Again, some of this information may be out of sequence or seen previously in a different thread, but I’m working to get everything posted in one place.
One of the joys of driving a vintage vehicle is the risk of damage. The original windshield survived 38 years with nothing more than a few chips. The replacement windshield installed during the paint job lasted only six years when it got whacked with a huge rock. Broken windshields are very common with winter driving in North Idaho. This one wasn’t getting fixed with a good polishing or chip repair.
Quite a few additional changes occurred in 2007. After several modifications over the years, what was left of the exhaust system installed in 1991 was getting pretty tired. About this time I also realized the original rear torsion bar crossmember was completely unnecessary.
Here’s a before picture with the crossmember in place as viewed from the rear:
And here's the same area viewed from the front after the crossmember was removed. This allowed for much cleaner routing of the new pipes.
As can be seen, the old pipes looked pathetic:
So the truck made a trip over to Discount Muffler in Spokane for a new custom exhaust. They do a great deal of high end custom work (well beyond my budget), but the workmanship on my new system was beautiful. A great deal of effort was invested making sure everything came out square, level, and parallel. It’s the nicest custom exhaust system I’ve ever owned:
