See that little bung at the button end of the ‘canoe’? The bottom of that bung sits on the top surface of the bottom floor panel. Get that? I think you will. I used the Lokar ratchet mechanism and incorporated it into the canoe, which drops the handle into the floor.

The canoe was made from the outside section of a bent 1-5/8″ tube.

This is the hole where the canoe sits.

Below the 2″ thick floor, the linkage fits through a slot in the bottom floor panel. I bent up a linkage rod required to clear the center section tube and threaded it on both ends.

I drilled and tapped the Lokar brass block so it would work with my threaded linkage rod.

I used a 3/8″ heim joint (or “rod end”) to support the linkage rod and also to serve double duty as the upper bolt for the transmission mount.

A little out of place, but an update nonetheless. I put heat shrink on the wires as they exit from the frame rail and tuck in to the grille shell so they won’t stand out like… wires.

These hoses are running up the passenger side frame rail, into the body.

I think you’ll be able to tell what’s going on here… this is looking along the passenger frame rail towards the back of the car. The fittings in the bottom right corner of the picture connect braided lines to the transmission. The Alfred Hitchcock looking thing is just a way to keep the reduced diameter air conditioning lines tidy and secure. There are three of these double clamps along the length of the hard lines. The top hard line is a conduit for the headlight wires, which I wrapped in hockey tape to simulate the texture of the a/c hose. Click here for an earlier article on this clamp.

This is the front end of the top hard line. The bottom two lines curve in the bottom of the picture and connect to the radiator.

Here is a view of the passenger side of the radiator. I attached a junction block to both sides of the radiator for easy wire detachment if it’s ever necessary. The large weatherpak plug is for the electric fan, should it ever need to be removed. The other single plug goes over to the driver side turn signal, just because I didn’t have room on the junction block. The wires coming out of the 3/8″ hard line from the previous pictures are wrapped in heat shrink because they are visible outside the rad shell and I wanted them to blend in a bit. The four wires pointing to the right are the headlight wires, and you’ll see what I did with them in the next few pictures.

First I wrapped them in hockey tape. Not really necessary, but it will keep the group of wires parallel as I’m pulling them through the stainless tube…

…like this. This picture also shows a pinched frame rail. Notice how there is no gap between the rad shell and the frame rail? That’s done by narrowing the front frame rails by 3/4″ per side waaaaay back at the beginning. Here is an article on the fabrication of the headlight conduits. I used the tire to make the big sweeping radius in the tube.

These are from the Parr Automotive headlight conduit kit. I drilled the tapered end out to 3/8″ so the hard line would slip in, then I machined a small step so it would sit into the hole in the back of the headlight.

Slide it over the wires and onto the hard line.

And then attach it to the headlight! I had to remove the ‘32 Ford wire bundle (sorry, I can’t even remember what it used to look like!) but the hole that was left was a great size for this little Parr piece.

I used another weatherpak plug so I’ll be able to take the headlight off if necessary.

Here’s the view from the back of the passenger side headlight.

I haven’t centered or aimed them yet, but I think they look pretty good!