modifications on project truck

So far there have been many more modifications than are listed here. They will be updated with time.

We went with Bear claw door latches activated by power door lock solenoids, micro switches connected to the outside door handles activate the solenoids, retaining the stock look from outside. Inside, small push buttons on dash independently open the doors. Installed an electric key switch under the driver's door handle outside, and retained the stock mechanical key lock on the passenger door in case of battery run down, or whatever.

The column is out of an early '80s mid size Chev car, with the old column hole in the floor filled in and column angled more than stock.

We installed a spare tire winch in place of the stock spare tire setup. The winch is from a Nissan '80s pickup. We wanted to have a spare with the truck, as it will be a daily driver, but we didn't want the tire in the bed.

We mounted the battery in the stock location and replaced the top tray of the stand and replaced it with a 80's Chev battery mount that holds the battery on from the bottom. This was to get rid of the old bracket that used to hold the battery on. If anyone is thinking of building one of these or working on their truck one thing to keep in mind is, depending on how much rake (lower the front is than the rear) try to make the battery level and just put some spacers on the front of the stand.

To try and keep costs low, we didn't want to buy a 12 volt wiper motor to replace the vacuum motor, so when we were offered a wiper motor out of a '61 Ford bus we took it. After many hours of modifications we had an electric setup.

We retained the stock gauges, but built a 6 volt regulator for them, and still use stock sending units. The flat head sending units indicate much hotter water temp since they are now in an OHV, so we had to play with resistors across the sending units so temp gauge is reasonably accurate. We also built a heavy duty 7 volt regulator for the heater motor, with infinite speed adjustment (something that wasn't hard to do, as we had wished for years that vehicles would come stock with infinite speed adjustment).

We went with leather buckets out of an '85 Daytona plus the power window mechanisms which have been considerably modified. Using the front mounting holes, we made a couple of vertical supports that bolted there, with a 5/16" x 1.5" flat bar welded horizontally (had that size of bar, makes a nice rigid framework). The bar extends about 6" beyond both vertical uprights. Basically did the same for the back, but lower for seat tilt, but used 1.5" square tubing as bolts for seats screw in vertically. Welded coupling nuts inside the tubing to give more strength, as we use these bolts for the seat belt anchors. The saddle tanks are filled by one filler neck, cut into the cab approximately 2 inches below the stock seat tank filler neck. Had to design the filler neck to tank piping to route nice and clean, and still allow me to install the rear seat mount. The passenger mount has a "fancy" dogleg to clear the filler pipe.

We built a console out of thin sheet metal to fill in between the seats and to cover the auto shifter (shifter is out of an '81 Buick Skylark because we needed the cable length, plus this shifter has built in neutral safety switch and reverse switch). Console also houses the power window switches, power door lock switch, power seat controls and amplifier switches.

Also made a mounting bracket under the passenger seat as high as possible for the sub woofer amplifier. There is still room underneath for me to make some sort of an under seat storage drawer. The sub woofer speaker is in a custom designed and manufactured box under the driver's seat.

We also made a pair of saddle tanks for inside frame, straddling the transmission/drive shaft. Tanks are about 40 inches long, about 8 inches wide, and about 9 or 10 inches high, joined by a 1.5" HD hose, vent line at top. The passenger side tank has a 2 inch nipple welded on top which protrudes through the cab under the seat, then piped to a second filler neck just below the stock filler neck. These 2 tanks, which act as one larger one due to the 1.5" hose, carry about 26 gallons, so between the seat tank and these. We still have the seat tank for those long trips. We have a tank solenoid switch to install to switch between tanks.