Old #7 - OR -Building a work truck

UncleWillie

UncleWillie

Rarely serious.
Joined
Dec 29, 2010
Location
Vale
(Warning; the following post is most likely rambling and incoherent and you will have a hard time finding a subject at times. Bear with me, it will be a total waste of time.)

For a little over a year I have had a 97 Suburban that has been no end of trouble.

When it ran it was great.
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We took it to Tn to get a Yukon to bring back to flip, and this is how the trip ended.

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It started knocking, and I thought was a cracked flexplate, with a bad back I wasn't working on it in TN, so I sold the Yukon, bought the F250 (which will be fore sale shortly if you are interested), and towed it home, and took it to the shop. When they drained the oil the #4 rod bearing poured out. That is the second engine that truck has had in a year, I am done with it.

So I found a new truck, a 95 K1500 Suburban nicknamed #7 (think Grizzly Adams). And I am making it into a work truck. Follow along. It might be good for a laugh.

Here it is the day I bought it.
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Ain't those grandpa steps sexy.

The drivers seat also had a broken base that made it flop around. We stopped at Harbor Freight to get some stuff to attempt a temporary repair and had no luck with that. I had resigned myself to a 200 mile drive home in a rocking chair, when Heath said, "I'll fix it'" and folded the rear seat down against it. I felt pretty dumb and proud all at once.



DAY 1

The steps didn't last long.
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I have also put on a set of 2000 style tow mirrors,
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changed out the broken front seat for ones out of the dead truck (they are blue and the other interior is tan, but at least i won't get seasick). It also got the nice tail lights off the other truck.
 
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Day 3


Since the wife is preggers, and the 7 year old is not a lot of help, and my back is all out of sorts; going is slow on the building. But how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Todays bite was fairly small.


We got out and pulled the roof rack off the old truck, and prepped it for lights. Holes got drilled and nutserts installed.


Yes, the Rhino has a new butthole.
Corner lights are going on too.


Cool fact about my Rhino rack. It was actually used in the Australian Outback. I found it for sale locally in Charlotte, NC. The couple that had it were from AU. They used it on camping trips in the Outback, then brought it with them when the moved here, and never used it again.

The bolts that came with the lights were metric, and all the nutzerts I have are standard, so we had to run to Lowe's.

I also needed something to make a switch panel out of, so while I was there I took a look at the plexiglass. The smallest piece they had on the rack was $6. I asked about a scrap piece. I left with this.


And since there is a road nearby that is closed for bridge repair I took the opportunity to take a couple of pics.

 
I think your overlooking the root of your problems. I would think that build #7 would be enough said. People with bowties don't work long!
 
Let me see. My work trucks

#1 90 C1500 Pickup 500k (2 transmission swaps)
#2 94 K1500 Suburban 450k (1 trans rebuild)
#3 -94 K2500 - Only big block I have ever owned. sold it at 250k still running 8mpg sucked - still being driven with 450k
#3 95 K1500 - Bought with bad trans. had 300k on it. rebuilt trans, blown head gasket at 425k scored #5 cyl
#4 89 C1500 Short bed 5 speed. 418k sold to my neighbor he still drives it.
#5 99 K2500 Bought in the dark (my bad) found out later it was used to put a boat in the ocean, Completely rusted out from axle to bumper underneath, looked perfect outside. Things started to fall off at 250k
#6 97 K1500 biggest POS I have ever seen in my life. Truck is cursed.


That doesn't count the many other truck we have driven not for work. I think I will keep my old GMT400s. And I have never had a car payment.
 
No work on the work truck, but the work truck had to work.


We got the F250 back from the shop Friday where it got a new fuel pump. Saturday we realized it was pouring fuel out of the pump. So this morning
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We got back from that and I started to prepare my salad for the week. I make a huge bowl on Mondays and eat it all week long. I am kinda sorta trying (but not too hard) to loose weight. While I was cutting up my sweet onion, my loving, beautiful wife walked in and said, "be careful", and I sliced off the tip of my right index finger.
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So further work on #7 is on hold for a bit.
 
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Repeat my mantra with me. It is a work truck, not a show truck. It is a work truck, not a show truck. It is a work truck, not a show truck....

So I said we would be taking some time off, but I got bored. So we didn't

The wife went out and pulled the emergency lights out of the old truck. I hunted down the backup camera out of a different truck that never got installed in the old truck, and got it all figured out.

Then we installed it.



The mount I made for the camera got put on and the hole drilled to run the wiring through.


It slid and the JB weld made a mess. It's a work truck, not a show truck.

Wiring all hidden, over the rear view mirror you can see the front emergency light.


We also ran the wiring for the roof lights, and all the wires got bundled up and tucked out of the way for later hookup.



I attempted to make a switch plate, but my fumble fingered attempt just turned into a disaster and lots of wasted lexan.
 
So I can't resist even with a mangled finger.


After ruining the lexan, I had to find another material. While I was poking around I found an old license plate sticking out of the mud, joys of having a 7 year old mechanic.

After cutting teh size I needed, I realized that my buddy has not returned my clamps yet. SoO I had to come up with a way to hold it while I drilled the holes.

Redneck ingenuity to the rescue.

Then I test fitted it again.


Then tested again with the switches in place.


Then it got painted black and is now drying.
 
We got all the tune up parts for #7, so we went out to tune it up.



To prove how well these old TBI engines run, this engine has not been tuned up ever. The parts I took off today were all factory installed as far as I can tell. 133.000 miles on factory ignition parts.



When we pulled off the wires I was greeted with something I have not seen since the 90s. Packard spark plug wires.

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Then Steph handed me the distributor cap. I think I found the miss.

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The rotor needed a bit of percussive maintenance to remove it.

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Steph swapped out the EGR and managed to break a vacuum fitting. I took a look in the shop and found a TBI off the Titanic that still had the line attached.

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When I attempted to set the timing I looked under the dash to disconnect the timing wire. I found this.

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Tells me it has never been touched. Still wrapped in factory tape.


I say attempted because when I pulled my 30+ year old Craftsman timing light out of the box, it was broken. Sad. I remember buying it at a salvage store with a set of spark plug sockets, an extension, and a ratchet for $20. Pour one out for my old tools.
 
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Yesterday we went out to put the steering box on #7. Since the tie tie rod ends on Moby were brand new we stole those and put them on.

While I was under the truck I saw the water pump was leaking, so I sent Steph to get one while Heath and I put the steering box on.

It was about 8pm when we got done. Going out to do a quick and dirty tape measure alignment now.
 
And now on IT'S A WORK TRUCK NOT A SHOW TRUCK, the epic saga of one man's demented determination to beat a truck into submission.

This morning, Heath and I went to the scrap yard. On the way back the dash nearly fell out of #7. These GMT400 trucks had a major flaw in the dash design. There are two 10mm bolts that hold the bottom of the dash up. And there are three small screws that hold the top. The three small screws go into steel, the dash is plastic, the mounts break, especially if you do much driving on rough roads ( or non existent roads).



You can buy premade clips to repair it, but I am cheap.

I dug through the metal pile and found a piece of aluminum. Marked it

I put it in the redneck bandsaw, and used the worlds dullest hacksaw blade.

Then I changed my orientation.

A pass through the redneck Bridgeport.

My super high tech angle finder.

Then a run through the redneck metal break.


Finally a few of these odd sized washers for the two mounts that were completely broken off.

And finally the clips installed.


It wasn't bad except for the bad sawblade. Total time invested one cigar.
 
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Yesterday morning we headed down to the scrap yard. I had a full day booked and no time for nonsense. Of course, the truck had other plans. The drivers front brake started grinding. It was just going to have to grind. I had brand new rotors on the parts truck so I could replace them when I got home.

200 miles later I got home and found a glitter factory.
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The pads on the parts truck were a bit thin, but everything was closed so they got put on. I ordered a set of ceramic pads since this truck tows every day.
 
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