Bolting Up The Passenger Rear Fender

    I went ahead and marked up the fender bolt holes on the bed side. I had to manipulate the fender a bit to get it to match the other side. Did I mention I hate these fenders ...

Fender bolted on.

Fender bolted on... Oh, and it's missing one bolt! (HA)

     If these fenders where/are going to be permanent, I would need to do something about the bed side bead roll pattern, where it does not follow the fender. I am going to look into how the original fenders would fit and if I would need to get a wider than stock to fit the tire right or if I can set the wheel back (replace existing) to fit the fender. I think I would be a lot happier with this short bed set up if I could at least match a 35 truck fender with the location of the current wheel position and modify the running board one way or other to meet up to it. I could always get 35 running boards later as well. If I had the fenders and running boards I would be tempted to cut out and move the bed side bead roll to match the fender. That's the cheapest choice. A better choice would be to replace the bed sides with after market smooth style ones. So many options ... so little money (HA)

    I also marked and drilled the dust panel so it could be mounted. It gets one hole just under the stake pocket support, one on the top edge and one for the fender to bolt on. I think I may add one more on the top edge ... we will see. They also need bodywork to smooth them out  from my poor metal working skills!

Dust cover drilled and in place. Now that I see this, I need to check to see if the dust cover should touch the running board or not. If it did not it would reduce the chance of squeaking... I didn't leave room for a pad :(  hmmmm

    And I trimmed the end of the dust panel flush with the fender.

Trimmed dust cover.

    I need to come up with something for the exposed frame at the back of the fenders and the notch in the bed causing a gap. If I tried to cover it with the fender it would sit too high ... I guess I could have moved the fender back (crap more holes to weld up) and extend the running board???

Chrome wheel for identification ...

15" Reversed Chrome or Plain Chrome "Steelie"?

I would also like to identify the hub to make things easier when I need to replace any brake components ....

Year? Mopar? Rear is believed to be a Danna 44 (I will have to check the bolt pattern again but I think it was 5 1/2

I drove the truck around the block today as well. 

Some notes:
    

•         Takes a few minutes to warm up and idle on it's own (no choke)
•         It takes quite a while for the truck to reach max temperature, which so far is about 145. Usually 3-4 minutes warm up from a cold start and more than one trip around the block.
•         On a hard brake the truck pulls slightly to the right
•         Getting some over steer on fast turn left. I am looking into a pan hard bar option.
•         Noticed some grinding into first and reverse today, it appeared to only do it when the engine was revved higher than idle ... normal? Today is the only day since I got it going again that the gears have scraped.
•  Right now, when in neutral with the clutch released you can hear the throw out bearing, at least that's what I think it is ... do gears in the trans turn while in neutral??? That being said, I will probably play with clutch adjustment some more.
•         Still getting a bit of blow by but I have not seen any water, oil, or any other fluids on the garage floor.
•         It seems the transmission is noisy going down the road, especially in first. I don't know if what I'm hearing is normal and just amplified through the thin metal floor???
•         The hand brake will stop me coming down my driveway ... it is pretty steep, so this is good.
•         There is a rattle in the PS door that I will definitely need to find!
•         I need turn signals!

    Over all it has been fun taking the short drives and I am learning to lean back and relax a bit.