Project Pancho Villa - 1978 SWB

[bigblock73]

Great looking progress!!! Thanks for the pics and kind words on the speaker brackets, glad you like them.

[bigblock73]

I know it is a little late now, but I have a suggestion for you. Instead of carpeting the rear cab panel, carpet a thin piece of plywood (or similar material), and run it speaker bracket to speaker bracket, and all the way to the bottom of the "bump" below the back window. You could also cut the wood so it runs above the speaker brackets following the curve of the cab corner on each side of the cab. This would give you a nice smooth finished look, and cover up the mounting tabs on the brackets.

This is how I am doing mine, and I think it will look real nice.

Regardless, yours still looks nice as is.

[JohnC]

Interior is looking amazing man. I'll look forward to hearing what you have to say about the fat mat. I would rather hear it from someone I know, and is using it in the same type of vehicle, for the same purpose that I will. That will give me a real good assessment.

Now more than ever is the time to pay attention to the details. Taking the extra time that you are to make sure and route everything right will pay off for years to come.

[BruthaMan]

Thanks guys. Started the morning off with another trip. This time to Tractor Supply (love that store!).

I appreciate the advice....reminds me to not cut any corners!

Mounted the Painless wiring main module this morning. That was the easy part. Wanted to get it in, to run the wiring for the dome light and dimmer switch, along with power window stuff, before we lay the carpet in.

Had to order a replacement circuit for the tach gauge set I plan to use. Hopefully be here this week and can get those in.

It's getting closer!

[jgh64pkup]

the interior looks great

[glock35ipsc]

WOW, what an awesome build! Not sure how I missed this one, but it is coming together very quickly and looking great. Fantastic job!

[bigbadjohn84]

Man that is gonna be one sweet truck. nice stereo, strict attention to details.. man. that's sweeeet

[EJC78]

Hows the truck coming along? Hope all is well.

[BruthaMan]

On hold again, for at least another week or two.

Had to take some time out to add some new features to my software products, hadn't updated them in a while. Should keep the customers happy for another six months or so, so I can get back to working on the truck.

[menace121978]

damn that thing called work... ill be back next week myself

[JohnC]

What kind of software do you have?

[BruthaMan]

Originally Posted by menace121978

damn that thing called work... ill be back next week myself

I really should be out there this week. Highs in the Low 80s this week...in the middle of July??? So much for global warming!

Originally Posted by JohnC

What kind of software do you have?

I develop/sell software for Ebay and Amazon affiliate programs.

It's been very kind to me over the past few years.

[JohnC]

Originally Posted by BruthaMan

I really should be out there this week. Highs in the Low 80s this week...in the middle of July??? So much for global warming!

Come to Oklahoma! It's was nice last week. Suppose to rain all this week so that is good. This time of year we are usually in the 100's with around 90%+ humidity.

Originally Posted by BruthaMan

I develop/sell software for Ebay and Amazon affiliate programs.

It's been very kind to me over the past few years.

Yeah I can tell from this build thread!

[BruthaMan]

Originally Posted by JohnC

Yeah I can tell from this build thread!

Doing my part to redistribute the wealth in my own way

I'll pass on that humidity, thanks! Spent almost three years at Fort Sill. The humidity there was brutal.

[bigbadjohn84]

Originally Posted by BruthaMan

Doing my part to redistribute the wealth in my own way

I'll pass on that humidity, thanks! Spent almost three years at Fort Sill. The humidity there was brutal.

Hey if you need any help on the distrubution, I think I can lend ya a hand

[menace121978]

at john cause i was thinking the same thing!!

[DBLSPRT68]

This truck is coming together very nice. Subscribed to this thread so I can keep up. I hope to do this with my truck one day!

[diamondave]

Very nice build... you seem to be very miticulas (sp?) at you work on this.. always believe if your going to do it... do it right the first time...

My customers feel the need to do it wrong and then I do it right for them... thats my 99.9% of my job...

[EJC78]

Wade where are you? I need my fix already!!!

[BruthaMan]

Thanks everyone. I plan to pick back up next month (September) as it will start to cool down here. I'm still updating products and building a new website for my online business. It needs to be done and would rather do it when it's hot, so I can refocus on the build when things start to cool down a bit.

[JohnC]

Hey glad to see you could take a break and at least pop in and say hi. Just giving you a hard time man. Can't wait for updates.

[bigbadjohn84]

oh yea. that's what I am waiting on too. oh yea, that and money. lol keep on keepin on!

[menace121978]

hey Bruthaman! how things going?? i wanted to get some feedback on the painless kit you got and see how your doing? i'm starting my cab now

[Mr.Scary]

All i can say is wow!!!! i just read this build thread and you are doin an amazing job on this truck!!! and 4 a great cause as well. this truck is going 2 b brand new when u are done wit it. I can't wait 2 c more pics and progress soon. Keep up tha good work and please more pics.....

[BruthaMan]

Woohoo, I'm back, in black (literally!). Thanks for all the great comments guys, really appreciate the great company here!

Dennis, we're doing the painless wiring right now. Honestly, it's not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be.

Taking everything real slow. What we're doing is, we'll wire up one thing at a time and check it. I'm using a battery charger (as instructed in the painless instructions) and hooking up the alternator wire to the positive. We've grounded the negative terminal to the engine and I have the negative of the battery charger hooked up to that.

The thing that threw us off initially, was the motor to body ground. Forgot about that one and nothing was working at first. Once we hooked that up, got it working!

So far, wipers are working and the horns are working. I wired up the stereo system today and plan to test it out tomorrow.

Man, so many things since my last post. Here's some pics of all that's going on:

Took the rod doors panels into a guy that I've used for upholstery in the past. This guy is awesome! I picked out some black "faux" leather material from the fabric shop. Looks/feels just like leather.

When I took them to him, he showed me some grey ostrich skin (faux) material he had and said it would look really good for contrast. We matched it up and wow, it's awesome! Have the door panels back now, with the base in the black faux leather and the trim pieces in the ostrich skin grey. A nice "Texas" look!

Here's a preview (not put together yet). Had the visors covered in same material:







Took the wheels off and had them powder coated. Had originally painted them the correct silver, but had a guy doing some powder coating for me and made me a deal on doing the wheels. Also powder coated the driver shaft (silver), the speaker mounts that BigBlock73 sells and a lot of other small parts...the brake pedal assembly, the gas pedal assembly, parking break assembly.

No pics on these yet, was supposed to have them today, last saturday, last friday, last wednesday, last saturday and, well, you get the idea. This has been going on for almost two months now, sigh.

New stainless brake lines from LMC in today. We'll be adding those in tomorrow, then bleeding the system.

Took rear calipers off and painted them. Duh! Thought they were painted when I received them and didn't take long for surface rust and I wasn't having that!





Glove box installed today. Picked up a chrome glove box door from a member here and it looks bad-to-the-bone in the black interior. It's shiny and reflective. Told Kent would be good for when (like that would ever happen) a hot chick in a mini-skirt was riding with me. Just look over and get a sneak peak! Yeah, perve, I know



Here's the ash tray. Don't smoke, but couldn't leave her lonely!




Steering column is in. Bought a new rebuilt one from gm tilt columns. Definitely a good buy! Billet specialties shifter and brushed aluminum turn signal/tilt/flasher knobs. Took the piece off where the ignition goes in and had it powder coated silver. Has a nice contrast. The steering wheel is a flamed billet with mahagony from Ebay. Really like the wheel!