Wow, what a great weekend! Fixed a couple more little issues and got to put another 5 miles or so on the truck and helped Alex get a bunch of stuff done on his truck! It's too fun cruising this thing around! I'm still working on the interior and stereo stuff, so it's not a driver just yet. I was trying to figure out how to run my speaker wire without it pinching the wires as the door closes. I saw a friends truck and the kit they used but me being the cheap-ass did the same thing with very little money. Went to the hardware store and picked up a (1) Screendoor spring 16"x9/16" (2) 7/8" plastic hole plugs and a couple of rubber grommets. You'll notice I took my die grinder and made a hole in the plastic plug, this is where the spring will slide through. I cut the spring in half so I have an 8" chunk for each side. I should have taken more pics, so I'll have to explain. I drilled a hole in the door jamb about 3" up from the lower hinge hole 3/4" from the inside edge of the door. After taking the die grinder to open the hole up to fit the plastic plug, I got inside the truck, closed the door and reached through the access hole to use my sharpie and trace the hole I drilled onto the door jamb. Now the holes line up. I took my plastic plug that I'd drilled out so the spring slides smoothly through it and glued it to the door hole. I then finished opening up the door jamp hole to fit the rubber grommet that has a 9/16" ID (same size as the spring diameter) and installed the grommet. I wrapped a couple turns of electrical tape around the first 2" of spring so it would fit snug into the the grommet and put the other end of the spring into the door. When you close the door the spring stays tight in the jamb, but glides smoothly into the door so the wires don't pinch! Less than $10 in the whole deal and it works great. I actually trimmed the tape so you couldn't see it and put a little dab of weatherstrip adhesive on the grommet and spring so it wont go anywhere. Here's how it works and I'm sorry about the compressor noise! VID_20111002_131939.3gp - YouTube
Sheesh Phil, you're missing the point! Not that I'm a cheap-ass cuz that part is true! The whole idea here was to make something that looked cool, was safe to drive and had all the little goodies of a big dollar ride for a fraction of the cost! I've had to be fairly creative and not lose sight on this deal, because it would have been waaaaay easier to just go buy stuff and bolt it on! It's almost done and I still have very little into what feels like a pretty good driver!!!
I had the same door jamb spring set up in a car several years ago....but I bought the kit. Not next time! Great job. I'll be stealing that cheapo trick!
OK my friend , you're not cheap ,,, just a little "thrifty" ! The truck however is coming along great , looking forward to seeing it .
Here's another little no money deal I just finished. I installed my new/old distributor and coil after yanking out the HEI. I couldn't find the plug wire looms I was looking for, so I whipped up something to get me by until I find what I want. I took some 1/4" washers, welded them together and then flattened the weld with a sledge hammer . After painting them black I installed them on the bottom 2 bolts of the valve covers. I routed my wiring before cutting the wires to fit and separated them with black zip-ties. I cut a couple small chunks of 3/8" fuel line, split it and put the wires inside before zipping them to the washers bolted to the covers It's very simple and pretty much free!
More little tricks! Here's how I setup the heater control; I used a choke cable and a water control valve from a motorhome that I scored at Pick and Plunder! When the knob is pushed in, the water flow is shut off (no heat) and it's opened when pulled out Notice I avoided the normal and used tophat style guitar knobs for the dash stuff! Here's the valve on the heater hose
Here's my throttle pedal idea that works really well. The truck had a linkage from an early-mid 60's Chevy truck, so I decided to go with it. By design the rod rubs on the back of the pedal, it works but could be way smoother. I took a flat chunk of 16 gauge sheetmetal and fastened in to the back of my Cal Custom "Foot" pedal for both the "hinge" and pressure point of the pedal. I then proceded to weld a bolt at a 90 degree angle from the rod in order to use a skateboard wheel bearing, so it would roll easily on the flat piece of sheet and not drag It works awesome and is smooth as butter!!
Here's how I did my stereo head unit install. Sorry I didn't get pics of the actual piece I made, but here's the pattern I used. All the bends are 90 degrees and all my measurements are on the cardboard. The center area is 4" tall. I made it out of some 16 gauge aluminum I had laying around, scribed the stereo mount/bracket in the center to cut out with a small cutoff wheel and the painted it black. I then screwed it into the dash with some 10/32's and it's not going anywhere!
Now for the interior... I used some really cool sign plastic for the door panels and headliner that my friend Joe hooked me up with. This stuff bends and cuts great and I used a propane torch to heat it up for holding it's shape on the headliner! Alex and myself bounced around some cheap interior thoughts and he had a great idea about doing a race collage and using it for the headliner. Awesome idea, but how would it look with my mexican blanket colors idea I was thinking? So now LOTS more idea swapping about how we should do it and how the 2 ideas will work together. I started collecting pics and put the whole collage thing together in Photoshop and tried to give it the old sepiatone (kinda beige and black instead of grey) look so it would have an vintage feel to it. Once I had it layed out how I thought it would work, my friend Joe printed it up on vehicle wrap vinyl. Here's how it came out... My friend Brian sewed up the seat with some brown vinyl and the blanket I gave him (it looks soooooo cool!) and Alex made the kick panels to finish it up! I scored some old Cal Custom door handles to really give it the vibe! I need to finish the carpet trim pieces at the door jambs and get some arm rests, but the interior is pretty much done!
noticed you have an original heater in place.Did you hook anything to the defrost vents ?Trying to figure out my set up as our climate is a little cooler in the fall and sometimes needs a little heat on the winsheild for the early morning fall runs.
I have stock heater but is missing the defrost unit.Havnt seen many around and most available are big $.Was thinking of making some thing up.
nice work great thread still building mine also on the cheap many parts sold on line to pay as I go mine uses camaro clip s10 posi rear w/spacers and 15x10 craigers on rear but thinking of using a jag now can't make up m mind. I will be watching this as you go.
I kind of left something out on accident for those of you who decide to do the guitar knob thing. You want to find the knobs that have a set screw and don't just slide on. The hole on the back of the knob is 6mm and most of the switch shafts are too small to just tighten up to. When I was looking for my wiper delay setup out of a early-mid 80's Ford truck, I found this cool little insert to hold the factory knob in place. I looked around to find 3 more (it's only on the trucks and ONLY the wiper knob) then I cut the little top loop off and it fits perfectly onto the switches and inside the guitar knob!
My rearview mirror took a little thought. The one in it when I found the truck was cool but really ghosted/hazy and rattled. I'd kept a mirror from a vehicle I'd had forever and when I got rid of it and really wanted to use it (was late 80's stuff, but oh well!) I welded a 5/16" washer over the hole someone had drilled in the windshield center piece to space up the piece going on top I then cut out a piece of sheet metal to mimic the size of the bracket that glues to the windshield on later cars and tacked it through the hole in the back. Once that was painted and installed, the mirror slid over and I tightened it down!
One of the best threads ever. You should turn this into a book, 'how to build a quality, reliable, daily driveable hot rod on a budget'. Great ideas, great stance, everything here could be applied to any 50s car or truck with great results. Thank you!
Hey hotrod 49, do you have any more details on the plastic you used for the interior? Thickness? The trade name for it? I have a couple of applications waiting for something like that. Thanks!
Looks sweet! Tell me how do you keep you stereo cover closed? I'm sure you came up with a nifty idea! Klaus
The Jalopy Journal
