I have been in a struggle of late trying to find headers that will work and for the way I want them to. Tight confines between the frame and steering shaft with the rack & pinion steering. After some searching I came up with these manifolds that hit the ticket just right. They are meant for a 1996-2004-ish Chevy 3500 Thriftmaster box truck. What I love about them is that they are made for a 350 so they have 2.5" collectors which most manifolds don't. And because they came off of a fuel injected truck there is already a threaded bung built in for the 02 sensor. I will clean them up and smooth them off a bit then have them HPC coated when I get the exhaust coated.
As you can see in that picture the steering shaft fits but is close to the manifold as is. I was hoping to not have to use another joint and support bearing. But in the end I did. So I made a standoff for the bearing and put a small notch in the frame for shaft clearance. In the end I might not have needed to do that, but for plenty of room I opted to. Once boxed it will be perfect.
With the steering done I was able to make sure the seat and steering all fit right. I then was able to get the shifter permanently mounted at this time. I also have the brake pedal in place here too.
I then got the LS-Fab speaker panels mounted as well. On the bottom of the bead rolled area I drilled a hole and mounted the button for the electric E-Stopp emergency brake. Out of the way and mildly hidden, and yet accessible when needed.
Yesterday I put the bed back on and put the truck on my skates and rolled it over to the other bay. I need to jump off my project for a short time as I need to finish installing quarter panels on my fiends 55 Chevy. I hope to be back on this soon.
