1984 GMC K2500 Sierra Classic

[MattStrike]

It runs! too bad Imgur only allows 30s of video...

[bs009]

Youtube is always the best place to upload videos

[MattStrike]

In lieu of a video, I give you this:


Loaded with a ton of scrap already, need to shuffle some things around and load it up some more. Lots of scrap that needs to go to help offset the cost of this project

[MattStrike]

Making progress, however slowly.

Truck is almost road ready. Just a short list of things to do before I put it back to work!
-Bleed the brakes
-Finish exhaust tail pipes
-Tires
-Tune

Of course the list of other things I want to get done is a lot bigger...
-Boost gauge pod install
-Finish installing misc fender trim
-Shim and bolt down DS fender
-Washer pump wiring
-Trailer harness wiring
-3D print EPS knob
-New seats (more on that soon!)
-Turbos still smoke a little
-O2 sensors don't appear to be responding, stays in open loop.

I think the TCC stall is a little too high. I'd have to find my paperwork though, not sure what we ended up at, I think it was over 3000rpm stall? I think I recall wanting something around 2300 to start out with, but the shop I talked to convinced me to go higher.

[MattStrike]

Some slow progress pictures time!

Started out working on the horn button. The darn thing never worked for as long as I've had it. So I had to rebuild it, finally putting that 3d printed piece to use:


It still only works half of the time. I have to take it apart again to figure out why it's only making intermittent connection. But half working is still better than not at all I guess?

But on to the next part of this saga. The interior smells something aweful, the floor is trashed, the seats are trashed, the dash is trashed... So I'll be replacing the carpet this weekend, as well as replacing the bench seat with a 60/40 GMT400 seat. I pulled them from a junkyard, completely stripped them down as far as I could, and cleaned the seat foam and covers to remove any mildew from sitting in the junkyard.

Then, I got this silly idea:


Yep, heated seat pads! I'm going to try to fit the power seat rails from my '86 LeSabre on them as well. Also, interesting to note that the seats have an air bladder lumbar adjustment, which is nice.

I didn't have any hog rings or tools for them, so I zip tied the covers back on:


And I still need to go over them one more time with the carpet cleaner, the center armrest didn't fit in the washer, but otherwise they are odor-free and clean of all the mildew and other itchy crap you always get from a junkyard:

[bs009]

Zip ties seem to be the go-to method for reinstalling the covers. I'm sure I'll be doing the same on the Regal this week.

[MattStrike]

I thought I'd rip out the interior tonight. Ended up breaking three seat/seatbelt bolts. Minor details, I suppose.

I decided I can't stand the smell of mold and or mildew or whatever it is. So everything came out. Seat, carpet, the 1984 brittle AF equivalent of MLV, and the waterlogged jute insulation. Replacement carpet is on the way, the one in the truck (photos coming soon I think) is just too far gone. New carpet is MLV backed, the original was not. Planning to go with the usual 1/2" foam carpet underlay with the 1/4" jute underlay (marketed at lowes/HD for use with wood flooring) that I have tons of left over.

I was planning to have this done this week, or last week, not sure. But I've decided to replace the dash pad and all of the rotted metal on the rocker panels instead of getting a replacement cab from down south. So that means the moldy paper speakers need to go. I have a Monsoon amplifier just lying around, so *fook* it, the replacement speakers I have are going to get the Monsoon treatment along with an aftermarket JVC head unit. I've got a pair of Infinity 3032 speakers for the dash, and Kenwood 415C for the rears, planning on snipping the wires for the tweeters to hook them up directly to the amp. My only concern is that the Monsoon amp might not like the Kenwood 4 ohm speakers, but if my '86 LeSabre 10 speaker infinity setup taught me anything, which it didn't, then I guess I'll just have to deal with it.

[MattStrike]

As promised, pictures!

This is as clean is this interior can get:


Just look at how 33 years of abuse has turned the carpet from blue to yuck:


And all the moldy stinky parts are gone!


Doing some more research, apparently 'better than OEM' thickness replacement patch panels are a thing.
Weld-in replacement outer rocker panel: $25
inner rocker panel: $9.75
floor panels: $30

So $135 to replace the majority of the rust. I guess that's not too bad at all. I might just get to hacking and slashing again!

[haro1225]

I’d have never guessed that would have been the original carpet color in a million years.

[MattStrike]

I got my order in for weld-in replacement panels.

I was looking for a way to make my own bead-rolled gaskets for things like turbo flanges or exhaust manifolds. Rather than pay money to do this, I'm going to try to 3D print a press tool, then load it up into my press, and put an annealed copper "gasket" in it and see if I can get it to press a bead into it. If that doesn't work, I'm just going to bend up a few pieces of welding rod and use those in the press with a 3D printed alignment fixture.

I'll be trying another approach on this truck for sound deadening. Going to start with what I know works well, the tiles. Decided to get the noico 80 mil stuff this time; for budget reasons. Depending how far that goes, I'll be shooting for 50% coverage.

Next will be two layers of insulation. First i'm looking at a 3mm polyethylene foam ($17 for 100sq ft) that will go directly over the noico and bare metal. Next layer I'm looking at something made from recycled tires, 1/8" thick, ($60 for 100 sq ft). The new carpet came molded with jute and MLV backing already, so between air gap and three decoupled layers, the floor should be really quiet.

[00Beast]

Mmmm, sounds nice. Should make it more comfy in the summer and winter too. I have a really hard time deciding if I want to keep the rubber floors in my 67 C10, or if I wanna go sound deadener and carpet....

[MattStrike]

After some hard looking at the budget for this 'fix the cab' portion of the build, I've decided to re-finish the dashboard and headliner instead of replacing them.

The door carpet inserts are getting replaced with stuff to match the new carpet. That was the easy part. The dash is very contoured, the soft vinyl cover is cracked, dried out, and the speaker openings are all trashed. In order to fix it, it needs a new cover. There's no way to heal the cracks. So I'll have to find a way to re-oil and seal it so it doesn't get worse, then fill in the cracks, and re-cover. It's been done, a little time consuming. But finding a material with enough stretch to contour to the dash without wrinkles? Enter the 10% spandex 90% polyester faux suede! Had to go online to find it in the 'right' color. Planning to wrap the dash, replace the headliner, wrap the visors, and wrap the faded door trim. If there's enough left over I might wrap all of the metal on the dash as well, we'll see.

For the moment, I'm trying to find a yard of the material that is used on the seats I pulled for this. I want to replace the upper inserts on the door with the same material, so that it looks cohesive. Another thing I need to figure out how to fix are the leather pockets in the doors. They have gotten stiff, and they might even be faux leather. I'll need to replace the stretchy thing that holds them shut as well as cleaning and reconditioning them.

[MattStrike]

Today I started getting the truck ready for the cab rust delete. That meant a lot of stuff had to come off... I stripped the interior, pulled the doors off, removed the fenders (again), and dropped the fuel tanks out of the way.





I've also got a huge pile of interior refurbishment that's going to happen. Nearly everything; the dash, headliner, plastic trim, doors, are going to get covered with this faux suede (and a layer of interior foam spacer):


Carpet matched accessories!




And a fancy new rear-view mirror:


And the best speakers in the world!

[MattStrike]

Got a lot done today. I'm not entirely happy with the LMC patch panels. The floor pans I wanted were not in stock, so I had to pick something that was. But, hell, it's far better than nothing at all.

Getting ready to make some cuts. I upgraded from the standard cutoff wheels that last all of 5 minutes, to a diamond blade meant for cutting metal.


Get that rust gone!






Yeah, that's the fancy cable shifter in action:


The astute among you will note that there were a lot of wires and stuff under the floor where I was cutting. I managed to not cut any of them, guess that means I've done this too many times..

My current favorite new invention - the spot weld cutter!


And the new metal mostly tacked in and ready to go!


It took a lot longer than I'd anticipated to cut out and actually remove the floor pan, the rust was hiding all the spot welds. Then when I did the whole side of the cab sagged a bit. So I had to support it with the jack (I mean, holy cow, as rusty as it was, it was still structural somehow). I used a sanding wheel on my angle grinder to clean up the frame and floor supports, then POR15 on them. So they should be good to go for a long time. I plan to rivet the floor pan panel to the supports between where the original spot welds were instead of trying to weld the new metal in. Anything visible is going to get 100% welded in, ground down, and filled to look good. I'm thinking at this point though I'm not going to replace the floor pan on the passenger side, only the rocker.

And you can see what I mean about the LMC metal - it doesn't exactly fill the whole gap in the rust. There are a few other vendors that have proper panels that will, but they were out of stock and I wasn't about to wait to get this done. It just means I get to spend that much more time fitting and fabricating metal to fill the gap from scratch.

[CMNTMXR57]

You have MORE patience than I would...

[MattStrike]

Today's update brought to you by: This *fook*:


Making some decent headway, almost have the drivers side finished. I did drill a hole in my finger accidentally, that felt super amazing. Some areas are welded, others riveted, and every joint will get the polyurethane roofing adhesive to seal gaps and stuff.


Also started on the dash repair. Using Polyurethane roofing stuff again, because if it can hold up to roofing, it can certainly seal in and protect what's left from UV. Being conservative with the filling, might take a few applications before I have it completely sealed and smooth and ready for the faux suede.

[CMNTMXR57]

How'd you manage to bend a drill bit like that? You'd think it'd break first.

[MattStrike]

I've never bent a drill bit before, and this was a name brand (DeWalt) titanium bit. I broke and or bent four of them in a matter of two hours. Then I went to harbor freight, bought the 8-pack of 1/8" titanium bits, because if they aren't going to go dull before I bend or break them then what's the difference? The first one out of the pack has drilled about 50 rivet holes before it got me last night.

On related topic, I used that same drill bit to drill almost 1/2" though a seat belt bolt that had broken off, and it's still sharp. I've never had a drill bit last that long before. That's the same drill bit that put a hole in my finger too. It's my lucky drill bit now, it's so unstoppable...

[MattStrike]

This episode is brought to you by:

*fook* this!


I fought with this seat belt bolt all night. Normally, when a bolt head snaps off, one hit with the welder and a pipe wrench or vice grip is all it takes to bust it loose. But not this time. We went something like 13 rounds of welding, wrenching, a slight creak as it turns about 1/32 of a turn, then the weld snaps off. I ended up having to drill it hollow up to the point of risking the threads in the body before it came out..








So many iterations before it finally gave in:


But the drivers side is done now! I'm back on track for my usual progress updates where I actually get *shoot* done!


Also, the next step on the dash repair:

[MattStrike]

I managed to finally get the rocker panel off the passenger side. It was actually mostly intact, as far as a rusted out panel goes, I had to drill out more than 30 spot welds, most of which were in the rust, to get it out clean. Literally, spot welds on that thing every inch or so. But the good news, is that aside from the inner rocker panel, the metal is in far better shape than it was on the drivers side. The floor pan (turned into a rust dust bomb when I hit it with the 50 grit angle grinder flap wheel) was all surface rust except for just a few small spots near the spot welds, and the floor supports are still clean.

I've decided to wait to do anything with the cab corners until I decide how I'm going to fix the bed for now. So plenty of black spray paint is going to hide that eyesore until I can fix it right. The bed has to come off to weld in the new cab corners, and I'm not doing that this time around.