I finally managed to find a truck in this crazy market and it's a damn nice "grandpa spec" 97 k1500 4wd.
The end goal is a work truck so there's a little bit of work to be done:
Replace the terrible tires
Remove canopy
Add lumber rack
Maybe some shocks?
Maybe look into the speed sensitive power steering?
Overall this thing is clllllleeeeaaan. It has 171k mile and you'd never believe it if I didn't tell you. It does have the 5.0 instead of the 5.7 but at least the Vortec 305 is the best of the 305s. There is a literally brand new a/c system installed. The shocks are.....ok, the bumpy dirt road kinda shows that the fronts are old and worn. The backs have coils on them for more load capacity and it makes the back end pretty stiff. I didn't want a canopy but hey......I got a canopy for winter now. There is some clear coat peeling but it's fairly small considering what a lot look like
As soon as the forum will let me, I'll post pics
Title was supposed to be " Antihero buys a Chevy, GMT400 content!" but apparently I screwed up lol
171 thousand miles and 24 years? Somewhere in the world tonight there's a retired GM upholstery supplier calling up his buddies, pointing to those pictures, and saying, "See? I told you we did good work."
Stealthtercel said:
171 thousand miles and 24 years? Somewhere in the world tonight there's a retired GM upholstery supplier calling up his buddies, pointing to those pictures, and saying, "See? I told you we did good work."
And he's right, I'm stunned by the interior
The GM cloth interiors of that era wore pretty well. The leather ones, however, were terrible. Mrs. VCH's mom-mobile is a '99 K2500 'Burb and the cloth seats look like those above, with 170k miles.
Driving it around for the last few days makes me think I'll be getting into the weird speed sensor for the steering sooner rather than later. It's heavier at highway speeds and that makes it a bit.....notchy if that makes sense.
16.3mpg mostly highway. I think I can improve on that with some synthetic and tires that aren't crap.
Anyone got some advice on dealing with peeling clear coat? The rest of the truck is so nice it's a shame that it has a little area with it. It can be a 20 footer sort of fix
Wow, good score. That’s clean.
Incidentally, if all 4 tires match, and they are those BFG A/T's, those are pretty decent tires. Provided they aren't bald or 15 years old.
16 mpg out of that seems about right. Our Suburban has never managed more than about 13, with a 5.7 vortec.
volvoclearinghouse said:
Incidentally, if all 4 tires match, and they are those BFG A/T's, those are pretty decent tires. Provided they aren't bald or 15 years old.
16 mpg out of that seems about right. Our Suburban has never managed more than about 13, with a 5.7 vortec.
The tires are basically both lol
Opti
Dork
9/3/21 9:03 p.m.
I have the same truck with a 5.7. I have slightly oversized tires with a corrected speedo and get high 16s.
Those interiors do wear like iron
I've heard lots of complaints about the steering but haven't experienced them. Mine drove a little funky because of bad front end parts and crap tires,, but after a few pro forged parts and new tires,I never notice the steering. I do chuckle at how ridiculously light it is at parking lot speeds.
That's a super clean truck. Congrats
A little progress on the truck, I now have tires that have tread AND are from this decade! Amazing!
Also took off the canopy and put on a rack, looks better this way anyway. I was thinking of selling the canopy since I'm not a fan but it'll come in handy sone day I'm sure.
The water behind it is because I found out that the bed is water tight after a huge storm lol
Some stuff popped up, the wipers seemed to jam once but after I lightly pushed them they've been fine. Motor getting weak maybe?
Stock stereo is a tape deck and makes weird noises when starting up like it's trying to read a non existent tape. It's a bit annoying and it could use an update there anyway.
New tires are currently getting me 17.8mpg too, haven't filled up without the canopy yet but I'm guessing less drag there.
The wiper circuit board in GMT 400 trucks are a known problem. Mine worked, but had an intermittent failure to start initially before it finally quit.
You can find a new replacement I think, but I just carefully inspected the board, found the spot with the short, and soldered it. It's been working fine for about 8 years since then. I did replace the motor and wiper transmission first.
Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:
The wiper circuit board in GMT 400 trucks are a known problem. Mine worked, but had an intermittent failure to start initially before it finally quit.
You can find a new replacement I think, but I just carefully inspected the board, found the spot with the short, and soldered it. It's been working fine for about 8 years since then. I did replace the motor and wiper transmission first.
That's good to know, thanks
New winter tires now, and man have tires gone up in price.
I like to go with a less aggressive tire for winter.....
JAdams
Reader
10/14/21 3:52 p.m.
GMT400s are the best! I'm super jealous!
Antihero (Forum Supporter) said:
New winter tires now, and man have tires gone up in price.
I like to go with a less aggressive tire for winter.....
I don't know if you noticed, but it looks like you have a few nails in those new tires. You should probably get those fixed...... 
(Says the Texan who's never seen a studded tire in real life)
-Rob
rob_lewis said:
Antihero (Forum Supporter) said:
New winter tires now, and man have tires gone up in price.
I like to go with a less aggressive tire for winter.....
I don't know if you noticed, but it looks like you have a few nails in those new tires. You should probably get those fixed......
(Says the Texan who's never seen a studded tire in real life)
-Rob
Lol
Studded tires are magical for what I drive
