Little By Little It's Getting Done

During the time I was installing the fat-mat, we were also wiring. I was running speaker wire and we were also installing the brand new wiring harnesses. We got two harnesses, one for the new EFI going into the truck, and the other harness is for the interior dash, and rearward to the taillights. Spending the money here has proven to be a wise decision. When disassembling the truck, we found webs of wires. Wires were going places they didn't belong. And some wires weren't going anywhere. It was really a fire hazards, and needed a lot of attention. Instead of spending the time, we spent the money, it was worth it. Now, the new wiring harnesses didn't come without their own challenges. But all - in - all, it was strait forward and working out well so far.

Continuing on with the interior work, the dash was in need of some serious customization. This was my "brainchild' (so to speak). When deciding what we were going to do with the gauge cluster, I had to put in some real thought. Some of the original gauges weren't functional so we had to decide whether to buy a new cluster, find an original, or add the non-working gauges elsewhere.

I opted for the former - a new cluster. I think what I conveyed to Rich really came out fantastically! I really couldn't be happier with the outcome of the gauge cluster. I explained to Rich what I was thinking, and he made it happen.

After the customization was done, and we knew where the gauges were going to go, I got to wire them up. Most people wouldn't enjoy this; but I really did!

I had mentioned before that I bought a nice stereo system, deck included. The deck needed to be installed with the speakers and sub-woofer all connected. Before I could do any of that I needed to check and make sure that the deck would fit. Well, no. Some modifications were going to have to be made. There were two triangular tabs that came off of the left and right sides of the stereo opening. The tabs were where the knobs of the original stereo came through. These tabs needed to be cut and bent backwards toward the engine bay. Once that was done I needed to rough fit the stereo mounting hardware my research told me would work. It was a mount for an 80 something Volvo. If flipped upside-down it will work, and it did. Well sort of. There were tabs on the mounting hardware that wouldn't seem to fit into the hole I was providing. So what's a guy to do? Make the hole bigger.

Except I made the ultimate rookie mistake, and made the hole.to wide. Shameful. The fix is as good as it could get to be expected - it's indistinguishable to the discerning eye - but I know I did it. After all of that drama, it is in - and looks pretty damn good, too!

The floor covering was one that I did put some thought into. Normal loop carpet came out of the truck, and that is what I would normally replace it with. However, I took the environment I live in into consideration. I live in Washington, it rains here. Wet carpet turns into moldy carpet etcetera. I went with a rubber mat floor covering. I thought it would be the most utilitarian. We bought it with the expectation that it was 'molded.' It was molded, somewhat - maybe? We dealt with what we had; we tried to muscle it into submission, which was futile. We then tried to warm up the black rubber/plastic flooring. That helped a lot, but it does cool quickly - and it warms up the cab of the truck quickly. It took a few rounds of heat; place it where it goes, cools, and repeat. It came out really good.