I got the entire drivetrain out and the frame somewhat degreased. I want to have the frame sandblasted like the back half was in 2021. But how to roll the truck out into the yard for blasting? Well I happen to have a gm 14 bolt full float axle, stripped and sandblasted, ready for building into a desert race axle. So I put the front wheels of the truck on the axle, and set the crossmember of the frame right on it. I drilled two holes in the xmember and put bolts into the cover holes! Now I can roll it straight back into the dirt for blasting. So this is either the easiest 'solid axle swap' of all time, or maybe one of those 'why women live longer' moments..
In other news, I am still digging deeper into the truck, rather than starting to put new stuff back on. I stripped all the old split-loom and petrified electrical tape off the wire harness. It's a total rat's nest and the average wire is probably 50% longer than it needs to be. That will be cleaned up and rewrapped some time in the future, hopefully before it is 117F in July.
The ac has hardly blown at all in the 10 years I have owned it, so the evap core is probably clogged with leaves and crap. There are vids on youtube of how to get the core out without removing the dash, but they often cut and break things, and that's just not right for the way I'm restoring this truck. I want to take the ac box completely out to fix it and reseal it properly, which means removing the dash... *shudder*
But it's really not that bad. The steering shaft is already off, so removing the steering column is actually easy. Here the column is out and the dash is free, supported on two jackstands and a tiedown strap on the passenger grab handle. I made videos along the way, which may end up on youtube someday for fixing the ac the right way. Tomorrow I pull the firewall screws to the ac box and see what's going on in there.