Restoring Rusty

[Gregski]

and now time for some glamour shots of this sexy beast lowered and wearing her new earings

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by flashed

What are we doing next ?

Well, well, well.
Three snaps in Z formation!
I thought you would never ask.

... I'll tell you tomorrow

[green72s]

Truck looks great in those "glamour" shots.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by green72s

Truck looks great in those "glamour" shots.

ha ha, thanks, I love how the proposed landfill site in the background gives purpose to the juxtaposed primary subject as it blends in and out of the overcast playing and teasing the eye with the shadows... its the best I could do ok! jk

[deejaaa1]

looking good.

[mattcrp1]

Looking good, keep the posts coming. I love how fast Summit packages show up. cant wait to see what ya got.

[flashed]

It tomorrow already ,where you at and what you got ? LOL

[Gregski]

if you recall not too long ago we lowered Rusty and so I figured we would freshen up its suspension so for $165 bucks we picked up this BellTech kit.

Why did we pick this brand as opposed to anything else.

1. The Gabriel shocks you can get from your local parts house did not come in a shorter than stock version, not that I could see anyway.

2. Turns out BellTech is a California company so I wanted to give the local boyz some love. Their website seemed legit, they appear to like / specialize in trucks.


Belltech Nitro Drop 2 Shocks
Belltech's Nitro Drop 2 is our entry level shock absorber. Designed to be more than just a replacement solution to your OEM shocks.

NITRO DROP 2
Notes
SN23: Fits Vehicles with 2"-4" Front Lowering
SN45: Fits Vehicles with 4"-6" Rear Lowering
Installation Instructions

[Gregski]

so we decided to work backwards and do the rear ones first, the rear shocks are longer here are some numbers for you all

we did not have to raise the truck on jack stands or nothin, we did it with it just parked in the garage

eye hole to eye hole with the truck sitting normal on the ground the distance was 17 1/4 inches

once removed the old rear shocks compressed were 13 3/4 inches and 23 inches fully extended

the new rear shocks were 12 inches compressed and 18 1/4 fully extended

Please Note all new shocks came with a new top bolt

[Gregski]

then it was time to do the front shocks, this proved a bit more difficult probably because I have long tube headers on my truck, so on the passenger side we had to remove the header to get it out of the way to free the shock for the frame, otherwise we had no clearance

numbers for the front

as the crow flies eye hole to eye hole from top to bottom was 11 1/2 inches

old shock collapsed was 9 1/2 inches and 14 7/8 fully extended

the new shock weighed in at also 9 1/2 inches collapsed and 14 1/4 extended

[Gregski]

my daddy taught me to never reuse gaskets especially colapsable exhaust manifold / header ones, so we ran out and got some thicker ones this time which meant we needed a bit longer header bolts 7/8ths vs 3/4, so we got those too. Our headers have a nice 1/4 thick flange

[flashed]

I used the same rear shocks on my 93 truck ,have the fronts but have not changed them yet .

[Gregski]

we fandangled the header collector gasket as well so we taught the gal at NAPA something new (her words not mine) when we had to buy a new set of those too, do you see how the Hot Rodding game is played yet?

Honestly all this difficulty could have been avoided had I not been running an X pipe but I want to be cool so I have an X pipe on my exhaust, ha ha

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by flashed

I used the same rear shocks on my 93 truck ,have the fronts but have not changed them yet .

Very cool, are you running headers by any chance?

[Gregski]

at this time we were Pot Committed sort of speak to the exhaust and remembered that center rear brake rubber line that just loved to hug the passenger side tailpipe so after [ahem] exhausting all options we decided to eliminate the over the rear axle sweeping tailpipes in favor of some short turn downs, ok 45% bendies as the official turn downs only come in 2 1/4 ID Inside Diameter and we needed 2 1/4 OD Outside Diameter so that they would slide inside our Turbo mufflers

Note: we had to notch the muffler ends in order to be able to squeeze down on these tailpipes to keep them from falling out

... and Problem = Solution

I like 'em, tell me what you all think?

[enaberif]

All that work and you didn't buy new lower shock bolts? Sorely disappointed Gregski.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by enaberif

All that work and you didn't buy new lower shock bolts? Sorely disappointed Gregski.

Going to go with the Rear End Defense on this one your honor. [ahem] As you can see the rear axle has gotten zero love so far, so when I clean it, paint it, and service it, [lie] I will replace those bolts then [/lie]

[flashed]

My 93 truck does currently have headers ,not usually a fan of them but they are not leaking yet so Im gonna run em. All my other toys have stock manifolds .My 72 truck had headers on it when I bought it and they leaved no matter what so I got rid of them ,plus they were really beat up.

[68Timber]

Are the turndowns on backwards? It looks like the end with the tag is flared.

[Gregski]

so turn outs, lol

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Chaplain

Keep up the good work.

Thanks, on Wednesday it stopped raining so I even drove the truck to work. It started easily, ran great, sounded good, no exhaust leaks that I could tell, handled adequately, as I sat there strapped with my brand new three point harness seat belt, gripping the brand new steering wheel, I couldn't help but smile...

[daddyjeep]

Originally Posted by Gregski

Thanks, on Wednesday it stopped raining so I even drove the truck to work. It started easily, ran great, sounded good, no exhaust leaks that I could tell, handled adequately, as I sat there strapped with my brand new three point harness seat belt, gripping the brand new steering wheel, I couldn't help but smile...

Congratulations. I am a lot of years away from that point. I have a few months to make mine function. It will take a lot longer to make it what I want.

[Gregski]

Uh oh, red font this can't be good.

In this quarterly edition of Two Steps Forward One Step Back (TSFOSB) we discuss Rusty's last temper tantrum. As you may recall my truck had a tough up bringing spending majority of the last 40 years working hard on a farm, so he struggles with the good life. Maybe having a three car garage all to himself is too much of a life style change. Maybe having his oily deposits wiped off the floor weekly is not for him. But does that give him the right to fling his hood open at speed on the highway whilst in the middle lane behind a semi, and in front of a hummer?

That's right my life flashed before my eyes driving home from work that Wednesday night, luckily no one was hurt, and the damage was limited to that of Rusty and Rusty alone, as the hood won't open now after I vehemently slammed it shut on the interstate.

Does this change my feelings for this green machine? No, if anything I think I just passed a paternity test as this exact thing happened to my dad and me 30 years ago, in my fathers beloved Datsun 1200, anyone care to guess the color of that machine?

[rich weyand]

Ouch.

[hatzie]

Geez. If She's going to do that kinda stuff put some hood pins on.