U2slow, do you think I could get away with putting the 92 fire wall in the 77 or would uncle sam kick down my door? Or would they even notice, if I swapped all the Vin numbers over?

 

I'd cut/paste the firewall however I saw fit. Doesn't affect the VIN on the plastic dash or the door.

Filling some holes and making a few new ones might be easier than changing the whole panel. Use some cardboard or cereal box to transfer patterns.

 

I still have hood, fenders, fender wells from my 92 body work.

 

So I finally have all the sheet metal to do this now, the only metal I'll be using from my 92' is the cab and the frame. If I understand what people have said on this thread I can just take the headlight area from the 77'-78' and graft it onto the 92' core support. Am I understanding this correctly? Is there any way I can retain my intercooler? Thanks.

 

Weld the '77-'78 head light buckets on the '92 core support.
I bet you can find room under the 70 grille for the intercooler too.
I know I will on my '78 12V Ramcharger build.

 

Thank you. I've definitely learned a lot in the year in a half since I originally made this post. I now know who your are and the fact that you believe what I want to do is possible gives me a lot of hope. I can have my dream truck.

 

Yup, the IC fits with trimming

Pics are in my FireWagon build. I think I may even have enough room for a Vintage Air condenser.

 

As far as the firewall , drill out the spot welds and you can remove and install the firewall in one piece to and from as you wish . I have modified the early firewall to use hydraulic clutch . Remember the firewall does not support the MC on the hydraulic Clutch , it is supported by a piece bolted to the pedal and column support . I think I still have a template as to where to cut the early firewall to move the plug and mount the MC . I did the core support as Oliver states just remount the buckets and go with it . Oliver I’m running an inter cooler , Ac condenser , power steering cooler in between a 79 grill and 92 core support with a CTD . I had to trim it a very slight amount on the lower grill panel in two places and it fit as if God made it to . The panel has a slight curve and the cooler is straight . Very very slight mod and it works fine . Also the removable floor pan will work early to late cab with slight mods . This to me is well worth what it takes to get it to work with a manual shift truck. Rust sucks on these old tanks . I keep saying I’m goin to head West to find a dry cab , hasn’t happened , at 60 I may never make it now . I’m in need two rear cab mount bushings if any one has two they want to part with . I trying not to purchase poly bushings , as it shakes enough with ploy motor and trans mounts . If you need this template or I can be of any help just let me know .

 

I don't think I will but I will keep it in mind if I run into a problem that needs it. The truck is an auto, I'm gonna try to use the cab and frame from the 92 as to not run into issues with VIN numbers and keep the electronics simpler. The largest issues that I've run into with this truck are the same that many of us have when we get these trucks, lack of maintenance or any sort of care for the truck. As long as they started up the farmers around here run them til the wheels fall off. I've never even heard of a removable floor pan, that sounds cool. Are the poly mounts really bad about vibrations? The rust isn't too bad as I'm only in northern VA, heck the rust on this truck is from neglect more than anything else. I will say I used to live in AZ and grew up there, it's a great place to get cars and trucks from. You could set bare steel outside for months and have light surface rust, if that.

 

Just read through the build, awesome truck. It doesn't seem like it requires too much fab to get things to sit nicely I'm gonna try to see if I can't make the factory condenser fit just for the sake of simplicity. Thanks for sharing your build so it can help the rest of us out!