My son's first truck

[OutlawDrifter]

You've got your own club/gang now with Victory Red V6 shortbeds!

[dieseldawg142]

don't ya know it...
what are the chances...
well our frikkin posties are on strike, getting hard to get my parts delivered. their strike has brought my build almost to a standstill...
but still doing what i can. finished de-decal-fying the truck. liking the cleaner look much better.


and seeing how the kid already jacked the skidplates off my stepper, went to the wrecking yard and got a skidplate package for $30


useless bit of trivia, half the skidplate bolts were gone, after digging thru my collection of nuts and bolts, found some that fit the truck. the bolts i found were actually fender bolts off an old '68 nova i had 'bout 25 yrs ago-who would have thought 56 yr old bolts would fit a '97...


first semi-serious mechanical prob showed up today. starter is starting to drag, lucky i have a less than 1 yr old mini on my stepper, so that's my mission today...in the rain no less...

[dieseldawg142]

too much rain, starter can wait till a drier day.
but i did manage to score these today for a hundred bucks....just wishin could find a victory red fender. have found 2, but both are like 8-10 hour round trip away

[dieseldawg142]

gotta luv them mini's, nice and lightweight...
starts like a mother now...


no wonder the starter was acting up, the pin in the lever came out...


finally scored a good set of mirrors for $40. i hate them low line factory mirrors, makes for a b***h backing up in the mountains at nite


unused new door handle off marketplace for $10 to replace the drivers handle, i think the spring is broke cause the handle doesn't go back in. and if you forget to tap it in, you have to go to the pass. side to get back in...

[dieseldawg142]

took it up the mountain last nite. climbs pretty darn good for being low and on 265's, mind ya, the 265's are 75% BF km2's


couple days of epoxy-ing and sanding my fender flares. they were pretty decent except the p.o. had drilled about 10 extra mounting holes on the flanges...which for my ocd just didn't cut it. now it's back to just the factory holes and some bedliner


and the p.o. was faa-weight challenged. the drivers side of the seat sags about 4-5" down, and has 4 tears in it. so i grabbed the seat out of the stepper (not sagged) and only 1 hole. first time in my life i ever sewed. wife says you sew, she'll clean it. used 8lb test fishing line hoping it won't come apart. not really concerned 'bout looks cause wifey bought me a nice seat cover- but don't get it till Christmas

[dieseldawg142]

and after wife cleaned it


always hate how the stock seats in gmt 400's sit so low. i don't drive "gangsta" style. so made a couple seat risers for under the seat


really wishin some stuff would hurry up and get here...did get my centercaps. i paint the backsides of them cause nothing worse than your caps rotting thru from the inside out.


i think they look not bad....prob look better when there's a rim in there...

[OutlawDrifter]

More progress is good progress!

[dieseldawg142]

yup
moving forward...slowly but still forward...
got the seat mounted today, what a pia. the captive nuts and bolts on the 1990 stepper seat is 7/16. the 1997 seat bolts are 3/8's. no prob, get some longer bolts.....except can't find gr. 8 3/8's bolts that are 3" long. so drilled out the nuts and re-tapped them to 7/16. need longer bolts to go thru my "risers". at least now i'm not looking thru the steering wheel..


also ditched the drop in bedliner, my dawgs hated it. skittering all over the place on it. surprisingly someone por 15 the box under the liner...bonus!
and no, that is not a pile of leaves. it's a leaf pattern dog blanket


finally A part showed up, just 1. temp gauge ain't working, hoping a new temp sensor will take care of it. can finally flush the rad out now, didn't want to do things twice. supposedly my hood release and cable, muffler, shocks, speakers, power steering pump and a few other things are supposed to show up this week...we'll see...still no word on when my rims are supposed to get here...sad face

[dieseldawg142]

couple more parts rollin' in.
finally got my muffler. the old one was giving me a headache.
no chineseum in this one


why anybody would put a 3" exhaust with a chambered muffler on a V6 is beyond me. it's NEVER gonna sound like a V8, and it actually just makes it sound waaaaay worse. sounded like a ricer with a fart can muff and was constantly backfiring when ya shift between gears. and it was only 14" long compared to the 20" long walker. my sons truck had the exact same lousy exhaust on his short box, so i bought the exact same muff for mine. only prob is it's quiet and i can really hear my p.s. pump whining now...but it's supposed to be here on thursday.


and my speakers showed up today, which means i finally get to fix the door handle and take care of the rattles, like the cooling system, didn't want to take the doors apart 2 times..