Back with an update. So it's been a real winter here this year. Cold, wet, some snow, lots of mud, just not really conducive to getting finesse work done. I have a couple of sunflower heaters in the shop and I can usually get it to around 50 which is OK, but not ideal. Anyways, stuff is getting done, moving forward, albeit at a slower pace. Most of my time has been spent making various adjustments, on the body and parts of the interior. And on the electrical. I've described before how I've basically added power everything to this truck converting it from all manual. In addition I am adding things like an upgraded sound system, an inverter, a cb, several sets of off road lights and work lights, second fuel tank, a winch etc.. AND my overall desire is to keep as much of the trucks infrastructure stock (looking) . So basically I customized the stock wiring harness into something that you would more likely see in a much newer vehicle.
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and wrapped
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Believe it or not, wrapping that harness was an important milestone for me. It basically was a way of saying. "Done. Moving on. "
Because working on wiring will drive you nuts, I've had a few side items going on as a distraction. New custom front drive shaft from Mr. Woods:
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And began work on the interior AC unit. I had worked with SonarEd last winter to get together all new pieces to rehabilitate the OEM system. It made sense to lay it all out at the time as I had not completed the front clip and I wanted the condensor, drier and lines done so i didn't have to do stuff twice. So we figured out the interior stuff as well, and then just put that stuff in a box on the Honcho shelf...in the Honcho room...
So now that the interior is all but done, and the dash is almost put back together, it's time.
The original box was really not the right color (Honey) and faded pretty bad in spots.
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I took a sample of the nutmeg vinyl left over from the dash and door panels to the paint shop and went right to the oldest guy at the counter and politely asked, (begged) him to mix me a SEM dye to match it. After a few coats: Thank you Monroe.
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So this is a version of the AMC Jeep color Nutmeg. It's not a dead ringer, it's close. The guy who made the seat covers wouldn't give up a spare inch of it for me to match, so we did the best we could with what we had. Next step is to test fit it in the cab and make sure it doesn't clash with everything else. The metal dash and the steering column is SEM Camel, which turned out lighter than I had thought (hoped). So we'll see this weekend what everything looks like dry fitted together.
I'll (try) to post some pics next week of the mock up. If it all looks right, I may also get around to stuffing the guts back in that box. I will document that as well.
Wordy, not really that interesting in terms of visual progress. Welcome to the phase of this project I'm currently living in.
Thanks for reading,
Fleet Fox
I do things my way, and I pay a high price.... JCM