Builds Tenerife to Texas: a 1997 HDJ80 Tale (1 Viewer)

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Secret part numbers have been received and lockset ordered. Thank you, friends.

I got the steering wheel recovered, and I’m going to go try to reassemble it now.

I am reasonably OK with this. I guess it turned out good enough.

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Which is, of course, a common saying around these here parts:

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Got out to the barn, reassembled the wheel, hooked up the batteries… Airbag did not explode…looking good here… OK where is the key?

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For fark’s sake, I took it home with me for some reason, and, as noted above, I have no spare.

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I found the key. It runs and drives and the rewrapped wheel really makes a bigger difference than I anticipated. The old one was incredibly slippery.

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@GTV damp sponge and hair dryer at the ready. I’m going to drive for a week and make sure everything stays where it’s supposed to.

I also forgot to add that I did glue the urethane back down to the aluminum frame with two-part epoxy. I thought it was a total disaster… I used a 10 cc syringe and an 18 gauge needle, I got epoxy literally everywhere except where I thought it needed to be… But amazingly, I got enough goo in the right place to completely glue it back to the frame. No more spin.
 
Amazingly, I have actually found a legitimate use for the useless dash cubby. It fits my tiny laminated parking pass for work perfectly. I do have a useless cubby insert on the way from Wit’s End, but now I’ve actually found a use for it.

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I got a whole afternoon to work today. That meant it was finally time to upgrade the headlights.

I have spent the past two years collecting a complete quad headlight set up from all over the world. There is a decent chance I’m on a government watchlist for buying parts from Yemen.

Let’s gooooooo.

Stock headlights were WEAK.

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Quad headlight assemblies, clear corners, and headlight grills.

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Holley Retrobright 5700K LEDs, one set of high/low and one dedicated high beam only.


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I had to grind the tabs shorter on the back of the LED housings to get them to fit into the headlight assemblies. About 1/8” did it.

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I also had to cut off the inner tab of the headlight assembly to get the turbo grill to fit.

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Fun fact: the Euro spec HDJ80‘s are positive ground switched, not negative ground switched, just the same as my Euro spec HJ61. That meant that all I had to do to get everything to work was to reuse an H4 to H4656 harness that I had built for the 61. They were just plug and play after that. Everything works, including the flash function and the highbeam indicator on the dash.

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I also found out that the corner lights use a different socket and bulb. I’ll get those from Japan, but until then, I did a very professional temporary repair.

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End product. Not bad. Cutoff is good, there’s some weird light squiggles in the middle of the beam pattern, high beams are good. I still have to aim them properly. But overall it is a massive upgrade from stock.

And yes, I know the valance has a gap. Not a bother for me.

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THIS bothers me, but I just don’t know how much I can push 25 year old plastic. When I come back to replace the corner bulbs, I’ll play around with the fender fitment some more and see if I can make this fit better.

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This is a visually cool pic.

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I need to adjust the low beams higher but the cutoff and illumination is excellent.

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High beam is like looking directly into the sun. It’s even more dramatic on the open road/highway.

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Gotta keep the part numbers flowing: trim screws. Forgot these yesterday.

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I like the new look.

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I keep having internal discussions with myself on my goals for this truck. Originally, it was going to be quad headlights, OEM swing out spare tire carrier, 2 inch lift, 33’s, and drive forever. Plus or minus a green wheel G turbo and a 3” exhaust.

Now that I’ve got it in hand and I’m driving it, and seeing that it has never been messed with in its life, I’m starting to pull back on that a little bit.

At some point in this truck’s life, I will probably want to start following EGT. I have an awesome set up waiting from @Lutz Auto . I got a new central instrument panel while I was at it. I’ll keep it on the shelf along with my EGT probe and boost gauge until a convenient time emerges.

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I keep having internal discussions with myself on my goals for this truck. Originally, it was going to be quad headlights, OEM swing out spare tire carrier, 2 inch lift, 33’s, and drive forever. Plus or minus a green wheel G turbo and a 3” exhaust.

Now that I’ve got it in hand and I’m driving it, and seeing that it has never been messed with in its life, I’m starting to pull back on that a little bit.

I hear that. I've had the same quandary regarding my HDJ80. Ultimately I decided that I'm OK doing anything that can be unbolted and/or otherwise easily returned to stock/original if I chose to. So anything that bolts on is OK, but no cutting or welding. Keep the OEM parts in the back of the garage. Just my $.02.
 
I keep having internal discussions with myself on my goals for this truck. Originally, it was going to be quad headlights, OEM swing out spare tire carrier, 2 inch lift, 33’s, and drive forever. Plus or minus a green wheel G turbo and a 3” exhaust.

Now that I’ve got it in hand and I’m driving it, and seeing that it has never been messed with in its life, I’m starting to pull back on that a little bit.

At some point in this truck’s life, I will probably want to start following EGT. I have an awesome set up waiting from @Lutz Auto . I got a new central instrument panel while I was at it. I’ll keep it on the shelf along with my EGT probe and boost gauge until a convenient time emerges.

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The Lutz Auto EGT/boost gauge is great, I really love it! Wish I had a spot for a second screen for other info. I drilled & tapped in the center of the exhaust manifold for my EGT temp sensor. Great looking LC, I really like the quad headlights!

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