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No pics...but a significant update. Fired her up tonight. We had a fuel leak last night that stymied us and delayed the big moment. But after regrouping and going through our preflight checklist ;) tonight, she basically started on the first turn. A little fine tuning will of course be in order, but we didn't let her go long because the oil pressure never came up....which at this point I'm convinced is a problem in my gauge/line. But we're taking no chances. I totally should have put an electric gauge in there and I know it, but I'm going to swap out the oil line tomorrow. I was so zealous in not having a leak in that copper line, I'm thinking I might have overtightened the compression fittings. Please feel free to comment on my stupidity.

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Having a celebratory beer - congrats! Fire it up w the line open at the gauge end to bleed and document flow?

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Milestone! It feels so good hearing it run for the first time, congrats!

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Thanks Pete...I wanted more than a beer on Monday night. Considered just running the line into a cup...but I think I'm going to throw a nylon line in there with new fittings first. Maybe I'll see a little oil in the copper one coming off. I'm probably too worried about goofing up finishes or making a mess. The worst part of the fuel leak was that it was at the carb and did some bad things to the paint on the intake just below. So for every action there is a disproportionately horrible corresponding additional action that must occur....so we started the engine and we get to re-plumb a gauge and re-paint the intake...and I pray that's all.

Thanks, it did sound great...especially through the 20 odd feet of dryer vent serving as our one off custom exhaust.

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Good news-got plenty of oil pressure.
Bad news-cluster has to come out...gauge is bad.

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Jim...spring got here today. It's a perfect example and will clean up great...can't thank you enough.

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No stupidity"............stuff happens........ask me how I know!

Congrats on getting it fired up........give me a couple weeks to get past the spring rush at work and I want to come see it.....

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Thanks...I guess April is tough for you and accountants;)

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Brad your welcome, glad I could help a little. Congrats on firing up the engine. Wish I was doing that, but I m working on brakes

Hope things continue to work out on your build, great build

Lock Doc is selling oil lines in the classifieds, you might have a hard time finding those ferrules

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Here is a little of us two steppin' backwards today. Everything came off so we could fix the paint issues associated with our fuel line leak. Then all back together with a little Loctite thread sealer version 565 for fuel lines. Fingers crossed we've got it licked.

Took out the oil pressure gauge, couldn't see an obvious problem. Luckily they're just going to warranty that...for a minute they wanted me to take out and return the entire cluster.

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As an aside...I started taking apart the bucket seats that I got from another board member today for clean up. Here's the manufacturer date on the back...since I've been so consumed with build date stuff and looking for other build date clues under the dash, behind the cluster, on the rear axle and the transfer case...If my truck had it's original seats, this would have been another date to add to the stack.

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Making progress, I see! Great job..

What plate is this on your T-case?

Attachment 1389391

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Thanks...
...It's the build tag from New Process. Here's the only close up shot I've got of it. It came back from the transmission shop in full primer. We had to go back and detail it.

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The old girl got quarantined off so the hood, tailgate, and a bunch of other odds and ends could get worked and painted....

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Black on the hood ended up being a little flatter than we were going for, but it looks too good to change. Color on the inside of tailgate and other small bits. Painted an OE set of vents as well as the repro ones that came with the VA set up...since the repro ones fit kind of like repro ones do.

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Vents in and hood back on. A little bit of gapping and a lot of prepping for final paint this week.
...it's definitely time to trade in the old iPhone. My photo quality seems to have really degraded over the course of this build. Surely it's not me.

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Beautiful restoration, congrats:metal:

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Thanks...we're getting there.

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Looks Great!

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Subscribed. Very nice work you are doing there. I have a 70 K20 and I am looking at the detail of your engine compartment. I love it when people pay attention to the details such as tower clamps. When I see a worm clamp on these trucks the first thought is O Reilly's. Great work.

Your comment on an electric oil pressure gauge is prompting me to se if there is any market for a conversion. I did the volt gauge conversions for our trucks and they sell rather well. I am not sure if there would be a market for the oil pressure conversion to electric. I have some ideas. The hardest part would be modifying the stock gauge tin to accept the new style gauge. My idea would give you a electronic gauge that looks stock in the dash.

If you need a factory oil pressure gauge let me know. I have them in 60 and 80 lb

Keep up the good work,
Tom

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Thanks.

Thanks Tom. I had always worried about having oil in the cab. I had seen Pete's (DeadHeadNM) conversion to electric in his K20 Super and thought that was smart. I have regretted not going through you for my cluster for a while...but it was one of the first things I purchased, before I knew any better...and I think it was before you went full on with both feet into gauge resto. Luckily the supplier sent me a new OP gauge. I put it in last night, but haven't started the truck to see if it's a go. I was amazed that I had an OP gauge problem to begin with...just doesn't seem like a lot that could go wrong with such a simple gauge.

Edit: To be clear, I think there would be a great market for electric oil pressure conversions. It just seems to make sense to me.

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This thing is looking fantastic.

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Thanks Jarrod...I appreciate that.

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Grille went back on for hood fitment...even if it's just temporary, couldn't help but take another pic.

...more wet sanding. Getting closer to spraying color.

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Brad, your work is impeccable....grille looks sweet on there, always enjoy reading your updates