Just another old truck.

[Clarance J]

Well here it is 8 days into a new year. I've been wanting to do this change for along time now. As with most of these trucks my air boxes were rusted out. Since I wanted to fill the cowl vent this was a good excuse to cut the boxes out. But I was not sure how I was going to do this. (Vent fill). My first attempt was to try and flatten the louvers and tack weld them together. That was a big mistake. It did not work. Now this is why I'm glad that I found this site. After looking at hundreds of patch panels that everybody has put into their trucks it just seemed like it was the way to fix and fill my cowl area. I've done a lot of things to my truck over the years but never a patch panel install. So here's my second try.

[SCHRUMGMC]

Saw a truck on my local CL that has the same exact color scheme, but it was a gmc..Looking nice

[Clarance J]

Now that I've got all the inserts in I can start the finish welds and the grinding. That will be done some time this week. One of the things that helped me the most forming the curves was a sand bag that I made. I don't know why I was so worried about welding in patch panels but I'm glad I got that behind me. More patches in my future.

[Clarance J]

Originally Posted by SCHRUMGMC

Saw a truck on my local CL that has the same exact color scheme, but it was a gmc..Looking nice

Hey SCHRUMGMC I think that is my long lost twin brother. Or maybe a distant cousin. That was different 30 years ago. Thanks

Clarance J aka Earl

[Kim57]

Looking good.
When I did mine I ended up doing one large piece for the entire length.
Kim

[Clarance J]

Is there such a thing as patch panel phobia? Thank you Kim57. I saw your cowl fill posts and how you did it and liked it but it was my own self doubt in my abilities to do that. But after putting it off for so long and the job would not cooperate with me and do it itself I decided to take the panel fill direction. It came out real well. So with that accomplished I'm starting more patch panels on body (which should have been done first) and lower front fenders. Luckily there isn't much to replace. Having owned Clarance J for so many years I kept most of the debris out of the cab corners. The biggest job is and will be the door bottoms. Got drivers door started. So I guess I'm on the road to better mental health. Thanks to all for how to's how not to's.

[Baldeagle SR]

Clarance I think you will find most patch panels will be easier than doing your cowl panels. Rich
my build
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=576185

[Clarance J]

Well it's been several months since I've posted much. Last time on here I was concerned about patch panels.
Rich, you are right. I've been busy welding in the patches in my cab front where I took out the vent boxes. The flat pieces were first and the bottom rusted out holes I had to bend and form the patches. It all came out good. Made some arm rests, did some cleaning, drove it to the hardware store a couple of times, and ran out of gas, luckily right in front of the house. So now I know that my gauge is off. Gotta check that. Just today I put my shifter that I have been working on back in the truck.

[Clarance J]

Next thing I have to do is my new seat belts. Oops, didn't resize that one.

[SCHRUMGMC]

I can't place it, but your truck reminds me of something

Love the progress

[Denee007]

you are so creative!

[Kim57]

Looks real cool.
Kim

[_Ogre]

nice work on the shifter

[Baldeagle SR]

Coming along nicely.
Rich

[Clarance J]

First of all I'd like to say thank you to everyone. This post today is an experiment. I got this new tablet about two months ago and I'm still learning what it can do. Right now I'm sitting in my truck in a parking lot miles from home waiting for my wife to return from her doctor visit.
This week I finally got my seat belts installed. Had to fab the anchor points. As usual that was the fun part. Always in good mood when mind and hands are busy.
So here is what I started with. Bought the belts from Retro belts in Henderson NV. Thru Jegs. Very nice.
Just scrap metal I had. 2x1.5 box tubing. Drilled 1/2 holes on one side 7/ 16 on the other.
My wifes back ,gotta go. More later.

[Clarance J]

Ok I'm back home. With hack saw and grinder I cut out the four pieces that I needed. (Material is .125). Next was .250x2.0 bar stock cut 2in long. Ground radius so there is no sharp edges to worry over. X marks the spot. (3" from step, 9.25" from inside cab wall). 7/16 bolt thru bracket, sheetmetal, .250 plate. Then cut carpet to fit over.

[Clarance J]

And last bolting the belts to brackets. I used two colors of belt because 1) I could, 2) color contrast, 3) less confusion with center seat belts.
Picture of plate under floor and another of my third hand while under truck tighting bolts.
And finally belts bolted to brackets and with seat back in place.

While I was putting the belts in I thought of all the years and miles I have driven this truck and never concidered seat belts. After driving all my other vehicles with belts I'm glad that after 44 years I got this done.

Earl aka Clarance J

[Baldeagle SR]

Nice work on the seat belts. I am lazy ,I just used angle iron for my brackets that I had lying around.
Rich
my build http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=576185

[Kim57]

Nice clean install.
I like the contrasting colors.
Kim

[Clarance J]

Well its been over 140 days since I've posted any progress on CJ. First, thank you Rich and Kim.
I took my truck out yesterday and on one of my stops I saw this. Just had to take a picture. The new speedometer just went over 103 miles on the way home so now I know he has a couple of hundred miles. He was on the road awhile before I put the new speedo cable in. The 327 humms right along.

[Kim57]

Cool pic.
Glad it's running good.
Kim

[Baldeagle SR]

It is good to see it is running fine. Rich

[Clarance J]

Yes sir me too. Thanks again. Its just been about the last 50 miles that I finally got the timing set right. I don't know whats different about this motor that has been troubling me. I've had this motor since 1975 with stock point ignition and all I've ever done is set it to stock specs and ran it for years that way. This time I added pointless ignition by Accel and the coil (8140c) to eliminate the resistor. It ran fine the first two weeks then one day it started to back fire and then died completely. I was lucky that a man named John stopped and pulled me home the last mile. I found out that the coil had burned out so I went back to the stock points system. This is where the problem took a different turn. I adjusted and set everything just like I had done dozens of times but I had this stumble and balk off idle or acceleration. I put a new Edelbrock 1406 carb on this build so I checked the adjustments again, float level, all the things that you check that you think you might have missed or got wrong. No luck. I had to come at this from a different direction. Got on the net and started searching and found something that I had heard about but never was concerned about. You all know it as total timing. Ok. I checked the new dampner to make sure the marks were correct, marked the pulley at 34, took the springs out of the distributor for it to advance, started the motor, took it up to about 2000 rpms and set it there. I had never set timing like that before but had nothing to lose. Put everything back together, reconnected vacuum line, checked stock timing again and it was all good. Who woodah thunk. No problems since.

[Denee007]

Wow, great deductive reasoning! Don't you love it when reasoning something out?! I love the pic of CJ in the mirror
dne'

[Stepside Jim]

Cool mirror pic. Ok, ok, show of hands........ who here has driven though town and looked to see your reflection in the large windows as you drove by? LOL.

Oops both my hands went up.