Builds Building Bubbles the Turbo Super Tourer (1 Viewer)

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Dirty Koala

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Draper, UT
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This is going to be a more of a lightly documented build than my Cummins build thread, but I promise to include lots of pics. I have had this 97 LX450 for about 18 months now, and figured it’s time to document some of the changes I have made.

I bought the LX sight unseen from a Mud member up in Boise and had it delivered to my office in SLC while I was still living in NJ. I had to have it as it was bone stock with 170k miles, carefully maintained and documented, triple locked, clean body and frame...paint isn’t perfect though. But the primary driver in the sight unseen purchase was the freshly installed (less than 8k miles) supercharger.

Over the next year before actually moving to UT I Was travelling A LOT and spent some of my down time ordering parts $$$ and turning wrenches.

I will try to dig up some original pics from when I bought it...but you know bone stock.

The Champagne 1B1 color is my favorite 80 series color...followed up by the Desert Dune / Moonglow pearl that I used to have.

I started the mods by throwing a Stage 1 Slinky Suspension from @AutoCraft Aus under her as I have been very impressed with the stage 4 that I have on my Cummins 80. I went with 75mm HD springs whereas I have the EHD under the Cummins. At the time I was thinking this will be more if a daily driver the Super Tourer plans came later.

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The 75mm Slinky setup gave plenty of room to toss a set of 17” Icon Alloy Compression wheels and 35” Toyo MT rubbers on....ah looking much better already.
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The fresh supercharger makes driving this old beast so much more enjoyable than all my other 1FZ-FE and 3FE 80’s I have had. It obviously doesn’t have the axle snapping torque of the Cummins, but it’s good enough.

When I got bubbles, the front seats were rock hard as usual and mostly immobile. I decided I wanted to replace with something more modern and comfortable this go around, and settled on a set of seats from a 2012 WRX. With the help of my friends @bryson & @ilean we did some Backyard CAD work to design a bolt on set of brackets that to mount the seats in place....my butt appreciates this mod every time I get behind the wheel.
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To handle castor correction and prevent bump steer I threw on a set of Radius arms and a rear panhard bracket from @Delta VS...great products and my intro to Dave and Patrick's work. I liked the engineering 1st designs they were putting out So much that I managed to score the 1st production Delta Vehicle Systems Rear bumper. When it was ready I took a drive up to Boise to meet the fellas and get this bad boy installed...this bumper is a game changer. I love it.
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I ordered up a set of sliders from White Knuckle, went with the full tread and 10 degree option, it’s perfect for using as a step and looks great IMO.

I then got to thinking about how I really wanted to use this cruiser, and I decided that when I go away on lads trips that is when I tend to drive harder, faster and on much more technical terrain. When I am with the family everything is much more mellow...with the exception of the tantrums my kids have. So I decided this LX will be the one that goes on most of the trips with the guys. That means I want a lower COG, so no RTT and I want the auto... The Cummins has a 5 speed manual.

The sleeping plan for most lads trips will be either a ground tent, a hammock or a swag. This last trip I actually used all 3.

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I then turned my thoughts to a storage solution for the rear. I have been very pleased with the custom setup I had built for my 80, but over the years there were a few things that I have decided I would have done differently the next time around. I got in touch with Matt at Kakadu Camping in British Columbia as he is the NA distributor for Drifta products out of Geelong NSW Australia. Drifta has been building quality camping products for a long time so knew that was the direction I wanted to go.

I ordered up a custom setup that has a fridge encloser designed to fit either a Dometic CFX75DZW or SnoMaster LP66 fridge on the right. Above the fridge enclosure is a removable camp table. The left side has two large drawers stacked vertically with a second camp table stowed in between the drawers.

The drawers all run of Teflon strips which work remarkably well. This was one of the items that I really wanted to include after living with drawer slides and one too many dust storms blowing red dirt into the slide mechanism...the process to clean them out afterwards blows.

There is a custom stainless steel 40 liter water tank built into the drawer platform that fills up the void behind the rear seats. I also had them send me a cargo barrier that stops just above the top of the water tank. I still need to get around to installing the side wings that are a cut to fit design, but really really like this layout. So much more useable space when you don’t have to worry about stuff falling behind your fridge.
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I ended up getting a great deal on a Dometic CFX75DZW dual zone 75 liter fridge through @Delta VS so had to get busy wiring up a dual battery system. Kurt @cruiseroutfit hooked me up with all the factory parts and I went with same management system as I have in my 80, a Redarc BCDC1225D DC to DC charger. In usual pre-trip planning fashion it was a mad scramble the day before leaving for the Dollhouse to install and wire up the Aux battery, run 1/0 cables to the rear quarter panel and wire up a @NLXTACY quarter panel that I have had sitting on the shelf for way too long.
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Just a few recent camp site pics. Cooking over a campfire and feeding the crew is probably my favorite part of exploring with friends.
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I just picked up a spare valve cover and gave it a clean...it’s getting shipped out tomorrow to get some love.
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Shiny new OEM parts make me smile, that and I don't like fighting with exhaust hardware...the manifolds and heat shields are headed straight to get ceramic coated.

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And the parts collection continues....pure art work.

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I have wanted to run a York compressor for a long time, so decided to switch over from my fresh supercharger to @NLXTACY Turbo system...now that all the parts have arrived it’s time to get cracking on the install.
 
I knew you were going to turbo it— SC be damned! :)
Only way to be able to stuff a York under the hood and keep forced induction...definitely an expensive way to get compressed air.
 
I just dropped the new heat shields, manifolds, J-Pipe and Downpipe off at a local shop to get ceramic coated.

The manifolds, J-Pipe and Downpipe will get coated in Cerakote Bright Silver. This is good for up to 1600 degrees. The heat shields will be coated Cerakote Cobalt Charcoal which is good for 2000 degrees.

I am hopeful to get the pieces back by the end of next week, but it’s likely going to take two weeks before I have these parts ready to go.

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are you selling that SC? :)
Yes, I will be selling the Supercharger and the modified Orange Hub fan clutch.
 
@mryanangel

Would yo mind detailing or posting pics of how you setup the mounted the propane tank to the @DeltaVS arm?
It’s stupidly easy to attach. I have a Worthington 6lb aluminum propane tank and a powertank bracket for that tank.

The Delta Jerry can holder has a few slots in it, and they just happen to line up perfectly with the mounting holes on the powertank bracket...took 5mins to install and it’s solid as a rock.

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