The original pedals in this truck are mounted under the floor, and come up through holes near the steering column.
This picture was an accident, I hit the "negative" button by mistake, but the colors came out so great! I want to paint it this color! (just the opposite of what it is now I guess.)
Now we are starting to get into the real work.
The pedals were mounted to a large bracket that bolted directly to the original 3 speed, non-synchro transmission, which is about the size of a coffee grinder. That is the gear shift lever sticking up on the right, just behind the bell housing.
The new 5 speed transmission is quite a bit bigger, so there is no room for the original bracket, and nothing for it to bolt to. I really wanted to keep the original pedals, to try to keep the look and feel of an old truck. In this picture, the pedals and original mount are just hanging in space, literally held in with bailing wire and a C-clamp, and I am trying to figure out where to start.
So I started from scratch to build a new custom bracket that would bolt to the truck frame, and support the original pedals, as well as a vacuum booster and hydroliac cylinders for both brake and clutch. I started by mocking it up with wood, to try to get the dimensions about right.
The original bracket offset the pivot for the clutch about 2 inches forward of the pivot for the brake, meaning that the two pedals are actually different lengths and move along different arcs. I thought about keeping this arrangement, but this seemed to make things even more complicated, and doesnt make much sense to me. So I am going to put both pedals on the same pivot shaft. Which means I need a longer clutch pedal.
Fortunately, used parts are abundant on e-bay (thank goodness for the internet).
This is roughly how it will fit in the truck.
And this is about as far as I can go with my wood mockup. Time to start cutting metal.
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