Got it one piece at a time... 51 chev

[lower50's]

That's a GREAT door trick. I was stressing a bit because I like how my doors are adjusted now but I have to take them off to put the door seals on. THANKS

[LOW A D]

Glad I could Help! Lower 50, I read through your build yesterday, love the look of your truck!

[99 to Life]

Very nice tips fellas

[99 to Life]

I actually really dig the factory firewall, cleaned up of course. but this is really nice looking too. great job. really flows with your recess. I hate seeing a lazy recess, this sure isn't that.

[Advanced Design]

Looks really good Low. Did you use a bead roller to get the stepped edge?

[LOW A D]

Thanks guys, yes I used a bead roller around the edge to give it some rigidity and a little style

[Flysocal]

That's a really nice job on the firewall!

[LOW A D]

Thanks for all the comments and compliments! Got the firewall all welded in, just got to finish up the trans hump. I have planned to use a TF dash in an AD truck for years so today I went to cut one out of a parts truck. I wish I had remembered to take a pic of where the truck was that I got the dash out of. For all you people not living in a place with snow, you have no idea how hard it is for some of us to get parts off in winter! This truck was almost completely buried in snow! The owner luckily had a tractor and snowblower so he cleared a path to the truck and we shovelled enough that we could open one door! It was a project but I now have my dash at home. I know this has been done before but I have always liked theTF gauge cluster. Now to make it all fit!!

[Advanced Design]

The dash will be a nice modification and I think I would have been tempted to wait until the snow melted.

[lower50's]

That might be a long wait AD

[LOW A D]

It was a nice day, sunny, no wind, and temps above freezing so it was not bad getting the dash. I could not wait for spring because i need the dash for final fitting of steering column, heater, and pedal placement. One good thing about all the snow, at least there is no yard work to do so I can spend a lot of time in the shop!

[LOW A D]

Well after another 3 year break since my last post, im finally working on my truck again! Here is a pic of the dash installed in the truck. I made it removable so i can easily work on the wipers, heater, wiring etc. later

[slammed57]

nice work.. great fab work

[LOW A D]

Thanks for the compliments! I've been working on my truck almost everyday since right after christmas, I will try to post pics of what I've done. One thing that may interest some of you is what I did with my wipers. I'll try to explain it so it makes sense. I'm not too good at writing! I used the steering column out of an older Astro van, which has the wiper switch on the column. I took the electric wiper motor out of the same van. As you know, the old vacuum wipers moved in opposite directions and the motor goes back and forth. The electric motor only goes around in one direction. What I did to solve the problem is I moved the passenger wiper mount closer to the center of the windshield so that both wipers move together in the same direction. I made the wiper linkage out of some of the old parts and some of the astro van parts. If anybody is interested i can give more details. Hope this makes sense! I have done this same wiper system on at least three other trucks I've built and it works well. Doing it this way gives me a reliable electric system with intermitent wipers for almost free. I'll post some pics that hopefully will help see what i did

[Advanced Design]

Originally Posted by LOW A D

Thanks for the compliments! I've been working on my truck almost everyday since right after christmas, I will try to post pics of what I've done. One thing that may interest some of you is what I did with my wipers. I'll try to explain it so it makes sense. I'm not too good at writing! I used the steering column out of an older Astro van, which has the wiper switch on the column. I took the electric wiper motor out of the same van. As you know, the old vacuum wipers moved in opposite directions and the motor goes back and forth. The electric motor only goes around in one direction. What I did to solve the problem is I moved the passenger wiper mount closer to the center of the windshield so that both wipers move together in the same direction. I made the wiper linkage out of some of the old parts and some of the astro van parts. If anybody is interested i can give more details. Hope this makes sense! I have done this same wiper system on at least three other trucks I've built and it works well. Doing it this way gives me a reliable electric system with intermitent wipers for almost free. I'll post some pics that hopefully will help see what i did

Impressive work on the dash install. This is a great idea!

[whitedog76]

Is that a 5 cubic foot firewall?

[LOW A D]

99 to life, I'm keeping my original dash just in case i need it down the road. It is in rough shape, part of the reason i cut it out and replaced it, but you never know when you may need a piece of it! Whitedog, are you asking if the firewall started life as a wheelbarrow? It did not, I made the firewall out of a sheet of 18 ga. steel

[mongocanfly]

That turned out good AD.....I hadn't seen your build before...firewall looks great also......

[99 to Life]

looks great. plans for your old dash? I like the removable aspect.

[oldman3]

Glad to see you back, dash looks cool...Jim

[dsraven]

wow, nice sheet metal skills. good to see another "snow bound" Canadian on here too. my workspace is full of stuff that can't go outside to store because it would get buried (sometimes) or at least full of snow.
I know how it goes with projects, mine is about 11 yrs old now. hoping to get it drive-able for the summer. not done, drive-able, haha.
keep posting, it may light a fire under my, ummm, donkey.

[LOW A D]

Here you can see the original hole the wiper arm was mounted in. The new hole closer to the centre of the windshield is where I mounted it

[LOW A D]

A little hard to see but this is the electric motor and linkage set up I made

[LOW A D]

I fixed the rust on my driver side door today. This is what i started with.

Here i have the rusted inner and outer skins cut

I made the inner section and tacked it in

[LOW A D]

I bought a patch panel for the outer skin and was pleased with how well it fit. Way easier and quicker than making this patch!

All welded in, ready for filler

By the end of the day the door was finished, ready for primer