[Bchain]

The truck had some good things going for it. The in-laws had almost always put it inside when it wasn't being driven. The original dash was perfect except for small cracks in the speaker vents. The bench seat's cover was not like any other I've ever seen, I suspect maybe it was aftermarket from the 70's. Anyway it was in great shape and not "velour" enough to be outdated.

I found a tach/small gas gauge from another truck and re-arranged my cluster. I soldered together leads on the back to make the flimsy circuit board work.

I also took apart everything under the dash and gave it a good cleaning. The truck was not originally an AC truck but it had been added from another truck at some point in the past. Up here in WA the temps don't really require AC and I liked the idea of less clutter under the dash/hood so I went to ripping it out. While I was at it I resealed the flapper in the heat distribution box with some foam camper mounting tape. This is a nice way to make the truck "feel" newer...when you pull the HVAC over to defrost it is really different to hear it close that flapper softly instead of with a metal on metal sound.

I even got online and found a couple sheets of a flexible rubber. After taking apart the manual kick panel vents I was able to drill out some rivets and replace the rotting rubber that seals these vents. Don't have any pics of these but they turned out really nice.