Got the fan installed, it's working great- better mileage (best so far is 16 mpg vs 14.5 before e-fan) and keeps it cool when sitting. I used an aluminum adapter in the upper hose to mount a Ford Festiva/Mercury Capri fan switch that cuts on about 210 and cuts off at 200, didn't want to drill and tap the thermostat housing to add an extra sensor. I had to trim a little bit off the HHR shroud flanges to get enough clearance at the water pump pulley, but it clears now.
Some shots of the Koito headlights.
I picked up an Air gauge from a C10 group on FB, then restored the face and cleaned up the rest of the cluster. Still need to T an airline for the gauge into a rear bag. Also would like to find a six cylinder tach.
One thing I never did when I first got the truck on the road was the starter. It worked and reman parts are iffy nowadays so I left it alone. The starter drive started slipping so I found a kit on ebay that had all the parts and I rebuilt it myself. That starter drive also started slipping, so I've swapped it out and it hasn't had any more issues since.
I've been wanting to add an overdrive trans, but didn't want to cut up the floor or floor mat to add the usual T5, so I started exploring other options to keep it column shift. Originally I wanted to find one of the optional Borg Warner OD units and add it to a Saginaw 4 speed but the OD units are hard to find and the parts needed to make them work aren't cheap or easy to find. I found about the 81-87 Squarebody NP440 OD 4 speed and decided to go that route, and a local friend sold me one that's really clean. Since it has the same input and output splines and bellhousing pattern it'll be a direct bolt in other than shortening the driveshaft (maybe a 67-72 driveshaft is the correct length?) and make new shift rods with heim joints to tighten up the shifter feel. I'll either use a pull cable or solenoid/switch for the reverse lever.
In my searches for 250 parts I ran across a pic of this intake from South America that fits a Weber IDF/Dellorto DRLA downdraft two barrel. I already had a spare near-NOS 48mm DRLA Tri-Jet and an extra stock manifold, and a Bridgeport, and aluminum stock...
I figured I could mill a flat spot on the manifold, bore holes that matched the carb barrels, and make an aluminum adapter plate to bolt the carb to, but I found out quickly that the exhaust heat passages go all the way to the top of the stock carb mounting boss. I think I could still make it work with some brazing and extra machining, but it's probably not worth the effort since the eventual goal is MPI/turbo.
More inline 6 activities- I picked up a couple of spare engines down near Columbia SC from forum member Jay (Lugnutz65). The rear airbags definitely came in handy to keep the axle off the bump stops on the way home.
The truck isn't babied, these are the reasons I didn't tear out the steel floor and replace it with a new wood floor, and why I wanted air bags to add hauling capacity but still be lowered. As I'm typing the bed is full of scrap wood and a set of wheels/tires. That's dad in our all original 43k mile '74 in the first pic.
I welded up a tow bar adapter that goes in place of a Festiva bumper that my VW tow bar will attach to, and used it to tow an '89 Festiva to a friend's house in Kentucky last weekend. I met a guy in Asheville on the way up to deliver a '64-65 Deluxe seat cover that my dad made. After dropping the car off we met up with more Festiva friends nearby and made our way to a Festiva meet near Columbus Ohio. The truck did great on the 1,109 mile trip, and even held 70-75 mph uphill when towing the car. Gas mileage wasn't great while towing uphill at those speeds, it only got mid 12's but the terrain between SC and KY is full of hills. It got 16 mpg on the way home at 60-65 mph.
As of tonight it has 158,980 miles on it, only 445 shy of 10,000 miles since I got it on the road 13 months ago. In true beater style, it's usually a few shades lighter whenever I finally get around to washing it.
