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| More Installation of new stuff |
| At last, it's finally time to get to the business of assembling all the pieces that make a new V8 go round........ |
| Now comes the time consuming part, attaching all of the accesories, wiring and plumbing. Highlights of the endless list of tasks are: Alternator and conversion wiring, Air conditioning compressor, evap unit, condensor and hoses, exhaust manifolds, gauge wiring and plumbing, carb and fuel pump, ignition and wires, cooling hoses, dipsticks, throttle cable, etc. etc. |
| In Arizona, cooling your fluids properly is a major issue. After coming to the realization that there was no real good place to put an external transmission cooler. I took the stock radiator to my radiator guru, Mark, at Mike Dana Radiator in Mesa AZ. He advised me that my original 1962 6-7 p.s.i. design core wouldn't be up to the pressures necessary to keep a performance V8 cool. He re cored the unit with a high efficiency core and a late model trans cooler in the bottom tank. He re used the top tank and brackets so it was a direct bolt in. The trans cooler lines were fairly easy to bend up with the proper tools. The radiator hoses were a bit more difficult to come up with. Fortunatly the guys at my local NAPA let me wander through their myriad of hoses in the stock room for about an hour. I finally came up with a perfect upper and three lower candidates. After some minor mods, I have two hoses that look factory installed. |
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| Once the engine compartment was squared away, I turned my attention to the front end. It was time to install the rest of the mail order goodies I had waiting. I bought the entire front disk brake conversion kit from Classic Performance Products in California. This kit had it all, spindles, rotors, calipers, pads, hoses, bearings, booster/bracket/block off plate, master cylinder and porportioning valve. I'm pretty happy with their stuff, it all seems to be very high quality. I did have some missing pices and a fit problem with their booster bracket, but they took care of everything promptly and were very helpful on the phone. My only minor complaint was that I had to use 2-1/2 drop spindles to keep 6 lug rotors to match the back. I really didn't wan't the lower front end and I was really taken back when I put the truck back on the ground. The difference was drastic. I think the effect was amplified by the fact that the hood was still missing at the time. The look grew on me after awhile. but I still adjusted the torsion bars up about an inch to keep the tires from rubbing while hitting dips. I know it's still pretty ugly under there but this is a daily driver, not a show machine so what's the point in making it perfect when the streets will just ugly it up again. |
| Here's a shot of the final install of the power steering box. I used the kit from REZ engineering. Their kit was designed to work with the 1963 and later (coil sprung) chassis. They claim it works on the earlier trucks with minor modification, yeah sure, right. After much grumbling, fighting, fabbing and grinding I got the thing bolted on. Thank god I have a welder. Hose routing required a little help from Bart at NAPA and a notch in the inner fender well. The end result was worth the fight, parking with the palm of your hand is a luxury taken for granted in modern vehicles |
| This shot doesn't do it justice but believe me the front end drop looked pretty drastic at the time. |
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