A few more parts showed up later in the day! I ordered a factory stereo off of eBay. These are going for stupid money, untested. This one turns on but unknown beyond that. Time will tell if I bought a $100 paper weight. At least it’ll look pretty! The headlight switch knob and clock knobs both came in as well. I also picked up an assortment of exhaust connectors and adapters from the parts stores.
Headlight knob installed!
Clock knob installed!
Time to finally start on the exhaust system! This was one of the first parts I purchased for the truck, but one of the last to go on!
It’s a Hooker 2.25” true dual system, designed for this truck but meant to be a header-back system. Since this is obviously no longer a small block based platform and I’m also not utilizing headers, I’ll be making a few modifications to adapt to the manifolds, as well as adding a pair of high flow catalytic converters to the system. I sized these slightly higher than the rest of the system, at 2.5”, to provide a small additional increase in flow through them. I started with the elbows and a pair of bare flanges to make the downtubes from the manifolds.
Test fitting alignment. I don’t think I can get that much better!
The downtubes were also 2.5”, so the header pipes needed a reducer to go between the two.
I’m slitting all of my slip joints, so I can make all of the connections with band clamps, which will allow for any future disassembly to be done with ease.
Catalytic converter done on the front.
Muffler outlet completed. I had to cut quite a bit out of this extension pipe due to the added cats.
And here’s how the passenger side looks all assembled!
Drivers side tomorrow!