Detailing

This is the page where I plan to talk about all my non performance related modifications to the truck. I really want to make she fast and keep her beautiful at the same time. A show car which dominating on the track too. However there is trap. You have to avoid the ricer type stuff. No stickers, lights, wings etc. * There are three main areas where you can improve the looking of your car. Otside, inside and under the hood.

Outside

The first step was to replace my lights all over. My original ones was quite bad looking, especially in the back, and I wanted clear corners. I put clear euro altezas in the back, a new headlight and clear corners in the front and in the bumper. I got them from a list member, but you can find them at several places for S15/S10.


Some remarks here. If you put on these lamps you get yellow turn signs with yellow bulbs, but you don't have fog light and reverse light in the back. You also don't have parking light in the front. These things could be important in Europe. Anyway, you can do relatively easily parking lights in the front, by screw in a small bulb into the clears in your bumper and wire them up. * I really don't like the stock mirrors. They are like if they came from a commercial truck. I replaced them with the so popular M3 look mirrors. Well, it's a bit ricy, but I like them. They are APC mirrors for 82-93 S15. You can get them from Streetpros.com.


The colors of my body kit is also non stock. It was black with Syclone stickers around. I got the truck like this, and I really like it, so I gonna keep it that way. The paint on the truck is in quite good shape, but there are a few pieces, which require some attention. The hood was slightly damaged so I repainted it. Also the back of the truck was hit when I got the truck so I had to make repainted the tailgate and the rear bumper.


The stock truck also had a sticker on the windshield, which I didn't get, but I really don't miss it. Also my rear window had been darkened and I really like it. * I also worked on the wheels and lowered the truck significantly, but you can read this on my Suspension page.

Inside

First of all the gauges. They are not an option if you are serious with you truck. I have six of them. Vacuum/boost, FP, tranny oil temp, engine oil temp, EGT and an O2. Four are located in individual cups in the middle, while I put the other two (EGT and O2) into pillar pods. The function of the different gauges can be find on the appropriate pages. They are Autometer Z-series 2 1/16" gauges in Autometer cups. The pillar pod is from Lotek, you can buy it from Rick at RKKustom. I still have to make a good picture here. * I also wanted to replace my stock pedals, but wanted to avoid the usual stuff which you can find at every petrol stations and so called speed shops. Finally I found a billet aluminum set at ebay for a full size chevy for quite a good price. With little fabrication and with the help of my father it went on.


You can also see my next addition to the interior on the above picture. It's the custom Syclone floor carpet also from Rick. * I tried to use the stock steering wheel for a while, but I couldn't used to it. It's like driving a bus. So I picked up a steering wheel from Momo and an adapter from Jet. The adapter is the same from every GM cars in the late 80's, early 90's, so you can specify it as a Vette adapter for example. Anyway the new wheel is a bit smaller (350 mm vs. 400 mm stock), so it brought a bit more direct steering too. I also like its look and feel very much.


* I also started to work to replace the stock stereo system. The truck came with the stock radio and speakers, but I guess it had other system over the time, because the map holders on the doors were replaced with some fabricated speaker holders. I put some appropriate speakers there, removed all the stock ones, put in some tweeters on the pillars and gonna fabricate a holder for to additional ones in the stock location in the back. All the speakers came from Rainbow. I also put in a amplifier from Rockford Fosgate which drives the large speakers in the doors. I also replaced the stock radio with a 1.5 DIN Pioneer P47-DH, which I got from ebay. Anyway this system has not been finished yet, but that's really not my primary focus. I'm not looking for audiophile sounds in the truck nor want to break my windows so that will be do for me.

Under hood

This is the place where most of my performance related mods have a good looking too. My chrome Powermaster alternator and Optima battery for example, but I could mention the quite nice pump from Aquamist too. There is an Autometer FP gauge under the hood, which looks good too.


The main thing here that I painted quite a few stuff to red. I don't know. You might like it, but I accept that it's a bit ricy again.


You can see on the picture the I also replaced the valve covers, the new ones came from Edelbrok (#4252) and I'm using a breather from K&N (#62-1120, have to check this!) for the PCV on the driver's side. You can see that I'm using red silicon vacuum lines from RS Akimoto (2x #51004). Since I made the above picture quite a few things changed again. Some pulleys from March started to migrate into my truck, as a chrome brake cylinder cover, as a few stainless steel heater hoses. I also removed the hood insulator and make the hood repainted in and out. Will take a picture soon. * I also want to clean up the engine bay as much as possible. I've removed the heater core lines and plugged them, the whole EGR system (EGR cover GM #10054880), the whole cruise control system and quite a few vacuum lines with the vacuum ball. The ABS is also on the list. * Anyway from the three above areas the engine bay is the most far from the look which I wanna get. So, stay tuned. *