Installing a Cab: First Blood Part II

Quick updates: So, I guess it's been a super long time since the last post. In my defense, I lot has happened. After the last post (ummm, a couple of years ago) my wife and I both began new careers, we bought a house, and we had a baby, my mother passed away and there were lots of other things like trips throughout Wisconsin like Edgar Steam Show, EAA Airshow, Bristol Renaissance Fair, and let's not forget the fun winters up here. Also, the truck has been used a lot since we heat our house with wood. I have a few ideas for the truck, all of which will follow in the next blog post, including how my driveshaft decided to come loose going 60 mph down the highway! We'll get to that....

But first, let's do a little catch up between the summer of 2011 and now.....1/1/2014....

Fall 2011

The Move

Edgar Steam Show

2012

Spring Time 

Summer 

Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) - Airshow

Bristol Renaissance Fair

Winter

First time ice fishing.

 

2013

Eulalia

Our Daughter Eulalia - Born in April

In Fall of 2013 my mother passed away. This is for you mom, rest in peace.

(1948 - 1913)

Summer

The American Lemans - Elkhart Lake, WI

Ok, so as you can see, there's been a lot that's gone on from July of 2011 to January of 2014. It doesn't let me off the hook for not making another blog post, but it does remind me that a lot has gone on since we moved to WI. Anyway, back to the truck.....

 Installation/Preparation:

Background:
I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but I have two points to make by giving a little bit of background knowledge, so listen up. I am from NC born and raised. I became a high school English teacher (ignore all grammar mistakes), and I taught for 5 years. Also, I got married to an amazing girl in 2008 who was also a high school English teacher. Anyway, I didn't know hardly anything about cars before I bought this truck. I knew how to change the oil and rotate my tires. And one time my friend and I used a Hayne's manual from the library to fix my Honda Prelude. It threw the timing belt and trashed all the valves. However, working on the Jeep with Jake and Jackie really taught me a lot about how to do stuff. So anybody who can turn a wrench, follow a manual, and listen to advice can restore an old car. The other equally or more important thing is that it's always going to cost more than you budgeted for and take more time than you thought it would, but don't give up! I lost count on how many times I debated on selling this truck, and how many times I told it to go to hell. However, all the while, I remember my friend's dad who had a 1966 mustang in his garage. I remember seeing that thing up on blocks when I was about 10 years old, I don't know if it even had a motor. The thing was old and covered in dust and looked like a junk mustang. When I was about 25, I saw my friend's dad driving that same mustang. It looked like it came from a showroom. The thing was flawless and sounded perfect. Anyway, be honest with yourself about restoring a vehicle, but also be patient. I don't know if my truck will ever be flawless, but I've gotten it's worth in work out of it at least.

The Move
Like I said, in 2008, I got married and my wife and I had decided that in 2011 we'd move to WI, where she is from. In June of 2011 we packed up all of our stuff and got ready to move. Her parents were coming down at the end of July, and we were also going to Germany for a wedding in the middle of July before the move. In June, 2011, two months before we were moving to WI, my truck looked like this:



Needless to say, I had to get my butt into gear and get this thing finished. I stayed with Jake and Jackie for two weeks. In 2 weeks time, we swapped the front axle, put the engine/transmission back on and prepped the truck to get the new cab. I had three days left before I had to go back home and get ready for a trip to Germany. As you know from my earlier post, putting the new cab on wasn't exactly a cake walk, but it was easier than I thought (then again, it is a 1976). So after we got the cab on, we got some chow and relaxed a bit.

The next day, we got adjusted the cab a little until it rested nicely on the frame. We still worked in and around it. It's pretty stable even though it's not bolted down, of course never take it for granted. Anyway, the next job was to hook up everything that needs to be hooked up. By the way, I do have a few pictures from this part, but honestly I didn't take many cause I was under a crunch just to get it done.

We started hooking up everything one by one. At this point, there's a lot of stuff to do, so I didn't find any particular order of things. I decided to hook up the the wiring harnesses first. On these babies, it's real easy, three basic parts. One goes to the back of the truck for the tail lights gas gauge, etc. The other two go in the engine bay. One basic tip with the wiring is that if you took it off, it should fit where it was before, or pretty close, so remember which one is short, long, etc. If you're looking for a Wiring Diagram, but can't find it, here's your answer: http://oljeep.com/gw/elec/GW_wiring.html  The next thing I tackled was the pedal assembly because this cab was for an automatic, and mine is manual. This turned out to be more difficult than I thought. Apparently the assemblies for an automatic and manual are similar  but different enough that a little bit of fabrication was needed. Fortunately I had a mentor who could fabricate anything in his sleep. If you don't have somebody, there's always YouTube, or http://www.ifsja.org/, and many other Jeep sites. Also, I've found plenty of people at auto parts stores or shops who are very willing to talk through stuff.
We used an assembly from a 1984 J10, mainly because the bolts on my old cab had somewhat seized, plus, the pedals from the '84 were in much better shape. I first tried to take the entire assembly out including the plate that holds it all to the firewall (bad idea). I wasted at least 1.5 hours trying to get 5 bolts off. It was definitely one of those parts on the truck that isn't made to be replaced. The bolts need a lot of torque and are tucked up deep under the dash. Unfortunately I found that I tend to do things the hard way at first, wasting time and busting my knuckles, just to find there is a much easier way. Keep It Simple Stupid. Can anyone relate? Finally, I wised up and decided to leave the entire housing and take off the main bar that holds the pedals in place. It did fit, but we had to fabricate a special bar that would keep the pedals positioned. Otherwise, the brake pedal for instance would spring upward under the dash.

This was my sample from another Jeep
to help me get the hoses correct in mine.

After getting the pedals situated, I decided to work on the gauge cluster and get the heating system hooked up again. This is one of those things where it's really nice to have another Jeep to look at. There's essentially three vacuum hoses that have to be connected; the hardest part is just trying to figure out which hose goes where. Just like wiring, make sure you have different color tubes or it gets even more confusing. By different color, I mean different color stripes on the black tubes. Once this is done, then the other gauges can be connected, including the speedometer cable. When I screwed in the gauge cluster, it didn't seem to fit perfect, mainly because I had removed the dash cover. If you look at the picture with the green dash, you can see the holes where the dash cover used to bolt to. It wasn't a major problem for me. One day, I'll probably use some of the holes for switches, and other holes will just get welded up. By the way, there are many different ways to customize your gauge cluster depending on what gauges you want, and also the way you want it to look. Here's one example where I guy custom made his own cluster with the gauges he wanted: http://www.ifsja.org/forums/vb/showthread.php?t=87425

Unfortunately I don't have more pictures of putting the cab back together from the inside or out until it was about 99% complete, but essentially we finished up the inside of the cab by reinstalling the steering wheel along with other little things like plugging different components up and lastly putting in the seat. Jake talked me into putting in a newer seat then what I had prior. And, while moving the old seat, Jackie noticed that there was a paper stuck in the springs. It was the original order slip for the truck as it was going through the factory. It was neat seeing a little 40 year-old piece of history from my specific truck's creation.

Well, we got much of it put back together and it started to look like a truck again, though there was a good amount of work left to do to get it finished, but after putting most of that parts together on my truck, here is what it looked like:

And that's how it looked in NC. Here's the first couple of pictures I took after we got the truck to WI. Also, the last picture is at our house now, after dropping off a load of wood.