I've helped do that when I was younger and didn't have the hand tremors I have now. Piece of cake compared to hand shaping a steering wheel. I talked to a fellow once who does it regularly and he was impressed I did it by hand. He uses molds and only does the final finish by hand.

 

I have a 318 in the corner that I want to port the heads on it ... will be the first time, curious how it comes out.

Not doing too much in the shop, I had a cheap heater that sits on top of a propane bottle, it took a crap on me ... new one arrives after Christmas
Did bundle up and do some sanding today .... recreating the finger profiles on the bottom of the wheel will be fun
But it is coming along OK .... time to dig out the horn button and see if it needs work.

 

Well that was fun, I was working on the ignition today .... The HEI should have a heat sync under it and I had a chunk of 3/16" aluminum so I made one.
I mounted it on the coil bracket .... kinda buried under the coil.


The wiring is made to be permanent but will be cleaned up as I finish building the rest of the wiring harness.
Once I had it wired up I cranked it over to check for spark, had nice bright steady spark on the inline spark tester ..... I gave the air cleaner a tiny shot of ether because it had not been started in 3 or 4 months.
Less then 1 full revolution it fired and idled strong without touching the gas pedal or using a choke ... I let it run for about 1 minute, then shut it down. Better then I expected.

I have the interior stripped down preparing to paint .... no oil pressure gauge connected and I wrapped duck tape over the end of the line .... it was leaking so I had to shut it off
Will be interesting to see how well it runs when all is connected and it is warmed up and put back in time. ..... It still kinda looks stock if you ignore the alternator and Toyota MC.


Steering wheel is ready to be sanded again, may be ready for paint after the 2nd time .... might still need a 3rd coat to get things I have missed.
Been working on the rear fenders again the last few days and doing the final 5 miles of welding they needed and now stripping down to bare metal and hopes to be ready for paint soon also ..... Always something to do with a old truck ....

 

Been awhile since I reported any progress .... have been slowly going forward.
I finished the electronic ignition conversion and it works really well ... I love how fast it starts and the smooth throttle response.

I'm afraid I will end up putting in new rings and a valve job .... one cylinder has sticky rings and trying to free them up ... getting doubtful though.

I did modify the front parking lights so I can also use them for turn signals .... they are ready to go.



I planned on primer on the fenders and paint the steering wheel, had everything ready to go and then pulled out my old $15 harbor freight hvlp and it was a no go.

I sprayed some thinner through it and was fine, then mixed some primer and filled it .... can not get the lid back on .... the cup is deformed, 5 years old and I have sprayed several gallons of paint through it .... I ordered a new gun just like it, this time it was on sale for $9.99 .... After Christmas sale

So I started on making tail light stands, I now have them finished ... here is one mocked up .... they are copies of the originals, just made out of scrap metal.


I now have them welded up ready for paint ... they sit level as they should.
Then I made up the lower apron .... was pretty simple to make and am still waiting on the paint gun .... It came today.
Lots of putty in the rear fender, considering I started with junk it works for me.



So today is Tuesday, Thursday and Friday will be warm enough for paint so I will get to move forward a bit more ..... nothing huge going on, just little bites of the elephant one by one.

 

Not really much to report .... too frigging cold to do much
I did get the fenders primed .... I'm fine with how they came out, considering what I started with .... will work fine for a driver.


I left a few dings in them to call it character.
Then there was qne more good day and I hurriedly painted them .... was a mistake because a wind storm picked up and was blowing dust everywhere. Was not til I was putting the paint can away in the office to keep it warm, I saw the low gloss paint I thought I had just sprayed ..... I knew instantly I sprayed the wrong color with gloss black.


Oh well, they have paint and are protected ..... will just call it a base coat and spray them again when the weather is right

Not sure if this is a good plan or not. I painted the main part of the truck in October 2023. Then paint has never been washed or touched since.
My plan was, when the truck is finished .... to clean it and wet sand the paint, mask everything off then shoot it again.
Then I can wet sand it a 2nd time to smooth and shine it up, and then add wax on top of that to keep it protected and looking OK. The paint will be really thick and hopefully last as long as I do.
Time to get serious on the wiring .... and bolting all the body panels together ... all are finger loose for adjustment yet.

 

Been awhile since I updated .... Really is hit and miss with the weather this time of year. Had some time to work on it a few times and have got some things done.

Been working on the wiring and building a harness for it.
I bought a cheap universal harness from Amazon a couple years ago about $60 ..... I have heard some real good recommendations from builders on cheap harness. He compared to installing first rate high dollar harnesses.
There was no question the $800 harnesses were extremely good and easy to work with and way better in quality.

When installing the cheaper harnesses, he thought for a daily driver they were quite good. They had good automotive wire of proper gauge and the fuse box worked as advertised .... instructions kinda sucked or non existent .... all in all they were fine for a $10K daily driver, save the good harness for the $75K show cars.
So I bought a cheap universal .... Mine the fuse box sucked and it looked like someone randomly shoved wires into holes .... The wire quality is fine. So I cut all the different wonderful color coded wires off and bought a marine fuse box and building from scratch.


Still looks like a rats nest but will clean up fine .... still need to add in headlights, turn signals to the harness ... work in progress but it does start off the key and has a working 12V charging system.

I had some time and painted the rear fenders the correct color, then I even washed it for the first time I painted the truck over 1 year ago.



I was not sure about the tires yet .... I remember the old days when they would run a aggressive mud/snow tire in the rear, then a highway tread up front .... I ordered 2, 235 75R 15 AT tires for the rear.
I did want to see if they would be OK on the front also .... Always nice to have all 4 the same. .... Finally got some good weather again and was able to clean up the bare wheels and actually paint them proper .... they were just rattle can with the tires on before.


I'm satisfied these will work OK and will order 2 more.
While it has been too cold to work outside, I have been playing with speedometers and learning how they work .... interesting but I think I now have a well cleaned and oiled speedometer .... first drive will tell the truth.



Nothing exciting but still plugging away at it when I can.

 

Cool looking truck!