Tenerife to Texas: a 1997 HDJ80 Tale

[Vitek]

@SNLC NICE, I’ll start looking.

I will send you the secret part number you need for this

 

[bottombracket]

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.

 

[bottombracket]

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

 

[bottombracket]

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

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

 

[bottombracket]

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.

 

[GTV]

Looks great! A damp towel and a hair dryer (or a heat gun, if you're careful) will take those wrinkles right out.

 

[bottombracket]

@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.

 

[bottombracket]

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.

 

[bottombracket]

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.

 

[bottombracket]

Quad headlight assemblies, clear corners, and headlight grills.

 

[bottombracket]

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

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.

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

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.

 

[bottombracket]

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.

 

[bottombracket]

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.

 

[bottombracket]

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.

 

[bottombracket]

This is a visually cool pic.

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

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

 

[bottombracket]

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

 

[bottombracket]

I like the new look.

 

[bottombracket]

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.

 

[gilmorneau]

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.

 

[cgeoca]

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.

View attachment 3198842View attachment 3198843

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!