North Idaho Driver

[68rookie]

Looks great!!!

[Idaho Chris]

Thanks to everyone for the positive comments!

I am having second thoughts on the yellow wires. They have looked nice on my Mustangs over the years, but the more I look at them the more I think they are out of place on the truck. I think when I get around to painting the air cleaner and valve cover I may switch them out.

[DuckRyder]

I like the Mirrors a lot. I have a set similar to those I might do the same with, maybe they will stay adjusted unlike the small mirrors I have.

It is totally a personal thing, but I do think some standard black with earth colored boots wires would look better...

[Idaho Chris]

Well, it had to happen. About every two years I end up putting in a new windshield in one of my vehicles from rock damage. Today I caught a golf ball sized rock from a dump truck coming the other way. He was moving pretty fast and spewing a lot of dust and dirt as he sped toward me. I thought at the time there might be an issue so I swerved onto the shoulder and slowed down but still got nailed! #@$&*!!!

[Idaho Chris]

It will be interesting to see if the Pertronix ignition gets me over 15.

OK, let me know on that would ya?
I have put an Offy C intake and FI exhaust manifolds on mine, and a 1.08 Motorcraft 2 bbl carb., (auto transmission), on a high mileage engine. The mileage went down to about 13mpg. (Im still dreaming about getting it rebuilt).

I probably need the upgraded distributor, right?

So I caught the rock in the above photo heading to the ethanol free gas station to fill up. It was my first tank since the Pertronix install. I returned 15.6 mpg on this tank, which compares to the 14.8 I got pre-install. I am not sure any real conclusions can be drawn from such an unscientific and small sample size, but I did get an improvement.

I should note that I live in a very rural part of Idaho. The speed limit is 60 mph on most roads, so I am never going faster than 60 mph. Also, I don't really have any "city" type driving to contend with as there are only two stop lights in my whole county. A lot of my driving is at a pretty optimal 45 mph or so which may account for my results.

Oh, and jzjames- you do not need an upgraded distributor for the Pertronix. It screws right into the stock dizzy.

[Idaho Chris]

I have not been able to find the bolts I want to use for my shoulder belt attachment points. Unfortunately there are no meaningful junkyards within an hour of me to look for them, so I have given up finding the appropriate bolt.

A little time spent at the local hardware store looking through the Hillman hardware yielded this fairly simple solution. I thought I'd share a pic in case others are looking for same. Grade 8 bolt, brass bushing and a washer...

[Idaho Chris]

OK, the parts I have ordered from DC, NPD and RetroSound have all come in so it is time for me to tackle the interior. I started by removing the sagging headliner a PO installed. I will need to polish up the trim before re-installation.



Underneath the cheesy quilted vinyl material was the original headliner. It is yellowed and discolored, but if you look close around the edges you can see that it is the same light color that DC sells. From my limited research I believe that the original headliners may all have been this color at least on the lower line trucks. Some more knowledgeable member may correct me on this, but I intend to replace mine with the stock color.



Here's a shot with everything removed.



Next I removed the gauge cluster. I have some wiring issues from PO modifications that I am trouble shooting. I have non-working cargo and interior lights, butchered lines from an old brake controller install, and especially a mess from the radio installation.



And another shot with everything out including the dash pad.



The truck came with a Kraco AM/FM cassette deck. I couldn't help but smile seeing this. Those of you old enough may remember that in the 1970's the radio everyone pined for was a Pioneer Super Tuner. If you couldn't swing the coin for the Pioneer you went to Kmart and got a Kraco. Ah the good old days!

I will be installing a RetroSound radio and new speaker in the stock dash location. Here is the radio mocked up in the stock bezel.



I do not want to cut the doors, and my days of blasting Aerosmith out of a fancy stereo system are behind me anyway, so the stock single speaker location will do. I bought a dual coil 6x9 speaker from RetroSound. I needed to drill some holes in the dash to fit the mounting screws for the larger speaker. The screws have very shallow heads so they won't be visible after the dash pad is installed.



I used a rubber washer, fender washer and nylock nuts to mount the speakers.



More later...

[Idaho Chris]

So I finished up the radio install. It is a RetroSound unit. It took some time to get the knob posts positioned correctly but after that it was pretty straight forward. The radio comes with great wiring harness plugs and fittings. All in all I am happy with the unit.



The flooring was next. Here is a photo of the original 50 year old flooring:



It is pretty brittle and cracked in places, but not all that bad considering how old it is.

The only source I could find for the OEM rubber flooring that went all the way back on the sides of the seat like the original floor, was the product made by Dennis Carpenter. They do not list a floor for Bump era pickups, but they do list a Dent product. It fits Bumps as well. I bought the eight inch hump product to fit my 4 x 4 tunnel and shifter. DC was having a 15% off sale a couple of weeks ago so I bought a number of things from them. Generally higher quality stuff vs what I have sourced elsewhere.



Unfortunately the flooring did not come with any holes cut. It took me some time to get things cut and lined up. The new floor had to be trimmed all the way around as it is supplied oversized. It is thicker than the original rubber by about 50%. Very heavy and high quality. The DC flooring came with soundproofing padding which I cut to fit in the foot wells.



Here's a shot of the installed floor. Came out nice. I expect it to lay down a bit more as time goes by.



Next I installed the new dash pad and dash bezel (thanks again DC for the sale price!). I got all the under dash wiring sorted, took apart and rebuilt the cargo switch and fixed the dome light wiring. I polished the paint on the dash and spruced up all the chrome trim with metal polish. Put it all back together and here is the finished product.



I had a bit of a hassle getting the speedometer cable reinstalled. The center winding pulled out about a half inch when I removed the dash cluster. Eventually I figured it out and removed the speedometer cable from the transfer case and pulled the inner cable back farther into the housing. After that it all went back together easily.

Headliner this weekend...

[Busboy]

Looks real nice. Are you going to tuck the ends of the flooring up under the firewall cover?

[Idaho Chris]

Looks real nice. Are you going to tuck the ends of the flooring up under the firewall cover?

Yeah, and I also need to get the boot covers on the shifter and transfer case pulled through and screwed into the new flooring. Thanks.

[Idaho Chris]

Yep, black spark plug wiring is definitely more appropriate. Anyone interested in a set of new yellow Accel wires cheap?

[popeyes71]

Nice progress, I like what you are doing on the interior! By the way, the black wires look great.

[WhitsEnd]

I'll have to look into that Retrosound unit. I've been researching "hidden" systems because I want the stock look.

Very nice truck.

[Idaho Chris]

Nice progress, I like what you are doing on the interior! By the way, the black wires look great.

Thanks. Yeah, I should have known better than to put yellow wires on an old truck. Lesson learned...$40 misspent...

I'll have to look into that Retrosound unit. I've been researching "hidden" systems because I want the stock look.

Very nice truck.

I spent some time researching the radio. I had thought about just going with the radio delete plate in the bezel, but I was unable to locate one. At least this radio looks period correct and it allows FM reception. Now that it is installed I am happy that I went with the unit instead of the plate.

[Idaho Chris]

As I sorted out my cargo light wiring I determined that a PO had installed the light and switch after the fact. The truck did not come from Ford with this option. I could tell by the quality of the hole that was cut for the switch, the hole that was cut for the light on the cab, and the 'rigged' up wiring job that this was not a factory install. Well that, and the fact that the light was installed upside down.

Upside Down:



Now, right side up:



Moving on to the headliner; here are a couple shots of the trim after removal. Not as bad as some I have seen. I was hoping it would clean up.





All it took was a couple hours of elbow grease. Still some minor pitting, but good enough for my purposes.



With the help of a patient 'car guy' buddy, the headliner went it. [I highly recommend not performing this task with your significant other!] Measuring where the screw hole in the center of the headliner needed to go ahead of time certainly helped, but it still took us 10 minutes or more to get it in the right spot without messing up the headliner.



And here it is finished with the sun visors installed as well.



I am hoping my new windshield gasket comes in next week so I can get the new windshield installed. That huge rock crater bugs me to no end!