the stopgap GMT400: a drivabeater thread

And thank you!

I bet the LED’s i had on my 90 would look awesome.  The stock tails just look blah now

Post details please. Im seriously torn 

Fresh from the alignment shop 

Just wanted you to know that this thread motivated me to finally install my new mirrors and lights on my c1500 today. 

Your truck is looking really good. You've done a great job on it so far.

Oh.  Snap.

Art just called me and has the bumpers and passenger's door ready to spray. He wants me to go ahead and prep the rest of the cab this weekend and drop it off with him next week for finishing.

I’m not one to normally like step side trucks, but your work is top notch! Can’t wait to see it in final form

Thanks!

Normally I hate a stepside, but this one does it for me.

200 miles today. I love this truck.

I also built the park brake cable adapter.  Apparently the replacement rear was from a different wheelbase truck, which meant that the cables are different and wont reach. Chunk of 1x1 square tube, couple scraps from notching angle iron, welder, unibit.

Bam.

In reply to Dusterbd13 :

The quality of your work, and the rate at which you do it, are astonishing to me.

Did that truck come with painted bumpers?  

I was thinking about painting mine and my neighbor the painter said the chrome has to come all the way before they can spray them. That true?

Angry: thanks! Thats a huge compliment!

Bruce: they had both chrome and painted. This truck was painted. To paint the cheome: dont. Buy cheap paintable ones on ebay.

The chrome does need to come off. Paint doesn't stick to chrome very well, and scuffing it enough to get adhesion can break through the chrome and cause flaking pretty easily. 

I've heard chrome shops will strip (reclaim) the chrome off a plated part for free or very little money but have yet to find an opportunity to verify it myself. 

Stripping it mechanically will burn through a lot of abrasives unless you go with an aggressive grit and use a skim coat of filler to hide the sanding/grinding marks. Considering the time involved, a 36 grit disc and body filler is the fastest way to go. 

I looked up the eBay bumpers and they're just under the $200 mark. Unless you have a lot of free time I don't think it's worth stripping one yourself unless you just want to do it for sport. Realistically, you'll probably spend more than $50 on abrasives alone before you're ready for paint, plus probably a whole weekend doing the prep work. All in you probably only save about $100 if you do it to typical automotive standards. 

The new sending unit and fuel pump that i did as preventive maintenance has been a mistake. The fuel pump died before the bed went back on. So i put the original back in on the new sending unit.  The sending unit did not fix the erratic behavior of the fuel gauge.  And then died completely tofay, in shuch a fashion that the gauge is stuck at 1/2 tank regardless of fuel level.

So i get to take the bed back off.

Yay.

Yeah, that's annoying. The good news though is that there aren't going to be any rusty fasteners to deal with.

In reply to ShawneeCreek :

Good point.  And i don't have to take the bed back off the whole way. Could probably pick up the driver's side far enough with the cherry picker.

The drivabeater: now with 400% more center caps and 100% less tire rub.

Are those the ones from the box?  Did you get different lug nuts to attach them?

Yes, caps and lug nuts from the box. Had my tire guy change the ztuds in the adapters while he was rolling the fenders. 

Awesome that was a good idea.

optical illusion or does the front wheel have positive camber? 

Good question.  Visually it appears positive in person as well.

Time to call the alignment shop.  Not happy with how it drives to be honest. Wonder what specs they used?

Just picked it up.  They used factory alignment specs, and put it dead in the center of the ranges listed on the printout. Wich means .5 POSITIVE camber, 4 degrees positive caster, and .2 degrees toe in.

This wont do, but since I didn't specify what specs to use I'll have to pay to have it aligned again.

When i get it completely reassembled, ill do my own like i should have in the first place. I hate dealing with eccentrics, and this truck is going to be tedious and time consuming to do, but then I'll know its done right.

Except for caster. I have no idea how to measure that short of "all i can get" with my digital angle finder and tape measure. 

Billet grilles, headlights, front bumper, bondo....

This picture has it all!