I haven't posted this week, but I've been busy. I scored a center console from a Ford Freestar at Pull-A-Part last weekend. I looked through several SUVs and minivans before I found it. It was pretty funkified with God-knows what kind of greasy stuff, but it was remarkably intact. I got it home and disassembled it for painting and discovered the armrest cover was busted up a bit. A full tube of epoxy went into resolidifying it. I shot all the pieces with the same gloss black interior vinyl paint I've been using on everything else. It's a little narrow - I was honestly hoping to get a center console wide enough to hide the old bazooka subwoofer I had laying around, but there weren't a whole lot of intact consoles to choose from.
View media item 32096I removed the heater ducting underneath and the two vents in back. I have an old 12v inverter I'll be mounting in the backside. I'm not sure what to do with the traction control switch. I need to check the pins with a meter and see what connects when the button's pushed.
I nabbed a pair of seatbelt buckles. The factory driver's buckle was trashed, and since I'm going from three seatbelts to two, I wasn't really interested in cutting up and possibly compromising the passenger buckle mount. I got two driver's mounts, cut the middle belts off them, and sprayed them the same black.
I also scored a compass/temperature mirror and the temp sending unit. The truck had no mirror on it, and I was determined that if I had to replace it, I was going to find a compass/temp mirror. Since it will be warmer tomorrow, I'll take the opportunity to glue the tab on.
Tonight I masked off the dashboard and fogged it black. When the sun's out tomorrow I'll back the truck into the daylight and see every spot I missed. It's supposed to be a beautiful 70* day tomorrow.
Wednesday I moved the Suburban's insurance to the truck, and tomorrow morning the 48 hour delay in the state's insurance verification system will have lapsed and I can get the tag legitimized. Once that's done and I have the dashboard back together I'll take the carpet to the car wash. I can scrub the dirt off the truck and wash the carpet for paint.
I bought two packages of Soff-Seal's sound deadener (
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sft-insul1/overview/). It's quite a bit cheaper than the competition, but it looks like it's a bit thick. I'll have to trim it pretty well to keep it off the seat mounts, etc.
I also bought a package of these door panel fasteners:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NE7TJ8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1. They don't seem to be holding well. I'm going to have to play with the doors and panels a bit. These doors are one of the stupidest designs I've ever seen.
I pulled the gauge cluster. It rattled, and a random small gear fell out. Not sure what it goes to. Also not sure how to remove the gauges. Do I have to un-solder the gauges from the circuit board? The gauge cover was cracked pretty badly, but I had a spare out of a later truck. It doesn't quite fit right, but it'll work for now.
I ordered a fuel pressure gauge adapter and gauge from Morse Machine so I can swap on my modified TBI and see what fuel pressure I'm running.
http://rvmorsemachine.com/product.htm. I know the stock tune and stock TBI aren't suitable for driving the truck very far, or under much of a load, so this will crutch it until I can find somebody local to tune it. I've considered putting a tune on it myself, but $300 worth of tools that I'll only use once doesn't interest me, especially since I have no experience tuning fuel injection. The TBI is from a later truck, and has the wiring adapter, a smoothed top, a raised injector pod, and 454 injectors I scored off Rock Auto for $15 a piece. I shimmed the fuel pressure regulator spring cup up a bit, but I really need to know what fuel pressure it's running.
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Finally, here's a pic of the refinished upper console.
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