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512 cid C series on Dakota chassis- build thread


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3 hours ago, Radarsonwheels said:

Haha Merle that’s awesome. You’re almost as bad as me with all the computer junk I have in my rig I don’t have a gps or a radio. The radio might be pointless unless I get a competition level setup or swap to less silly mufflers. The GPS is somewhere between an aberration that doesn’t belong and a badge of honor that your old truck gets driven farther than you can push it home. 

 

What’s that edgar winter or deep purple or something? You’re jammin in there!

He was jamming to Yes  :)

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8 hours ago, Radarsonwheels said:

Haha Merle that’s awesome. You’re almost as bad as me with all the computer junk I have in my rig I don’t have a gps or a radio. The radio might be pointless unless I get a competition level setup or swap to less silly mufflers. The GPS is somewhere between an aberration that doesn’t belong and a badge of honor that your old truck gets driven farther than you can push it home. 

 

What’s that edgar winter or deep purple or something? You’re jammin in there!

 

Ha... I’d have to go back and listen to it again. It’s whatever Sirius Classic Rewind was playing at the time. 

Everything is on suction cups or magnets so it can be moved easily during shows. 

 

 

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5 hours ago, Merle Coggins said:

 

Ha... I’d have to go back and listen to it again. It’s whatever Sirius Classic Rewind was playing at the time. 

Everything is on suction cups or magnets so it can be moved easily during shows. 

 

 

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I don't think the cops have that much stuff on their dash....cruising the center lane….and the dice dots could be consider hybrid analog/digital...like the fingernails and toe nails...they dots....that is why they are referred to as digits...…..(definitions found only in my home dictionary.....?)

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Welp, I’m 41 today. Got myself a present- I always wanted a porta-power but never got around to buying one. I got the bigred one with a blowmolded case which will be nice to keep the junk and attachments all together. I’m hoping to use it to get the door openings a little more in shape on the truck.

 

The passenger side door aligns great but the opening is a little narrow so the bolt drags and makes the door sticky. I’d like to push a few 64ths more width out of it- probably lay a heavy bar along the whole front jam and push around the striker area. 

 

The Driver’s side is a little droopy. I had a thread about it here a long while ago and the consensus was to jack up the door by the bottom edge to tweak the angle of it which made it much better but still not great. I am going to concentrate a push on the jam side of the top hinge to try and lift up the rear edge of the door some. There is some rust there- I reeealy don’t want to get into re-making the whole sheetmetal area even though I’m sure that would set the angle correctly for a long time. Hopefully it isn’t too crunchy to take a little pressure. 

 

My headliner project has snowballed into a dome light & footwell courtesy light project. The door jam ground plunger switches showed up today along with the ugly LEDs I’m going to tuck up under the dash. I had planned on one for each side but now that I see how big they are I’m wondering if one in the middle wouldn’t do the trick?

 

My headliner material is here, hanging out with the ABS and cardboard. It’s going to be a lot of work. 

 

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Edited by Radarsonwheels
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I got the passenger door opening and closing like new after a little push on the B pillar with the porta power. The driver’s side is still a little droopy but better. I might try shimming out the bottom hinge a little but it’s fine for now- I’m the only one that has to open and close it. 

 

The headliner build is moving along. After asking a bunch of questions on the hamb about it somebody asked me to document the build so I started a ‘how not to’ thread over there- Hi LosControl! Sometimes I hang out there and read/ask questions about how to do more 50s/60s period custom scratch built hotrod type stuff. It’s not a perfect fit for my build though- power disc brakes, EFI, airbags, big modern stroker motor, all post ‘62 stuff that they don’t wanna hear about. My build isn’t a modern billet smoothie or a junk festooned ratrod but I think it fits in here much better- seems like we all love early dodge trucks however we can enjoy them! 

 

Anyway, I got all the surface rust and flaky original lead paint wire brushed off the inner roof and hosed it with rust converter primer. I went all out on safety by tying a wet t-shirt around my face and holding my breath while painting inside the cab ? 

 

Here’s a pic of the pattern for the headliner perimeter getting figured out in cardboard

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Here’s the footprint of the roof flange. The sides are a soft push and have side to side wiggle room. The front to back is a hard pop up into the flange and a snug fit.

 

I am thinking about cutting my ABS long and slumping the rear over the top of the roof with a torch to get a nice curve in it. Then the A-pillar covers can come up and hide the front corner gaps and I can make the panels over the doors with a curve on top similar to the stock panels.

 

I don’t know if I want to sew up the vinyl so it will all be one piece like the stock one? I think butted in the corners will look nice and finished. Maybe a strip of chrome to cover the flange and break up the panels would be nice- the diamonds will change direction from the headliner to the rear surround anyway. 

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The cab is all stripped and masked off. I just finished spraying the second coat of lizardskin sound deadener in there. Now I have to wait 24hrs to spray two coats of the ceramic thermal insulation.

 

It sprays out blobby like undercoating and covers fast. I’m also using this stuff to seal up the edges of the dynamat where water likes to collect. 

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Edited by Radarsonwheels
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The cab is all un-masked and reassembled. I started making the ABS board for the headliner. I cut out a generous slab bigger than my footprint pattern, put it on the roof square-ish, weighed it down with lead bars, and put some curve in it with a heat gun using the roof as a buck. Hopefully that will maximize headroom and encourage the concave front to back rainbow shape I want- no oilcanning! 

 

Then I cut the curved piece leaving a couple inches to trim off the back. The cab tapers toward the front so it’s been a gradual process rolling it up and in as far as it can go pushing from back to front, marking it and trimming it. 

 

 

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Got the ABS board trimmed to fit. It will definitely need side pieces to hold the shape and a central bracket made up off the oem dome light folded sheetmetal piece. Plus the dome light needs to get figured out and installed. 

 

I took my cousin out for a rip and developed what sounds like a nasty header collector leak on the right bank- luckily not the O2 sensor side. A few small backfires on decel told me what was going on and I limped it home. Hopefully it’s a loosening bolt and iirc I put soft aluminum gaskets in so it will just be a tighten back up scenario ? 

 

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This morning I was able to feel around the exhaust on a nice cold engine- the right side shorty header collector bolts backed off and 2 out of 3 had lost a nut! There’s a lot of pressure with the big motor breathing through tiny primary tubes. That’ll remind me to retorque- I neglected to do that last time I dropped the exhaust. It’s a real pain in the butt to reach but at least I don’t need to buy parts and nothing is broken.

 

On the upside before the exhaust got loud I could definitely tell the difference inside the cab with the lizardskin insulation installed. You still need your outside voice to have a conversation except at low throttle cruise but now the motor sound is just a sweet thumping bassy thrum instead of a clattering symphony row. It was expensive and a ton of work so I’m glad it was worth it!

 

Gotta go to work today but I’m gonna try to make some more progress on the headliner before heading out.

Edited by Radarsonwheels
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2 hours ago, Merle Coggins said:

Looks like you installed a mirror on the ceiling... ??

Yeah I figured it’d be easier to scuff the smooth side than the textured side so the contact cement can bite. 

 

Exhaust is tight again on both sides. Started making the over door panels and fitting the dome light 

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You gotta be a pretty petite couple to get busy in a pilothouse but shaving your face in the passenger footwell would be quite a feat of contortion!

 

I got the side pieces mocked up trimmed and installed in raw wood. The bottom edges still need a little tuning but they tame the ABS curve pretty well and fill the ugly gaps.

 

The access thru the dome lite hole should help with getting the bracket correct to hold up the middle- gonna rivet a U bracket to the remnants of the old dome light bracket then drill it in place so I won’t need calculus to line up the holes. 

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