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I paid $2.99 in Colorado Springs on friday. Wasn't the cheapest but not high either. It's $2.84 in SW Ks now.

I made hub centric rings because of mismatched wheels and spacers. I tried without and the runout was too much. Every time to would bolt the wheel back on, it was different.

I used spacers on the rear of the 72 F100 to make up for lack of tread width. No issues that I was aware of.

I was moderately successful today. It only took 15 minutes to get the e clip back on the wiper motor post. That included getting things ready to lay under the dash. LOL. I won't be using them in high wind conditions again. I'm tempted to remove the arms to avoid the blades from sun baking but I want covers for the knurled posts before I do that. I can put them in the truck for when they are needed but I don't want the pot metal knurls to be exposed.

That's almost photoshop, John.

Matt, as you probably know, sw. Kansas is home to a tremendous amount of feedyards and crops so flies are everywhere during the warmer months. So it is customary to shoo them off. I'm pretty sure that wasn't your point. I was not enthused enough today to tackle the e clip again, today. I went looking for a tool and wasn't impressed at what I found. If there was room for 2 hands, it might be useful. I washed vehicles today and tomorrow the weather maybe be poor again so I'm planning on monday to be the attack day for the clip. If I had known that I would be doing repeat work on the wipers, I might have drilled the shafts for cotter keys.

I attempted to repair the wiper on the 48 this afternoon. The arm from the motor to the post is bent from the factory. It was really bent when I removed it. I straightened it and went to reinstall. About 15 times later I had it where it would work. The motor shaft has a 1/4" e-clip to hold the arm on. I spent 30 minutes trying to get it back on and quit for the day. I'm going to look for one of those that has the 90 degree tab on one side to facilitate installation. In retrospect, I must have been really lucky the 1st time I got installed. I do remember many attempts before being successful. Working under the dash is better being done by people that can see and are made of rubber.

It's fun to watch other's projects but not as fulfilling as doing your own. Good work, people. 

There was a bolt in mount years ago before the Vega box became the choice. I don't remember if the box was modified.

Later in the day after the weather calmed down a little, I removed the wiper arm and checked to see if there was any further damage. The arm going to the wiper post is bent. Time for some more under the dash work in a day or two.

I'm having a minor blizzard today. Going to coffee early this morning and the wind is blowing from the north at better than 40 mph. I'm headed south and turn right to go west. The wind catches the left hand  wiper at the right time and flips it 180 degrees. Anybody that has worked on the late 40's to early 50's trucks knows the wiper system is poor at best. When it flipped, it did chip the paint on the drip rail but there was no other damage other than a bent wiper blade. I had thought about re-engineering that system when I built the truck but my thought was "I don't use the wipers often". That proved to be a bad decision. I will remove the arm and flip it back to the correct position and remember to turn them off when the wind is excessive. The roads are closed right now but the storm has stopped snowing and the wind is going down. The forecast is for blowing dirt after lunch. Welcome to March weather.

I like the stake pocket legs. Without it would like those bland beds that some people use like me. LOL.

O&S is pleased to report that there is no anti freeze on the ground today and the 48 has power steering at idle.

Weather cooperated along with a disappointment. I had purchased a GM type 2 power steering pump to put on several months ago. The Ford relief is at 850psi. The GM is at 1000 psi. The corvette rack is struggling with the Ford pump. No ps unless I have 1500 rpm. The housings are very close in dimensions. I was able to get a pulley that was almost the same size as the Ford unit so the belt is the same size. I had to add some spacers to make up some dimensional differences. For those of you with the same memory that I have, when I put the truck together I used an inexpensive ebay alum. radiator. I didn't like the appearance of some of the welds on it. That thought started working on me so I decided to purchase a copper radiator. I changed everything out and 5000 miles later I have a leak where the tank connects to the core. This afternoon I changed out the ps pump and the radiator. I didn't get the sheet metal back on the truck before I quit. I got too fast with filling the radiator and had an air lock. It took some time to remedy that so I quit with everything operational and tomorrow I will finish. It's up in the air so I don't know if the ps is better or not. I'm looking forward to tomorrow. The ps pump swap was easier with the front of the truck off. I could have done it with the sheet metal on but I think I might have lost some skin and maybe taken longer.

1st impression of the Camaro body??