Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) said:759NRNG (Forum Partidario) said:That dawg'll hunt......luuking guuud vato
Yes it will!
And that's a 2/4 on 15's right?.....sorry between you and Solfly I kant mumeber who's on watt.......Excellent stance Bro.....late ........sorry , do you miss the camino.....just wonderin'???
Correct. 2/4 on stock work truck wheels, 235/75/15 passenger car tires that suck.
Will be on 15×8 truck rally's shortly.
I do kinda miss the elky. It was a cool truck. However, the gmt400 platform does everything i need and want a truck to do far better than the elky ever could have.
Im digging the truck rally's!
nice
what did you end up with for a tire size?
The 235/75/15the truck came with.
Im going to run this setup for a minute to make sure i dig it fully before committing to a new set of tires in 255/70/15. My tire guy can get federal couragia truck tires in ghat size for $91 each.
Budget first:
previously: 2544.49
new money:
sem quart: 102
headliner/visors refresh: 115
3 rolls peel and seal: 53.04
reflectix 48x25ft: 40.69
locktite spray adhesive 9.98
outside temp sensor: 5.41
front brake hoses: 31.08
usb outlet: 7.99
2 cans duplicolor wheel paint (silver and clear) 15.98
4 gmc center caps and nuts:15.28
tire mount and balance: 40
alignment and ac charge: 110
window latch: 43
park brake release cable: 10.87
total to date: 3144.81
when we left off, it was on stock scruffy wheels, lowered 3 inches in the back, freshly panted, and needing a good interior cleaning and finishing of the suspension and brakes.
So, I did that.
First-ish was the suspension finishing. When I did the rear suspension, the belltech directions had the shims going one way in writing, and the other in pictures. I picked the wrong one initially. So I swapped it around, and the vibrations went away! I also set the back end to 4 inches, as the three wound up looking like too much rake with the drop spindles.
Speaking of drop spindles, I went after them. When I pulled the old, I realized that the upper ball joints were garbage. So I cleaned and painted the uppers that came with the drop spindles. I also installed the new lowers I had bought from rockauto a while ago. Cleaned and spray bombed the LCA, spring, frame, and wheelwells after popping out the knockouts for alignment. Turned out pretty OK!
20201119_124855 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
while I was in there, I pulled the new calipers that came in the parts pile out pf their boxes, cleaned them, painted them red, grabbed some new hoses cause the ones on this truck were scary, and got it all put together. No pictures of painted or installed calipers....
20201119_113941 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20201119_114538 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
since were on the topic of suspension, ill talk about wheels. I had purchased a set of 15x8 truck rallys with the stock center caps from my friend patrick. I cleaned and shot the two he had primed, and wasnt really happy with them. So, I figured some hand sanding was in order. I took the worse of the two I had spray bombed, some 150 grit, and went to work. When it felt smoothish, I grabbed the can of duplicolor silver and the wheel clear and shot it. Sanded with 150 on the left, unsanded on the right.
20201119_162218 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20201119_162232 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
this reinforced the lesson I have apparently failed to learn, which is that everything needs sanded between coats. Regardless. I sanded the two unblasted wheels, 80 grit on rusty parts then 150 overall. Then I test fit to make sure the color was close
20201116_080334 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
the stock caps were killing it for me. The fit, color, and style was dead on, but those caps....
when I bought the truck, it came with 3 plastic chrome center caps, and no plastic lug nuts. I test fit one, and liked it. So on the next pullapart run, I went hunting a fourth and some plastic caps. As luck would have it, I came across a full set on a 98 sierra. Bought them all! Had my tire guy swap the existing craptastic 235/75/15 on the wheels and bolted them on.
20201201_091936 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20201202_171222 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
absolutely nailed the look I had in my head. The visual package will be further refined with window tint, a 4x4 air dam, mud flaps like on my red truck, and a tonneau cover. Also, a set of 255/70/15 tires. That added rubber should really visually beef up the wheels and truck.
To finish us out for this update, I did an interior overhaul. What happened was that I figured out the passengers side seat has a two stage slider to allow rear seat access. Mine only had one stage working. So I went to adjust the cable, and stuck to the seat. There was so much tar and nicotine and filth buildup that there were actually filth stalagmites off the bottom. So I pulled it. And found the carpet not much better....
20201116_151839 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20201116_151846 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
so it all came out and got pressure washed. Except the headliner. I took that to the local upholstery shop.
20201120_101037 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
while it was out, I did peel and seal and radiant barrier over the roof, floors, rear cab wall, ans extended cab panels.
20201120_095902 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20201120_112623 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
I couldn't bring myself to put the plastics in all different shades due to fading over the years. I had rousers in Salisbury mix me up a close match to the factory tan, and sell me a quart. Loaded into my 4oz harbor freight detail gun, cleaned and prepped all the plastics, and dyed them.
20201121_075012 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20201121_162341 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
we did the dash too, as well as the door panels. All of it. I added a usb charge port to the ash tray assembly to make things simpler. Done this in almost all my cars, and it requires a little bore job on the factory hole to clear.
20201124_093430 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
to finish off the “well, hell, im here.....” work, I did the stereo. The mtx sub and box was purchased from the junkyard, the mtx amp and random 4x10 speakers were bought from a fellow GRM guy who was cleaning out his garage. I built a couple simple brackets to mount the amp on the back cab wall, put the rear speakers in, hooked up the amp, swapped in the kenwood from my autocross car, and generally made the stereo kick ass in this thing. I really want a downfire under seat box, and im pretty sure my wife is getting me that and a trailer brake controller for Christmas
20201121_141036 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20201121_152841 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20201121_141043 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20201121_145541 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
so this is generally what it looks like reassembled! Pretty happy with it overall. Been driving it quite a bit since I got all this done. Its comfortable, quiet, and pleasant. Everything my truck should be.
20201124_160525 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20201124_160532 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20201124_160704 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20201124_160724 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20201202_171222 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Looking pretty good. What's the overhead console out of?
In reply to pres589 (djronnebaum) :
Olds bravada! Seemed like a neat option in pullapart.
What did you end up using on the window?
In reply to Justjim75 :
Nothing yet. Last week has been nuts.
You mention a product you used on you interior plastics. You said it was some kind of dye? I have a similar issue with the plastics in my truck and am looking for a solution. Where do you get this and what would I ask for? I follow all your builds and I always looks forward to your posts. Great work!!
Yessir!
Its sem interior dye. Available in rattle cans or in a quart. Generally available from the local body shop supply, though i have bought rattle cans on Amazon.
Specifically i use sem color coat. This was a custom color for this particular truck, not selected off a chart.
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :
So if you remove all of the plastics you want to change, you can prep and "paint" them any color you want? How is the longevity? I can be pretty rough on the rear cargo area of a wagon/hatch/SUV. Is it something where its better to stay close to the original color?
In reply to Justjim75 :
Yes-ish. Theres some plastics and interior materials that don't play nice. But generally, you can do any part of the interior with varying degrees of success. Ive never had much luck with fabric or carpet.
And, it holds up to normal use really well in my experience. However, i generally try to stay with the same color, just different shades. Scratches wouldn't be nearly as noticeable in my experience due to this.
Entropyman said:You mention a product you used on you interior plastics. You said it was some kind of dye? I have a similar issue with the plastics in my truck and am looking for a solution. Where do you get this and what would I ask for? I follow all your builds and I always looks forward to your posts. Great work!!
Most factory plastic parts which arent black are dyed in the same manner. SEM is supplier to many of the OEMs and if the prep is done right its holds up very well. Added bonus, once you have an SEM code you can always touch it up later.
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :
Thanks!
way better.
But does it need a pinstripe now?
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :
Pink and teal heartbeat pinstripes for the rad!
I was thinking a silver stripe about 3/8 thick down the bottom of the bodyline under the mirrors....
With a little red bowtie outline at the taillight end.....
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :
Pink and teal heartbeat pinstripes for the rad!
Got a link? I cant find them available anywhere.....
Callback to Heartbeat of America on the pin stripes?
Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) said:I was thinking a silver stripe about 3/8 thick down the bottom of the bodyline under the mirrors....
With a little red bowtie outline at the taillight end.....
Why not in the body line.......yur truk......jus axin
Did not find good pic of pinstripe but every pro streeter had them in one size or another back in the day.
but I did find *this*:
The crease of the body like that rund right below the mirrors and side windows, the bottom half of the crease in silver was what inwas thinking.
Prior to heartbeat throwback pinstripes.
Now, i don't know.....
He's right, this is what you need.
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