[Old57]

Some more progress... I got the bumpers on, wired the trailer light harness, put in some simple black rubber floor mats, installed all of the door internals and glass, and the door weatherstrips. I need to modify the front bumper brackets to bring it up and back a little to look better. I had to clean and lube the window regulators before they went in, but I have them working nice and smooth. Everything went straight forward with all of the door glass and parts, and it all works great. I put the inner door handles on pointed up to give a little more leg room. I used soft seal door weatherstrips, and the doors close easy and just like they did without the seals, so that was great. One issue I had with the soft seal weatherstrips, was one side had a twist in the seal... it was seamed together with one full twist in it. I ended up cutting an angled slice in the seal at the bottom center of the door, untwisting it, and gluing the seam with 3M weatherstrip adhesive. My pile of parts to install has dwindled away. Tomorrow, I'm going to fit and mount the reproduction kick panels, then paint them and install them. I also will pull off the front hub dials and replace them with the blue anodized aluminum dials that I had made to replace the plastic ones. After that... I believe it's ready to go for a drive and start getting some break in miles on the big block! I'm waiting for the tag light and back up lights to arrive, but that won't need to be done to get some driving done. It's weird to think that after 3 1/2 years of working on this truck in every bit of my spare time, I'm finally going to get to know it this weekend. Paint will eventually come when I can afford the time and money, but I'm going to enjoy it for a while first.