Finished it! Got creative!

[alienturtle]

This goes along with this post that i made: HERE but i wanted to start a new thread because its just cool. I couldnt find anything on installing a 7" flip out deck in these old pickups. So i got creative and made it work myself

went to TSC and got a piece of 25ga steel and this is what i came up with. I move the deck to the top as to not get in the way of the AC controls when open. I needed a new control head for my AC so i cut it apart to use it as a support bracket for the deck. SOLID as a rock. I just broke the steel to make the trim ring by hand so the deck would stick out far enough to open fully. Let me know what you think.

Also here is a video i made of it after install please dont re link it anywhere

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLtjwq7VvZ4&feature=g-upl&context=G20690f2AUAAAAAAAAAA

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[alienturtle]

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[towcat]

nice job
you know.....your interior is starting to look like one of those C17 cockpits Adrianspeeder professionally babysits.;p

 

[alienturtle]

lol Thanks Ill come out and let you play with it. Wait till i install the new tranny and something else i have already on its way..then you can take it for a spin. Wouldnt happen to have an ac control head laying around would you

 

[towcat]

lol Thanks Ill come out and let you play with it. Wait till i install the new tranny and something else i have already on its way..then you can take it for a spin. Wouldnt happen to have an ac control head laying around would you

what style do you want?
87 or 88-91?

 

[alienturtle]

im not sure what the difference is? My pickup is an 89

 

[The Warden]

im not sure what the difference is? My pickup is an 89

FYI this is what an '87 control setup looks like (just found a stock pic via Google Image Search; I can take some more detailed pics of one of these panels that I have laying around, if you would like). The heater box is different also, since the door that directs air to the defroster, vents, or floor is mechanical instead of vacuum-operated like the '83-'86 and '88-'97 (and newer, for that matter) trucks have...

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[mattplumber]

looking good Alien. You "make" some of the most interesting stuff out there! Looks like your homemade gauge pods are holding up nicely as well! Keep up the good work!

 

[alienturtle]

How hard would it be to switch to those controls? With the ones i had i could not use the heat out the front vents. Only the floor and or defrost. To those ones allow it?6

Or even yet how are the 94 ish controls with the knobs operated?

 

[The Warden]

How hard would it be to switch to those controls? With the ones i had i could not use the heat out the front vents. Only the floor and or defrost. To those ones allow it?

That's weird that you couldn't get heat out of the dash vents with your old setup...I was under the impression that the '88-'91 setup was all but identical to the '80-'86 setup, and if I select "Vent" on my '84 control and move the temp lever all the way to the right, I'll get heat out of the vent (and, for that matter, if I have the temp lever at full heat and have the control in "A/C" or defrost, the heater will easily overpower the air conditioning).

As to swapping, I'm not sure how much will be entailed. The single biggest difference is that, with the '87 system, the only vacuum-operated component is the recirculation door. The temp blend door is mechanically-operated on all '80-'97 trucks, but the '87 system's door that directs air to either the floor, the defrosters, or the dash vents is mechanically operated also. I don't know if you can take the device that moves the door on the mechanical system and retrofit it to a heater box that had a vacuum-actuated door or if you're going to need to swap out the entire heater box, but beyond that AFAIK you SHOULD only need the control cable for that door, and possibly a control cable for the temp blend door (not sure if the temp blend door cable's different on '87 trucks). There may also be differences in the wiring for the blower motor switch and for the a/c switch (the '87 system has a separate a/c button), but I don't know for sure.

IMHO probably the best thing would be to find an '87 in a junkyard and pull everything that you can.

Hope this helps some...good luck and happy new year!

Or even yet how are the 94 ish controls with the knobs operated?

I THINK that the '92-'97 controls are fundamentally the same as the earlier setups, except for using knobs instead of levers to operate...so it should theoretically be easy to adapt, although I don't know how plug-and-play it'll be. For anyone else, I'd be concerned about how much fabrication work it would take to fit the control unit into the dash, although I know that your skills are good enough that you can overcome that minor detail beyond that, if the vacuum manifold's different and isn't an integral part of the control unit, I would be sure to have that, and be prepared to redo the electrical plug...otherwise, that could actually be easier than retrofitting an '87 system since you don't have to mess with the heater box...

 

[alienturtle]

Yeah with my controls on full heat and vent i got stail air not hot. My vacume thing that bolts to the head was half coming apart so idk. Not sure what i want to do now lol. Thank you much for the info

 

[racer30]

Good Job, Looks great, Its real nice to have the skills to make parts when you need to get things done.

 

[gatorman21218]

Without vacuum, air only comes at the defrost vents.