Ground up 86 4x4

[VileZambonie]

Awesome! I wish we all lived closer -we'd probably have a lot of that going on as well as bigger beer bellies! One of these days I'll get up your way Harold...

[Blazin]

This coming summer, motorcycle week?

[thirsty]

This coming summer, motorcycle week?

That would be a good time and place to have a 73-87 get together. Or if anybody that rides wants to Cruise up into the mountains 1 1/2 hrs. north of bike week (which a lot of bikes do) I would be more than happy to supply the destination and some lunch.

[VileZambonie]

I'd have to put the cushy seat on my bike for that trip! Are there helmet laws up there?

[thirsty]

Still no helmet or seat belt laws in NH.
Sometimes though in our garage depending on how much we drink helmets and seat belts are recommended........ha-ha Would hate to see somebody fall out of a lawn chair and hit their head!

[VileZambonie]

I would love to see that! lol That reminds me of a chair my buddy had in his garage. It was one of those directors chairs and I pulled the dowels out that hold the seat in so when he sat in it he went right through the chair with his knees to his face as he was stuck helplessly is his chair he loved so much. LOL

[thirsty]

Been working on the cab wiring lately. The biggest obstacle was the amount of time it has been since I took my wiring out of the original cab. Also along with the wiring goes all the duct work and such. I didn't plan on everything being boxed up and stored for this long so I had a lot of stuff to go thru plus I had plenty of spare parts to weed out to find the best ones. Had to do a few things more than once to get it right but it was rewarding assembling the interior knowing that it won't be going into boxes again.

It looked like this for a few evenings.


While I was working on it my helper decided he owned it. I have been building the truck longer than we have had him so he never got to ride in it but he does know how it is built he's been supervising my build his whole life.


Finally got the dash done except for a couple of connections at the fuse panel for accessories  that I want to put better fuse holders in.


I really like the new look. Thanks to Blazin I won't have a red interior anymore!


For the interior all I need is a different seat and seat belts. And I am leaning towards going back to crank windows after I gave away my nice regulators. When the seat comes out again the floor will get coated with bed liner. Future flooring will be sound deadener and a new rubber mat.

[thirsty]

I would love to see that! lol That reminds me of a chair my buddy had in his garage. It was one of those directors chairs and I pulled the dowels out that hold the seat in so when he sat in it he went right through the chair with his knees to his face as he was stuck helplessly is his chair he loved so much. LOL

Best garage chair I have ever seen is at my buddy's. He has a wheelchair. We have a blast screwing around with that when we start drinking beer. Then if you drink too much you can get wheeled out and dumped into a passenger's seat and delivered home. That chair has been used with a helmet before! We really should at least put an outdated harness from one of the stock cars on it cause it has been in a few wrecks over the years. Safety first right?

[Blazin]

Dash looks allot better in that than it did in what it came out of!!!
I put a 8 place auxiliary fuse panel in YELWSNO to run plow lights, stereo, the crane etc. I ran 4 gauge wire from the battery to a 60 amp circuit breaker, then inside to the fuse panel. Its mounted above and to the center of the fuel pedal.

[bake74]

     Thirsty, truck is looking great.  Can not wait till I can get that far, it will be awhile though.

[firefighter]

You are making some great progress!!
You made short work of getting the interior wiring, heater box and trim panels in.
I can't tell from the engine compartment if you have your wiring complete there or not. Have you been able to test all your electrical like lights and blower etc... ?
Keep up the great work. You've got to be happy with how your project is moving along !!

[thirsty]

     Thirsty, truck is looking great.  Can not wait till I can get that far, it will be awhile though.

I still got a long way to go. Right now I have time to work on it just no funds can be put towards it until work picks up so the rest of the body work is on hold. That's why I did the cab only, so I could work on it without spending a bunch this winter.

I can't tell from the engine compartment if you have your wiring complete there or not. Have you been able to test all your electrical like lights and blower etc... ?

I'm working on the firewall stuff now but the engine is wired just not connected to the cab yet. I have a ton of cleaning up of stuff to do before it all gets installed. Once the firewall is complete I planned on testing as much of it as I can before I move on to fuel and brakes. Then it will be all about engine and exhaust.

Tonight I just painted some small stuff for the firewall and also the black part of my drip rails. There was red over spray on most of the firewall stuff and I can't bring myself to install it like that.

[Project86]

Are you going to put any type of a gasket between your drip rails and the cab? When I removed mine there was thin gasket stuck to the drip rail but it got pretty well destroyed in the process. I haven't figured out what I'm going to put in it's place yet.

[thirsty]

Mine is good still. You can buy 1/2" trim adhesive that should work perfect. Any parts store should have it. Matter of fact I have seen it at Walmart I think.

[thirsty]

Things are coming together. It doesn't look like much work has been done but there is a lot less grease on all the firewall stuff  Clutch hydraulics are in. Pretty much been going thru the parts boxes deciding on the better of the duplicate parts that I have then cleaning and painting stuff before I installed it. Not show truck quality but it sure is more fun putting clean parts on.


Putting drip rails on fresh paint alone is trickier than you would think. I had to get some help with those before I scratched the truck.


After I put my headlights in I hung my grill and headlight bezels just to make it look like a chevy.
One casualty of storage was a headlight bezel getting cracked.