running boards done, I need to put the bed on but thats kinda boring. what I tell everyone is mounting the body is easy, its the everything else that takes all the time.
brakes and steering are a big part of that. it doesnt matter if you are doing an s10 or a MII or any other kind of modern upgrade. its all the same thing.
on the 39-46 (same cabs, 40-46 have the same dash even) the dash should come out, thats easily done on these. there are two 7/16 at the lower corners, two 1/4" machine screws in the cowl vent lever, two acorn 3/8 on a center dash brace, and 6 clutch head acorss the front top of the dash behind teh windshield. if your steering column is still in you will have to remove the column drop, the top of it holds another brace. you may have to pull the gauges if your wiring is still in good shape, and the choke and throttle bowden cables will hold you up too. in this truck none of that is any good so a slicer blade made short work of it all. if your windshield is stuck like this one, you can sometimes get it open a tiny bit and get your slicer in there to cut the heads off the clutch heads, which lets be honest probably wouldnt come out anyway. the last thing to remove is the crank for the windshield once everything is out you pull at the bottom and lift, it will just pop off.
i put a straightedge in to know where the bottom of the dash is, and i mark the center of the gauges so I know where to center the column. on this truck it was 12" from the inside edge. you can make out the mark in my potato image.
I make a 5 dgree booster plate that serves to both mount the s10/later gm master cylinder at the correct 5 degree angle and also really stiffens the firewall. especially after its welded in because it doubles the thickness of the firewall, and the bends for the 5 degree also stiffen it.
I hold the s10 pedal assembly in place so that the steering column mount section is centered and just above the straightedge (i will explain why in a minute). I guess i didnt take a picture of that step but here is the result, you mark the firewall with the holes on the bracket then mark it with the edges of the 5 degree plate.
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