Although I have not provided anything here on progress, I have done a ton of things to keep going on the old girl....wiring wiring wiring....got all my audio equipment and associated components from Mike (all thanks to this site...and he is GREAT!!!). I have the sub located, spaced the 4" speakers in the aft corner panels, built the 6 x 9 mounts under the bed, and then mounted and wired the crossovers for the front component system. I also got a backup camera and a trailer harness that has both a 7 pin and a 4 flat pin connection. I mounted the harness on the hitch structure, but the back up camera screws were too fragile to handle the steel of the hitch mount. Regardless, all the wiring continues, where I am routing speaker wires, connecting both power and ground wires, and looking at how to route all this mess forward to my head unit. I temporarily connected things to make sure that the amp, sub, rear speakers, and back up camera were at least working. To say this is a project is an UNDERSTATEMENT....in between all this I actually tossed a chair and board in her and headed to the beach. THIS is where she is NOT a fish out of water...but in her element....
Jim & Lucy Newkirk 1965 Chevy Bad Influence 1981 Chevy-the Love Shack 2012 Chevy Van , 2020 chevy van 2020 Chevy van Sapphire Sweet. Club Vannerz. vanninvanner@comcast.net
I also mocked up a test panel to try my luck at vinyl wrapping before deciding if I am going to try and tackle an actual one. I used "chipboard" in an attempt to cover up the spring clips, as a pro told me that they would show through blatantly if I didn't do something. I learned a lot, and am going to incorporate some things before I move on to the true panel. One thing I still may attempt is laying the thin padding foam down first, as I still like the idea of a "padded" door. That will probably entail pulling all the current stuff off and starting bare again. One thing that definitely needs to happen is filling in around the parallelograms with bondo; trying to get the vinyl to tuck down around corners and into sharp areas was not working. I will also be much more careful and accurate when I cut the chip board so it matches up to the shapes. One thing that also has me concerned is that I MAY have put the upper details too close and the arm rests will hit them. I would not be saying MAY at this point, but I can't FIND the damn things to actually try them, so today I am going to scour all my nooks and bins and see if I can't find them to check. Of course, I can't find replacements for sale anywhere even if I DON'T find the old ones.....
Arianrhod:2003 Chevy Astro Black Magic: 1985 Dodge B-250 Serenity:1985 Chevy G-20 The Outcast:1983 Ford club wagon Luna 1974 VW bay window transporter Freedom:1990 Ford E-150(parts van) Outcast Vanners van club Support your local 2%
I went and picked up a bundle of chipboard from our local paper product factory, and set to work on some layouts. I got an upper panel overlay laid out, as well as finalized the bondo work on the highlights. My aluminum speaker grill mesh showed up so I cut out the circles for them and did a quick check fit. I also saw that there was a '78 in a yard about 30 miles away, so I took off with tools in the trunk. I took the doors apart and snagged the window glass, as I think they both looked scratch free. I took off the entire slider hinge assembly and dragged that home as well. The forward casting OBVIOUSLY was a no-go, but for the first time EVER, between both myself and my bay area hunter, I found an assembly that, after cleaning, had BOTH cam levers INTACT. Now I will try to lay out the tons of parts I have and hopefully get a working assembly. I am not overly optimistic yet, but we shall see. I did pull the arm rests from the doors, but they are not the same as mine.....I'm still afraid that my details will interfere with them; maybe it is time to go CUSTOM in some way....