Time to start on the dash and fix some wiring, My brother Ricky (Copper Dart) remade the under-hood wire harness and re-engineered some bulkhead connections for clean install of MSD ignition. I started with cleaning up the rats nest and backwoods retarded hillbilly wiring that was done by the previous owners. This is only a couple of examples of what I found.

I gutted the gauge cluster cause we are using mechanical gauges, the speedo had a broken needle and we dint want to buy a replacement plus the Tach was not wanted on top of the dash. I created a support panel with room to add future functionality and house what we have. I made a pattern for an aluminum face plate which i will cover in a faux carbon fiber vinyl.

In between the steps for the gauge panel, I started in on rebuilding the tubs. It took a little bit to decide the direction, first was to install the inside tubs. Please forgive the chicken scratch welding as the panels were ground as clean as possible but there is ages of oxidation through the original sheet-metal and residue of bedliner and tar and seamsealer and crud plus, plus, plus.

Anyway, I trimmed the wheelwell's factory floor to the pinch weld which gave me a good edge for alignment albeit about 5/16" lower due to the floor serrations and clearanced the bed floor flush to the frame rail. My Fabrication Mentor Dave lent me his bead roller to make filler panels and after bending and fitting about 80 times I buzzed them in. Basically spent 2 full days still need to make the top section on both sides. then to grind them smooth put some rattle can black undercoat the bottoms and I will wire brush with a grinder the entire bed and put a fresh coat of bedliner .

few more pics and the proper sized tire in place

looks good to me.

finished the dash structure and face panel. simple faux carbon fiber Vinyl.

Amazing work! Wish I had 1/10th of your fab skills.

I had made an access hole in the bed for the fuel fill, so I needed a basic cover to keep crap out and to dress the hole a little.

finished up the tubs, flapper wheeled the welds, re-welded the pin holes and used a 3" coarse wire cup on a grinder to remove all the, flaking paint, rust blisters and random crap that had accumulated over time. sprayed ospho and wiped it down to prep for fresh coat of bed-liner. just the basic Rustoleum gallon give a nice completed finish. From wet and shiny to a good satin.

worked on the tailgate to get the mechanism functioning and tailgate hangars straitened. in a few weeks it will get a stock bumper to finish the back.

only a few items remain under hood and waiting on a replacement temp gauge so I can finish the dash. then Run-in and drive here is how it sits on all 4s. Still gonna do new cab mounts but it is mostly how it is gonna look.

Got the truck 98% done. needs a few small items that my nephew and my brother will take care of. It needs body mounts, a new steering wheel, the tach stopped working im glad cause it should match the other new gauges, the MSD needs the advance plates installed, the Trans dipstick is seeping, Needs an alignment, and the rear suspension needs all the finish locking hardware, and a few other little nit picky type stuff. MY JOB IS DONE

i was going to surprise him with some graphics but he may not get here for another month so if he sees this thread he will see these next pics.

I thought the Gray/Black combo was going to look great but i just couldn't convince myself, All black was my determination.

Trying to upload videos but i am unsuccessful nothing seems to get them to work.

My Brother (CopperDart) Ricky built the engine so he did the run in, other than the timing being a bit retarded on startup it went flawlessly, Engine never went above 190* the fans cycled perfectly only needed some temperature adjustments, 50 lbs of oil pressure at +/- 2000 rpm, after 30 minutes adjusted the idle down and the mixture screws a bit. Drove the truck a few miles and been pulling it in and out of the shop everyday without any hiccups. it is off to the alignment shop (HOPEFULLY SOON) i need my space back! and my brothers lift to do the little things i wrote of a couple posts back.

No comments but whatever here is a walkaround vid

https://youtube.com/shorts/3ZTQYIpXLB4?si=_rSMcuctSJWPEJcB

I replaced the black face tach with the proper matching one.

I've been following along...thanks for sharing.
Sounds healthy! As usual, great job on the fab work.
Is this gonna be a daily driver or a weekend toy? Either way, your nephew has a cool ride.

Thanks Just a weekend toy, cruise-ins and such maybe hit the track just to be able to go balls out a few times

Couple launch videos, these are partial throttle, no changes made to the carb yet.

may need a looser converter, definitely needs more pump shot and lighter V secondary spring



https://youtu.be/Mk7x1i7Hrqo?si=V04TuZGMe_EK7fDM

Another.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Dm-rEKinLVE&si=cvEGVfhXek9O2kIL

You do some amazing work. Truck is really nice.