We’ve picked up the pace since our last installment, but we still have some big hurdles to jump. The cab and bed should be headed north to Euclid, Ohio, where the Colonel of crusty paint is going to work his magic on our truck’s metal. Upholstery is under way, and we have several of our big ticket items installed and mounted up, including our new BC Forged wheels and Continental tires, as well as our bitchin Wilwood 6-piston brake kits.
Wiring inside the cab is 97% complete as is the Vintage Air climate control system installation. Using an American Autowire harness, it was very straightforward to safely integrate all of our Holley EFI Terminator X Max system functions for seamless operation. Heck, I was even able to wire the turn signal, high beam, and parking brake indicators, as well as the fuel gauge, into the 12.3” Holley digital dash display.
In the next couple months, we’ll be running a full feature on the complete truck, as well as several detailed installation feature stories that we will capture after the mock-up and re-finishing stages are complete and the truck is in the final assembly stage. Stay tuned!
All of our measuring paid off. These new custom made BC Forged wheels fit great, and they look pretty dang good, too! We ordered their MLE81 style in 20×11 for the front and 20×11 for the rear. The centers are finished in matte bronze and the barrels are polished and clear coated. Mated with our Continental DWS06 tires in 285/30R20 and 315/20R20, this should be a great combination for street driving in pretty much any condition. I’ve had a few sets of these tires and they are superb in wet or dry, quiet on the road, and balance very well.
Our Recaro seats are off to the upholstery shop. I splurged a little on materials with the help of Josh Laird from Relicate and picked up several yards of plush, genuine Alcantara synthetic suede as well as several more yards of Relicate’s own NappaTek synthetic leather. Next time you see this interior, it should look substantially different!
Steering column routing can be clumsy and frustrating when you install a rack & pinion setup in one of these trucks. After studying other setups out there, I was convinced that I wanted to use a stock style column in this truck. Since it’s an ‘86, the headlight dimmer and wiper controls are integrated into the turn signal stalk. To me this is a modern convenience and none of the aftermarket columns available offer this function yet. Since a floor shift ‘84-87 tilt column is rarer than gold hens teeth, I called up Mike at T&M Steering Column in Nashville, and he is in the process of building a column that does everything I need – tilt, correct wiper switch, etc. As an added bonus, it will also have a shorter lower intermediate shaft to help ease the U-joint angles.