Builds TRDdrew's build: let me introduce Waffles

[TRDdrew]

Exhaust Day

The down pipes and cats had been replaced fairly recently But the rest of the exhaust appeared to be original from 91. We she gave up the ghost on the drive home the other day. Hanger on the muffler broke off and the exhaust was laying against the frame.

Good thing I knew it was on Its last leg and I had been prepping with some parts, the only company the make a replacement 3FE exhaust is BRE (bosal/Magnaflow) its 680.00, which isn't bad but has mixed reviews and more than i was willing to spend.

I had gathered a stainless steel muffler/resonator from a Hyundai exhaust we had replaced at work. Was quite a bit smaller than the original but I figured I'd give it a go. Next I acquired some brand new Flowmaster exhaust pipe for 10 dollars off Facebook! (Might as well stick with the trend of A budget built 80) the guy said he thought it was a full kit for an older dodge pick-up but being 2.5" mandrel bent I was just gonna cut it up anyway so i didn't care

Decided to cut off the factory exhaust right at the muffler. You always have to start it up with no exhaust lol I was actually surprised with how much the cats reduce noise. Mocked up the muffler and started working on the over axle/frame bends, this took the most time being there isn't a lot of real-estate to play with (especially with 2.5" pipe) Tailpipe went pretty quick and ended up using a factory 100 series tip.

Results:

Pleasantly surprised this exhaust sounds great! Only slightly louder than factory and has a nice grumble at idle. Going down the road there is zero drone and is quiet, for the most part I'm past the age where I want a loud exhaust. With all new hangers the vibrations are gone. This whole exhaust costed me about 30 dollars and 8 hours of time, couldn't be happier. I'm gonna give this a - because it takes forever piecing everything together. Tacking, fitting, cutting, more tacking lol and due to the tools required to do it.

I'll get some better picture's of it all next time I have it on the lift

O have I mentioned that I hate not having a lift at home lol, @DC470 was nice enough to capture this gem of my fatass going full cruiser head

 

[TRDdrew]

Cleaning the shop and was about to toss the 3rd row seats but then.......

I'm not an upholstery guy by any means but I figured this would add a nice touch to the center console, matching the door cards. Don't think I came out too bad

 

[TRDdrew]

Installed

 

[TRDdrew]

Ashamed to say the 80 has been mostly just sitting around, always starts right up and drives fine. Been putting a lot of maintenance into my 100 series for a trip down to windrock in TN.

Back now and had a bit of time today to knock out a few small projects

When I put the 94 seats in I didn't realize that the buckles for the seatbelts where different. I only found out when my son tried to put his on and couldn't. I pulled the buckles out of the 3rd row seat before I trashed them, had to open the hole for the bolt spacer but other than that, easy swap. Atleast his side has a working seatbelt.

@kouki gave me a wits end rack delete bolt kit

 

[TRDdrew]

Negative battery terminal had seen some better days so I cut the leads off it and chrimped on some new connectors. Had a universal neg terminal laying around so this is now making a much better connection. Still temporary as I plan on getting some mil spec terminals for it but it will do for now

This also allowed me to run my quick connect for my battery tender right to the grille for easy access

 

[TRDdrew]

Well I'm part way through my Desmog and I've run into an issue. Pulling the plug out of the exhaust manifold it's taken quite a bit of threads with it. Not 100 percent sure what to do at this point there is still some threads but pretty far inside the manifold

 

[TRDdrew]

Ok so I was able to get the original plug to grab the threads again and reinstalled, I cut the egr tube to get the cap and made a little plate to weld on the top. Crises everted

And got the FPR VSV relocated by making a small bracket to bolt below the throttle cable

 

[TRDdrew]

DeSmog done, minus the air rail, which I'll remove when I do the valve cover gasket

 

[TRDdrew]

Results of the DeSmog

Drove waffles into work today. The motor, at least from my butt dyno, seems to have gone from 3 tractor power to atleast 3.5 lol . But I will say it does seem to breathe better and is more "snappy"

Fired up great, despite it being 27* this morning , but was idling a bit high (around 980-1000 rpm) but half way through my commute is settled back down to its normal 570-600 range. From what I've heard this is fairly common, the computer just needs to recognize that all that unnecessary stuff isn't there anymore lol

Long live the mighty 3FE

 

[TRDdrew]

@DC470 and I had ourselves a little road trip, first to Baltimore for a Elocker 100 series rear axle for his truck and then to NJ for some early 80 axles for mine

These axles are out of a 92 and have a bunch of goodies

4.88 gears, chromolly shafts, grizzly auto lockers, warn hubs ( I assume the truck that they came out of was part timed ) DOM steering link, cruiser corp rear disc conversion, nitro rear diff cover, backing plate eliminators and some wheel spacers

Got some fun work ahead of me with a wire wheel to get them all ready for paint

 

[TRDdrew]

Sadly not much new to report. Haven't gotten around to really doing anything with the new axles. Had a half way decent day with the temps in the 50's so I drove it to work.

Did have this storage compartment laying around. It's made by Berley Pro and it designed to be mounted to kayaks. Think I got it for Christmas one year but it didn't really work out on any of my fishing yaks. Found it the other day while cleaning the shop and thought "that looks like it would fit right in the gap between the seat and tuffy console"

Like it was made for it lol

 

[TRDdrew]

Thought I smelled fuel, guess that's gonna be the next project

 

[TRDdrew]

New fuel tank aquired, very clean inside and out. You could have told me this was new old stock and I would have believed you. Got all the other bits on order and will be ready to tackle this soon

 

[CrabCake]

The stuff that you seem to be able to find...

 

[TRDdrew]

A gift from a local club member, from is recent trip back to AU, picking up some new 4x6 lights and some plug and play harness's from @jcardona1

 

[TRDdrew]

Painted the buckets an put all new hardware. Gave the bezels a quick polish, was going to paint them but decided to leave all the Aussie patina figured its fitting for the rest of the truck, cant make it too nice lol

Edit:

Got the new lenses todays so got them all put back together

 

[TRDdrew]

Got everything installed, the adapter harnesses from @jcardona1 are top notch and take all the guess work out of getting these installed at a reasonable price. Also built a harness so my ARB turn signals finally work

Also replaced the O ring on my Speedo drive gear the old o ring wasn't doing much lol

 

[jcardona1]

Got everything installed, the adapter harnesses from @jcardona1 are top notch and take all the guess work out of getting these installed at a reasonable price. Also built a harness so my ARB turn signals finally work

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Looks great! Glad to hear the harness worked out

 

[TRDdrew]

Had a few chips filled in the OG windshield

And just because

 

[ikarus]

Quads look awesome!