Lipstick on a Mule: Facelifting my First-Gen

[Combat Chuck]

Kit arrived today, without a relay assembly.
Instructions are in pigeon English, too.

For others looking into a headlight upgrade, I would advise just getting the pieces from Morimoto, this kit was pretty cheaply put together.

In fact, avoid Dotcomracing if ever possible, and go for whatever can be had from The Retrofit Source.

 

[Combat Chuck]

Timing chain slipped two teeth.
All projects are on hold.

 

[dngspot]

Sucks on the lights. Let me know what direction you choose. I have given thought to HID's but, could not decide and was a bit over whelmed by a bunch of crap out there.

The truck is pretty cool, looks like mine did before I tore into it. Keep up the good work.

 

[Combat Chuck]

Thanks for the words of encouragement.
I got my truck back with a new timing chain and associated work this weekend, and it's ballsier than ever, (I think I jumped one tooth earlier on, like last year sometime, and last Sunday was when I dumped the second one) but I have no cross-hatching left on my cylinder walls. I've got about eight to ten months left on this motor's life before I have to buy a new one, so alot of my little projects are on hold. The good news is that the relay I need for this conversion is only 35 bucks, so I think I'll shell out for it as a reward for when I have the first 1200 saved up.

For what it's worth, the HID kit I bought is decent, but I can tell it's an assemblage of pieces that can be sourced piecemeal, and doing so will give you better freedom to choose what comprises the setup as opposed to getting a mixed bag from some tuner clown. As-is, I'm semi-unhappy with some kinda dumb features certain elements of the kit have.

If anyone were looking into an HID Bixenon swap, pick up HID semi-sealed beam units off Flea-bay for about ten bucks, then get a good Morimoto or The Retrofit Source brand Bixenon conversion kit with the relay. I mention these by name because they're the most helpful, and their prices are competitive.
Dotcomracing, whom sold me my kit, charged me 35 bucks for shipping, and sent me the package in 15 bucks worth of label and material.

I'm just lucky that I stumbled into owning a truck that doesn't want to die, and I won't let it if I have anything to do with it.

 

[Combat Chuck]

Minor setbacks...

Driving out to work at night two weeks back, I came around a blind corner at 55, and tagged a doe.
It's shoulder was about up to my hood as far as I could remember. I clipped it without enough time to react, and it went down, and under my driver's-side tires and out. I checked my gauges, no heat gain, no oil pressure loss, no noises, so I kept booking out for work.

Here's the damage:

Mostly plastic. Luckily, the radiator core support was already caved in thanks to the PO, so the plastic flexed back, and no metal damage. The bumper was pretzeled, and I lost the lense to my running lamp.
Dropped the bumper down, trimmed off some sheet metal from it, hammered it out, hammered out the fender which was buckled a but, taped up the busted plastic for now, and the results:

It's not perfect, but it'll do until I can afford to replace the core support, plastic bracket and fenders with some nice Toyota Fiberglass pieces in the future.


I had some white paint in my parts pile, and having been raised on WWII films, I couldn't resist cutting out a stencil and painting on a few silhouettes for my previous deer collisions this truck's survived.

 

[80t0ylc]

Nice idea with the deer silhouettes . Don't want to fill up that fender too quickly, though. Need to fab up some protection or get an ARB. Then you can aim at 'em

 

[Foreigner]

Driving out to work at night two weeks back, I came around a blind corner at 55, and tagged a doe.
It's shoulder was about up to my hood as far as I could remember. I clipped it without enough time to react, and it went down, and under my driver's-side tires and out. I checked my gauges, no heat gain, no oil pressure loss, no noises, so I kept booking out for work.

Wow, that sucks, but awesome that the damage wasn't worse. Thanks for the detailed info on the lights, too.

 

[Combat Chuck]

Nice idea with the deer silhouettes . Don't want to fill up that fender too quickly, though. Need to fab up some protection or get an ARB. Then you can aim at 'em

I'm thinking the same thing. I was saving up for a 'roo bar wen this happened, and I think I have some clear reasons for it.

Wow, that sucks, but awesome that the damage wasn't worse. Thanks for the detailed info on the lights, too.

I'm glad the damage wasn't worse, too. This truck just doesn't want to die!

You're totally welcome, man, I've seen similar setups done, but using standard bulbs, LEDs have been something I've loved to play with since childhood (I once breadboarded a computer that ran a string of LEDs in a pattern depending on the relative power input, fun stuff!) So it seemed second-nature to pursue the conversion.
I can see less of a voltage drop on my meter now with the LEDS than I did in the past, especially with the 4-ways on.

I'm hoping this gives other first-gen owners some ideas!