09.21.2002 the downpipe is welded, painted and on the truck now with the rest of the exhaust system bolted up. i repaired the lumbar air lines so they are functional now and they actually work. big thanks to tom argue for walking me through the process of fixing the lines. i cleaned up and repainted the heater box and put that back on the firewall today. i'm thinking i might see if i can fit the smog pump into the opening that the blower motor used to go into. if so, i can use it for the pcv system on the passenger side. if not, i've got a new blower motor coming from ebay. (pics) 09.17.2002 mark came over last night and finished welding up the modified kb downpipe where the 90* bend comes off the exhaust side of the turbo and attaches to the lower portion that runs to the cat. i still have to clean up the downpipe and paint it with some high temp paint to try and fend off some surface rust that appears within minutes of touching the downpipe. (pics) 09.15.2002 this past weekend i ended up replacing all the shocks with some generic ones from pep boys since the rancho rs9000's were getting a little old and the air lines needed to be replaced. i replaced the steering wheel with a nos unit i picked up from a fellow syty lister, replaced the torsion bar mounts with a pair i picked up at pep boys, put the interior back in the truck, reinstalled the stereo with an internal antenna from radio shack. i found the instructions for the steering wheel and torsion bar mount r&r over at sytyarchives. the only extra note i can add is to make sure you have an 18mm socket for the ride height adjustment bolt and the nut on top of the torsion bar. 04.15.2002 the kb downpipe was a little larger than the stock downpipe where it meets the inlet to the cat so i had to head on over to a local muffler shop to get them to expand the cat opening so it would fit. if you're wondering if the kb downpipe fits the stock headers and turbo, wonder no more. it won't, but with some cutting and welding it'll work. the kb headers place the turbo up and out towards the fenderwell more than the stockers so the elbow that's supposed to come off the back of the turbo won't attach without some modifications. (pics) 04.07.2002 replaced the dash bulbs with a set of 5 watt lights instead of the 3.78 watts stockers. with the cover on it does seem a little brighter. i picked up a set of sylvania 2825 (?) from pep boys for $1.99 / set of 2. the interior is still apart but i'm going to be putting it back in pretty soon. finally managed to get the stock downpipe out of the cat and off the truck. i have to cut up the inlet on the cat a bit to get the new downpipe to fit and take pictures of it. i yanked the old a/c core in front of the radiator which made room for the new intercooler. i don't know if it'll fit with a/c still on the truck, but if someone was determined enough i'm sure it would work. it looks like i'll have to cut some sheetmetal for the inlet and outlet tubing but the good news is that there's enough room behind the grille to work with the outlet the way it is (i hope). (pics) 03.27.2002 i got a line on a pretty decent air to air intercooler. the only issue that i see is the inlet and outlet setup for it. the inlet comes directly into the left, but the outlet is on the front (or back) depending on how you set it up. i've started pulling apart the old system so i can figure out exactly how to install it and run the piping. since i don't have a/c any more, i might be able to remove the old condenser and move the radiator back a little bit. gary suggested checking to see if there's already an opening in the core support to route the piping through which i have to check on. (pics) 03.26.2002 got all the rear suspension back together with the pinion wedges on top of the lowering blocks and washed all the dust and grime off the truck this past weekend. started modifying a set of old stock tail lights that i bought from another fast member a while ago. after cutting up the first one (the good one), i realized a better way to install the new led bulbs. going to work on getting it installed tonight to see if it works better *before* i start chopping up the tail lights that are on the truck now. next step will be to figure out the wiring and how i want to mate it with the stock wiring to make it work. there's a connection on the back of the led for ground, brake, and turn signal so i need to see how the stock wiring handles these, and the regular running lights. once i get it installed, i'll check the brightness, and if it's too dim, i might need to switch to a set of clears (if i can find some for cheap). since the led's are red, i don't need to worry about having the red tint in the plastic lens. i just don't want the hack job to be visible from the outside of the brake light if i go with a set of clears. 03.25.2002 got some more parts that i bought off of ebay yesterday. bought some led tail lights and a piece of cladding that may come in useful in the future. you can never be too prepared ;-). i'm going to fiddle around with the tail lights tonight and see if i can come up with a way to fit them into the stock tail light assembly since they are rather big. 03.20.2002 looks like fhp has picked up a wack of camaros for highway patrol. so if you see one of them in your rear view mirror you'd better think twice about running. (pic) 03.15.2002 managed to get the drivers side lowering block all set up, but the passenger side is on hold until i can get a 3/8" x 5" grade 8 bolt. pep boys has a giant bolt section but they're all out and getting any help there is like pulling teeth. i did buy a couple bolts from home depot, but i'm not sure what grade they are. bought some new power lock assemblies for the truck but two drivers side ones came. i mailed the guy and he said he'd send a passenger side asap which i'm waiting on. bought some led's to replace the dash lights, but unfortunately they're a little dim. i might have to upgrade to the 4-in-1 led version to get some of the brightness back. 03.04.2002 went down to home depot and picked up some work tools and such. i now have a new black & decker work bench, a couple of 'c' clamps, 4" grinder with a couple of cut off wheels. i'm going to be removing and reinstalling the lowering blocks with the pinion wedge on top as it should be instead of below the blocks like it is now. i'll be following the instructions from syty archives, and i'll have to pick up some new bolts. (pics) 02.26.2002 let the truck run for a couple of hours trying to charge the battery since it was dead from sitting for so long. thinking of using a custom scan tool for tuning, still have a lot of work left to do on the truck before it gets back on the road though. need to get a new headliner for it since the old one is coming apart again. need to hit up all the old plastic parts that have turned gray over time with some back to black or just paint them black. yanked the old antenna out so i can install a new one since there's no more hole in the fender for an external one. thinking of mounting the ecm under the dash like keith did. there's still a lot of work to be done. (pics) 02.25.2002 replaced the wiring for the i/c temp senders and installed the ground terminal *before* putting the silicon on it this time. pulled most of the dash apart to see what the deal was with the cluster acting funky. cluster and the rest of the parts are sitting in the back of the truck right now. bought some 194 replacement bulbs with led's in them off of ebay. still waiting for those to come in along with new interior door handles. drivers side door spring is busted so the latch doesn't spring back to closed position as it should. need to go through the box for the cdc-mp3 and get the backstrap so i can install it properly this time. have the center console out as well. need to give that a good cleaning along with the shifter boot and knob since they're pretty dirty. noticed that the black metal plate that goes under the gear indicator is faded from the sun, need to repaint that and clean it up. found some red bulbs to replace the stockers, thinking of doing something different with the gear indicator but not sure what right now. 01.01.2002 can't remember the exact day it happened, but the sy caught one of the bolts for the propshaft loop on something. it ended up bending the crap out of the transmission crossmemeber and the loop itself. had it towed home and let it sit for a couple of days fearing the worst. bought a new transmission crossember and watched as the poly mount for the transmission kept getting backordered at summit. finally decided to use a stock mount from gm. seems like someone jb welded the old bolts into the actual crossmember mount on the back of the transmission, ended up snapping off the bolt heads. motivation diminishes at this point. finally got around to putting the new crossmember and mount back into the truck. transmission is just resting on it at this point but at least i can move it around in the garage.