Re: Huck's 85 GMC shorty
 

Here's those master schematics in case anyone needs them. Might've found them here, can't remember what forum I found them on. If the upload quality sucks and you want a copy, PM me your email and I'll shoot over the high quality version

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I love how these turned out, they look OEM+. I don't mind the regular Dakotas but these just knock it out of the park. Super simple to get set up the way I liked as well

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Re: Huck's 85 GMC shorty
 

So at that point, I went up to our local driveshaft shop to see about getting a shaft built. He gave me 2 different yolks to try. Went home, figured out which would work best, took a measurement and gave him the specs of the truck. He build a stout 4" shaft with 1350 joints on either end.

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Then I took a couple pieces of pipe from my Speed Engineering builders kit and clamped them to the headers so we could bust it off and have the rear o2s be happy. We got it to run for about 30sec before the fuel pump died. This would begin a long saga....

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Re: Huck's 85 GMC shorty
 

That was an AC Delco EP381 that my tuner buddy swears by. Couldn't find another, so used a Dephi equivalent to replace it. Did that, loaded the truck in the trailer and took it to C10 Fall Revival in Oakboro, NC for it's unofficial debut in our AMD booth. Busted it off a couple times to listen to the thunder and all seemed good. Brought it back home and back into the shop it went. Had to drag it with the tractor since it still wouldn't drive at all. That turned out to be a bad TCM that wouldn't communicate

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Tinkered with it some more, got the TCM in it and flashed and got a basic start up tune loaded in. Went to pull it out to trailer it to the exhaust shop and it made it ~100yds before it ate another fuel pump :waah: So we winched it in the trailer again and had to push it into the exhaust shop.

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Re: Huck's 85 GMC shorty
 

I feel your frustration....

I did AC Delco pumps for my dually. Ist one failed before it made it out of the parking lot (drivers side tank @ <6wks old). Put a Delphi in its place.

The 2nd AC Delco (pass side tank) failed about 2months later. Luckily it was on my return trip from Conroe & I had the drivers side full to keep me moving.

The Delphi in the drivers tank failed within 2yrs.

For the 3rd round, I bought some Carters based on how the 'go-to' pumps did so well.

Re: Huck's 85 GMC shorty
 

So far, my posts have been catching up to present day. So far, we're still about 3yrs behind. I'm on fuel pump number 5, this one a Walboro. It also has gotten iffy, becoming very loud on my last cross country journey. Aeromotive may be my next step

Re: Huck's 85 GMC shorty
 

So at that point, once the exhaust was done and that fuel pump had died, I pushed the truck into my buddy's shop and didn't touch it again for several months. I had burnt myself out on the truck and needed to regroup.

My tuner kept telling me the Delco pump had to be a fluke and that the Delphi was an inferior pump. So I ordered another Delco, threw it in and trailered the truck down to his shop to start tuning. Well guess what...

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We only got it to fire a couple times, it would idle like crap and then die again. Then wouldn't fire at all. So back in the trailer it goes to get it out of his way. Around this time, my position at work changed and I now have access to our work area in our R&D center. So that's where I took it this time, so I'd have more room to work. Dropped the tank and threw in another Delco. This time, I also wired in a better relay and located it back at the tank. Re-ran a new, heavier gauge wire as well.

I don't know what made me do it, but when I went to change over the sock, I turned it over on my tailgate and wouldn't ya know, pieces came out! The Spectra sending unit I bought came with a sock that had one of those little plastic pieces in it to keep it from sucking in on itself and the plastic had started to come apart. That must've been what's been eating my pumps! So I grabbed one of our AMD senders off the shelf to rob the sock from and threw it all back together.

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FINALLY! I cranked it up and it would idle like it's supposed to and for the first time ever, I actually drove the truck! Only back and forth a few feet but still! That was a huge victory.

Re: Huck's 85 GMC shorty
 

My tuner offered to come to work this time rather than having me trailer it down to him. So I let him do his thing. He worked on it for a little over an hour and said "Man it runs good but it's got a dead miss at idle". Got my temp gun out and sure enough, #1 was cold. Swapped injectors, swapped coils but still nothing. Popped the valve cover off and I'd missed the intake rocker bolt, the rocker was just flopping. D'OH. Torqued that one back down, checked the rest and we finished up WOT tuning at that point.

After all the fuel pump issues, I was very leery at this point to beat on it, worried it might lean out and blow up. So I started daily'ing the truck back and forth to work, slowly getting more comfortable with it.

The guy that travelled with me to shows doing our marketing started harassing me to take it to Battle in Bama that May. That was only a couple weeks away at the time and I only had ~400mi on the truck, I didn't want to take the chance. Well, he finally harassed me enough that I loaded up my entire toolbox and spares and made the trip. 6.5hrs later, it made it with no issues and knocked down 22mpg! I was beyond happy with that.

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Even had to put her to work moving our display around in the soft ground :lol:

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Drove it to and from the show every day that weekend, made it home (10hr trip thanks to traffic) and pulled down 18mpg on the way home. Never turned wrench one. Was a very successful maiden voyage

Re: Huck's 85 GMC shorty
 

Well, I found out that the AC Delco's were 'made in mexico' but the Delphi's were still an OE tier supplier & made in Michigan thus my decision to switch to them.

Once it failed, I figured I'd give Carter a shot. I still haven't done the passenger side tank. It's had 20gals of gas sitting in it for >4yrs now so I bought a whole new tank just to make life easier when I did the work.

Glad your start-up voyages went well for you. Looking forward to more details as you get us caught up.

Re: Huck's 85 GMC shorty
 

I've never heard of Carter fuel pumps, hopefully that works for ya. If this Walboro poops the bed, I'll probably just get an Aeromotive fuel pump module. That would work best with my eventual AutoX goals anyway

Re: Huck's 85 GMC shorty
 

Before the show, I'd been wheel shopping and really liked the look of these US Mag Bullet's. Throughout the weekend though, I saw these on EVERYTHING. Chevelles, S10s, C10s, mini-trucks, newer stuff, EVERYWHERE. So that was a no-go

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Got home and immediately started shopping again. Found the US Mag Roadster and knew that was the one. I grew up helping my dad and his friend work on and race air-cooled 911 Porsches. These wheels kinda have that Fuch's look to them but also fit the truck being a similar color to the original rallies. Plus the rears were available all the way up to a 10.5, so that was nice as well. Got them in and started test fitting

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Re: Huck's 85 GMC shorty
 

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You can see how close the wheel was to the inner rear wheel tubs and those bolts. I went back and forth on tire size for a week or so before I said YOLO and ordered 315/35/20s in the back and 255/40/20s up front. Yeah yeah, they don't match. They couldn't get the matching set, but they're both Toyos. One Proxes 4s and the other Proxes Sport or something

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Re: Huck's 85 GMC shorty
 

Backed it out and man I couldn't take my eyes off of it

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Unfortunately, one of their guys didn't know what he was doing and had ruined the rear wheel with the tire machine. So they had to order me a new pair. I still have these stashed for someday when I build a matching truck bed trailer
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So at this point, I just drove the truck for a while and enjoyed it. Wasn't long after this that I sold my daily NBS and this was all I had. This would've been around the time that gas was down around $1.20 or so, so running around in a premium swilling hotrod didn't hurt too bad. I daily'd it, took it to several different shows and just enjoyed the hell out of it for several months this way.

The first C10s in the City in Atlanta
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Hanging out at Howe's It Doin Garage with my buddy Rick (SQRBDY, he sells cool merch) and his LS swapped '86
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On our way to SETN '21
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Re: Huck's 85 GMC shorty
 

huck, enjoyed the build & looking at a nice truck!! I too have had a few "dealings" with the AC D pumps (EP 381) I installed 2 in my '86 LS SWAPPED truck (build on here) and one failed after about 3 startups. I grudgingly replaced the bad one with same like and kind, so far I THINK both are operating correctly. my issue is that I get "lean pops" at initial start up - for about 1-2 minutes, then it seems to run fine (no codes) my tuner thinks my FP needs to be more (currently steady around 52-55PSI). he thinks I need to replace the delcos with Whalbros and separate filter and regulator.... aarrggg. anyways very nice truck & maybe catch you out here "in the desert" soon... C10 reunion maybe! :metal:

Re: Huck's 85 GMC shorty
 

Thanks! I'll keep updating this thread to get up to current times. I've been out your way for Dino's Git Down the last 2 years in Glendale. I work for AMD and we had a booth set up there, gave away a whole squarebody body in '22 and several bed kits this past year. Hoping I get to go again this year.

Your fuel pressure is definitely just a touch low, you should be at 58psi. For my setup, I'm running the Walboro in tank 255 in a stock '87 TBI sending unit. I ran hose along the driver's frame and mounted an '06 Corvette fuel filter/regulator where it's easily accessed. Then a return line goes from that back to the tank and a supply goes to the motor. That filter/regulator combo is set at 58psi for the stock Corvette. I stick with either AC Delco or Wix though, I've had issues with off brand filters and so has my tuner. Something to think about.

Re: Huck's 85 GMC shorty
 

So like I said, I drove this thing everywhere, even drove it all through winter '21/22 cuz that was my only vehicle. It was around this time that we started using my truck pretty regularly for test fitting of new parts at work. The first one being bumper brackets for the sport bumper. So off comes the nasty ole dealer bumper

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Re: Huck's 85 GMC shorty
 

Took a little maneuvering to get everything square. I debated tucking it like all my buddies do but decided against it. The bumper already doesn't flow with the side of the truck well and it really looks weird if you push it forward 2-3"

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So I harvested some gravel pans from one of our parts trucks and threw those on. I'll make a cover that goes all the way across eventually.

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Much better, just waiting on a tag bracket

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Re: Huck's 85 GMC shorty
 

That what I did. I made a single stainless 'cover' that followed the contour @ each end of the bumper.

Re: Huck's 85 GMC shorty
 

One thing I forgot to mention when I first got the truck was, I rebuilt the whole front end and the front springs were too soft so I swapped in some 454 3/4 ton springs with 1 coil cut. Well, once I put the aluminum LS in, they were too stiff. Truck sat too high and rode too rough.

So after I got the new wheels, I put the stock 1/2 tons back in and trimmed 1/4 coil at a time till I was happy. Ended up going a little too far and I rubbed like a MOFO with the 255/40/20s lol. There was a point on the hwy that I swear they stopped when I hit a bump doing 70, awful noise and smoke lol. Since I liked the way it sat (I figure I'm ~5-5.5" up front), SloshTubz were needed. I got Mike's MildAC Tubz since I planned to keep the factory AC

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What sucks was, he didn't give me the template :lol: So I had to sneak up a little at a time and just go by the picture he sent me. Used a HoboFreight body saw for all of it

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Re: Huck's 85 GMC shorty
 

First test fit. There were many, many more after this trying to sneak up on it

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Up front by the battery tray
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Back toward the firewall

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Driver's side

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Finally done after 2 days. Ignore the intake, had to make due with what I had till I could order some more pieces and build a new one

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Re: Huck's 85 GMC shorty
 

It was around that same time that we had developed a bedfloor that was already made to work with our 4" wider wheel tubs that we'd been selling for a couple years at that point. So I got the nod to test fit the 2nd prototype (1st came in damaged) in my truck

Thank god for equipment lol. Spent a couple hours after work for 2 or 3 days working on getting everything separated and the seam sealer cleaned off

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Re: Huck's 85 GMC shorty
 

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So then I laid the new floor on the forks to start building the bed back up. First step was to hang each bedside. I'd used wheels and tires to give me some balancing ballast

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Re: Huck's 85 GMC shorty
 

One problem I ran into was, my bedsides were too short! Only by ~1/4" or so but apparently when they cut the truck down, they didn't measure very well. I'd always thought my bed gap looked larger than others but I wasn't certain. AMD didn't want me to slice and dice the bedfloor so I made a relief cut in each bedside to allow it to pooch forward a touch through the front panel. Basically just made some larger drain holes, no BFD


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Re: Huck's 85 GMC shorty
 

Nice! That's exactly what I plan to do but I'll use regular sheet metal and paint it to match

Re: Huck's 85 GMC shorty
 

I debated on what material/coating to use & decided the stainless would work as-is & could paint/coat it later if I wanted to update things.

I was initially intending to use Epoxy Satin Black on the top side w/the stainless hardware but once I was doing the final mock-up, I liked the look of the DA'd surface so I left it bare instead.

Re: Huck's 85 GMC shorty
 

So once the bed was back together, I pulled it and the truck outside to wash the front bed panel and back of the cab before putting them back together

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