Maslin's 1:1 Trail Finder

[calcagno45]

How's lil blue?

[maslin]

Doing well. Get the header in, it was the wrong one Must be a federal vs California truck thing. Didn't really matter to me, direct bolt in isn't a bit deal. Welded some bolts in to the air injection pipes and threw it on. Welded up an 8" flex pipe, a few feet of 16ga pipe and a cheapo Thrush Turbo muffler. Sounds pretty good, I'll try to get a video. Woke the engine up a bit, need to stick a better air filter on there and see how it feels.

Fixed the exhaust leak in the process, whoever put the engine in got the bottom rear manifold nut cross threaded about 1 turn and called it good Still need to plug the hole in the firewall around the speedo cable.

Next up is the seats. They move around a bit when you speed up, slow down or turn. Basically all the time. Shouldn't be too bad, just have to find time to get some work in. Might as well flush the heater core just in time to not need it as well, it's been in the high 20s in the morning, pretty cold with barely warmer than cold heat.

Still shopping for tires, another thing that isn't really needed immediately. It does look kind of funny lifted with tiny tires.

[maslin]

Got a few hours out in the shop. Seats are situated, much better. Sketched up my idea on some isometric paper, worked out just about perfectly



Step one, strip and weld up the original slides.



A while later they're done. Wish I had taken more pictures, I was on a roll



All wrapped up.



Need to find some 1" square caps to hammer in the ends.





Just Missed out on a set of mint 15" alloy wheels with 31x10.5s for $125 15" wheels must be dead now, not having any luck with cheap tires. Plenty of 17s out there, and I do have a set of supercharged Xterra wheels laying around...





Steering wheel is a huge improvement, no more razor sharp edges



Somehow realized the shift knob that's been loose for months has set screws

[maslin]

Originally Posted by maslin

I do have a set of supercharged Xterra wheels laying around...

Tried the Xterra wheels, center bore is 1/2" too small Fancy Hunter tire machine showed up at work so my options have opened up, but I still need tires. If I have to buy new I will, still waiting on that $50 90% set of BFG ATs to fall in my lap