unibody madness, I got the package this afternoon. I hope to put the parts to use as soon as I paint this thing in a few weeks. Its been tough with the heat and humidity but I have managed to finish taking out the parking lot dings. I primed the areas I am working and am in the block sanding phase.
I wanted to remove the floor shifter and go back to a column shift. This afternoon I pulled the complete steering column assembly out of my 66 parts truck. The 3spd manual assembly and wiring harness were in good working condition in the 66 so I hope everything will be plug and play into the 65.
a local acrylic plastic business cut me some fender emblem inserts. A sign shop is going to make some new emblem decals. I will post some pictures when they get done....
The sign shop came through today. They printed and applied the decals to the inside of the acrylic plastic for me. They are not 100% correct but not bad either..... I am off this weekend so I will try to get as much block sanding done as possible....
I got the block sanding done and went ahead and painted the wimbleton white on the door jambs last Thursday and the rest of the truck this morning. I still need to paint the lower front valance that dull silver color. The console is faded so I will paint it when I get to painting the dash and steering column assembly back Rangoon red.
Thanks but this heat wave is getting me burnt out. Wednesday I will try to paint the dash, console, and steering column assembly. If all goes well it will be done by the end of August.
Dust,bugs, and contamination can even make problems in paint booths. I blow and wet the floor down with water and try to paint early in the morning when wind and bugs are a non issue. I also "cut and buff" the paint after its fully cured. For me the bodywork and prep is more important than the paint part. Here's a picture of my old 67SS396. I painted it in the same spot in 2008. The sad part was I spent hours block sanding and making it right and had to sell when I changed jobs a few years ago.
Here's a few pictures of the progress..... I hope to get the windshield and glass etc in this week and finish installing the side trim and recover the seats next week.
I plan to run the stock hubcaps so somewhere in all this I have paint (4) stock rims the body color and mount some tires....
The last few days I managed to get the windshield and windows in along with putting on the side trim and rewiring the tail lights. Tonight I just finished removing the floor shifter and adjusting the shift linkage for the column shifter. Here's a few more pictures.....
Next up I'll get started on installing the carpet and gas tank curtain and start recovering the seats...
The carpet and gas tank curtain are now in. I went ahead and bolted in the console. Tomorrow night I'll probably sit up late and install the new seat covers. I think the interior is starting to look a lot better now than the faded and moldy mess I started with when I first got the truck.
Here are a few decent pictures of the truck from earlier this week.
It will be going on to a new owner soon.... I hope. I have another 65swb that I hope to install a 5.0 explorer motor, c-4 trans, and dana 60 posi rear.
