I picked the 84 diesel short bed up today.

[rs74]

Well I made the five hour trip down to take a look at it today. Actually took six with a few stops. I will have to say that I almost walked away without it. I knew that I shouldn't be expecting much considering what he was asking. As far as interior I was hoping for the majority of it get by with a good cleaning but no such luck. The door panels are all chalky and there is a layer flaked off on top of the panels. Dash pad is pretty cracked up, Kick panels look about like the door panels, no headliner. Needless to say I am going to the junk yard to look for possible replacement pieces in either the tan it is now or some Mahogany.

The body is pretty much what I thought it may be, well maybe a little more paint loss and rust than expected. There are a couple of spots on the tailgate that need cut out and replaced. Not very big spots though. Maybe two 2"x2" sections. The one spot that I cringed when I saw it was the drivers door jam rear vertical seam. It is starting to rust where the seam sealer was. I am going to brush on some rust killer, sand down with a flap sanding disc and see if it needs more rust killer. Have to replace a window switch after I lube the tracks down. The heater box is not switching modes so I assume as of now that maybe the plastic clip for the blend door might be broke.

Definitely needs some tires but I may put a set of wheels on it for temps until decide what size tires to put on the rallies. I have an 85-87 GMC grill found for it. I know its an 84 but this grill is new. I might just put the new one on the dually and take the dually grill and put on the short bed along with the spare headlight bezels I have.

Anyway after looking it all over and needing pretty much everything I just described I was starting to feel in my gut that this may be more than I wanted to mess with. He started it and it would run for about 10-15 seconds then die. Did that about three times so I was really getting that feeling even more. I had not even drove it yet and thought it was a lost cause. I told the guy I thought it needed more than I wanted to give. I think it must have upset him a little by the way he said REALLY?, kind of like I was nuts. He said it ran good and drove good and that it was out of fuel so that was why it ran like that he thought. So I said if he went and got some fuel for it then I would take it more a drive. While he was gone me and a buddy talked about it for a bit. My friend thought for the money it wasn't a bad deal. If nothing else fix it on the cheap and flip it or part it out. Well the test drive changed my mind for the most part. He put fuel in it and it ran just fine, never died once and idled fine. I drove it and it actually had some pep in its step for having 3.08 gears even though the 700r4 is toast. The steering was nice and tight too. So for those couple of reasons we negotiated and I loaded it up.

So I am junk yard hunting for interior parts, looking for tires, taking all the side trim off so I can buff it out and then see about getting new trim back on and figuring out what to do about a transmission. I have read where a couple of people have taken a gas 700r4 trans and put in a diesel converter and everything was fine. Still on the fence as to what I am doing there. Anyway if I get time tomorrow I will get more pics. Been a long day with six hours there, couple of hours messing with the truck and six hours back.

[68post]

Looks like a good starting point and I have nothing but encouragement for you.

The one other thing ,(besides the convertor ), that may be different btw a gas or diesel trans is the valve body. The diesel version likely shifts much sooner and this will effect mileage.
I had to short-shift my diesel manual trans truck to bring the mileage up from 10 to sometimes as high as 15 mpg .

[rs74]

First truck I have had that has the little sport mirrors. Not sure if I am going to like them or not yet. Time will tell. Came factory with bed rails but they are long gone. I still need to comb over the SPID sticker to see what all it was optioned with.

[68Timber]

Cool. Looking forward to seeing updates.

[68post]

Originally Posted by rs74

First truck I have had that has the little sport mirrors. Not sure if I am going to like them or not yet. Time will tell. Came factory with bed rails but they are long gone. I still need to comb over the SPID sticker to see what all it was optioned with.

I've never had truck mirrors that small, I like to see a little more than that provides.
Reminds me of when I was backing-up a restored '47 dump truck on the edge of a big hill with little round mirrors of the size on a motorcycle.

[old Rusty C10]

looks pretty nice in that pic.. I hate those sport mirrors you need to see as much as you can on one of these trucks good luck with it tho I look forward to seeing the progress

[rs74]

Tried to get the truck off the trailer today. Dead batteries. Go figure. Well there's another $200.

On another note I have never saw one of these covers that go over the AC box.

[68post]

I've never seen that either , sound deadening ?

[rs74]

Originally Posted by 68post

I've never sen that either , sound deadening ?

That's what was said. I don't know. I'm kind of thinking that if I peel that off and it has a pretty nice AC box that it might come off and go on my 85 short bed build and I put the one for it back on this diesel truck.

[cochino12]

glad you picked the diesel. Seems like diesels came with better color combos.

[rs74]

It's going to need some work to get it presentable for the most part. Once I get a couple of batteries in it then I will start cleaning and degreasing it. I need to try to get the rest of the side trim off. I assume that once I get the trim off then I can use one of those eraser wheels to get the tape underneath off.

[rs74]

I charged the batteries up for a couple of hours this evening. I went out and it fired right up and purred like a kitten. Let it run for about twenty minutes and it never missed a beat. Shut it off and then I just barely hit the key and it fired up. Gotta love that. Didn't even make a full rotation and it was running.

I took some pics of the interior even though it was dark. Not sure about the trim pieces that go around and above the doors but both sides have the same uniform two different color pieces in the same places. The middle piece is a different shade. Not sure if it's because they are metal and the pieced to the side are plastic or what. I think I remember a truck that might have some interior pieces at the junk yard from last year when I stripped and interior out of another truck. As soon as time permits I am going to make a trip over and see what I can find. I was going through the interior pics thread and saw a couple that had a red painted bottom side of dash with tan interior. Got me thinking because I have a complete (minus seat) burgundy interior and was wondering what that would look like against the bronze paint thats on this dash. Probably not real pretty. So now to the pics.

[rs74]

Both door panels and lower kick panel look like this. The top layer is pretty much all gone.

[rs74]

It's going to need a little lovin on the inside. Seat is toast too. Carpet is ripped up as well. Might see if I can find me a better looking diesel dash bezel too.

[D13]

The start and stall is usually lost prime.

Shift points are different for a diesel, don't know if its in th VB or governer, IM Clinebarger for help.

Looks like a great project!