I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted an update. A lot has transpired and rather than try to piece together actual chronological order from the photos I figured I just go with logical order instead. All in all this is not too far off of how it actually went down.
When we last visited in mid-June I had finished up radiator hoses and oil cooler lines and made a test run. At that point the fender wells were not in, the instrument cluster wasn’t in and the transmission hump was open. It made for a loud ride but it was fun to drive again. It had been so long since I drove the truck with working brakes I was shocked at how hard it was to work my leg under the steering wheel onto the brake pedal. I may have to lose the late model seats or use a pickup steering wheel… It also did not want to idle very well and without the auxiliary pump connected on the hydroboost I was afraid to find out what a stop would take without the motor running. I set the timing and the idle and it ran great after that. I never made my modifications to the instrument cluster (
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...&postcount=222) and didn’t want to drive it without a temp gauge so I reinstalled the cluster as-is. It showed to be running just a touch warmer than I like but still under half. As much radiator as it has that did not make good sense. Also, I did not have an overflow tank on it and with the radiator cap made for an overflow I was losing a bit of coolant so I modified the bracket for an aftermarket overflow tank and mounted it to the side of my battery mount. I'll try to get a better picture later.
-Richard