Mirror replacement is part of owning an old Chevy.
It's partially about what glue you use, more about the prep. Rough surface, cleaned with acetone or 91% alcohol. Yes, you can scratch the glass a bit.
My truck has had the mirror fall off, about 4 years ago. Repair is still holding. Too long to remember what glue I used.
Check to see if the center bed support is hitting the diff. Also, dies your truck have shock extenders?
Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:Mirror replacement is part of owning an old Chevy.
All of the mirrors I've had fall off have been on Chevys. I think roughing the glass a bit is a key piece of getting it to stick again.
Dusterbd13-michael said:Check to see if the center bed support is hitting the diff. Also, dies your truck have shock extenders?
I didn't notice shock extenders. I'll check on the diff if it isn't raining tomorrow.
I am going to have to roll the fenders a bit given the wheels and tires on there at the moment, but they're slowly self-clearancing.
Love this thread, somehow I missed it, I thought I had read all the GMT400 builds.
I've been looking for one just like this for about a year, they are really going up in price around here. I look forward to seeing what you do with it
In reply to Opti :
I will 100% sell you this one, LOL.
As an update, it is pouring down rain today. Nothing is going to happen for a bit.
In reply to Brett_Murphy (Forum Patrón) :
Where and how much?
I think I see shock extenders poking above the leaf spring here:
Shock extenders: without the shocks bottom out on a flip kit. That may be the entire problem there. Take them out and jump on the back bumper. Bet you have a whole lot of travel right up until the diff hits the bed brace.
Done this dance on three trucks now, and the solution is the same...
I'm obviously not parsing this. The mount points that the shocks are using on the axle appear to be stock
Are you saying I *need* shock extenders?
Yes. The shocks run out of travel and bottom internally. The extenders bolt on the axle side and lower the bolt point a few inches allowing full travel in the back. The next point of contact is the center bed support to differential. Usually cutting the middle six inches out solves that contact issue as well, allowing all the travel to be used in the rear suspension.
Opti said:In reply to Brett_Murphy (Forum Patrón) :
Where and how much?
North Carolina. As much as I can get.... 
Have a look under your truck.
Do the shock mounts kinda look like this?
If so, you already got 'em.
If you don't, either get them, or get shorter shocks.
I was driving the truck today, went over a railroad crossing and I'm pretty sure the tires rubbed at all four corners.
Yay?
Now that it is unloaded again, I'll take a gander under it and see what it looks like, though I'm fairly sure I need to replace or rebuild the suspension.
Doing so will probably bump this out of Challenge eligibility, if I'm reading the rules correctly. I'm also seriously starting to wonder if I want this truck, 'cause it's kind of cool, or if I want a truck that's better at truck things.
I stink at updating this or even doing much work on it lately, but other things around the property and at my job are vying for my attention.
The truck hauled a well used giant chair out of the house and to the dump this past weekend. I really enjoy having a truck around and not having to hook up the utility trailer anytime I want to move something large.
Additionally, the truck no longer smells like mouse pee most of the time. I'm going to take things apart again and spray some of the pet odor remover down in there.
I've found evidence of tire rub, so the question is do I get different wheels and/or tires OR, since I have to refresh the suspension, get an inch or two of clearance that way.
In addition to the floaty suspension, the steering is a bit erratic. I probably mentioned this before, but it is clear that some front end work is required.
All of this once again leads me to wonder: Do I want a truck (in general) or do I want this particular truck as a project?
I think you have a keeper in that an old chevy is about as cheap a truck to maintain as anything out there. And you can make it suit your needs.
I talked myself into GMT400s when I realized they are actually old. I really like 60s chevy trucks...but these late '80s-'90s trucks are becoming classics themselves. And, at least to me, they have all the modernity I can tolerate in a vehicle I want to maintain myself (A/C, disk brakes, some semblence of noise deadening, 3 point seat belts)
The wife and I drove 3 hours round trip in our '89 shortbed yesterday and it was darn pleasant. Stock ride height, 235/75/15 tires. It pulls a trailer without much fuss (her horse trailer or my car hauler).
Another option would be to trade your customized truck for something with more stock suspension and save yourself that work. But keep in mind that almost anything this age is due for a complete suspension rebuild.
On a whim, I listed this for sale today at a price that would net me a profit. If somebody offers me what I'm asking, I'll sell it, otherwise the work will continue.
After reading Duster's thread about the control arm geometry and 15" wheels on lowered trucks, it's apparent that if I get a flat I'm going to have a bad time.
If this sells at my asking price, it's gone. I the meantime, I've got to either find new wheels and tires or raise it up a bit.
I'll add "stuck front components" to the list of things I have to grab at the junkyard, right next to "An R134 AC system (complete)."
You should have stock control arms in the box i gave you.
The scrub line concern with 15s is due to MY combination of drop control arms and drop spindles. One or the other should be fine with 15s, but both require 18s+
If you want to fall back a bit and regroup, I can walk you through any suspension and steering issue you have with this truck. I worked in a cool dealership back in the day and we lowered a metric train load of these trucks. And I have lowered a metric dumptruck load of these trucks for myself personally.
You do have shock extenders. I can tell by looking at the picture you posted. Even with shock extenders on these trucks you still have to run shorter shocks. If you were bottoming out the axle there would be witness marks in the c notch where it was hitting. You may be bumping off the bed crossmember directly above the center pumpkin. Clearance as necessary. Most likely you've got some long shocks on there and the shocks are bottoming. Like some fellow said earlier in this thread, unbolt the bottoms of the shocks and bounce on the rear bumper. I bet you pick up suspension travel.
Your rear is lowered 6 inches. That's called a flip kit and c notch that you have. Your shackles are stock. If you'll make sure that you have short enough shocks and that your pumpkin isn't banging into the bed crossmember you will have enough suspension travel to haul anything a reasonable person would ever haul in a 1/2 ton truck. Been there and done that on a whole lot of trucks.
In the front if you have drop spindles you can still run 15 inch wheels You just have to trim the gutters on the lower control arms. No biggie. Literally less than 10 minutes and not complicated at all. Anything larger than 15 inch wheels do not require trimming but I always trim them regardless because someday the owner will need to install his 15 inch spare tire on the truck and he will be glad you thought ahead enough so he doesn't have any troubles.
You certainly need an idler arm. Get the Moog Problem Solver. It's about twice the size of the stock one and lasts much longer. These trucks tend to eat idlers until you Moog them. Then they just eat them slower.
I'll run and find a picture of the Moog in my old dead photobucket account.
I have more than 10k pictures held hostage at Photobucket but I can usually slide in there and download a few before they lock up on me.
Here's an 89 I did a few years ago. Full 4/6 drop. I worked it hard. No bottoming out issues with the flip kit and c notch.
Here is why Moog makes the idler arm you want to buy. Compare the mass of it to the stock one.
I believe that if you'll approach your suspension problems in a logical and methodical manner that you'll overcome them without the need for (blasphemy) raising the truck back up.
Thanks, guys. The suspension and steering components are next on the list, and I'll get some better photos of things and develop a plan of attack.
Duster, I still have those parts you gave me, so the first order of business might be bolting those up and seeing how it looks. I was under the mistaken impression that the control arms were still drop units.
Nope! Springs were though
So, I had a few minutes today after work and before supper to do something.
I decided to glue the rear view mirror button back on the windshield. I used some clear 2-part epoxy I had laying around. I cleaned the button and window with brake cleaner, hit them both with 220 sandpaper and stuck the button on. I'm hoping the epoxy is strong enough to hold the mirror when I put it back on tomorrow.
Since I was mixing epoxy, I went ahead and mixed some up to kind of stick the center console back together at the seams. It's currently getting clamped. I'll see how well it held up tomorrow. The downside of this is that whoever put it in seems to have used whatever screws they had laying around. They certainly didn't drill and tap holes. Fixing that is something I'm going to have to think about.
I was really hoping this would be two fast wins, but I've made more work for myself.
After continuous but slow progress to first get it roadworthy again, then make it "good," this truck was sold earlier today. We'd named it the Terrible Truck, because it wasn't that great at doing truck things, which is kind of what we need a truck for. We're probably going to get another truck, but it won't be as cool as this one was, because it was pretty dang cool.
In the ad below, working on the AC was going to involve converting it to R134, because it was still set up for R12. It was probably never going to happen...
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