I have come to that point in a project where everything seems to depend on something else being done before I can continue. Case in point is the front end, I need to get the air bumps installed before I can finish the painting and start running wires and plumbing. Since the air bumps still haven't arrived I painted up to the firewall so I could at least start the wiring in the cab.

Before I started into the wiring I decided to pull the radiator back out to run all of my steering lines and figure out where each component in the system would sit. I discovered I could not get the radiator out, there was about a 1/2" interference between the radiator fan and one of the pulleys.  I ended up having to cut the two front flanges off to move them lower to allow for more wiggle room between the radiator and motor when the engine cage is removed. Another issue I was fighting was the flange alignments, despite multiple tack welds the structure still moved around quite a bit when it was final welded and some of the flanges are pretty difficult to get the bolts thru.  I borrowed a friends gas torch and heated up the joints of the engine cage when it was bolted together in the hopes it would relieve some of the stresses in the misaligned tubes.  This seemed to work, the bolts are tight on some of the flanges but do not need to be driven in with a hammer anymore.

Here's a shot of the plumbing for the steering.  I added a cross brace that will run under the radiator which will serve as a mounting point for the steering cooler and a rock light. The steering reservoir is a PSC 8" unit which I purchased thru PORC.  This turned out to be a big hassle as I was sent the wrong unit (the full hydro reservoir should have a -8 fitting instead of a -6) and after waiting 3 weeks for the correct fitting & hoses to be sent I finally gave up and went looking for the parts locally.

My two piece front driveshaft from High Angle driveline showed up early this past week.  It didn't look as nice as the rear piece and the intermediate shaft was not welded concentric to the part that rides in the bearing so it has a bad wobble. Despite that problem I could still get the carrier bearing mount fabricated before sending the intermediate shaft back to get fixed.  As you can see the clearance between the transmission and driveshaft is pretty tight and I had to replace one of the plugs in the transmission with a flush plug to get as much clearance as possible near the carrier bearing.

A shot looking up at the carrier bearing mount.

I started in on the wiring only to realize I needed to get some of the body panels figured out so I could determine where some of the relays and fuse boxes would be mounted.  In my last iteration I mounted all the fuse boxes and relays in one central location.  Since space is a little more of a premium I have decided to mount the 3 required fuse boxes and corresponding relays in 3 separate areas.  This will allow me to tuck the wires and supporting components closer together.

  Here are the side panels for the center console.

Update, Memorial Day Weekend - I was going to head out of town for the weekend but due to some unexpected issues I ended up staying home all weekend.  My air bumps had arrived  the previous Thursday so I was able to finish up the last of the fab work on the front end.  I mounted the air bump mounting cans to the frame using a gusset along the backside and then added a brace  to tie the frame rails into the upper tubing in the front.  The air bump cans are also welded to the new braces on their side. 

With the front fabwork done I stripped everything off, cleaned up the tubing and painted the front end.  While the paint was drying I continued on with the wiring.  The PCM that controls the engine was bigger than expected and it would not fit under the center console like I had originally planned.  I ended up making a mounting bracket that positioned the PCM to the left of the steering wheel, just under the dash. 3 of my gauges will sit in a dash panel above the PCM and I was able to mount a bank of relays and a 120 amp circuit breaker to the master cylinder mount.  With no large firewall in this iteration I will have to get creative as far as the mounting of the electrical components go.

I am planning on mounting a power distribution point under the center console along with the relays for the ARB, rock lights and interior lights.  Here's the start of that part of the project.

I also started re-assembling the back end.

Hopefully from this point forward all the parts will be going on for the final time.

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