[Rattiac]

I decided to sweat it out and go out to the shop and finish final welding,  drilled some holes in the frame and bolted up the crossmember.  93° in there. 
Anyways,  glad that's done.

Swamp cooler needs a new switch.  They sell a new harness for it at $90.  No thanks ,  I'll wire up a house switch.

[Rattiac]

I'm not sure I would like a roof tack on a 30's era car, just doesn't seem period correct just my opinion.

Did you ever see The Grapes of Wrath? 

Roof racks may have not been invented until the 40's.
It looks like in "Grapes of wrath" most of the vehicles used old mattresses to put stuff on and slept on a overnight stay.
They even stuffed stuff in the fenders behind the headlights.  One looks like it has a makeshift rack or it could be a spare tire,  hard to tell from the pic.
I showed my wife this movie,  she loves it. Watches it whenever it comes on.

Here's an interesting site about the movie/vehicles involved.
https://www.imcdb.org/m32551.html

If I use it it'll probably be temporary and use a quick buckle type mount. Since my spare would be in the way for a traditional luggage rack,  this seems a better option.

[sixball]

My dad was one of those Okies. He made more than one trip during the depression, one by freight train. Ince he took us through the Valley of the Green Giant and showed us some of the Picker Camps he worked in. When he & I moved the family possessions from Texas to California in 1959 we had a lot of our stuff tied on the '52 Dodge pickup & the trailer we pulled. He called it the Second Coming of the Okies. It was mostly done on 66. I just got home today from a Texas trip to the family reunion some done on pieces of 66. That road is home to me. 

[Rattiac]

Over the weekend I was able to get the swamp cooler going , mounted permanently and get some work done on the car.  Was making great progress till I got to the transmission lines.  Apparently walker radiators have 1/8" npt fittings.  So I was able to get an adapter today locally. 
Hoping to have fluid in it and fired up before I leave for Bonneville. 
Anyway the garage is much better inside on a 100° day.

[Rattiac]

Well... Friday I added 10qrts to the trans and fired it up.  Hasn't run since Oct last year.  The lifters made all sorts of clatter.  Pulled the valve covers and poured oil all over everything.  I was a quart low anyway.  Once that quieted up , I ran it through the gears.  No reverse and barely wanted to go forward in 1st gear.
I shut it down and proceeded to throw a wrench across the shop with some very choice words 🤬🤬🤬.
Walked away before I set the damn thing on fire 🔥.
Gonna have a word with the trans guy Monday and see what he wants to do , give him a chance to fix it.

[sixball]

Some days it just doesn't work.

[sammons]

Dang, i feel your disapointment and anger. I was tired of $100 used trannys for my R/T that didn't work anybetter than what i pulled out. In the summer of '77 i was banking good overtime at the service station and ponied up the nearly $600 for a "Profesional" name company rebuilt with a local mechanic. It gluided in to second and slipped bad going into drive. They recomended the mechanic reset the bands. No go, they wouldn't pay the freight for return, nor the labor to R&R it again. I was beyond pissed and took it back to the house where i abandoned it for 8 years.😡

You might recheck fluid level. My mechanic buddy always put them on jack stands and run thru the gears with no load to "purge" the system and then recheck fluid before drive test. Sometimes the torque convert doesn't fill right away.

[sixball]

You guys are making me nervous.  I have a $2500 package sitting in the bed of my '06 Silverado right now waiting for a local shop to get time for it next weekend. New rebuilt trans and the stuff it takes.

[Rattiac]

I seem to have bad luck when it comes to rebuilds.  My V6 ran great for 2 weeks after the rebuild,  then steam out the right exhaust pipe.
Took it back and he sleeved only the one cylinder  .
Installed it drove it around the block and the cylinder next to it started steaming.
Let the shop know about it.  He said get me another block  .
So far that is holding up to 2 vehicles and 15,000 miles .
Had to rebuild a jeep 2.5 ltr. Another shop had to do it twice.
They put the wrong rotation water pump in.

So when this happened I said  "F#@!=÷g figures" and the wrench went flying.
Talked with the trans guy.  He's a week out but have it drivable for him.

Guess I'll finish putting the floor and seat back in.
I want to redo the floor when I get it back. 

[Rattiac]

Reinstalled the floor so I could mark a new brace but going to pull it back out. 
Im thinking of playing with the new bead roller and rolling some lines.  What do you think is stronger , going across the floor or front to back lengthwise  ?
My floor needs to be re-done anyhow.

[sammons]

Strength wise, think of a sheet of corrigated tin roofing. Strong front to back and flimsy side to side. But pending your underside bracing... six one half dozen the other 😁

I would run front to back under the seat areas for sure. Most factory pans run front to back ribs under seat, left to right ribs in the rear foot wells and toss up on the front wells. Mopar used a lot of diagonals on the front foot wells.

[Rattiac]

New brace is welded in and just happened to have enough aluminum diamond plate leftover for a toe-board.  Gonna weld up a frame with 1/2" square tubing and rivet the diamond plate to the face.  With some sound deadening in between should quiet up that area.
Pattern is traced out,  so the wood piece can go back in temporarily.

Hopefully might be able to order a new steering column before Xmas.  We'll see what the trans is going to cost first. 😟

[Rattiac]

Went to hook up the e-brake . Crawled underneath and noticed the mechanism is touching the transmission.  Had plenty of clearance with the th350. 🤷‍♂️
Another original part goes bye by.
Going to the junkyard this weekend.  Any e-brake 's you guys recommend ?
I'd like something low profile like the Lokar unit.

[Rattiac]

After some quick Google searches,  I found a bunch of e-brakes for a Suzuki samurai with cable, gaskets for dirt cheap. Probably cheaper than a junkyard handle .
Well off to the junkyard to see what they have. 

Also looking into a roof section . Any vehicle roofs recommended ?
I looked at my Cherokee but the ridges are way too long.

[sixball]

We should all know by now that when you change one thing it messes up something else. Good luck in your search. Let us know what you find.

My '06 has been at the shop for the new tranny swap for a week. It was supposed to be a two day deal. I am going to call him now and tell him I'm taking the money we settled on to the bar at 2:00 PM and start buying rounds. He can have what is left when he drives up in my truck.