Getting closer as we get her running!

There is light at the end of the tunnel

I have stayed away from posting simply because I'm lazy.  I have accomplished a ton of major and minor tasks and gotten nearly to the point when I can hit the road.  To be honest, I barely devoted the necessary time to the rebuild and just didn't feel like spending another set of hours writing.  I decided that there is just too much to post at once (and I really don't want to lose my audience!) so I'll break up the posting into bite sized pieces.

When we last saw one another I had pretty much completed the electrical wiring and the cooling system (all but the radiator) and there was a glimmer of hope that I might actually drive this sucker again.  The good news is that I am on track to do just that, but the bad news is what I thought would take a few weeks (conservatively, mind you) is taking months.  As the old saying goes:  "If I didn't have bad luck....."

Okay so what took so long?  Let's start with a promise that I would complete the cooling system and I'm a man of my word...

That's the battery charger cable (red/black)

Minutia

Then, it was if all the remaining little forgotten projects developed a devious and mischievous intelligence, when one day I began opening all those left-over boxes way up there on the top shelf and each in turn began screaming, "Pick me, pick me!!!!".  It was a cacophonous!  Those little suckers were coming out of the woodwork!  I honestly thought that I had kept up.

It started when I realized that ya' gotta' have seats if you ever hope to drive this beast.  Now, mind you, I've owned the truck for 9 years and during that time I was picking away on the worst areas of need.  I thought my old restoration of the seats and seat frames was good enough.  Nope! Luckily, what was underneath the upholstery looked okay, so I sandblasted the frames and gave a good ol' coat of black.

Then came those absolutely FIVE STAR safety rated and NTSB approved child seats in the back that set this truck apart from the competition when it comes to self-preservation.  Now these I had done over in the fall last year, so luckily they just bolted in.  And of course dropped once just to leave a few paint-free blems to prove once and for all that I am NOT suicidal.

Sorry, no pic of the seats down (yet)

Bib and fenders

There are very few pictures of the actual day of installation of the front end body parts.  It's a long story... you have to use your imagination (and wonder if maybe I was suicidal after all).  The parts are an inexact fit and you need to have patience.  Anyway here are a couple of that day.

And that led up to this!!!!!

Woo Hoo!!!!!

Lighting

I'll finish up this post with some photos of the lighting resto and installations.  Everything (except the headlight "buckets") was brand new and bolted up and worked like it should.

This photo shows the turn signals but also gives away the next post.

See you next time!