48 chevy truck

[WZ JUNK]

Looks great.  I have been wanted to get a feel for the end product.  If you hurry, you can make Salina

[jaybee]

You're good with the tubing bender, and obviously with visualizing how you want it to come out. You've got a nice rough in, now you're into the details that take so much time but make so much difference.

[idrivejunk]

Thats gonna be wild, man! 

Slip roller? Cut stock hood? Balsa wood and fabric?

What are YOUR thoughts on it, Bill? How is the good to bad viewing angle ratio of the hodgepodge in person? You need your lamps back up there for lookin at purposes / art reference pics. It will undoubtedly be freaky which is kinda the idea. 

[kb426]

To all of the above, thank you and I have no answers, yet. Making decisions wears me out. I think I passed the point of simple is the best. I have a lot of thoughts floating but need time to absorb and decipher to come up with a conclusion. Then I have to see if I have skills and equipment to implement those thoughts.
O&S had half a day. I started out with boring a steering u-joint from 36 spline to just 3/4". You can see from the pic that that wasn't real simple. Then I moved on to a steering wheel adapter based upon the hub from the 48 steering wheel. I machined a flange and have it welded to the hub. Tomorrow will see it finished.  

[kb426]

O&S finished the steering wheel adapter. I used the spindle on the mill to start the tap to make it as straight as I could. I did some test fitting with the original steering column and determined that the placement would be fine for me. I brought in the PT Cruiser seat that I removed from the wrecked car a few months ago and sat it on the original truck frame. The height and placement will work for me. One item of the seats that is both positive and negative is the length of the seat bottom. If you look at one of the pics, you will see the distance from the door frame to the seat bottom is substantial. That's good for egress but the shorter seat bottom is not so good for long days. I don't know if there is a better answer at this point. More thinking. After mocking up the steering column, I don't think one ujoint will be enough to clear the headers. More checking to come.

[chimp koose]

nice looking steering wheel 

[kb426]

O&S may have set a record for time to fill a cowl vent. I had waffled on keeping it. The last truck I left it in, I never used it. This morning, I looked at it and decided it was history. MY plan was to use the top of the vent. That took a little work but did work out. I had to straighten out the flange on the top. Then the part was too large for the hole. I gently ground on it for almost 2 hours to get it to fit reasonably well. (blind old guy). After fitting it, it got welded without any surprises. One less decision. LOL.

[jaybee]

Well, where O&S closes a vent you'll need to open a window...

[kb426]

O&S had a couple of hours today. I finished up the ac lines. After I had changed my layout, I had to cut another hole for the no. 6 line. Now I have a hole to fill. I have service ports on both sides of the engine. When suppliers run out of $6 fittings, they seem to have the $16 ones.

[kb426]

O&S ran the heater hoses and the ac drain line this morning. Then I got started on running the ecu wiring. The ecu needs to be inside the cab. I had seen some builds had run the wiring above the engine and put the ecu up high. I used the cowl vent hole and cut a hole to feed the ecu plug through. When I finished that, I was dissatisfied with all of it. I cut a hole straight from the location on the rear of the engine and ran the wiring through it. This might be the best of the compromises. I filled the holes I had cut for the ecu, ac line and filled the 2 holes where the cowl vent brace was. I started aligning doors before installing the bear claws. There's a lot of compromises. I have to decide how important equal door gaps are. I removed the inside windshield molding and didn't find any disasters.

[kb426]

O&S tackled the the door gaps. Be mindful that I didn't want perfect gaps, but functional ones. I ground off the tight spots and welded them up. I ground them down and hit it with the 80 grit da. The left door needed 2 times of welding. There was some rust in between the seems of the door skin and the heat caused it to contaminant the weld. I started removing all of the components from the doors. The pic of the tool is an Eastwood tool that I highly recommend if you are working on rusty bolts. Since purchasing this years ago, I don't remember having to drill out a fastener.

[kb426]

O&S started out by disassembling the doors. It took some effort but wasn't too bad. I started to install the bear claw latches. I did the right door 1st. I thought I was in good shape. Then I discovered that the latch was too thick to allow the window channel to fit properly. Tomorrow, I will do what it takes to move the latch towards the outside of the door to clear the channel. I thought this would be simple. LOL.

[WZ JUNK]

I purchased the mini bear claw latches for my truck a long time ago but I have not installed them.  I am hoping you will solve the issue for me.

[kb426]

The minis are thinner but aren't as sturdy as the standards that I'm using. I say that with some confidence that I will succeed. LOL.

[idrivejunk]

Ditch the striker bracket, bump out the door a little more?

Have you looked at how prefab kits are arranged for that body, for potential inspiration?

I think moving it outward is not the best direction to go.