Markeb01 Build Thread

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by markeb01

There's a Camaro sponsored open show on the 10th at Mirabeau Park here in the Valley, and the next weekend is Goodguys at the fairgrounds in Spokane. If everything works out we're also planning on attending Bob's car show in Newport on Monday, September 2nd (Labor Day).

I will talk to the wife about this show at Mirabeau... we may pop on by !!
Going to be in town tonight at midnight !!

[LostMy65]

Originally Posted by markeb01

Well I pulled the mat back out and matched it up with the original. Still leaving a generous amount of surplus I trimmed 3” off the leading edge, and 7” out of the center over the firewall hump. The fit is now within a hand grenades range, but still needs a lot of trimming to fit correctly. At least it's starting to look like I have the correct mat for the truck now.



I’m not sure if it’s a good or bad thing but I lost my white crayon which is critical for anymore trimming, so that will be it for tonight. I feel like I’ve been wrestling a gorilla. Carpet certainly would have been a lot easier!

If you were to do it again, would you had done carpet instead?
I've been tempted to get the same mat as you, but cut it the same as the original - where it only covers the front portion of the cab, not under the seat.
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[markeb01]

Originally Posted by LostMy65

If you were to do it again, would you had done carpet instead?
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I am completely satisfied with the mat, it is everything I had hoped for. It covers the entire floor, cleans up easily, and looks very attractive. It shows no wear of any kind. I'm not sure I can honestly answer your question however, because now I do know how much work it requires. It's brutally difficult to install and I'm too old and worn out to tackle the amount of effort it takes ever again.

I can truthfully say if it ever has to be replaced I'll never install another one. I'll either go with carpet, or leave the portion under the seats and install another stock replacement mat instead. I don't care for carpet in the truck because it retains too much dirt. I preferred the convenience of the original rubber mat so I could remove the floor pan for transmission work, but the MIP is so good looking I'm hopeful it will outlast me so I'll never have to make the choice.

[markeb01]

Darned if that chrome plate didn’t pop out on one corner of the new Mr. Gasket boot, so I pulled the boot back out and after scrubbing the upper interior of the plate cavity with alcohol, it was covered with a liberal coating of 3M clear silicone adhesive and the plate reinserted. It takes 24 hours for full cure, so it won’t be going back in until tomorrow.

Before pulling the boot I realized it tends to lean to the passenger side as there is no support on the right side of the stick. So I elected to slice up the old adapter into a support piece that would match the top of the main adapter. Using a 4” angle grinder with a metal cutting abrasive blade, it took about 20 minutes to turn it into the piece shown here on the passenger side of the stick:



The angles look a little off due to optics as the new piece hadn’t been painted yet, but it matches the profile of the left piece and contacts the top center of the boot evenly. The only portion that touches the boot is the narrow edge directly above the bolts. The grommet on top is used to lift the boot up enough to cover the portion of the stick that was heated for bending, which stained the chrome.

I truly am running out of ideas to make any other refinements. Rather than squandering more money on the truck itself, my next investment may be a GoPro camera so I can better capture the sound effects and hopefully produce more interesting/artistic video posts.

[DouglasRaymond]

The Gopro camera is a good choice. I recently read the whole thread and like your work and truck. I recommend a Steptoe/Kamiak Butte Fall drive. Maybe a Coug football game.
The Palouse still strikes a chord for me. I used to tour it in my 65 C 10.

[markeb01]

Sounds good to me. Since we're both retired now, doing substantially more cruising is much higher on the list than in the last few years.

[markeb01]

Collecting custom shift knobs has been a lifelong hobby that started for me at about age 13. The first knob I ever bought on my own was a chrome Cal Custom ball that I promptly installed on the family 52 Oldsmobile. My dad removed it just as quickly when it was discovered the added weight caused the transmission to unexpectedly drop into the next lower gear!

Before I handed most of the collection over to my oldest son, I had an assortment of knobs and T-Handles that covered just about everything Cal Custom, Hurst, Peterbilt, and a few other brands ever made. One that always evaded me was a high quality blue metalflake knob. I finally picked one up at a car show a couple years ago and have been very happy with it. It’s not easy to photograph being so highly reflective. In real life it there are no black specks, just transparent blue with silver flakes embedded.



Eventually it became evident a shift pattern needed to be added, but I couldn’t find anybody local capable of doing the work.

And one disappointment common to all transparent shift knobs, is the magnified view of the hole bored in the knob for the threaded adapter fittings. In the correct light this “feature” can look huge. It turns out knobs ordered directly from Epco can have a smaller hole drilled for the insert at no extra charge, simply by asking for it (which I did)..

Here’s the bottom of my current knob, showing the “master” insert which is 16mm wide, with a 3/18-16 insert threaded into it:



And these next images show how big the bore hole looks from outside. The lighting is highly exaggerated as I’m shining a high powered flashlight directly at or behind the ball:





The new knob will only have the smaller 3/8-16 insert, so it should look much smaller when looking into the interior of the knob.

And I received good news this morning - I placed the order for the new shift knob last Monday 7/29. Normal lead time is two weeks, but the knob is shipping today - Friday of the same week! Just in time for the upcoming car shows we will be attending.

[Bomp]

Great to know you'll be at the show.
95% sure I'll be there too.
Have to meet up and say hi.
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[markeb01]

Originally Posted by Bomp

Great to know you'll be at the show.
95% sure I'll be there too.
Have to meet up and say hi.
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Sounds like a plan, look forward to meeting you! If you come in the front gate we're usually off to the upper left area where most of the trees are.

[markeb01]

For the few members that haven’t yet been bored to tears with gearshift knob info, the new EPCO metalflake 4 speed knob showed up today. It’s really beautiful, perfectly round, and exactly as requested. The pattern is perfect and the insert is the smaller 3/8-16 size. Old knob on the left, new knob on the right (I parked both knobs on a couple of bottle caps to hold them steady):



The core hole on the new knob is nearly invisible inside the knob both because of the smaller diameter, and also because this ball came out a bit darker than the other one:



As EPCO advertises no two are exactly alike. I like both equally. The old ball was more electric blue while the new version is more like a dark Navy blue.

In direct bright light they both look nearly the same color:



But in normal ambient they look more like this:



EPCO provides the biggest jamb nut I’ve ever seen for a shift knob. I’m sure it was meant to protect the knob where it contacts the nut, but wow! That would be uncomfortable.



So instead, I used the Hurst nut mounted upside down, after I rounded off the sharp corner indicated by the arrow. I threaded a stud unto the nut and chucked it in a power drill which was run against a D/A sander. The corner is now nice and smooth. The nut portion is so thin it can’t be detected against the ball when shifting gears, and the smoothed corner of the nut/sleeve just feels like part of the shifter stick.

That’s it for today. Two car shows over the new two weekends, so just running the check list to make sure everything is cleaned, filled, or loaded up. I just found out there’s also a car show down in Rockford, WA this Saturday. If for any reason the Mirabeau show doesn’t work out we may head down there.

[Ta2Don]

Hey Mark, really like the look of the Epco knob, and your detailed explanations are what keeps me checking out your thread, AWESOME!

Here's the knob I rock in my DD...


Here's the Epco knob I plan to order for my '65, Personalized with my Holy Fire Customz logo...





Just thought I'd share this with you and the followers of your build!

Thanks again for the Epco tip...

[66-PMD-GMC]

I had a metal skull gear shift knob back in the 70's.. can't recall what ever happened to it... :-/

[markeb01]

Originally Posted by Ta2Don

Hey Mark, really like the look of the Epco knob, and your detailed explanations are what keeps me checking out your thread, AWESOME!

Here's the knob I rock in my DD...


Here's the Epco knob I plan to order for my '65, Personalized with my Holy Fire Customz logo...




Just thought I'd share this with you and the followers of your build!

Thanks again for the Epco tip...

You DD knob looks nice and comfy. EPCO does embedments too, so you shouldn't have any problem having your artwork, or a carving or something placed inside. It would be cool if you could have that logo cast in pewter.

Originally Posted by 66-PMD-GMC

I had a metal skull gear shift knob back in the 70's.. can't recall what ever happened to it... :-/

One of my best ever was a Chevy knob – the bottom 2/3 was black, the top 1/3 was clear with a bowtie and the word Chevy inside. Not sure what ever happened to that either.

Thanks for your ongoing visits and comments!

[Vernski]

Somebody say skull not the greatest pictures but you get the idea..Vernski

[markeb01]

Tomorrow is the first day of early registration for the Goodguys show this weekend. I’m already preregistered, so we’ll head over in the morning and pick up our packet & windshield sticker.

I washed the truck this evening for the first time since the car show in early July. It reminds me why I love Blitz Black paint. The truck has been covered in bug guts and cooking in above 90 degree temperatures for almost 2 months and the stuff just washed right off.

I’ve also been missing the Moon Equipped decals on the front fenders almost since I took them off. I had another set that were marred, but some light attention with a can of wax made them look perfect so they went back on this evening. It never really showed, but the front fenders had some light residue left behind from the previous decals making it super easy to locate and align the new ones exactly as before.

I’m hoping to have some decent open exhaust video to post by next Monday.

[piratexpress1369a]

have a great time at the show

[Ta2Don]

Enjoy the show, looking forward to the Pics that are sure to follow!!!

[markeb01]

Thanks guys! We did indeed have a great time this morning, and we’ll be going back for most of tomorrow. We arrived around 8:15 and hung for over 5 hours which is a long stretch for me.

I was surprised by the large turnout for a Friday. There was around 70% of the regular volume of cars in attendance for a normal Saturday event. I imagine it will be cram packed tomorrow:



On a quick trip through the “Good Gals” area on the way to get more Moon decals, I spotted a moose table. My squeeze collects such things, and with her birthday coming up in a week, I grabbed it up before it walked away. It stood guard in the passenger seat the rest of the event:



And here’s my cowgirl sweet heart having a good time as always:



There were only two other 60-66’s in attendance. The super long panel truck made another appearance, with a substantially lower price:





And this beauty from Montana with a fully louvered hood:



It has a nicely detailed big block and overdrive trans:



And unknown (to me) five spoke wheels:



Here’s a close up of the hood:



On the way home several miles from the fairgrounds we spotted a flat black 1961 short stepside, so perhaps he’ll be at the event tomorrow and I’ll be able to add some more photos.

And for those interested in video, here’s a parade lap around the fairgrounds. The cutouts sound way better in real life than they do on my cheap Chinese dash cam. Next year I will definitely have a GoPro instead. Too much of the “mechanical music” is being wasted by the present equipment.

The cam sounds far more radical than it is and there’s no doubt the exhaust note commands attention from onlookers. It is a real head turner with the pipes open.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zuou_...ature=youtu.be

More to follow.

[likaroc13]

Good to see you guys out having fun together. Nice pics of the 60-66 stuff, & hopefully more to come tomorrow. The moose table looks pretty neat riding shotgun, haha.

And that engine is screaming, "Get out of the way people, I'm coming through!"

[Ta2Don]

Thanx for the Parade Lap

Even with the chinese cam, the Cam and the Gear Drive sound Mean!!!

Have a Great Weekend Mark!

[markeb01]

Saturday was a great day. We got to hang out with McMurphy & wife, Bomp & wife, and Captainfab. I also got to meet several other forum members and regular visitors to the site. A few more 60-66 Chevy trucks also showed up:

This is the supercharged long bed with the glass bed cover that first appeared a year or two ago:





Here’s another attempt to capture the beauty of the paint, which doesn’t come close to the appearance in real life:



I believe this was originally purchased by the grandfather of the current owner:



Here’s one sporting 54 Chevy BelAir wheel covers setting on the ground:





And some details of the rear suspension:

[markeb01]

And a few more. Here’s an in-progress chopped top with a healthy sounded engine:









A very clean 64-66 with lots of shiny stuff:

[Ta2Don]

Jealous to say the least...

Glad you Guyz and Galz had a great time!!!

[Alan's Classic]

Very cool y'all got together! Thanks for the pics
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[Jmorales3181]

Originally Posted by Alan's Classic

Very cool y'all got together! Thanks for the pics
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X2 wish I could make it to one of those shows!
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