1984 GMC K2500 Sierra Classic

[MattStrike]

It looks rusty, and it is, but there's still plenty of thickness to this metal. This is the upper portion of the inner rocker, most of the rust is from the outer rocker that is spot welded to the top of it. But the spot weld drill hole tells me that the metal is mostly salvageable:


Wire wheel, sanding wheel, and cutoff wheel to remove the metal that was too thin to be of use, then POR-15 what's left before riveting and welding in the new inner and outer rocker:


And all done on the passenger side:


Now I can start putting things back together. Starting with the cargo lamp switch, that broke when I tried to remove it:

[MattStrike]

Sound deadening stage 1:




Used the sound deadener stuff to seal off the 4x10 box area on both sides:




Dash speakers also got the sound deadener treatment:


The next layer goes in. The entire interior is covered with this stuff:


And yet another layer:


And, finally, the new MLV and jute backed carpet is in! I had to trim it, still need to put the holes for the seatbelts and the seat tracks, etc.... Not happy with the lack of the 4x4 shifter hole in this carpet, that was supposed to have it. There were a few other area's that needed trimming, but I guess, at the end of the day, this carpet fit better afer trimming than the original did, and is far higher quality.


The latest kick in the nuts: The 4x10 speakers don't fit the original brackets. If I had known that the speakers wouldn't fit, I would have gone with something better than a 4x10. But, I'm stuck with these Kenwood speakers and having to make a custom bracket from MDF to mount them to. But, not a huge problem.

I ended up snipping the tweeter wires off all 4 speakers, and all set to wire up directly to the monsoon amp. So all 8 channels on the amp will be in use.

[MattStrike]

Worked on the dashboard tonight.

Got the dash sanded and trimmed down after the repairs:


A layer of spacer foam to give the dash a soft feel


And all wrapped!


I still need to trim out the holes and put all the trimmings back on it, but otherwise it's all done

[MattStrike]

More interior goodies!


Working on the headliner next; had to do some minor repairs to the baseboard before I attempt to re-cover it. While I'm waiting on the fiberglass resin to harden (man, does that stuff stink!), I've got my work cut out for me to attempt to restore some other parts:




I do need to add the wiring harness for the mirror yet, and could probably finish wiring in the amp and head unit. Or grab the seat tracks from the parts car, or pop out the exhaust gaskets to find which one is leaking, or bleed the brakes again. We'll see what I feel like doing next!

[MattStrike]

Got some more stuff done tonight. The headliner repairs are done, just needs to be covered, once the stinky fiberglass resin sets up. Finished wiring up the 'courtesy' lamps that will be the LED strips under the seats, finished the wiring for the speaker LEDs that you don't know about yet, wired in the head unit, and made templates for the amp mount and speaker mounts. Got the wiring harness for the autodim/compass mirror done, and the stereo Bluetooth mic hardwired in.

[MattStrike]

Well, I had a busy weekend. It seems like I didn't make as much progress as I wanted, but then again there was a lot to do..

Those trim pieces that had shattered took several layers of epoxy to fix them; good thing I was planning to wrap them from the beginning:
















Crazy what 33 years will do to the color of the interior on a car:


After a bunch of work, I got the headliner and most of the trim installed (it was difficult to get a good picture, the camera flash messes with the colors):


Then once I got the amp wired up I moved on to the seats. The plan is to make a frame that I can bolt the seat tracks to. I wasn't about to tear up the original bench tracks to fit, and I'd need to get another set anyway. So I ended up cutting the tracks off their mounting brackets that came with the seats. Unfortunately, my grand plans to put the powered seat tracks in did not pan out, they were simply too tall.




I'm still debating if I should just weld the hacked up tracks directly to the frame I made. It would certainly make things a bit easier.

Other things I got done: Replaced the floppy hinge pins and bushings, re-hung the doors (will have to see how the drivers door lines up to the fender), finished wiring up the stereo and amp, re-installed the bottom of the dash, painted the kick panels as it doesn't make sense to wrap something that's going to be in contact with dirty shoes..

So next on the agenda is trying to find the matching seatbelt set from the GMT400. It looks like they will be a very close fit, if not 100% bolt on. The seat belts from the truck are a complete mess and not worth the hassle of trying to clean them up and the losing prospect of dyeing them to match; when GM already made a color matched set I can pull from a donor.

I bought 3 yards of the fabric to cover the interior, and I ran out before I could even get to the doors. I don't know how I could have done that, seems like when I measured it out before 3 should have done it. But it's not that expensive that I'm going to worry about it. I had to order more, so the door panels are coming off and staying off for a little while.

[MattStrike]

Don't you just love it when you have a good set of drill bits?


Taking the lazy way out, tacked the tracks directly to the frame:




The final test fitting:


I never noticed it before now, but the one drivers side seat track is messed up. It's sloppy and the sliding lever doesn't release the mechanism that locks it in place. I'm going to have to fix that, hoping to find a good one in the junkyard later today when I go back for the blue seat belts that match the seats.

[CMNTMXR57]

This is turning out awesome.

[MattStrike]

So I figured out why the seat track was feeling sloppy:







There's a three roller carriage inside the seat track. The primary roller that takes your weight, and two side rollers that hold the assembly tightly together. It would seem as if this seat saw a lot of action letting somebody into the back; the stamped steel flange that the side rollers ride on was bent up. I fixed it as best as I could, it's tight now, maybe a little too tight, but I don't expect that to be a problem.

I finished welding the seat tracks to the frame last night, but forgot to get a photo.

[haro1225]

I would imagine that the seats wouldn’t even need to be moved. Even with my height deficiency I can reach the pedals with the seat all the way back.

[MattStrike]

Was having trouble with the camera this weekend. Didn't get as much done as I would have liked, being thanksgiving weekend and all.

But, seats are mounted! Everything there seems to work well, I can slide the seats forward to access the area behind them, which helps while I'm working on these:


Test fitting the speaker mounts. i used a cardboard template to get them started, working on creating a fitted and finished look to them now.

Next up on the docket are seat belts. I broke four T50 torx bits trying to get the full set from the seat donor. I still need the passenger side, so I ordered one off ebay. But, the color is not the same, it's closer to the blue that was originally in the truck. So I have to find a torx bit that won't break and try again to get that one from the yard.

[MattStrike]

While I am slightly stalled on the interior, waiting on parts for my door panels, I figured I'd take a crack at my exhaust leak. While the fenders are still off seemed like the perfect time. Why? Because, well, I'll just let this picture do the talking....


I loosened the headers just enough to slide out my dead-soft copper gaskets that I'd made for this. The first one I pulled:




Guess that means I found the leak(s).

I had anticipated this, and earlier this fall I'd worked on a 3D printed solution to this little problem.

Now, I know what you're thinking, plastic won't work as a gasket. And you're right, but that's not what I printed. What I printed was this:


That's a press tool. 100% infill ABS. Guess what it does?




Now my copper gaskets have a somewhat rigid bead that will conform to the sealing surface of the headers. If this works like I hope, this is probably how I'm going to fix the exhaust leak on my SSEi. Next up is putting the front end back together and bleed the brakes again. Then I should probably finish the exhaust and trailer wiring harness.

So I figured out what happened on my faux suede order. I got shorted by 1 yard on the initial order (my fault for not checking). So when I ordered 2 more yards for the doors (wanting some extra in case) I once again was shorted by one yard. So I get to wait while they correct my order. In the mean time, I'll be putting my printer back to work on my replacement for the cracked and broken leather pockets on the door panels.

[MattStrike]

I spent my weekend getting stuff done on the truck. It's mostly back together now.





I took a short video of the turbo noises it makes when the engine overpowers the brakes; https://youtu.be/e_qQp8Y-Bmo.

Saturday when I went to start it to check for the exhaust leak I made two discoveries. First, when the alternators load up (charging a battery and turning the wheel) it was causing the belt to slip and squeal. Rather annoying; so I needed to figure out how to get more belt wrap around the crank pulley. So I figured something out, but I have to re-do the alternator wires away from the upper radiator hose to accomplish the new belt routing. The good news is it makes the tensioner even more effective. I went from a 81" belt to a 107" belt, and from 35% wrap around the crank to 70% wrap, which was enough to solve the slipping. Downside is in order to change the belt I have to disconnect the upper radiator hose.

The second discovery, is a have a whining noise coming from one of the alternators. It doesn't sound like bearing noise, and both have free-spinning pulleys, so I'll have to investigate that one a bit further.

And, the turbos are still leaking oil into the exhaust. So I'll be restricting the oil flow even further. Not a big deal, more of an annoyance than anything else.

But I'm pretty excited that the copper gaskets are sealing now. Should be interesting to see how they hold up to boost.

[MattStrike]

So my next adventure is going to be figuring out the wipers. Turns out the '86 car column might have a different switch than the '84 truck column, either in wiring or something else, or my wiper pulse module is dead. I'll try bypassing it tonight, which should give me high and low wipers only, to verify.

I also learned that the bed of my truck had turned into a catch-all. I knew I would need to sort out the aluminum from the ferrous scrap; was not expecting to find 4 55 gallon trash bags worth of just trash in there too. I know I never threw any trash back there, only scrap metal. Oh well, guess that's what happens when it sits for what, three years?

[MattStrike]

That pivotal moment in every project is when you get to take it down the road for the first time. That feeling almost never gets old!

https://youtu.be/ymQRnUUCXd8

The maiden voyage was taking in 2000lbs of scrap. The motor handled it very well actually. But the TCC on the other hand, that thing is stalled so high it's not good for driving on the street. Takes more throttle input than is needed to maintain speed, and it doesn't even rev up and down with the gears. Feels like poop right now, and I'm not sure I want to try a WOT pull with it like that.

The other big issue right now is the front end toe alignment is way off, so I didn't go past half throttle as it was all over the road. Looks like somehow the camber is also off. I have to look into that, as I don't remember seeing any adjustment for it when I was replacing all the ball joints and stuff.

It's also burning oil out the exhaust, massive plumes of it when I go to take off from a stop. I really need to get a PCV catch can and breather setup on here. I wonder where I can put it... lol. I have to look into the stock PCV and find out how it routes to block off any potential vacuum leaks. Maybe that's all it is at this point, but I'm still thinking the new turbo oil seals that were in the rebuild kits were wrong. So, I'll be getting new cartridges at some point. Also, the rear main seal is leaking, probably under boost, and something by the water pump blew some oil snot on the radiator hose, but I couldn't pinpoint the origin. So I know the crankcase is getting pressurized. I ended up having to make a simple oil deflector to keep the oil from slinging off the flexplate and onto the exhaust.

But, here it is, in all it's rusty glory, at the scrap yard doing truck stuff!

[MattStrike]

So the debate of the century... NP203 or find a '78-'79 Ford front high pinion and use the NP242?

The problem of course is that if you want a transfer case that locks in 4WD you're stuck with the NP203 and full time 4WD, or have to find a way to convert the front end to a drivers side drop to use the NP242 which is a part time transfer case that has the option of locking the differential when in 4WD.

NP203 is like $50-$100 all day, and *should* drop in. But any gas mileage I might have gained going EFI and V6 will be gone.

The 242 would have been the ideal situation if it had been a passenger side drop. But that would be yet another project...


But why? Of course, when it snows out here, and I can't push or pull another car in 4WD and different or better than in 2WD, because once one axle looses traction it gets ALL of the power....

*edit* Of course, all of the above assumes my auto-locking hubs are working... Because who wants to use manual lockers?

[95naSTA]

Grats on getting the truck out and moving under its own power.

[MattStrike]

Thanks!

So I've been doing my research again (forgot and lost a lot of information this summer, long story), seems like a lot of mis-information is out there about the way transfer cases work. As far as I can tell, the NP208 and most other GM truck transfer cases are locked part time units, so the front output is locked to the rear in 4WD. The confusion comes in with the NP203 and NP242, which have options for both locked and unlocked 4WD. I should know this, I have taken a 208 apart once before already.

So I guess I need to figure out if/which hub isn't locking. But that doesn't fix that the front axle is open. So I might weld it to lock it, then use one manual hub on the drivers side, only locking it when I'm off-road in mud or snow or ice or sand, etc. With the manual unlocked it would allow that wheel to free spin, similar to having an open diff. With the manual locked, the front end would be locked but I risk exploding it if I try to drive that way down pavement.

At least the rear gov-lock is still working!

[BonnieBoy08]

Catching up, this thing is awesome! Coming together very nicely.

[MattStrike]

Long-time-again update!

I haven't been driving this a whole lot, mostly due to not being a priority. That's going to change here now, I have been bequeathed a scrap vehicle that needs to get hauled to the yard, and I don't want to keep borrowing my brother's truck...

Current issues:
Starter motor seems to work only when it feels like it. New brushes and solenoid, still have to hit it with a hammer to get it to work.
Turbo's leak oil into the exhaust
Electric motor in the EPS is cutting in and out
Trailer harness needs to be re-done in the back half of the vehicle
Figure out which 4x4 hub isn't locking
Wipers not working

Unfinished:
Re-upholster the door panels
oil catch can
boost gauge not mounted
need to torque down the steering gearbox.
Axle-back exhuast


I ended up setting the toe adjustment at home and got the steering wheel mostly centered. So at least it will go straight down the roads again. But I ran into a somewhat interesting issue. It seems that the front axle on these trucks are set to have positive camber from the factory. It's enough that it's visible, and the reason I never noticed it before? Because the ball joints were so messed up it was basically sitting at zero. Not a real problem I need to fix, just really odd I guess.

I've got another starter motor here that I know works, I'm just going to swap it out. Plan is to wrap up the exhaust, figure out why the steering gear bolts are loose (locktite them), check the wiper motor wiring, finish the trailer harness wiring, clean out the EPS motor and check the brushes, get the catch can setup on the PCV, and check the hubs to see why they aren't locking. Should be a fun thanksgiving weekend, better than being out shopping!