Cool McCool's Garage

While the guys up at the “Prairieville Garage” were battling the brake lines on the ’76 GMC, I went out and got some things done on the Diamond T.  All last month, I’d been working on the GMC, first getting the Diamond Reo camper off, then shortening the frame, mounting the box, and finally throwing in the towel on the brake lines yesterday.  It ended up costing only $184.74, surely the best money I’ve spent on it yet.  It pays to know when to stop.

I mounted the headlights on the Diamond T, unwrapped the beautifully re-chromed bezels (thanks Ken!) and got them on.  After that, the little marker/blinker lights got mounted on the top of the buckets.  It really looks good!  Temporarily mounted the West Coast mirrors too, to see how they’d look.  Pretty darned good, if I do say so myself.

‘Then, I buffed up the stainless trim for the tailgate, cleaned the aluminum grill, and buffed the brass Diamond T plaque, and mounted all that.  The latch works great, and I made a couple of stainless steel strikers to keep the paint from chipping when the gate is closed.  Still have to make some support straps for the gate, which I’d have done today too but forgot to get any plastic coated cable when I went to the hardware store. 

After that was done, I mounted the neat old heater I got from my buddy John, and moved the auxiliary fuse panel up higher on the firewall.  I trimmed off a bunch of un-needed wires, and started bundling the wires into a harness.  Still quite a lot of work to do on that front.   I also discovered I hadn’t tightened up the oil pressure sending unit, the little gold colored thing seen on the back of the engine through the square hole in the firewall in the right upper picture.  Turns out I couldn’t, as it hit an intake bolt before getting tight, so I bought a short nipple and couple to raise it up an inch.  Good thing I found that out now.   The heater (also seen above)  is very pretty, and has a defroster, which works by closing the vent doors on the front.  Pretty simple, and the right look for the truck.  It’ll get some paint detail and more polish on the die-cast  housing before going in permanently.

I also mounted the grab  rail on the driver’s side of the box, although I still need to mark, drill and tap the rest of the mounting holes for it.  I also discovered a sag in the clear coat on the driver’s door I hadn’t noticed before, and place on cab corner where I evidently dragged the hose in the clear coat.  Hopefully, there’s enough clear on that spot to polish out, otherwise I’ll have to touch that up next spring.  We’ll see when I start polishing, which should be pretty soon.

All in all, I think I got quite a bit done today, and it looks good.  Next up, finish organizing the wiring under the dash, connect the headlights and tailights, and wire up the trailer harness.  It feels good making some progress!

As for the GMC, it’s setting in my driveway, ready to go to work.  I’m going to cut down two big Ash trees in the yard that fell victim to the Emerald Ash Borer beetle, and I’ll break the truck in by loading it up with the wood and hauling away the brush.  I’ll get all the heavy hauling done before I paint it!

That’s all the news from Cool McCool’s Garage, on the edge of the cornfield.