My Luxurious late model truck (not so much)

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by Stoney

Awesome rebuild, you always come up with some cool tools to get the job done right.

Tools = Power. With tools you can do things yourself and not have to depend on anyone else. The way I see it, trucks come and go. Careers come and go. I even had a wife come and go. But tools are forever and the abilities that go along with them are forever.

[Low Elco]

X2. Nice job on the motor/trans, I bet it's great. What's next on this? Selling the dually?

[Tx Firefighter]

Next is to do a full overhaul on the doors. They're both bashed in, nothing works well, and generally skanky. I have a few tricks up my sleeve on that aspect of the project. Will post my next update tomorrow when I'm at the fire station with a real computer, not my little iPad.

The dually.....well, it sits. I did move it around this morning to mow the property, but that's it. I don't know what I'll wind up doing with it in the big picture. I always wanted a cool white dually and now I have a good start on that. I'm not terribly motivated to get rid of it. Slightly motivated, but not enough to figure out what I have invested in it and what I could sell it for (less). I'm afraid selling price would hurt my feelings.

[Tx Firefighter]

Okay, time for the next installment.

I had mentioned earlier that I hound Craigslist a lot looking for whatever comes along.

One Saturday, bright and early, I spotted this...



Valerie was all excited about going on a Craigslist adventure with me until we got to the neighborhood where the doors were. She waited in the truck....with the door locked....

We settled on 90 dollars for the pair, so I got them loaded, and back to the ranch.



They're old Union Pacific railroad truck doors I think. Cool things is, they're the same Code 50 White color as my truck.





No where near perfect, but with some polishing, they look real good. If they were too perfect, they wouldn't match my truck.







My buddy at the dealership hooked me up with the goods. Take my word for it, genuine GM is higher quality than Dorman stuff is when it comes to door hinge rebuild parts. That's a lesson I learned after buying Dorman and being dissatisfied with the quality.









I did use the Dorman brand roller pins and springs though. The roller pins are 11 bucks each at Rockauto, and the GM ones are 40 each at the dealership. Also notice the new Delco door lock cylinders in the box. I'll get to that in a minute.



On the passenger side door, the roller pin was very bent.



On the driver's side, it was completely broken and the spring was MIA.



The trick to changing these is to use a Dremel to remove the mushroomed top and then drive them downward and out.



The old bent passenger side pin next to the new Dorman replacement. I did have to use a file and reduce the diameter of the knurled section on the new ones to make them work. I don't know if that would have been the case had I used genuine GM here, but the 60 dollars (per pair) savings by using aftermarket took the sting out of having to do some extra fussing with them to get the fitment right.



New passenger side installed.



Note new bushings in place too. Ready for the door install....



Last thing was new door handles. My old ones were typical sad shape and I really wanted the big truck style. For those of you lost on what I'm saying here, these are Kodiak/TopKick truck door handles. They are a straight bolt on swap to light duty trucks as long as you change the little rods that go to the latch and lock. There are threads on the internet that detail everything down to the exact part numbers needed for everything.

I bought aftermarket door handles from Rockauto for 21 dollars each rather than the 90 dollars each GM gets for genuine. The quality seems to be there and it appears to be money saved without compromise.

[Tx Firefighter]

Here is a string of pictures showing some before and after on the door swap. My old doors were horrible. The driver side door had a huge dent near the front that was just wearing me out every time I looked at it. Overall it was hammered and there was Bondo and cracks galore. The passenger side was caved on the bottom. Furthermore, both original door handles were cracked and I couldn't get the doors to lock with the key. I always change all door lock cylinders and ignition lock cylinders on every truck I do anyway to erase the worry about whatever keys might be floating around in previous owner's possession.













Now, the good stuff !

[Palf70Step]

Very nice Kevin. I like those Kodiak door handles. I will have to remember that is I ever get another 88-98 model.

[Tx Firefighter]

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.

[Low Elco]

Wow! I love it when it doesn't look like you did much of anything, but YOU know you did, and all those little things being fixed makes driving the truck soooooo much better. Good Work! It's comin' around!

[aggie91]

I really enjoy the detail of your threads and the why/why not to do certain things or brands.

Those Kodiac handles look cool on the truck. Great job!

[83GMCK2500]

Excellent! Earlier when you mentioned the handles I wasn't sure if your were going to source a pair from a wrecking yard or what. I forgot that rockauto had those available now. Part of me had hoped that you would grab a used set and blast/coat them, I was looking forward to any custom touches that you might do. You wanna hear something funny? About 10 minutes before i opened this thread I sat down with the EPC and made my list of door hinge parts that I need to replace because a year ago my dad put the Dorman hardware in my doors and they're sagging again.

Nice find on those doors, they cleaned up great! Your truck is looking and functioning much better with every update.

[68Timber]

The door handles are a slick touch. You make the door pin job look too easy.

[Tx Firefighter]

Thanks for the props fellas.

Devin, please compare your hinge pin bushing numbers against mine. Mine worked, but the O.D. of the bushings were too large and I had to spin them on my hillbilly lathe (drill press) and dress them down with a file to make them fit the holes they go in. My buddy might have given me the wrong bushings.

I've been in contact with a guy parting out a 94 model truck. He's giving me numbers I can live with for interior pieces. I plan to go see him tomorrow to see about getting the carpet, headliner and trim, and seat belts.

[83GMCK2500]

These hinge bushings have some kind of voodoo going on. In looking up the P/Ns for my '96 there are two sizes listed.

15025841 - BUSHING, FRT S/D HGE PIN (UPR/LWR) (13.5 MM)
15025842 - BUSHING, FRT S/D HGE PIN (UPR/LWR) (12.45MM)

Now, those are from the regular EPC, which also mentions that there is a TSB associated with these items... #02-08-64-016 (pdf), linked for reference, includes interesting door hinge history notes. Reading through the TSB there are teflon bushings and bronze bushings. Also with different number, but no notation of diameters that I saw.

What did you use to compress the door springs? I know there is a specialty tool, and I've seen some interesting methods on the interwebs...just curious how you pulled it off. Also, can you confirm for me where the bushings are all located? Both hinge halves, just the body half? The EPC has a crummy pic and my truck is not 100% accessible right now. Reminds me I need to add the striker bolts to my parts order, my strikers have flat spots on them, unacceptable.

[ryanroo]

I want to watch! i didn't even know the 4x had a thread yet! As always, excellent work. I still have GMT400 envy.

[Zane M]

Thanks for sharing your continued progress.
When I get a GMT 400 the Kodiak handle upgrade is going to be one of the first things I do.

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by 83GMCK2500

These hinge bushings have some kind of voodoo going on. In looking up the P/Ns for my '96 there are two sizes listed.

15025841 - BUSHING, FRT S/D HGE PIN (UPR/LWR) (13.5 MM)
15025842 - BUSHING, FRT S/D HGE PIN (UPR/LWR) (12.45MM)

Now, those are from the regular EPC, which also mentions that there is a TSB associated with these items... #02-08-64-016 (pdf), linked for reference, includes interesting door hinge history notes. Reading through the TSB there are teflon bushings and bronze bushings. Also with different number, but no notation of diameters that I saw.

What did you use to compress the door springs? I know there is a specialty tool, and I've seen some interesting methods on the interwebs...just curious how you pulled it off. Also, can you confirm for me where the bushings are all located? Both hinge halves, just the body half? The EPC has a crummy pic and my truck is not 100% accessible right now. Reminds me I need to add the striker bolts to my parts order, my strikers have flat spots on them, unacceptable.

My answer will likely confuse more than illuminate. When I bought these new doors I assumed they were 88-94 doors since they had the stainless steel flag mirrors on them. I was wrong they are 95-up doors. My first clue was seeing door speakers. I say all of this because it may have affected the whole deal. My buddy sold me the bushings pictured up above on the premise that they were for my 90 model truck. I do not know if the doors being 95-up affected them not fitting.

Each hinge has a big bushing and a little bushing. Notice the greater O.D. of the hinge pins near the head compared to where it necks down the rest of the way. Each pin requires one big bushing and one small bushing to allow for the thicker neck on the pins. I say "big" and "small" meaning I.D. and O.D. both.

The pins are installed opposite of each other. On the upper hinge, the pin is installed upwards, that is head down toward the ground. Once installed you put one of the little sheetmetal clips (pictured above also) onto the pin to keep it from ever gravity falling out. The lower pins are installed downwards, that is, head up. Again, remember each place will have a large and a small bushing, the large always being on the head side of the pin. So, the upper hinge has small bushing on top and large on bottom while the lower hinge is the opposite.

The bushings install into the truck side on the upper hinge and into the door side on the lower hinge. I don't know why GM didn't just put all of the bushings in either the door or the truck, but I'm sure there was a reason. I trust GM engineering way beyond my own head scratching, slack jawed, junior college education I have.

To compress the spring, I bought the tool. I tore a 20% off coupon out of a Hot Rod magazine and got it out the door for like 8 bucks or so.

http://www.harborfreight.com/gm-vehi...ool-95344.html

That tool gets mixed reviews on the internet. Some guys say they suck and break easily. Some guys could also break a bowling ball too. I found it to work exceptionally well. I didn't see the logic in buying a 30 dollar SnapOn tool for this since I don't expect to ever install more than half a dozen of these in the remainder of my life. Just open the tool wide, insert spring, tighten the nut, hold up into place and loosen the nut. Takes maybe one minute per spring. No flying springs or pinched fingers or scratched paint involved.

[Zane M]

If people are breaking the harborfreight version of a door spring compressor, they are doing something wrong.

I have used one on dozens of springs and have never had an issue.

[Tx Firefighter]

The next adventure, delving into the exciting world of transfer cases. This will be the first one I've ever rebuilt.



I figure since it leaks from multiple places, the odometer shows 222k miles, and my local shop stocks a rebuild kit that I should take the hint and get elbow deep into it.

[ryanroo]

there is certainly nothing fancy going on inside one of those 241s. they are an easy rebuild. given your methods, i imagine it will look fantastic when done.

can i send you a box of AL parts for restoration? your work is always top notch and i am hoping to imitate the look you get with all of your cast aluminum parts when i get there on mine. my local PC guy is fantastic and will soda blast whenever i ask for it but he was scratching his head about the raw AL power.

this truck is fantastic! paint it black and it is a dead ringer for the one i beat up in HS.

[Tx Firefighter]

I had a little Craigslist adventure today.

Met a super nice guy who was parting out this little truck.



Its a sad story. The guy I dealt with bought it for his little brother who wound up wrecking it. Wrecking it hard. The front end collision was so bad that the floor pan was buckled up so bad that it was wrapped around the brake pedal. It was a damn slick little truck before he crashed it. Red short bed stepside 94 GMC with 350/auto/3.42 rearend. All power. Slick as snot. I'd have given my teeth for it prior to the crash.

Anyway, I gave him 60 bucks for a bunch of interior pieces.

I had to cut the brake pedal off to get the carpet out. Again, the floor pan was crushed up around the pedals.













As a reminder, my truck currently has no carpet at all. No headliner at all. No plastic trim for the headliner at all, and broken seat belt latches. This was a major score for my build.



I have a standing offer to him for the seat at 150 dollars. He's trying to sell it for 250. Its a nice conversion truck seat with fold down center. I hope it doesn't sell for his asking price and he takes me up on my 150 offer.



I think it would shampoo up pretty decent.



I've already separated the carpet from the jute and have spent the morning with my pressure washer and Valerie's little carpet shampoo machine. The carpet is cleaning up fantastically.

[Primered_69]

So are you wanting the 95-98 door panels? Or can you put the early ones on there

[Tx Firefighter]

Michael, I need 88-94 red, non power door panels. I swapped my entire door guts from the 90 model into the late model doors so I effectively have 90 model doors. The 95-98 panels won't match my dash properly.

[flashed]

As much as I like your other trucks ,I think Im liking this build the best , another great build .

[YBNORML]

I really like this build. It's the same way I try and do my DD's. Clean and functional, using as many GM parts as possible. Fantastic work.

[Tx Firefighter]

I just noticed I forgot to show one other little gem I got along with the interior.



I am currently trying to sell some extra stuff around the shop on Craigslist to get the cash together for my transfer case rebuild kit. I've got that thing all torn apart and spread to the four winds right now.