Not too many updates, been working a bunch unfortunately.
I did get the carpet back in the truck the other morning, looks a lot better black than red.. Also got the seat brackets painted body color and all of the seat hardware replaced with stainless.
Waiting on an order that has a bunch of interior bits like door sills and a new glove box insert to finish up.
In an interesting yet potentially expensive twist, a buddy found me an lq9 6.0/camaro t56 on marketplace.. I'm kinda hoping it sells before I make up my mind lol.
The factory 68' computer mount was missing, so I whipped one up with some uhmw plastic and copper strap bits. It's pretty solid as is, but I'm planning on screwing the straps to the back of the glove box when it comes in.
Not too much progress over the weekend. Got the seat back in and the new seat cover thrown on. The cover doesn't fit too great but it'll do for now, at least it matches somewhat decent.
Got my ass back in gear today and picked up some 1.5"×1.5" 1/8" angle. Been putting off replacing the rotten stuff on the bedsides for a while but I now have a plan... maybe.
The new ones are notched for the fuel filler and drop shackles so I can run them all the way to the rear again (po had chopped the last 17ish inches for clearance). I now have to try to be patient and drill the holes in the right spots..
HoleyMc...holerton drilling all the holes here. There were micrometers, microscopes and... microwaves? involved. Eyecrometer says it's good. Now I gotta do the other side, which will definitely end up more abstract because Coors.
I can't math right now, but holy s***, that was a lotta holes, man... Only used one Walter pilot bit and one cheapo step bit for all of them surprisingly.
Danny came by and got white hand with me sawsalling the spot welds that held the old channel on to the bedsides so that was cool. It's been 2 hours, I can almost feel my fingertips again and thats cool too.
Needs a little hole enlarging and tweaking at the rearmost mount but it seems to have turned out pretty square and level. Don't ask me how and or why, I don't know.
So I was all pumped to throw in a Joop xj steering shaft so I could get rid of the s***ty chevy rag joint at the box but I've run into a snag...
I ordered the Crown automotive xj shaft (pn 4713943), the splines at the steering box fit, but the splines at the firewall don't match at all. The one in the truck is splined while the new shaft is keyed and has a totally different inner diameter.
I think I can do some chopping and glueing to make it all work... without killing the old shaft lol. I have to verify but the male ends of the keyed slip joints on both shafts look the same. If I chop the female part of the slip joint off of the firewall end of the new shaft I can use it to splice the 2 male ends together and end up with the new u jointed steering box end which was the whole point... shaft. Did that make any sense lol?
One issue I see is that the male keys are offset 90* if installed where they have to go but I'm thinking I can adjust that out at the tie rods.
If it doesn't work I'm out the cost of the new shaft I guess.. Gonna think about it some more...
Whelp, scrap that idea lol. Took it on the chin and ordered a Borgeson 000933 unit. Good news is a buddy needs that crown shaft so I'm glad I didn't cut it up.
That looks like a tilt column out of a car that would have had the indicator in the dash, not on the column. The 68 pickups didn't have a tilt column and I can tell by looking at the shell around the shifter and the steering wheel, that is NOT a 67-72 C10 column.
Maybe out of a Chevelle or Impala. Lots of those were fairly easy to swap out. The most desirable was the 4 speed column that didn't have the shifter opening.
