Intro from an old Assembly Plant guy

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by truckfan

i love that old "Olds 98" stereo. my parents had a couple of cars w/ that radio.

notice the iPod jack. forgive me for not having read every word, but how did you do that? i know there are shops that do that, but did you do this mod? if so how hard is is?

In case I didn't mention it, that is the radio the truck came with.

That iPod jack is just a cassette tape insert that has the jack on it. You can purchase them at Bestbuy or record/CD/music stores. I think it was around $15-$20.

I should also add that there is a thing called a "RediRad", marketed by a Pontiac enthusiast friend. It plugs into the antenna circuit and allows you to play your iPod (which the car picks up over the radio). I believe the website is www.rediscoverradio.com

K

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by old Rusty C10

I had one other question.. the paint you used.. was it one stage or two? and the brand name? i know pictures dont show all the details but that came out incredibly good and that most of the trick to a paint job coming out great is the prep work, and I was just wondering what was used.
I also wanted to note that I showed this thread to a buddy who is a body man by trade and he stated that the adhesieve these days like you used for your patch panels is as good or better than welding the patches in as long as you prepare the surfaces like the glue states, so anyway when i do my work on mine im going to try the adhesieve route

I'm not sure what was used. I took it to the paint shop and gave them the original WA number and said "make it RED". It is a base coat/clear coat but I don't know beyond that.

I can stop by and ask them if you'd like, because I drive past there every day (...I always honk and wave if they are outside )

K

[Keith Seymore]

Beautiful crisp Michigan fall day today, so I had a chance to sneak off and do a couple "glamour" photos -

[northern 85]

Wow!! better than new!!

[JohnC]

Wow those are nice shots Keith!

[HOGDADDY]

So how does that new repro dash fit and all? I see they also come in colors. Thanks.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by HOGDADDY

So how does that new repro dash fit and all? I see they also come in colors. Thanks.

It's pretty good, probably about as good as the production dash pad. The radio speaker holes have a little flash around them so I took a drill bit and countersunk the edges a bit (by hand). There's a little bit of a gap on the driver's side at the A pillar, and (probably the worst part) the contour is not quite as crisp as the insert at the extreme right side (passenger side). Other than that, not too bad.

The worst part was finding the attachments underneath it once it was installed. It was not "pre drilled" for the screws across the bottom (above the glove box area), or the screw in the RH end, so it took some creativity to find those and hit the nylon nuts underneath.

K

[rongstad]

Keith, Very nice truck.....I have a 86 this color waiting for a GEN IV engine with 6l90 tranny implant..

[Keith Seymore]

Lil Red, gettin' some work done. This time, hauling our Christmas tree:

[72BlckButy]

Beautiful shots from over the weekend Keith, it's a beautiful town and beautiful truck!

[menace121978]

X2! the truck and family look great!

[Keith Seymore]

Not sure what made me think of this, but I just was remembering another story concerning the 'lil red truck....


The "You Pig!! You Pig!!" Story -


Back when we lived in Arizona, so it would have been around 1990 or 1991, I needed to pull the trans out of 'lil Red. As some of you know, in Arizona the weather is so nice that there's no need to work in the garage, so I commenced to tearing the truck down right there in the driveway.

I made it as far as having the trans cut loose, crossmember out, etc and was in the process of dropping the trans down onto my chest when I accidentally hooked part of it on the emergency brake cable, pitching it rearward. The MY6 trans that I have uses automatic trans fluid, so it flows fairly freely....

...which is exactly what it started doing - running down my arm and the driveway and generally soaking everything within a three mile radius with ATF, including me.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective) this was the exact moment when my oldest, then probably 4 or 5 years old, decided this was the absolutely most appropriate time to come outside to ask me if he could have a piece of gum. He caught me unawares in this most delicate situation and was exposed to the most vile, the most foul string of expletives that I could muster, which was (...and I quote...): "YOU PIG!! YOU PIG!!".

Shocked and obviously wounded, he went running back in the house, great big crocodile tears jumping off his face, to tell his mother that I was yelling at him and calling him a pig (...why he didn't ask her for the gum in the first place I'll never know). After calming him to the point where he could be left alone again she came out and asked me "what-the-heck" was going on. I explained the situation to her satisfaction, dodging any repercussions or demerits for my parenting skills or lack thereof.

At any rate, I got the truck put back together and it has been fine since then but, more importantly, we got a good story out of the deal that we still like to tell every so often, particularly around the Holidays.



As for James, his sense of timing really hasn't improved much in the intervening 19 years or so.



As for me, for the life of me I still can't remember why I needed to pull the trans....



K

[Keith Seymore]

James actually has a long and glorious tradition of getting me in trouble.

As in the "Drag Race trip from Hell" story...

Again, while we were living in Arizona, I had a friend from back in Michigan visit for a few days. We decided while he was there it would be fun to take the Chevelle out to Firebird Raceway and make a few test passes.

I was company vehicle driver at the time and had a real nice red crew cab dually (big block powered) with Alcoa aluminum wheels, as my driver. I hitched up the open trailer, loaded up the car, and off we went.

Unfortunately, the afternoon and evening went downhill from there. During the course of the night the bearing in the alternator froze, pitching the fan belt. No big deal, in the grand scheme of things, but we were done for the day. After hanging out a bit we loaded up and headed for home.

It wasn't a very long trip but I noticed right after we got on the freeway that there was a local police car following me. I started checking my gages, making sure I wasn't speeding (or driving with my turn signal on) and everything seemed to be in order. We had already decided to stop for a snack so I exited the freeway and prepared for a right turn and, sure enough, that's when the pretty lights came on.

I pulled around into the restaurant parking lot and gathered my paperwork. The officer approached and, in a very nice way, let me know that it was not a traffic infraction that was causing a problem but that he was confused by all the various license plates shown on the represented vehicles: an Arizona "Manufacturer's Plate" on the truck, an active Michigan plate on the trailer and an expired Michigan plate on the car. I explained, slowly (and clearly, or so I thought) that the truck was owned by GM and that they were responsible for the registration and insurance; that the trailer was owned by my dad, sitting in the truck (..."hi dad"...) and that it was also up to snuff; and that I owned the car which I had not registered since moving to Arizona but which was ok since it was not street driven.

As I alluded, I thought I had layed this all out very clearly but, to my dismay, we had to go through this little dance two or three more times before the officer was finally satisfied. After a long delay back at his cruiser he suggested I have a nice day, that I drive safely, and with that he went on his way. I had already dismissed Dad, James and my guest to run into the restaurant and get a seat so, after the officer left, I locked everything up and headed inside.

...



...




About midway through our snack it occurred to me I didn't know where the truck keys were. I dug around in my pockets a bit and, not coming up with them, had that nagging sensation that I had locked the keys in the truck. I excused myself and headed back out to the truck to check.

Sure enough, there were the keys hanging in the ignition. All four doors were locked, windows up, and the truck was snugged up tighter than a drum. Fortunately, this was also not a big deal, on account of two things:

a) Those sliding rear windows, which don't look very secure......well, they aren't.

b) I had brought with me every tool that I owned, sitting in the pickup box of the truck.

Within a few short minutes I had popped the latch, slid the slider opened, jumped through the window and, keys in hand, went back inside to finish my snack.

When everyone else had finished we loaded up once again and, after just a few miles on the city streets, dropped my buddy at his hotel room.

By now it was getting fairly late at night. It wasn't far after that and I pulled into my own driveway and made arrangements to unload the car and stick it in the garage. But first - I told James to go directly inside and go to bed, without speaking to anyone. Riiiiiiight.....




Backing the rig into position I slung the garage door open - only to have it jump the track and wedge about halfway, unwilling to be opened further or closed completely. As I was in the process of gathering the necessary tools (...still in the truck...) to fix the door my wife pops out of the house, totally ripping me up one side and down the other because James had gone straight into our room to tell her that he (quote) "....had eaten so much junk food that he hoped he would never eat again..." (end quote). At this point the only thing I could do was stand there and shake my head, which I did - defenseless (because it was true - lol) and defeated. By the time she went back in I was so jazzed that I just stayed out there and fixed the car and put everything else away.

At any rate, this night set the standard for "bad race experiences" that has yet to be eclipsed.



K

[Adams74Chevy]

Great story

[Hart_Rod]

Great thread!

[geeforcem]

great thread... hoping to get started on my '86 custom deluxe. that i've had since the Spring of 1988.. my highschool truck.


jeff

[SBTork]

Great stories Keith. Keep sharing, they're always welcome.

[Keith Seymore]

I was looking for something else and stumbled upon this little "trip down memory lane" - courtesy of my old business cards:

The first one would be from the day I joined the Engineering group, in the C/K Assembly Liaison team. I held that job about 4 hours - before we split into the future C/K (GMT400) and current R/V teams. Obviously I stayed with the R/V truck:



That would be the 1985/1986 timeframe.

I was at Milford from 1986 to 1989, then the Desert from 1989 to January 1st of 1994.



Not shown was my brief tenure as a brake development engineer.

I came back to Michigan in 1994 to be a Design/Release engineer, both in Troy and then in Pontiac, for the GMT800 program. I designed the engine air induction system that is still in use today.



I've been doing this same job since the 2001 model year, so the same card will work even as the programs come and go (the 2001 Denali, the 2002 Escalade, 2003 pickup, 2007 utility, 2008 H2 and now the Volt):



...although I no longer have a desk phone...

[87 chevy silverado]

nice truck

[3r!c84]

all right Keith,so im droping my truck off later this week for a full resto like yurs

you do good work

[JohnC]

Cool retrospective with the business cards.

Now that I see you worked in the trucks in 2003 I have an issue for ya! Why is my gauge cluster messed up! j/k

[oldwagon]

U've dun a dinomite job on the truk and the Chevelle has plenty of class, too!

[Chief Bail]

Mr. Kieth Seymore

Sir You ARE GM history. And Im totaly honored to be a brother to you by way of this forum. By you telling your story and following with pictures of History. I felt like I was with you on that line. Running down stairs and heading to the dealership. Amazing my friend. Thank you very much for sharing and as far as im concerd. To alot of us your a GM Icon and we say Thank You.

Chief Michael Scriven

[Chief Bail]

Originally Posted by keith seymore

Originally Posted by keith seymore

thanks, guys....



You'd like this picture:




the new gto is from the gm heritage center collection and was the original car displayed at the sema show as a red 2004. It was updated to a 2005 and painted black for the show the following year. This was actually a "dynamic" shot - i was loading my car into the trailer and one of my buddies snapped the pic as i drove by!

I have always liked this photo; 40 years between them!

K

lord have mercy thank you jesus....woooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Keith Seymore]

Thanks, guys -

Thanks, Chief, and welcome!

Do you have any relatives up here? Our seat belt Design/Release engineer has the last name of Scriven.

K