#minijimmygmc Wifey's 1990 K5 Jimmy rebuild

[chevy3100truck]

Originally Posted by Willowrun

Hard to tell from the pics, but what is the issue with the clear? Orange peal?

Yeah, pretty significant orange peel unfortunately. The first coat of clear wasn't heavy enough I think. I've sanded most of it out and am about 3/4 done polishing it now. Next time I'll do a better job of it lol.
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[rgunlock]

You'll be amazed how much better even a really crappy job with the clear will turn out after the wet sanding and polish. Hard to tell from the pictures, but it sounds like your first attempt turned out just like mine, and I think I ended up with a very satisfactory driver quality job in the end.

[Dads79GMC]

Great job! Taking note, I'll be painting my first truck as well. I'm literally starting from the ground up!!!! Mike

[chevy3100truck]

so a whole bunch of polishing later.........











Definitely not a pro, but it will have to do for now

[chevy3100truck]

Had a weekend free, so the kiddo got to hop back in a quarter midget car. Apparently he still remembered how to turn left, finished 3rd in the heat race, 2nd in the main (in a car that neither one of us had touched in about 8 months, zero practice, just new fuel, oil & tires)

[chevy3100truck]

so now that the paint is as good as its going to get for now, back to re-assembly. Dropped the engine back in it last night, now to remember how all the accessories bolted on lol. At least with the engine back in I can now check the driveline angles and figure out what sort of shims I need for the rear axle so that I can assemble all of that permanently.



Back to running quarter midgets again with my son this weekend, so might not be a lot of progress quickly.

[Dads79GMC]

Looking great!! Nice work on the paint!!! Mike

[chevy3100truck]

It's been a while since I updated this.....

Since the engine is now in, I could finalize the rear suspension and get the new driveshaft ordered - New Bilstein 5100 series shocks, ORD shock mount braces & ORD shackly flip kit. While I was at it I relocated the rear axle to get it centered in the wheelwell since the flip kit moves it forward a bit (I haven't cut off the U-bolts yet - waiting to get the driveshaft in and double check the angles again before trimming that up)



Engine accessories going on - most importantly the AC Compressor for the new Vintage Air system lol

[chevy3100truck]

Next up - before getting to the fender installation I needed to run wire looms into the doors for the power door locks being added. The Jimmy didn't have any power door accessories from the factory so I added some braided wire looms for the wiring.




Door assembly now - put the mirrors back on (they'll get replaced down the road, but they're not too bad, just a few scratches & scuffs), new door seals, window seals, door handle gaskets, mirror gaskets etc. and added new door locks since the originals were painted, and quite frankly 28 year old GM door locks can be opened with a butter knife lol




Doors were insulated with Eastwood Xmat and power door lock actuators are in along with installing the temporary door panels (painted factory ones - will eventually get some new ones being as these are a bit thrashed). Glad I went with painting the lower portion of the door instead of putting carpet on it.

[chevy3100truck]

Onto installing the Vintage Air system - pretty straightforward to get it installed inside the cab really. Only issue was that I ended up cutting one of the pieces of ductwork slightly shorter than I wanted, so I had to grab another length at the parts store (though oddly enough the other 3 pieces cut were all bang on in length and the one that was too short was really just what remained from the single long piece that came in the kit....)





I also needed to do some wiring for the remote door locks, ignition kill, remote operated rear window and the power seats. Being as I needed a few relays, fuses, and a place to mount the receiver & door lock modules, I just built a simple little aluminum panel to tuck up behind the dash mounted to the firewall. It's accessible from under the dash, but mostly hidden (you can see some of split loom covering the wires, but it won't really be noticeable - I could have hidden it all but then if I ever have to change a fuse it would be a major pain)

[chevy3100truck]

Since the engine accessories were all mounted now and I needed to complete routing the wiring, hoses, etc. I installed the rad support & front fenders.





Starting to look like a truck lol. A bunch of messing around with shims to get the fenders where I wanted them, still not perfect, but these trucks aren't exactly known for precise panel gaps & I'm using repop front fenders..... Pretty close, but not perfect.

Most of the wiring now in place as well as the new condenser & drier for the Vintage Air system, radiator, hoses etc. I added a couple of fuses for power to the Vintage Air as well as the small auxillary panel under the dash.

[Willowrun]

Nice work!

[chevy3100truck]

So next on the list - break in the new cam in the fresh engine.... I had a buddy drop by so that one of us could sit in the cab watching the gauges and the other could keep an eye out for leaks etc (plus having a second set of eyes if anything went south)

Luckily - other than the fact that I stupidly had the distributor out by 180 degrees (which we caught after about 5 seconds of cranking.....), it ran mint, sat at 2500rpm for 30 minutes, nothing stupid happened, no leaks, so all was good.





Then the next day..... puddle of coolant on the floor. I had intended on changing the radiator to a almost brand new one I had, but I didn't have the correct brackets & fan shroud for it (it was the 19" tall one instead of the 17" tall one), so I'd cleaned up the old one and put it in, it had never leaked before. Apparently the massive amount of mud and silt on it was what was holding it together lol. So.... a new rad was purchased & installed....

[chevy3100truck]

After that I had to sort out a bit of wiring - the ignition kill wasn't working. Turns out the instructions that said "ignition on power" should say "cranking on power" Two hours later of testing wires etc to figure out what was going on, I finally figured out why you could start the motor with the immobilizer on. Simple fix, just wish it hadn't taken two hours to find lol.

So the dash is all back together now with the new radio & the modified glovebox to fit the AC system




Also put on some new aluminum wheel well trim. Kind of old school I guess, but I like it, breaks up the dark paint.

[Greenlee]

Looking good!

[chevy3100truck]

so..... back to updating this

After the dash was done, I insulated the floor. I used Eastwood X-Mat for acoustic insulation (not covering the whole floor, used about 30sqft in total, no need to cover everything with it) On top of that I used a polyurethane closed cell foam that works for thermal insulation but doesn't do a ton for sound.




Then on to the vinyl floor - I'm not a fan of carpet when the top is going to be off for most of the summer, though I kind of hate the vinyl too, it's a giant PIA to install (or at least the stuff I got was - the mold doesn't really fit the front floorboards well)




It'll still relax a bit more & I might have to do a bit more trimming as it relaxes.


With the floor in, I could put in the speaker pods. Way nicer than having to make these out of fiberglass lol (and no - they aren't Nextar speakers, but I had those covers and they had a full mesh across the front so crap won't get into the speakers which are Rockford ones I pulled out of another vehicle)

[chevy3100truck]

Front seats in...
They're out of a 2003ish Silverado extended cab. I have a set of 99 seats to go in it, but the budget & time to get them required isn't there right now lol. These ones are a bit beat, but they are power seats so cheap seat covers to make them look a bit cleaner & they'll work.

I had made reinforcing plates for under the body when I first put these seats in last year.


Rear seat - 2006ish Yukon Denali XL 3rd row. Fits like it's made to be there lol. Again, plates under the seat area to reinforce the floor. The 1990-91 trucks had 3 point harnesses in the back, but the 3rd point was on the roof, so you couldn't use the seatbelts with the roof off. This solves the problem (it was either that or use 89 & earlier 2 point rear belts).

[chevy3100truck]

Next up was the tailgate - kind of a pain to put on solo lol. I did however get the power switch on the back working and also wired in remote control operation so you can lower or raise the window from the key fob (ie. while walking up to it and wanting to load stuff in the back)



Biggest issue was the trim - I had put in new window channels to replace the rusted away originals, then the exterior rubber seal worked ok, but when adding the interior seal it was WAY too tight. Window would barely move. For now - no interior seal, I might try to use a second exterior seal on the inside or I'll try to find an old worn out one lol.


Added the trim & new bumper (without the factory style trim on the bumper - just the clean chrome style)




The filler panel between the bumper and the back of the truck isn't in, I haven't painted it yet as it was pretty beat up. I'll probably either just replace it or use bedliner on it.

[chevy3100truck]

next up - the rest of the front clip.....
My father in law dropped by to help with the hood, then put on the grill & cowl panel. Ended up with a bit more of a gap on the drivers side than I wanted, but I'll have to move the fender to fix it and with everything now installed it'll have to wait a bit.

[chevy3100truck]

next up - fun stuff lol. Pushed the truck outside (after disassembling part of the garage door opener for clearance...…) and bolted on the tires. First drive around the block without the windshield was actually a success! Truck drove decently, alignment wasn't bad, and only a couple of little gremlins to fix.





The windshield got installed last Friday, so after picking it up at 5pm, went home, washed it, and went for a 20 or so mile drive with the family to a car show that a friend puts on every year. Basically the shake down cruise for it.

[chevy3100truck]

Fixed a couple of the bugs (a turn signal issue and the brake warning light being stuck on due to a bad connection at the old style ABS/brake computer). Still having an issue with the knock sensor or the timing controller, but it runs just fine, just drops a code sometimes.

Wifey drove it around Saturday, then she had to go a bit of a distance Sunday so me and my son took it to the dragstrip for the day while he was racing in jr. dragster.

[chevy3100truck]

Still have some stuff to do - interior needs to be completed (headliner recovered, panels for beside the seats in the back, trim installed). Need to get the new seals on the canopy & get the windows in.

It's definitely not perfect, but this is the before / after.

October 22nd 2017



July 22nd 2018





It's definitely no where near perfect, first shot for me at doing paint & body work. It'll have to do for now, and the next one (my 70 GMC) will be better.....

[Palf70Step]

Fantastic Job! What a transformation.

[Greenlee]

Awesome!!!

[chevy3100truck]

so we've put a few kilometers on the Jimmy now, and buttoned up a few things. Unfortunately the axle I had swapped into the rear of the Jimmy ended up having a bent shaft on the drivers side, not too bad, but you could see it when it was rolling down the road. Luckily, the guy I sold the front & rear axles to had never used them, so he sold the rear back to me & I swapped over the shaft. Ended up selling the housing & carrier for the same as I paid to get the axle back, so I guess other than time and a few liters of 80-90 it didn't really cost me anything (and the diff cover had a drip anyhow - so it was going to come off and get refilled eventually)

The Vintage Air AC system is now charged - it moves a ton of air which is nice.
Being as it now has AC - we could put the top on