings

I ranned out of materials twice, first blue tape, so shot over to ACE right before they closed at 7 pm and bought their last roll of double wide tape I like to use, then I ranned out of the 1 mil plastic (and working with that brown paper sucked) so shot over to Home Depot and they closed at 8 pm and you guessed it, it was quarter after, so under protest ha ha went to Walmart and got what I needed

it took everything in me to convince myself not to shoot the paint tonight in the poor moon lighting, mosquitoes, humidity and the temps only dropping - so we shall paint tomorrow

and by the way when the customer asks us to paint just the dash we hear, dash, back window panel, and door jams right? always give the customer more than they wants, ha ha

[NorCalGal]

You left us with a cliff hanger.