the stopgap GMT400: a drivabeater thread

so i figure ill partake in the time honored tradition of starting the build thread before getting the vehicle home. or in this case, paid for!

due to an unfortunate incident, drivabeater 2.0 has left the hallowed grounds of my property. insurance and lawyars are still involved, so not much to say about that at this point other than im freaking pissed. 

20180126_214146 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

im a guy that needs a truck. for me, a minivan or trailer just arent good options. 

around here, trucks are apparently worth their weight in uranium. for 300k+ examples that are beat to death. also, 2wd is apparently a dirty word, as all the trucks in the price range of "one payment plan from the gun safe" are 4wd. 

Jeremy (Pimpm3) got a new truck. his new truck is awesome, and im jealous. his old truck was a 1995 silverado 2wd stepside. y'all may remember it from the parking lot build/challenge. it was bought at auction, wrecked. he put a door, cab corner, and bed on it, slammed the ever living berkeley out of it in the hotel parking lot, and plastidipped it. apparently it had an axle replaced as well, and some brake work. (if anyone, including jeremy, remember more, please add! im anal about records on stuff). after the challenge, he raised the back end a little, aligned it, had the ABS system bled, and threw a set of camaro wheels on it. 

this is what it looked like pre-challenge. 

g4bnS5P by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

lhp9kTh by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

JT7qgoZ by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

kNelFhc by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

the bed he picked up:

POblyD8 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

and what it looks like now. these are the pictures hes sent me. i honestly don't remember seeing this thing in person, even though im pretty sure i tried to help solve the brake issues in the parking lot. 

20180202_154724_1517604990562 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20180202_154715_1517604990847 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20180202_154708_1517604990977 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20180202_154654_1517604991354 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20180202_154702_1517604991155 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

now normally, in a drivabeater thread i keep a running tally of every penny spent om the vehicle. this time, without jeremys permission, im only going to document what i spend on the vehicle post purchase. as far as purchase price, i feel i got a pretty damn good deal. 

i have spent a little money before actually buying the truck. 

i spent 20 on the GMC grille and filler panel behind the bumper. 

20180205_074841 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

and another 15.99 on ebay for a stereo install kit (not pictured)

ive already setup an old JVC head unit i had laying around for the drive home. need USB capabilities for that many miles of poor radio reception. Jeremy said the factory radio works, but 95 has a whole lot of static instead of radio stations. 

so, at this point the plan is that my brother is heading to Gainesville this weekend. he leaves Friday morning at 6:30. im throwing some gear in the bed of his truck, and hes dropping me off in Jacksonville on his way through. should be there about 1 or so. sign the paperwork, hand over some money, check fluids, and hit it back to north Carolina. hopefully its that simple, and im bringing some spares and tools to ensure that that stuff will be the parts that wont break. 

eventual goal if i keep it long term:

1321003901252_57_8_copyImage_1517437369122 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

I've built literally about a dozen of those trucks. Every single one of them I did a 4/6 drop. They are 100% bombproof daily drivers and still fully truck..able for hauling stuff.

Every time I'm in that parking lot I do a drive thru just to see Challenge history past, present, and future. Sometimes I play what is pimpm3 hiding here that he hasn't told me is his?

im concerned about having enough space in the regular cab for me and my crap. i also hate the stepside with a passion. i am, however, trying to convince myself that a tep shaver and roll pan will make it awesome enough to keep. but for the same money, i can buy a fleetside. and then caddy tails....

i used to have an 89 extended cab long bed with a v6 and 5 speed as a company truck/daily. it was a good truck, but just too damned long. 

http://www.gmfullsize.com/threads/project-living-room-obs-eclb.218935/

sold it to buy and build the el camino. so i guess im coming full circle. 

ive never had a 4l60e. anything to know about them?

also, since i had thought i was done with tuning obd1 gm stuff (sold all my gear to do so to stampie!), and the dynamic ebl i never got around to installing in the el camino wont run the 4l60e, im not sure what to do about engine management. i mean sure, i could leave it the hell alone. that would be simplest and cheapest. but i know that theres lots left on the table (at least with earlier stuff) with power and MPG in the factory tune. so im debating either picking up a canned tune, or trying to adapt my apexi S-AFC to it. that would at least let me lean it out a bit at cruise. except that theres NO information out there for an early S-AFC and TBI. pretty sure id be the first....

general plans are real paint, billet wheels, ultimate TBI mods, long tubes, 3 inch exhaust/high flow cat and y-pipe, radio, and tint. probably a set of air bags in the back for added capacity. 

however, thats only if i find that the regular cab is suitable for my life. and my family. and that i like driving it. 

been a long time since ive been in a GMT400.....

glad to see this thing getting some extra life... and glad to see it's ending up in someone's hands that can focus in on an alternate vision of it.  Look forward to seeing how this turns out.

If you have any trouble down this way, let me know and I'll help best I can.

Truck, Trailer, tire machine, are all at the ready...

I'll email your dad (I don't think I have your email) my phone # just in case you need it.

I'm between Jax and Gville, but any port in a storm right?

Good luck!

Kevin 

I did about 7 minutes of work on that in the parking lot. I think my biggest contribution was to wiggle out a bolt that they were going to cut. It seemed solid. It was also disgusting enough under the hood that I didn't dare start cleaning. Best of luck.

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

I have superclean and a wire brush.  We can clean it.

Generally speaking thats my first step in any project. A small block chevy just requires more than anything japanese. 

You know how a small block chevy is out of oil? It stops leaking. 

In reply to a_florida_man :

You the man.

My email address is my screenname at hotmail 

Dusterbd13 said:

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

I have superclean and a wire brush.  We can clean it.

 

Generally speaking thats my first step in any project. A small block chevy just requires more than anything japanese. 

You know how a small block chevy is out of oil? It stops leaking. 

I've owned countless vehicles with SBC's. Not one, not a single one, leaks or seeps at all. It's all about workmanship and using the right gaskets and seals. FelPro and proper techniques keep the garage floor spotless.

I really like these later GMT400's.  The interior and gauge cluster, etc is so much more non-weird than the earlier ones with the roughly 4,000 buttons on the dash and odd sized radio with the cassette and sometimes graphic equalizer (seen that once) in the center of the dash.  Family had an '88 2wd, long bed, standard cab for a long time.  Would be a fun project to own one today.  

Those 5th gen Camaro wheels, aren't those a slightly wrong flavor of bolt pattern?  Not trying to start a debate about how safe/not safe they are, just... noting it.

Cousin_Eddie said:

Dusterbd13 said:

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

I have superclean and a wire brush.  We can clean it.

 

Generally speaking thats my first step in any project. A small block chevy just requires more than anything japanese. 

You know how a small block chevy is out of oil? It stops leaking. 

I've owned countless vehicles with SBC's. Not one, not a single one, leaks or seeps at all. It's all about workmanship and using the right gaskets and seals. FelPro and proper techniques keep the garage floor spotless.

The only sbc ive ever owned that didn't leak or seep was the 91 tbi engine in my el Camino.  I had done all new gaskets (fel pro i think) throughout the entire thing before installing it. That's also the only centerbolt valvecover/1 piece rear mai. Block ive ever had.

Of the 9 sbcs ive owned. It was probably the only one done completely and at one time by me. The others were fixing leaks just to find the next one, but those were all cheap cork gaskets in gravel parking lot jobs.

As a mopar guy that prefers chevy trucks, please dont take offense. None was intended.  Just being a smart ass.

In reply to pres589 :

Yes. Pretty sure that there are adaptors behind them.

Hopefully ill be able to throw a set of centerline billet wheels on it. Also with adaptors. (Trying to negotiate buyback on the elky so i can keep my wheels and steering wheel)

Dusterbd13 said:

Cousin_Eddie said:

Dusterbd13 said:

As a mopar guy that prefers chevy trucks, please dont take offense. None was intended.  Just being a smart ass.

Not at all.

Good luck on your new ride, and safe trip.   The interior space on the pickup allows you stuff more in vertically vs the El Camino.  The 4l60e is an ok transmission, as long as it is maintained.  Check it for leaks, especially around the cooler lines.  Ask me how I know.   I went with Dex 6 after the rebuild, and used Ac Delco filter.  Also, put the largest trans filter you can fit,  they like to be cool.   Other than that these trucks are pretty reliable, just basic SBC maintainence.

Looking forward to watching the progress on this. I've got plans to improve my 90 c1500 RCLB this summer.

Pimpm3 made references to the challenge work having "ruined" the truck; what happened and how are you going to fix it?

Following with interest!

dculberson said:

Pimpm3 made references to the ichallenge work having "ruined" the truck; what happened and how are you going to fix it?

The drop work done in the parking lot resulted in a a truck that bottomed out easily. Ruined meant that it now had a payload capacity of about zero.

Since. . "after the challenge, he raised the back end a little, aligned it" 

First pic is of the truck as it arrived at the hotel. Notice that the bed still is carrying payload. 

The busted and misaligned red front bumper was swapped out for a better condition chrome version. 

dculberson said:

Pimpm3 made references to the challenge work having "ruined" the truck; what happened and how are you going to fix it?

How did I ruin the truck?  I guess it is all a matter of perspective.  I started out with a fully functioning pickup truck, and turned it into something that was not.

I used the truck to tow the free probe to the event, which it did admirably.  It had a full load of gear and tools in the bed.  The trip home however was awful due in no small part to the modifications subjected to the truck two days prior.

The biggest issue was probably the brakes.  We removed the front calipers when installing the drop spindles.  After we re-installed them we could not for the life of us get them to properly bleed.  Blame it on the mid 90's GM abs, our lack of a scan tool capable of actuating the pump or my ineptitude, any way you look at it the brakes were less than confidence inspiring.

We lowered it to much.  The damn thing bottomed out on everything.

The corvette wheels were completely the wrong size and offset and rubbed at anything greater than half lock in either direction.  Autocrossing it and driving it home were an exercise in not scraping the rims to pieces.

The alignment sucked.  Apparently aligning an overly low truck with the wrong wheels in the parking lot is a bad idea.

Fortunately for Mike I have spent the time since the challenge un-ruining the truck.

A new brake master cylinder, a thorough bleeding, and the proper scan tool fixed the brakes.  They work great now.

A little grinding on a bracket attached to the rear axle that was barely catching the c notch, plus a set of 2 inch lift shackles fixed the sagging rear end.

I had it professionally aligned at an actual shop.

I banished the corvette wheels to the dark corner of my garage. The camaro wheels don't rub at all and the thick sidewalls ride much better.

It actually drives great now and it has solid bones for Mike to build the driveabeater 3.0 out of.

It's up to him to undo my poor decision regarding plastidip but that's another story 

In reply to pimpm3 :

Did you guys do any rotor/drums/pads/shoes?

Also, ive discovered that apparently when going over 6 inch drop in the rear that the center of the differential hits a bed support. Dunno if that contributed or not.

John welsh: thanks for pictures! Ive tried searching for the build thread from the parking lot, but haven't seen it.

Dirtydog: will be swapping fluid/filter and adding the biggest cooler i can fit when i get it home. Im actually going to change every fluid but brake, since jeremy did that one pretty thoroughly. 

In reply to pimpm3 :

Did you have a shop bleed the brakes, or is the correct scan tool available for the rest of us?

The shop bled it when they did the alignment.  

The oil was changed prior to the challenge.   Brake pads on front are new hawks.

Yes it was hitting the bed support. It not hitting anymore thanks to the lift shackles.

New hawks? Awesome!!!!

And thanks for confirmation of the bed support. Im always a little suspicious of information found on other forums....

You did go 4/6 for the challenge, right?