86 Silverado Father and Son project

[franky69c10]

Looks good bro

[maxxxy]

Hey I think I have one of those super rare parking tags! Super sweet truck man!

[Gordonr1973]

Looking great!!

[EightiesOnly]

Originally Posted by franky69c10

Looks good bro

Thanks man

Originally Posted by maxxxy

Hey I think I have one of those super rare parking tags! Super sweet truck man!

Good deal, maybe I'll see you in your '81 around campus in the future.

Originally Posted by Gordonr1973

Looking great!!

Thank ya

[EightiesOnly]

Very small update here...

I decided I had left my headlights on too many times.

I saw on this site that a headlight warning buzzer was cheap and easy to do, so I did it.

I found this pic from a factory service manual on another thread.



I picked up a buzzer from radio shack for $1.19 on clearance. Then added small ring terminals for plugging in to the fuse box terminals.



Added double sided tape.



And installed.





It works good. It's a little quieter than the key on buzzer, which is good.

In case you don't know how it works, the headlights feed gives it power and the ignition gives it ground through various circuits when the key is off.
So, key off + headlights on = BUZZ.

[EightiesOnly]

Time for an update.

I gave my instrument cluster a long overdue overhaul. I have been wanting to install an 82-89 Camaro tach/ oil pressure gauge. So, I bought one on ebay....



This meant that I had to find a small fuel gauge to put where the original oil pressure gauge went, so I pulled one at LKQ from a 70's pontiac car...





It required a small amount of Dremel work to clear the black cluster cover...



I was able to use both of the mounting posts...



It required switching the oil pressure sending wire and the fuel sending wire on the cluster connector.
Then I painted the needles (including the tach needles) with this...



This stuff works great on needles. Just use a bunch of thin coats.











From there I needed to put something where the old tach (clock spot) was, so I hacked a the SES and CRUISE lights out of this non-working cluster...







Painted over the markings.







Everything epoxied together the epoxied straight to the bezel.

[EightiesOnly]

To install the tach I cutout an old fuel gauge to hold the tach. I bent the top tab over the fuel gauge face, the bottom right tab lined up with the original fuel gauge tab, and I used a couple of tiny screws and nuts to fasten them together...



Wiring: I bolted wires to the existing clips using ring terminals. I also used a connector to bring the other wires in (tach signal, SES, cruise light, SES feed, speedo signal).





Installed.









I also had to move my BRAKE light over to the speedo. This also required a re-pin of the cluster connector.









As of now the cruise light simply comes on when the cruise lever is switched to on. I plan on coming up with a circuit to turn the light on only when cruise is engaged.





The tach, oil pressure gauge, and fuel gauge were all plug and play and work great!

That's all for the time being.

[NastyBuzzard]

The gauges turned out really nice!! I am going to attempt swapping in the 01 cluster into my 87 in my build...

[Hankster]

Originally Posted by EightiesOnly

Dude that looks awesome!

[67c10rustbuket]

The LS swap turned out great Landen, Looks like I should drop my truck off at mcbassins for some work after your spring semester something might actually get done on it

[EightiesOnly]

Originally Posted by 67c10rustbuket

The LS swap turned out great Landen, Looks like I should drop my truck off at mcbassins for some work after your spring semester something might actually get done on it

Thanks Dan, bring it on over.

[EightiesOnly]

I've got a little update. The truck's been running great with very few issues. I'm still daily driving it.

I just wanted to post the total cost of the swap...

Swap cost

Donor truck..........................-600
Gas for pickup.......................-70
Trans fluid and coolant............-41
Wires....................................-9
Cam position sensor................-42
Oil pressure sensor.................-28
Fuel hose and clamps.............-15
Mufflers................................-67
Exhaust clamps.....................-23
Ujoint..................................-26
PCM reflash..........................-75
Fuse box, relays, teriminals....-40
Temperature sending unit.......-16
Wire loom.............................-7
Electrical tape.......................-3
Air filter................................-22

Cost.....................................-1,084



Truck scrap...............+442
Rear differential.........+250
Air bag set................+80
Airbag clock spring.....+55
Cat converters...........+40

Earned......................+867

Total cost...................-$217

[mcbassin]

Doing work....

[NastyBuzzard]

Where did you get your pcm flashed for $75?

Have any drawings for the homemade swap mounts?

[C@rnut001]

You have done an excellent job on your truck. I had not read your thread until today (just finished reading it all the way through). Keep having fun with it and improving it.

[EightiesOnly]

Originally Posted by C@rnut001

You have done an excellent job on your truck. I had not read your thread until today (just finished reading it all the way through). Keep having fun with it and improving it.

Thanks for taking the time to read the thread. It's been fun taking the truck from a decent old truck to a solid one. And that's what this project is all about, cheap, easy, and fun!

[aggie91]

Nice truck and the extra's you did since the LS swap are a good touch.

[EightiesOnly]

Originally Posted by aggie91

Nice truck and the extra's you did since the LS swap are a good touch.

Thank you, it looks your swap is going smoothly.

[Low Elco]

Nice!

[mcbassin]

Skills brother....skills

[EightiesOnly]

Originally Posted by NastyBuzzard

The gauges turned out really nice!! I am going to attempt swapping in the 01 cluster into my 87 in my build...

Thanks. That will be awesome! I was going to try to install 99-07 tach, but it would have been too much trouble.

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Nice!

Thank ya

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Skills brother....skills

Thanks it was just quick and dirty.

[Crash_OK]

Great Job

[EightiesOnly]

Originally Posted by Crash_OK

Great Job

Thanks Mark, it went real smoothly.

[rfmaster]

Nicely Done

[EightiesOnly]

Originally Posted by rfmaster

Nicely Done

Thanks, I used some of your information from the thread over this install.