Made some progress yesterday. I got the new valve cover gaskets installed. Then got the water temp adapter installed.
I have the oil pressure adapter also, but need a special socket to get the factory one out, so it'll have to wait a bit. I could also install the oil pressure sending unit down by the oil filter, but I'll do it the other way.
So instead I worked on the shifter linkage. I bought the Lokar one, same as what I have on my 71 C-10. It was rubbing on a pinch weld on the firewall. First I used a flapper disc on my angle grinder to cut that back. And I put a slight bend in the shifter rod. And I also found a longer bolt for where it mounts to the column and used a nut as a spacer. Just an extra 1/4" helped a lot.
No real issues on the bottom end. But I did need to change the position of the transmission arm a bit. The instructions said to mount that at the 8:00 position but when I had it there it didn't want to shift into the lowest gear. So mine is set closer to 9:00. If this was a non-OD tranny it probably would have been ok at 8:00.
It'll need to be detached when I replace the tranny mount and likely need more adjustment once I actually get this pig running, but it's in and works.
My son worked on the right rear rocker patch and said he's got it fit up and ready to weld in. So he can start on the right front inner rocker next. I'll probably keep working on the underside stuff. Need to get the fuel system together and mounted, replace the tranny mount, finish installing the torque converter bolts, and I have tranny cooler line adapters to install.