'72 Super Project: Updates!

[1972CheyenneSuper]

Originally Posted by nicklear36

Any photos to dump in here? Sounds great

What the heck, they're not showing up now? Let me try something.

*EDIT* I think we should be good now, switched to Flickr. Please let me know if they're not working.

[1972CheyenneSuper]

Next up, was trying to put the steering column back together that I had taken apart 15-16 years ago. My findings were inconclusive for a definitive step by step guide. After a couple of hours searching here, trying to decipher the various assembly manual drawings, and in the end I ended up not finding much in the way of working on a non-tilt column. While this is not a 100% everything guide, it should help the person sitting there with a pile of parts, or followed in reverse for the person that wants to make a pile of parts. I'll post this in the main group area as well.


First things, if you don't want to assemble this whole unit and have to disassemble it twice, remove the lower retainers, and fully remove the inner tube and clean all paint and old grease from the area circled in red, as well as the internal mating surfaces of what I call the shifter cup, the piece that your shift lever will attach to with the drive pin. You'll see through out this guide that the area in question is painted, yes I did end up disassembling everything and doing it twice. This area is what is going to determine how nice your shifter feel is along with the lower retainer which should be cleaned thoroughly and lightly greased.

*NOTE* These areas should be lightly greased as well as any areas in which you can see needing lubrication. I didn't document each piece I greased, as grease and using a camera alternating back and forth isn't the easiest. If it's a contact surface of metal to metal and moves, it should probably be greased.






Install the firewall seal/boot, followed by the firewall retainer/bracket.



I installed my neutral safety switch at this time, can be done really whenever though.



Install the dash grommet






Install the metal washer first, followed by the nylon washer aligning the notch with the notch in the column.



Pass the turn signal switch harness through the turn signal lever cup and through the shifter cup. Be sure to clip the harness into the little wire management clips on the switch to help route it the proper area of the column. A bundle of wire will not allow everything to seat and you will risk damaging the harness. Slide the shifter cup onto the steering column and align the notch with the inner tube notch. Remember to remove all paint and old grease from these surfaces and lubricate them.



Attach turn signal cup to shifter cup, lining up opening notches to allow it to seat fully, then rotate turn signal cup clockwise to retain on outer column shaft notches.



Install nylon washer with rubber aligning with notches on column shaft.





Install upper bearing and bearing holder onto turn signal switch. Pack upper bearing with fresh grease.





Align hazard switch with hole and push in the hazard switch to help ease install. While also feeding the wire harness through the cups, continue to work the switch into the cup.



Align with the shifter cup and install the three retaining screws.



Pictures weren't taken past this point, but the rest is fairly explanatory. Install the wire cover and secure with the bend over tabs and the dash grommet. Install your turn signal lever and shift lever when you are ready. I'm keeping mine out until I'm mostly wrapped up with interior assembly. One less thing to catch and break.

Shift lever anti-rattle boot:

This is the only source for the small rubber boot that I have been able to find. Happened to stumble across it.

https://www.classicparts.com/1967-74...info/91%2D108/


Hopefully this helps at least one person. If I missed a similar guide, please correct but I searched high and low within my abilities.

[1972CheyenneSuper]

Next up was re-installing the factory headliner. I wasn't too crazy about using contact cement and having to try to build some sort of crazy plate and post system to hold it while it dried. So I elected to use some "industrial" strength Velcro. Not sure how how industrial it is as I got it at Home Depot, but worst case it doesn't' work and I get to redo and glue. Although after installing it, it seems to be strong stuff. Middle of summer heat and sun will be the test of that though.







Also installed the cargo light and rear paint divider trim.



Many hours were spent running the painless harness and the Terminator X harness and co-linking the necessary circuits. Decided to go with the ecm under the passenger side bucket seat. I didn't want to go up under the dash and it wasn't quite long enough to reach the removed fuel tank area which would've been my first choice. I also thought about maybe in the center console, but I felt this was the best choice. Everything will be able to access fairly reasonably. I annealed and bent a piece of aluminum to raise it up some and help hide it from view. I also wanted to be able to vacuum easily and not collect debris.

[1972CheyenneSuper]

Since I wasn't going to be running an in cab fuel tank, I thought maybe I would hack one up to have a space to install wiring, future air ride stuff, or whatever. Either way, I needed something with some structure to attach the rear carpet too. Hindsight being what it is, all of the new replacement carpets aren't made to attach to the factory metal below the window, but rather with some sort of hanging cleat system. That's a problem for another day, but I ended up making a back panel out of mdf board. I fit the old tank to see what the factory angle looked like and decided to match the angle of the rear window ledge. I should gain a little room behind the seats. I hadn't planned on doing much of a sound system, but we're here and everything is out in the open and the painless harness came with speaker wires back here, so here we go. The larger holes will be for speakers and be somewhat hidden by the seats with the small holes being handholes for reaching in. They have wooden plugs to seal back up. I wanted to raise the panel up enough to be able to pass a few more wires and hoses underneath and be able to tuck the carpet into. I made some small brackets out of bent flat iron with a welded angle to accomplish this. These bolt into the factory gas tank holes. The top is mdf stacked on the back to acheive the desired angle with a countersunk hole matching up to the factory holes as well.







Found out a 60-66 filler neck is available as a separate piece as they have a short piece of rubber connecting to the tanks on those trucks. It seems to have plenty of friction on the gasket and the collar will keep it from receding.





Next up, the infamous Counterpart dashpads. I did hit mine with the matching colorbond paint I used on my other interior pieces as the color that it came in was a very solid bright blue. It needed to be a hair darker with a hint of metallic. After a little research, I learned that having to slot the screw holes is par for the course with these things, and a couple of hours of tedious filing, we installed. I tightened the bottom screws first and then slowly worked the top studs/nuts with frequent checking from the front to make I wasn't distorting the metal plate and causing it to get wavy. I think it looks as good as it can for being a reproduction piece and having a dozen attachment points.





I don't have any photos of the AM radio restoration, but just a run of the mill ebay acquisition. Dissassembled, cleaned and polished up best as possible. It happens to work so I bought a cheap speaker and will have it functional, but nothing much more to say about that. Will be adapting wiper knobs to fit because the stereo knobs are ridiculously priced imo.

[Tip70]

velcro is a great idea for the headliner! I used a bunch of magnets for mine. I was worried the first bump it was going to fall on my head. But so far so good!

[1972CheyenneSuper]

Originally Posted by Tip70

velcro is a great idea for the headliner! I used a bunch of magnets for mine. I was worried the first bump it was going to fall on my head. But so far so good!

Magnet's would be good too! I've been thinking about using some for the gas tank carpet in some capacity.

[1972CheyenneSuper]

Alright, this post will get us pretty much up to speed as the truck sits. Last weekend, I started the install of the Gen 5 Vintage Air unit. I was faced with the dilemma of rebuilding the factory system or going aftermarket. I decided to go with the newer unit which is a bit more straightforward (I think) than the older system with all of the vacuum operated diaphragms and cables. With the new Gen 5, Vintage Air doesn't supply the cable conversion kit to use with the stock A/C controls. Maintaining that stock look is fairly important to me, as I like the look of the factory controls more than any other available pieces. They supply their own control panel with the Gen 5 as they have said they have clearance issues with the converted controls. I could've have tried to find a nos Gen 4 system that supposedly is more friendly with the converted controls, but I like a good challenge. They were able to substitute the cable converters in lieu of the VA control panel. More to come on the controls later, still a work in progress.

Everyone by now is familiar with the flat panels that come with aftermarket A/C units, that help "clean up" the firewall and facilitate the hose routing, whether they've done it to their own truck or have seen them at car shows. I'm going to be attempting something a little different, that I've only seen on a few other builds. I want to retain the original "suitcase" housing, if for no other reason than to maintain a little originality. I really do like the trucks with nice shaved firewalls and the foresight to fill all the unused firewall opens and unused screw holes. I however did not have the time to do so with the timeline I was working with last fall. To add to that, that was never my plan anyways. The idea will be to at first glance appear to a factory appearing system, but in reality, it will be a hollow hose chase and a place for the VA heater valve. Being in the middle of winter here, it is also basically impossible to tool up to prime, base coat, and clear coat one part.

I started by lining up the factory holes that both pieces did share and drilled the remainder from the factory box through the VA plate, I trimmed any outlying material from the plate to match the factory box shape. Once that was done, I siliconed the back of the plate as directed by VA as if it was being installed per instructions and bolted it to the truck overnight along with the factory box to help clamp it into place. The next day I was able to remove the factory box and continue working on the system. Some new sealing foam on the factory suitcase and a new blower motor seal and I was able to finalize the left portion of the box that you see here. A few rivnuts here and there are required as well. The VA wiring grommet luckily ends up between the evaporator core and the blower motor compartment and was easy to feed wires through. Since the right half of the suitcase just bolts together, it will be able to act as an easy access to the hose connections and heater valve. I still have to make some sort of plug to block the air passage from the cowl into the suitcase. A dummy blower motor will be installed as well.

[1972CheyenneSuper]

Well, not the most productive week, just finally recovering from this sick bug. Worked on the bucket seats most of last week at night in the house. Discovered that one of the seats had two upper covers on it, kinda odd. The covers are from Cars Inc. I had ordered them a couple of winters ago, but with the wait time, they came in the middle of summer, so they were shelved with the intention of being a winter project. I added a layer of 3/4" foam to the bottoms, maybe needed more in a few spots, but they were a little difficult to work with, having the extra rods and clips in the middle to "shape" the indented portions. I didn't realize these were in there until I started disassembling. I ended up fishing pieces of thermostat wire through to pull the clips onto the rods, which worked good. A little time in the sun this summer and I'll think they'll work the wrinkles out. A little trickier than the large bench seats I've done before. Also got my speaker grills painted and a couple of other interior pieces since we had a little warmer weather.

I will be stuffing a small piece from the old seat covers into the small area where the seat back meets the seat bottom, for some reason, there just wasn't quite enough material in that area.

[loudchevy]

Awesome job and I'm impressed you've stuck with it over all the years!

[nicklear36]

Great pictures on the steering column assembly. I already forgot how to put mine back together!

[1972CheyenneSuper]

Originally Posted by loudchevy

Awesome job and I'm impressed you've stuck with it over all the years!

Thank you! I've accumulated a few other projects over the years, but I gave myself an ultimatum that I had to finish this before I start another serious project. Definitely had many times I wanted to pack it in.

Originally Posted by nicklear36

Great pictures on the steering column assembly. I already forgot how to put mine back together!

Thanks, I ripped mine apart 17 years ago and I had five ziplocks of parts to show for it. I just couldn't find much love for diagrams or a one stop source for re-assembling non-tilt columns. Hopefully it helps many people.

[1972CheyenneSuper]

Been busy the last couple of weeks. Finally decided on what to do for accessory brackets and decided on the ICT brackets with a lower alternator to try to keep the bulky look down some. The Holley mid-mount setup is nice, but pricey. A little epoxy and they blend in pretty good I think. I've spent hours researching coolant sensors for LS swaps and weighed all of the options and have decided I'm most likely going to run factory gauges. I came across these, which I hadn't seen before. Not sure what the temperature, ohm range is, but it'll make the gauge work, and I won't have to switch to a 3 wire F-body sender and reroute any wiring. Temp Sender - Ebay

I'll have the Terminator handheld to view the most correct temperature anyways.







I tried using the velcro to attach the gas tank carpet to the mdf board, but that didn't work too well, ended up using spray adhesive. I did use the hook portion on the top painted portion though where the factory screw holes are located. I wasn't aware that the new repo stuff wasn't intended to mount that high, but rather clip on the gas tank. So I seam ripped the plastic clips off, and stuck the top portion to the velcro and it seemed to work really good.



I ordered up some black belts, just to get something in and establish the holes before the seats and console went in. Might convert to three points in the future, but just wanted to keep things moving, rather than waiting for color swatches and going back and forth.

The carpet does have a little flub that I couldn't work all the way out where it is supposed to curve back around the in cab tank, but with it being behind the seat, it's really not too evident. A flat piece of carpet with just a nice hemmed top seam would've worked nearly perfect.



I also did velcro, down the sides of the door pillars and it worked real great, just rolling the excess carpet in nicely. It makes it easy to re-access and with the speaker hole I can reach the molding hardware and door stuff easy enough.



I ended up figuring out where to put my bluetooth amp and it ended up being in a pretty easy to reach location, but hidden. I simply took the 5/16" nut off some sort of column bolt, which I don't remember what it is for, but replaced it with a coupling nut and made a little bracket with some riv-nuts for the ground and the cluster ground when the time comes. I was going to try to mount it closer to the dash and use one of those larger holes on the bottom edge with a deluxe knob like the wiper or radio would have, but this is super easy to reach under and turn on or off.





And finally, Saturday I was able to hang the first piece of metal back on. Alot of yellow tape and nerves. 1/8" alignment holes saved the day, definitely would've banged something up without them. I dissassembled my two original doors to start taking an assessment of what were going to need. I want to get them fully loaded, before I think about hanging fenders, just in case I have to compensate for the weight a little bit, although my rebuilt hinges are pretty solid. I'm going to focus on the doors, then more engine compartment stuff before we bring more shiny stuff onto the chassis. That's all for this go around.

[1972CheyenneSuper]

Another weekend gone by with a decent amount of progress. Hung the driver side door, installed trim handle, got the latch plate set. As on the other side, I left the bucket seat out to aid the trim and latch install in the b pillar area of the cab through the speaker hole. After that was complete, I was able to seal up this side of the gas tank carpet and install the driver side bucket. Finished up the glovebox install, with a modified latch arm. You can see this thread to see the interference in fitment in conjunction with the Vintage Air system and the ducting. Got a lot of parts showing up in the next couple of weeks. All of the parts to load the doors, alot of engine stuff, etc.

[nicklear36]

Awesome two-tone paint color

[1972CheyenneSuper]

Originally Posted by nicklear36

Awesome two-tone paint color

Thanks, I've been back and forth with myself since I picked it, as it's hard to beat the traditional medium blue/white, red/white, or any of the factory two tones really. But I have really grown to like it.

What was supposed to be a highly productive weekend was medium productive due to some logistical issues with parts ordered for this weekend's work. Namely left parts in right parts packaging, in the case of a door relay and a vent window handle kit. The vendor has been good to clear it up, but waiting two weeks for parts and another for its replacement wasn't conducive to accomplish what we set out for. That being said, this weekend's work was to have both doors fully built. Vent windows, well if you know, you know. They suck. Only tonight had I read through some threads on here and learned some of that in hindsight stuff. All of my rubber stuff up to this point has been Precision, which has mostly been fairly decent to work with. I do believe there may be a better vent window rubber option out there, but we have to work with what we have at this point. I did do myself one injustice here, and that was not test fitting all of these components into the re-pop doors. I think a little massaging could've been done prior to paint, but at this stage I'm going to settle for no paint chips or scratches. After reading some others' experiences I am fine with my end result.

Not much too see here, the only picture I took during the process, too annoyed to stop and take pictures.



Passenger side door: I got the sport mirrors mounted. Was able to fit the door relay and latch mechanisms, door lock, window regulator, re-seat the new door glass and get it in the door. Currently waiting for RH vent window handle to show up to finish vent window to finish door assembly.



Driver side door: Waiting for LH door relay, I was able to install everything else in the door.



End result of the vent window seal and the beltline moldings. I understand the vent window rubber to be tucked. I didn't really see an official answer for the beltline molding, and most of it had been rolled in when it snapped into place. I was trying to keep the lip up top but I was too busy watching the paint to keep track of what the rubber was doing. I ended up pushing the rest in up to the vent window frame leaving a little flap. I don't think it looks too bad. At this point I'm afraid to try to unseat the whole length out and I really don't think it matters because the rubber on the other side of the strip that imo should be sealing against the glass has a sizable gap. I really am not impressed with the situation, but based on what I've read, the insides of these doors are aqueducts in the rain. I don't foresee this truck seeing much rain, but I've got the interiors shot pretty full of cavity wax so hopefully we'll be ok.



Finally decided on a radiator last week and ended up with a Champion LS. Ordered some other engine parts, which we'll be tackling after these doors are done. I'll be spraying this and several other parts with black epoxy, just need the weather to turn around here. After a couple weeks of springlike weather in the 50's, we're back down into the single digits with 6" of snow on the ground again.

[cornerstone]

Love the colors!

[Louisvillekytruck]

Beautiful truck

[1972CheyenneSuper]

Originally Posted by cornerstone

Love the colors!

Originally Posted by Louisvillekytruck

Beautiful truck

Thanks fellas!

[wpsharpshooter]

I dont hate this color combo at all... This thing looks really sharp..

[1972CheyenneSuper]

Well, after a few good months of progress and since my last update, and 17 years of on and off work this story has a little finality. I didn't quite have a chance to slowly update the build thread as intended, but that worked out better for progress on the truck. I'm just going to do a picture dump, throw in a few key notes, spare everyone the long story and get to it. I don't quite have the time to do a full write up on everything depicted, so if any further elaboration is needed, please ask. It's a been a journey for sure, and would've been impossible without some great help from family, friends, YouTube university, and of course this forum.



Reproduction jamb sticker by Jeff @ https://outintheshop.com/ Excellent service and quality.



I ended up having to run a throttle body spacer to gain more vacuum ports as the Holley intake only has one. This required sectioning the air cleaner to "drop" it back down again so it wouldn't look so goofy.

[1972CheyenneSuper]

Oil Pressure gauge conversion using squarebody sender and gauge.

[Louisvillekytruck]

Beautiful truck

[1972CheyenneSuper]

Originally Posted by Louisvillekytruck

Beautiful truck

Thank you!

[lolife99]

Absolutely beautiful.

[loudchevy]

Looks fantastic! Nice job.