Checking in with my armchair pit crew (not to be mistaken with an armpit chair crew)
Made some big progress today on the dashboard wiring and the front fenders. I was about to tackle the front end and radiator when I realized the A/C unit is pretty much a part of the front end also. Started taking screws off and realized, wait, there's gas in this thing. Not sure how to empty the Freon safely. Maybe call a HVAC company? Lesson for the future, get your AC discharged before making the donor truck undriveable
I've decided not to keep the AC simply because it takes up a huge amount of space and I would have to figure out where to mount the cooling unit with the radiator. Instead, I'll just get a new serpentine belt for a non-ac version and hope that is good enough. Sell off the bits.
The second question I have now is, what direction do I go to get the wiring out? Do I pull all the dash wiring through the firewall to the engine bay or pull all the engine plugs through to the cab?
Final question, the brake booster looks like its just held on by the four bolts going from inside the cab to the big saucer thing on the back. It doesn't look like I need to detach the brake pedal. Do I just take that whole unit out at once?
One last interesting observation. I noticed the back of the gauges only have a mechanical advance for the speedo/odo... does that mean I need to get new oil pressure, engine temp, fuel level, etc for my 1949 gauges? They definitely don't look the same.