1991 V3500 Project Heavy Hauler

[joe231]

Nice!!

You guys have a pull-a-part up there???
Where is it?
I'll have to check it out next time I'm up.

[Hankster]

I'm ready to see what the "treasure" is...

[MTCK]

Joe - MSI auto will let you pull your own parts sometimes but they are more if a recycler. That's where all this gear came from.

Suburban front seats
Console
Seat belts front and rear
3 or 4 door trim pieces (drivers was trashed)
Clean dash
Headliner and all trim


Pretty good haul! I dropped one piece of trim for the passenger a-pillar so I will go back tomorrow or Friday and find it.

[joe231]

Very cool!
Thanks for the info.
What did all of that cost you?

[MTCK]

I love it when a plan comes together... ~$400. Here's the dash. Not totally cleaned but knocked the dirt off.

[MTCK]

After comparing the dash and trim to an old dash pad I had laying around from a 91 suburban (that I got the buckets out of for my 77) I think I grabbed a slate interior from an 89 suburban. The 91 is light grey. Does anyone know which SEM dye matches this shade or where I can find a color code? Thanks a bunch.

[joe231]

Wow
That dash pad looks amazing!

[MTCK]

Yeah I lucked out big time on the dash. Only had about an hour to tinker today, but I primed and painted my rear 6x9 speaker brackets, spare tire rim, pulled the dash, bezel and original radio out. The hole is huge compared to the old shaft style in every other square truck I've owned.

I'm excited to see how the duplicolor paint matches up to the factory color on the speaker brackets. It looks close in my garage.

100 SF of Fat Mat showed up. I guess I had better get busy tomorrow...

[Greenlee]

Good score on that dash! Those are hard to find in good condition.

I have what appears to be a homemade metal adapter to fill in that big hole in the dash and fit a single DIN radio. I got it from a Suburban I used for parts. I thought it looked pretty decent and was going to use it with a 89' to 91' bezel, but decided against it because I would have had to hack an even bigger hole in my dash. You can have it for whatever it cost to ship it if you need one. I think you can also buy a plastic adapter pretty cheap.

[MTCK]

Thanks Greenlee! I have the mounting kit that is supposed to get here tomorrow from amazon, but if I don't like that I will let you know.

Looks to me like duplicolor did a fine job...
M

[Greenlee]

Looks good!

[MTCK]

Didn't have much time to work on the truck today but nibbled at it a bit more. I'm digging the way the slate gray goes with the color of the paint. It was nice of GM to put the hole for the power windows in the same place as the hole for the manual ones. I'll need to figure out how to make it look a little more factory when I have the upholstery done.

Started on the fat mat install. I forgot what a PITA it is installing this stuff. It is pretty easy to work with though. Very similar to dynamat xtreme but without the fear of slicing your hand open as the foil isn't as sharp (might be plastic?). More progress soon I hope. Need to go get some fish this week so it might be a slow one for truck progress.

[y5mgisi]

Super cool!

[MTCK]

Thanks guys. Got a little bit of work done today. I picked up some 3.5" dash speakers, an amp wiring kit and coaxial cables for my future stereo upgrade. I'm going to just have the 3.5" and deck until I build some fundage back up. At that point I'd like to add a 5 channel JL amp, 6.5" fronts, 6x9 rears and a micro sub. I had one of those in my old K10 and it was amazing.

Stripped down the bubbled paint and rust spots in the floor pan today. Funny how you get started and just need to do a little more... I'm going to grab some sort of encapsulator tomorrow and be done with it. Picked up seam sealer today to tune that up along the front door jambs but it's not ready yet. The drivers side pan must have had a leak dripping on it for a few years because it was by far worse off.

[y5mgisi]

Whats a micro sub?

[MTCK]

It's JL's 8" shallow mount subs. I had the single 8w3 version in my 77 and hoping to get the dual 8w3 version for this truck.

POR15 is applied - hopefully on to more fun things tomorrow. I'm tired of wearing a mask...

[MTCK]

Snuck over to the salvage yard this evening and grabbed some parts I missed before. In addition to that stuff, I scored a steering column. Tilt, cruise a clean steering wheel and key included.

[whitels1]

Nice score!

[McMurray76]

subscribed!!

[MTCK]

it rained all night and everything, including the truck was damp most of the day. So I spent a couple hours and installed the deck. Wiring harness mated right up and the mounting bracket eventually worked. I had to fish the old radio out of the trash, trim some of the tabs off of it and bolt them to the new mount. It worked and is solid but I'm not sure about how far it sticks out of the dash...

3.5" dash speakers work and the RCA cables and remote wire are all hooked up for a future amplifier install. If I don't go fishing tomorrow I will install the rest of the fat mat and bolt in the seat mounts and center console.

[MTCK]

It dried out a bit this evening so I scuffed the POR15 with some 320 grit, put down seam sealer on both sides, then masked and sprayed the exposed portions of the door jambs. It was getting dark by the time I finished so I couldn't really tell how the paint turned out. That was the last of my little bottle of silver paint and can of self etching primer.

[MTCK]

I've been away for a few weeks but I finally got a little work done. I mocked up the seats and center console and drilled the holes for the mounting bolts. Next I'll slap a little paint on the exposed metal and finish the fat mat install. Hopefully I can get some work done this long weekend.

[MTCK]

Got a little work done today. Hopefully lots more tomorrow. It took just over 50 sf of fat mat to do the floor. I'll have more than enough to do the ceiling as well.

[y5mgisi]

Sweet! good work!

[MTCK]

Thanks. Got all the wires run for the future amp install before the monsoon started.