Prep for AC, Radiator, and Fuel Door

This weekend Jen, myself and the boys took a trip down to Horvath Hotrods to check out the progress being made on the truck.

While Jen and Logan were checking out the truck, Logan said "Blzagabaap!" Which I translated to: "Wow Dad, this is one bad ass ride!"

Joe told us the plan for the week is to put the front end of the truck back onto the frame and then install the radiator and Air Conditioning.

Joe had to modify the radiator support panel so it will accept the larger radiator. The modifications give us an extra inch of clearance for the radiator and fan assy.

Circled in red are the support arms that were removed to give us the extra clearance we need.

Slightly different angle in this picture, but you can still see we have plenty of clearance now for the radiator.

The next challenge will be installing the AC. Here you can see the AC unit and if you look closely you can see some tape on the top of the the firewall.. This is the portion of the firewall that interferes when trying to fit the AC behind the dash board.

The AC unit just won't fit without some cutting.. yikes!

Joe is going to cut out the portion of the firewall that interferes with the AC unit and then weld these pieces into its place giving us more room for the AC unit.

This is what the new panels will look like when installed on both sides of the firewall.

While we were talking about the truck, Zach was having fun roaming around the shop.. Here he is standing in front of our parts shelf..

Then he quickly ran over to the truck to climb inside and check out the truck further.

Meanwhile Joe showed us the new fuel door assembly that arrived from Hagan. This is actually pretty small, about half the size of a normal fuel door and it has a magnetic latch for the door (push in and it pops open).

It also has a push through gas cap with a small opening in the center of the cap for the fuel nozzle so you don't have to unscrew the gas cap when you fill up! Sweet.

The fuel door assembly will be installed on the drivers side fender just behind the wheel opening (the picture above is actually the passenger side fender, but I wanted to post it since its been primed and is now ready for paint).