46 Chevy

[416Ford]

Looks like it is coming together nicely Frank. I hope the owner understand all the little things that go into doing the truck the way you have done it. It not catalog truck by any means.

[moose]

Looks great Frank. Would it be possible to get the lengths on the dash trim please? I am curious if they will fit my modified dash.

Thanks
moose

[enjenjo]

Will this work? I have the old trim. If you need to modify it to fit, it can be reused if it's rechromed.

[moose]

Frank,
Thanks those dimensions will help determine if I can make the stock trim work. I have shortened the dash at each end but lengthened the area I need to cover in the middle.

moose

[enjenjo]

I am replacing all the screws in the interior. There are a bunch of them. The originals were pan head clutch drive, and the only way I could find them were painted black, or chromed. Since the interior is done in a dark brown, I wanted the screws in brown. So I drilled 100 holes in a piece of aluminum, ran the screws into it, sand blasted the heads, and had them powder coated with the same brown as the panels. They came out pretty nice.

I have a rebuilt stock instrument panel, the only problem was the ammeter is calibrated for 30 amps. The new alternator is 100 amp, and with air conditioning I could see where the draw could be over 30 amps, and I didn't need another big fuse in the system, so my first thought was to shunt the ammeter so it would read 90 amps as 30. Buut.. that didn't work out, so I decided to change to a volt meter, no danger of burning that out, and it will give a good reading of battery condition.

I looked around and the thinnest volt meter I found was one made by SunPro. It cost a whole $12 and matching it with my high dollar digital volt meter it's pretty accurate. I ground the bezel off around the edge so I could disassemble it, and see how it would fit. So it was stlll too deep to fit in the original space, and the mounting bolt spacing was different. After doing some measuring I cut the Sunpro case down to 1/4" deep, cut a 2"hole in the Chevy gauge backing plate, and soldered the Sunpro case into place. I reshaped the Chevy faceplate to fit the Sunpro gauge, and redrilled the screw holes to mount it. I repainted the needle white to match the others, and now I have an ammeter that is actually reading Volts.

[kb426]

Fixing problems one at a time. The other day I ran across an article about retrofitting old gauge panels with newer meters. I may try that on my next project. I'll have 2 instrument clusters and a wiring diagram so I'm feeling brave at the moment.

[chimp koose]

Years ago I made a guage panel for my Anglia from a flat piece of aluminum . All the gauges were mounted to the back of the panel into abs pipe that was bored to fit the bodies of the gauges and jb welded to the back of the aluminum.I made a drill fixture to locate the holes for the guage stems in the abs pipe . Holes were drilled in the aluminum so just the pegs for the needles would stick through the aluminum to the guage face side of the panel . I then made the centre pegs for the needles from aluminum and the needles were made from the spray tube from a WD40 bottle . If you turned on a led light the hollow needles would glow . I was going to get transfer letters to letter the faces of the guage panel . About when I was finishing up on this they started selling guage packages similar to what I had just built . I was planning on leaving the face of mine brushed aluminum with a semi gloss or flat finish clear to seal in the lettering .

[UGLY OLDS]

Nice job on the cluster Frank ... That looks slick...   Like with the screw heads, it's a shame that all that work will prolly never be noticed ......

Bob..

[enjenjo]

Not much to show this week. Too much work you can't see. I bought some 1/16" hair cell ABS plastic sheets, and made new kick panels, and lower rear cab surrounds out of it.  It cuts with scissors, and you can dress the edges with sandpaper glued to a wood block. I have one more panel to make, then I can dye them all the brown we are using inside the cab. I am using SEMS adhesion promoter, and dye.

I fit the floorboards in, they didn't fit. The starter button interfered with the floor board, and it fit when I started. After some investigation, the owner had rebuilt a starter button assembly, and brake pedal assembly out of another 46 truck for me to use, and there was just enough difference it wouldn't fit. I redid the old one that I took out, and the floor fit. Then, I installed the steering column, and my CAD designed floor bracket for the column wouldn't fit either. There was, again, just enough difference that it did't fit. So I  did some modification to the floor mount and every thing fit.

I then used some light cardboard to make a pattern for the  floor mat, and carefully located any holes needed in the mat, and reinforced the holes with another layer of card stock. Now I can use that to trim the floor mat, and with some trimming here and there, I can use it to cut the mat insulation.

[WZ JUNK]

Good job Frank.  It is fun to watch someone else make things, and make progress.  Building hot rods is always a couple of steps forward, then one step back, then a few forward again.  It always seems that the newest item that goes on, interferes with the last item that was painstakingly designed and built.

John

[chimp koose]

WELL SAID !^^^^^^^^^^

[idrivejunk]

X2. Frank, your solutions never cease to amaze me. Always so professional  

[kb426]

Frank, have you used the dye on the abs before? If that's a durable deal, I may start changing some colors in my world.

[enjenjo]

Frank, have you used the dye on the abs before? If that's a durable deal, I may start changing some colors in my world.

Yes I have used it before. If you clean it well, and use their adhesion promoter, it holds up very well. Back when I was building wrecks, quite often the used replacement panels were a different color, or new replacements were only available in black, so I would dye all the panels the same color so they matched.

[enjenjo]

After four tries, with a week waiting for shipping in between, I finally got the right ignition bezel nut. The original vendor could not come up with the right one with three tries.

Pictures soon.