I finally got off my butt and started the beautification part of the truck. I acquired the HDJ81 real cheap because cosmetically the thing was abysmal. Water leaks led to mold which led to the removal of all carpeting which led to half assed and liberal spraying of bedliner. The whole truck is uninsulated and loud. In the past I had fixed the dash which looked like absolute s***. At least now that part looks factory.
The seats on mine are JDM cloth seats. Very comfortable but its blue. The gray portions of the trim also have a blue tinge to them which is so 80s and early 90s.
I just started tearing everything out. All seats trim pieces headliner. I mean everything. Just drivers seat and parts of the dash remain. (BTW, how is it that just those pieces manage to fill an entire garage?)
While doing that, I found a great deal on a slee dual swing out bumper, so another project was underway even before the last one was completed. And for s***s and giggles why not remove the entire grill lights etc to replace it with a modded one. So now I have no interior, no bumper and no front.
One would think that removing the grill would be easy but of course the PO snaked the light bar as well as the HAM antenna right through the damn thing. Ok so lets tear through the dash just to snake the wires back out the engine bay and through the grill.
So I read that mounting the slee rear bumper would be a couple hour affair, but of course the JDM thing decides to piss in my cereal and kill my day. Holes are not where they are supposed to be or they are an inch to the left or right. At this point I was like fxxx it. Im just going to weld it on the chassis. I took a break went to lunch and had a change of heart. I would do it properly as intended just in case I ever decide to switch out the bumper. Many drill bits later I had all the holes. Then came welding nuts and threading the whole thing. Then came the moment of truth to see if I measured correctly. Thankfully every lined up. I also got the hitch receiver with the bumper and that was the biggest pain to install because I did not want to cut the rear crossmember out. try lining up holes through 4 layers of steel with nuts balanced in the center layer whole thing to get 4 bolts through. After 11 bloody hours it was complete.
Of course with my luck the wings were welded on. Air chisel and grinder time.
Ran out of O2 so no more torch to cut. Grinder time again. Wherever I overshot, I just welded it and all was good.
Setting the mood. Nothing like wrenching next to a bonfire.
The seats on mine are JDM cloth seats. Very comfortable but its blue. The gray portions of the trim also have a blue tinge to them which is so 80s and early 90s.
I just started tearing everything out. All seats trim pieces headliner. I mean everything. Just drivers seat and parts of the dash remain. (BTW, how is it that just those pieces manage to fill an entire garage?)
While doing that, I found a great deal on a slee dual swing out bumper, so another project was underway even before the last one was completed. And for s***s and giggles why not remove the entire grill lights etc to replace it with a modded one. So now I have no interior, no bumper and no front.
One would think that removing the grill would be easy but of course the PO snaked the light bar as well as the HAM antenna right through the damn thing. Ok so lets tear through the dash just to snake the wires back out the engine bay and through the grill.
So I read that mounting the slee rear bumper would be a couple hour affair, but of course the JDM thing decides to piss in my cereal and kill my day. Holes are not where they are supposed to be or they are an inch to the left or right. At this point I was like fxxx it. Im just going to weld it on the chassis. I took a break went to lunch and had a change of heart. I would do it properly as intended just in case I ever decide to switch out the bumper. Many drill bits later I had all the holes. Then came welding nuts and threading the whole thing. Then came the moment of truth to see if I measured correctly. Thankfully every lined up. I also got the hitch receiver with the bumper and that was the biggest pain to install because I did not want to cut the rear crossmember out. try lining up holes through 4 layers of steel with nuts balanced in the center layer whole thing to get 4 bolts through. After 11 bloody hours it was complete.
Of course with my luck the wings were welded on. Air chisel and grinder time.
Ran out of O2 so no more torch to cut. Grinder time again. Wherever I overshot, I just welded it and all was good.
Setting the mood. Nothing like wrenching next to a bonfire.
