Forgot how scenic Washington is . Been to the cascades longtime ago .just a downright good place.

 

I live about 30 miles north of seattle so not in the mountains. But im out in the country so theres lots of twisty roads and scenic views. lots of lakes around me too.

 

Anywhere you can see mountains in the distance and have rivers and streams close that's good living in my book .. .. Get my bear grills on minus the wired sheetz he eats ha ha

 

Our exhaust exits in the same exact place.

 

I think thats where I have put every toyota exhaust tip on all our trucks. Just works really nicely on any height.

 

Today, or tonight I should say, I took my truck for a cruise down to a nearby town. Made the excuse in my mind I needed another TV dinner, but I think I just wanted to hit the curves lol. I took it through some nice sharp corners at 40-50 and it stuck like glue. Forgot to get any video, will later on. Maybe tomorrow night. One thing I noticed is the rear end seem to get roll steer or something. Never noticed with bigger sidewalls. Didn't feel like body roll, more like the wheelbase changing on one side a bit. I think my leafs were getting twisted around. I can't wait to put my 4 link on this summer and notch it. I have all the parts, just need to make some link tabs and a crossmember needs to get moved back a few inches and another modded. Have all my bars and steel stock, and made some nice buttwelded style 2x2x0.250" square tube notches I built a few years back. Going to redo the carrier bearing crossmember at the same time to have a larger exhaust bump. Want clearance for either a single 3" pipe to tuck above frame on the driver side, or two 2.5" pipes side by side. I am planning a V8 swap this summer.

I also got a bunch of new photos of it down in the parking lot. Hopefully I can clean them up and make them look good. I will update if they turn out.

 

Heres those new pics I promised. Played with the color tones pretty heavy to help hide the grain. Just some iphone pics I tweaked on my computer. Loving the last one though. You can see my JDM style front markers with the LED arrays pretty well. 25 LED array I think.

 

Love your truck!

What is your current setup for lights? Are you running HID's?

 

Where are you going riding at?

Do you know when or if Reiter has opened up completely? Heard they opened the upper parking lot but havent heard anything on the lower powerlines by the big water holes

 

Henry, thanks for the props. My lighting setup isn't too special, but I have modified every light on the truck inside and out lol. Heres the specs: H4 headlight housings with 6000k center/highs and 4500k outer/lows. They are just H4 bulbs, no HID. Haven't added relays, but the factory is already relayed (albeit crapily). The front marker lights are JDM style housings. Brand new off ebay. Have 25 LED arrays in the marker with standard bulbs in the orange blinker section. The front side markers have brighter bulbs, the rears are unplugged. The tail lights, I spray painted the inside out the housing silver to be more reflective than the white plastic. Bulbs are standard for now, until I order some more LED arrays (array is a circuit board with LEDs on it). The license plate light is stock for now. The interior lights have LED bulbs in the stock gauges, and 7 color LED gauges in the center section.

85pickup, I usually just ride my bike on my property. I have 5 acres in NE snohomish. I went riding that day a few miles east on Spada Road at the power lines. I don't know anything about Reiter Pit. I haven't ever been in there, just partied in the trailer park nearby lol. And if I go out to the real mountains, I either go to Sultan Basin Road and follow that about 7 miles or go out to Skykomish and go up Beckler River Road about 10 miles. We like going shooting when we hit the woods, so we try to go real deep to avoid the rangers. Thats a story for another day

 

So today I felt inspired when I woke up and got outta bed, about 3:30 pm haha. Late night drinking and playing GTA4 Anyways, I got onto a project I have meant to work on for a year or more. Making custom door panels that cover the entire door not about half of it. Start by making a stock replacement that will fit the recessed area. Then a full panel that goes over that. I will make an accent cut in the center of the upper panel before i glue it down to the lower. That way it can be wrapped in a different material than the black vinyl I plan to do the bulk of the interior with. Will also wrap my console in that. Haven't decided an accent material yet. Torn between some sort of a plaid or something more like suede. Basically, I don't want to see any body color paint in the interior except the pillars from the door glass line up. I have half panels to make for the B pillars as well. Here are a few photos I took while I did it today. Forgot to get one with the arm rest and stuff put back on.

 

Here's a pic

 

Nothing fancy. Made it with a hand saw using the bed/tailgate corner as a work bench. Didn't have a hole saw, so I drilled 5 1/2" holes for the window crank and used side cutters to clean it up. 6 holes for the handle area and cut between them. I made 2, one for each side. Will probably make a few more sets if anybody is interested.

 

Depending on the colors, a plaid would look great.

 

I have been using purple as my accent color. Did the radiator, air cleaner and fuel pump block off under hood that way, and the steering wheel plus a few stickers inside. And a crown royal shift boot. Thought a plaid cowboy shirt type print in purple would look great. I have a shirt like that and its one of my favorites.

 

Today I was in the garage and found a perfect piece of lawn edging. Aka, cheap front lip kit haha. So I trimmed it down to 48" wide and taper cut the sides. Straightened my valance as best as I could, then pliered the bottom flange to be more or less flat. Drilled 9 small holes, little under 1/8". Used some nice captured washer self tapping screws to bite into the holes. It doesn't look perfect but I kept another 5 feet of the material for replacement. I will post better pics later but here is a small one for now.

 

It sort of reminds me of the new Challengers. 4 round eyes and a black lower lip. Me likey!

 

Went out for a cruise to test the new chin spoiler. Took it down about the worst local roads I could find that I can still make it down. Tried ripping it off and its still there, so I think I trust it to hang on. Got lots of new photos. Partly trying out lots of photo venues, I plan to start an automotive photography business this summer. All the pics here are just my iphone. I dont keep my fancy cameras with me normally.

Enjoy the view



Approach angle shot


I backed it up this road as far as I could before there was a water runoff trench.


The lip held up against all that mess in forward and reverse


Leaving that access road


One of the local river boat launches


This was through my sunglasses frame


Hobo parking only

 

Looking good!

 

Thanks henry