Meet CrewCad

[attack eagle]

Text below lifted from my welcome post.



I’ve never owned a truck of my own, though I had a gmt900 Tahoe a long time ago when they were still new.
I’ve driven one grandpas 85 d150 brothers 93 d150HD, dads 99 sclb srw c3500, grandpas 78 k15 sierra grande, etc etc long term over the years but never owned a truck personally,
Always had offbeat, unique cars, two mgbs, a 98 TSiAWD, 3 bmw wagons including my last one, a 2015, which was diesel & probably the most reliable and practical thing ever. 40+mpg at 80 and all the goodies and gizmos… but this will be my first custom truck.

But I’ve been bored with practical… so When an opportunity came up to buy someones project truck that had most of what I wanted but still needed Jesus and a lot of work, refurbishment and updating to make it right amd make it mine… I sold my beloved and rare (1of 93) wagon on dec. 3rd for what I paid for it 3 years and 30k miles ago, and bought “that ugly thing” three hours later because I’ve always wanted one since the 90s.


Meet CrewCad.



1995 CCLB Drw W/T that had some work by a conversion company a long long time ago, they painted it red instead of white, added a 1/4 sleeper amd power tonneau, rear helper bags, etc. and it had fallen into poor hands over the latter part of its life. Seems to have gone from loved to abused to loved to neglected over and over.

at some point in its life it had a Denali clip and Frenched DeVille taillights added, handles shaved, sir micheals roll pan and hidden hitch added, and the PO added the custom milled 22” alcoas.

Specs:
WT so no power windows, locks, cruise, lighted visors etc… but it does have carpet and AC!

7.4 tbi, 4l80e with a DNE2/ US Gear overdrive on the back of it, 22” alcoas. 5/8 drop with rear helper bags.

The po ditched the OEM benches and had some custom seats adapted to a bench frame, new headliner installed, did led conversions all around, and mostly let it sit in the yard and rot. He said he planned to strip it, convert to gmc and repaint it as the clear is failed.

And this is where I Came in and bought it because it was a solid truck and exactly what I wanted as a base.


So far I’ve pulled yards amd yards of disused wiring out of it, including some 15 feet of lamp cord!

Just a few of the things done so far in my first month of ownership…
converted to Escalade cluster and bezel, deleted the red led backlights the po thought were so cool but couldn’t be dimmed,
swapped the not horrible Dual media player head to Pioneer double din DVD with XM because I like physical media and XM still, ran a new pioneer rear view camera, and added a boyo flushmount front camera in the front bumper,
safari knob conversion for headlight switch and hvac, used best parts of two headlight switches to come up with 1 fully functional one, put OEM fog light switch in to control the fogs, though I run them as drls, swapped in Amber HID in the fogs which did put out more light… but were so troublesome that after the first week I bought white/amber switchback LEDs instead, amd did the Hi-4 mod and polished the lenses back to clear.
I replaced the crusty aftermarket open element air filter with a batwing 50s Cad style air cleaner, removed some POs gigantor gmt900 style manual tow mirrors for a set of replica stock mirrors with defrost and power options. They look better, work just as well and I have the option to retrofit both power and defrost in the future.
I had the front windows changed to 35% instead of 5% so I can actually see out of it at night,

Last week I converted/adapted the POs custom seats onto OBS power bucket bases, and this week I bought a set of almost junk Grey deluxe sunvisors off a 99 Denali with totally failed fabric which I disassembled, sprayed tan, and am recovering to match the saddle headliner because I got tired of the “original” ones falling down every time I hit a big bump.


I’m was also about 90% finished on adapting a mid 2010s Chrysler minivan center console to fit nicely against the dash but despite all the shaving it turned out it was going to be about 1/4” too tall after all… so yesterday I went and bought the denali console and an EC rear view mirror off that same 99 in the junkyard.


My 16 year old wanted to replace the overly bright cold white LED dome lights with a set of RGB lights which he and my 6 yo old daughter get a kick out of, so that got done and it solved the problem of those white ones staying faintly lit at night when they should have been off… which made it harder to see out of the truck at night too.

Just waiting for my personalized Classic plates to arrive so I can put it on…
CRWCAD was what I chose. Though*SIZED (* is the Texas symbol so Texas sized) was a strong contender!

Anyway long post but glad to be here as a truck owner vs just a lurker.

And yes, it’s staying Caddy since the tails are converted, no matter how “unkewl” that now is in some Circles, I like em and that’s what matters.