And while I'm at it, here's a quick update!
Work on the cab continues. This is where the smaller things really start to take more time, but the shop continues to do amazing work bringing the cab towards readiness for paint. In these two pictures, you can see the addition of the "stamped" locations for th ignition cylinder and the cigarette lighter. Other than the hole for the steering column to go through, the valance piece is ready for paint!
Here's the suspension parts going back on the powder-coated frame. Really cool because these parts are going on as final assembly this time! These parts won't be coming back off until they need to be replaced (hopefully many many years down the road for most of them!)
Here's the rear. In a few more days, it will have the axles, rear hubs, and disc brakes on, and will be able to put all four wheels on and set it back on the ground.
Here's something really cool. Finally get to see all the boards for the bed that were made out of the hickory tree we cut down at the family farm almost two years ago! My dad came up last weekend and we did final sanding and put a light stain on them, and I think they turned out phenomenal. Because so much of Marvin will be pretty nice and clean when he's done, I really wanted the bed boards to have some "character" to them, and these boards really fit the bill, I think. The knots and cracks that were naturally in the wood after the logs got milled were filled in with an epoxy to keep them from cracking any further. These are at the paint shop now to get a few coats of water-based spar urethane. Will be running painted (body color red) bed strips with hidden fasteners between these boards.
Before stain:
After:
And finally for this update, a couple pics of the latest cab modification. I'm so impressed with how the guys at the shop took my idea and made it a reality. There's still some adjusting of door fitment that will be needed in final assembly, but the heavy lifting is done. I wanted to have two dash compartments. One as a regular glovebox, and the other as a hidden place to stash the A/C, Heat, and Radio controls. The shop used a shortened part of a second dash to graft in to place, and a second glove box door had to be shortened to fit. Will add the "CHEVROLET" stamping piece to the center door, and a new trim piece to the bottom of the right door to line it up with the center. The idea is for this modification to look like it was a factory one-off, and it really will I think!
No other updates to share today. Hope to have more to share this weekend - a couple cool other things that should be done by then.