My driver's side inner door handle was broken. There's a spring back there that breaks. I looked at ordering a new aftermarket one but decided instead to see if I could save this one.
The broken spring.
So I kicked around the shop a while trying to figure out where to get a spring. Boom. Square body. I have a box of squarebody stuff in the attic. I mean, come on, who would get heartburn about sacrificing a damned old squarebody part to allow a mighty GMT400 truck to live a better life.
I see you hiding in there.
A few minutes work with a pin punch and a hammer and we have our spring.
Installed into the GMT400 handle assembly. Yes, I know the corner is broken off of this thing, but it's still held on with 5 rivets even missing that corner one. Plus the door panel hides all the ugly anyway.
Done. Riveted back in place. Works great. Zero dollars spent.
I needed window sweeps for my new (used) doors. They didn't come with any, and my original ones were toast. My buddy treats me real well at the dealership. Best price was 40 odd dollars each. I guess I should have known they were sky high price when his own personal truck has haggard scrapers on it.
So, Rockauto for aftermarket. After installation, I give them three thumbs up. Super good fitment and no fussing with installation. 14 bucks each. Money very well spent.
I also needed one of these which I obviously got from GM. Second picture is for reference to part number for any viewers out there who might need one. It was something like 11 dollars and in stock.
One last thing, the back window. My truck had a slider that was beat. The center sections were plexiglass. No center latch at all. The plexiglass rattled and bowed. Every time you slammed one of the doors it sounded like a little train wreck back there. Plus it leaked like crazy.
I just fessed up and paid my glass guy to do a new one turn key. 150 bucks for the job.
So, to sum up, at the end of this segment, I now have two virtually dent free doors that replaced two scrap doors. My windows roll up and down smoothly. I have new heavy duty metal Kodiak door handles with all new rods and clips. I have new door lock cylinders and rebuilt door hinges and rollers. Everything works like it should now. And, with the new back window and outer window scrapers on the door, I finally have a truck that is weatherproof and can be locked securely while parked somewhere.
Once I got that old pinstripe off the truck and swapped the doors out for better ones, my cab and front clip are pretty fair cosmetically. Now I just need to find a nice straight bed that is code 50 GM white and I'll have a half way slick truck, without doing any paint work. I have a very nice bed found here locally. It would be a total bed swap, bolt on and go, with matching paint. But, the guy is about 200 bucks higher than I'm comfortable with. I guess in the scheme of getting a different color bed and having to paint it, paying an extra 200 for one that already matches isn't a bad deal. I just need to come up with the money for it.