I have an idea if you wanted to keep a slightly more streamlined lighting setup. You could put amber bulbs in the socket for the stock backup lights to use as turn signals. Then just use some slimmer backup lights mounted under the bumper.

 

wouldn't there be some kind of exception to that blinker rule since the truck came from the factory with the red turn signal and it is old? i know here there are exceptions to the rules especially when it comes to older vehicles.

if not i like wontacceptthis's idea. i got auxiliary backup lights on both my trucks and they work great. if i had to choose between my stock and auxiliary backup lights i would choose the auxiliary ones every time. they work very good.

 

That's a very good idea! The backup lights suck anyway and I've been thinking about putting bigger ones on.

We have a rule about imported vehicles which give you some slack regarding lighting (and when it comes to cars pre -74 almost no rules apply). But my truck isn't imported in this regard as it was sold in Sweden as new in 1986.
Had it been imported yesterday it would have been easier. And if I had been living in the US (or wherever) for a year or more and then moved back home I could have gotten away with a Packard Merlin bolted to the bed - as long as it was approved in the country I moved from (like a grandfathers right in a way).

 

That's a good idea. That would clean up the back of that truck considerably.

 

Fired up the truck today.

Good news, headers aren't leaking (as I kinda suspected they would). Also, the hole I made in the head - because I'm an idiot - was successfully plugged and sealed with a thread sealant called 8875-Thin from Deacon. I highly recommend it for high temp applications, it's good for 1500 degrees F.

It is however loud as hell. I hoped it would be somewhat decent but I'm nowhere close. From the outside it's manageable (sounds potent), in the cab it's a different story and the drone is far from nice - the roof is vibrating.

I need to loose the sidepipe and run the pipe all the way back in the stock routing. That should hopefully be enough.

 

How long are your glasspacks? In my experience, a big 4" pipe will create a lot of drone, while smaller pipes don't. If you want to keep your side pipes, you could try a set of longer 2.5" glasspacks . . . like 24" or 30"

 

^Yeah, 24+" packs, 2.5 packs, either taken back to the stock location or straight out the back will cut the drone.

Or you could go with a turbo muffler.

Thrush Turbo 17715.

 

The glass packs are pretty long, around 20" at least. I'll get some picture host and post pics. I think the first option is to run the plumbing in the stock routing but keeping the 4". It's hipo loud from the outside, it's just the drone inside the cab that's annoys me.

I cleaned up the tail yesterday by putting the turn indicators on the backup lights. Looks much better, I'm only bugged by the fact that I didn't think of it myself.

I've also cleaned the entire underside of the car (exactly as much fun as it sounds) and rust protected it. What was left of the old protection was cracked and dry and did little else than allow for water to seep in and chew on my steel. It's all heavy metal though, it can't be too common with critical failures of our trucks because of rust. The only things that looks that they might break due to rust are the upper a-arms, especially the rearward part (despite the extra metal).

 

^ You hit the nail on the head about the rust! My truck had an upper a-arm break just before I bought it! Lol

 

This is how my drone special looks like
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps227b77cf.jpg
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...psfc372285.jpg
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...pse8ca82ae.jpg