'84 GMC C2500 Sierra Classic Crew Cab 454 SM465 Build

I pickup up this rig May 20th, and immediately started tearing it down on the inside. My plan is to make it a nice camping/tow wagon to pull my small 28ft 5th wheel. The 454 is solid and runs great, and the tranny feels very fresh, so my initial effort has been to get the interior squared away. Long term plans include a fresh 454 that is built to tow, a gear vendor overdrive, and lastly taking care of the paint and body work.

Here is a pic of the rig once I got it home. I drove it 300 miles home. Stopped about 20 miles into my journey to replace the fuel filter in the carb, after that it ran absolutely awesome.



So I stripped everything out of the interior to get a good look at the floorpans. They felt real solid and looked good underneath when I bought it, and I was happy to find only surface rust. 30 minutes with a wire wheel and a good cleaning, then I put down two coats of brush on Eastwood Rust Encapsulator.


Then it was on to figure out why the gauges wouldn't work. Cleaned the connections on the printed circuit, cleaned the gauge terminals, oiled the speedo cable, and reattached a broken ground wire. Cleaned up the gauges and reinstalled. They all work great now (temp sending unit unplugged in pic).


Next I started on the new vinyl floor. I really like the vinyl, but to say it is vacuum formed to the floor is very misleading. I spent several hours trimming, fitting, heat gunning, and using colorful language to finally get it to fit decently. Overall I am happy with it, and I am sure it will look better as the summer heat helps it contour to the floor.


In between working on all the previously mentioned items, I have been refinishing every bit of trim and the door panels. I even used vinyl paint/dye to refinish the carpet panels and the inserts on the door panels. Overall I am very pleased with the look of the door panels, dash, and trim. Best part is I am only in about $100 to refinish the door panels, dash, trim, and seat trim. Here is a pic of a rear door panel I just installed tonight.


I am picking up my seats tomorrow from the upholstery shop and all new seat belts I had made at seatbeltplanet.com here in Oklahoma. I'm very anxious to see the seats and belts. The truck came with only lab belts in the back, but I am upgrading to shoulder belts since my kids will be riding back there. I still have a long way to go, but I intend to get the interior part of this build done this summer. Engine, overdrive, and paint will probably wait a while so I can save up funds again. I should have more pics to post by sunday evening. Hopefully you guys will enjoy this build. And feel free to ask questions should you want to know anything. I may be new to this forum, but I'm not new to square bodies.

 

What color dye did you use? Looks like a gray.

 

The picture of the door panel was in the dark and the colors look terrible. The panel is blue and the cloth insert and carpet panel are both gray. I used the duplicolor vinyl paint/dye rattle can in charcoal. I'll get some better pics up this weekend.

 

Thanks for the info on the frame, I did not know that. Nice to know I have a super stout foundation since I plan to use this rig as a camping/towing rig to haul my family and pull our 5th wheel with. New pickups are just so expensive, and not anywhere near as cool as these square crews.

As for the tranny, I thought about swapping to the automatic, but I really like having a manual. Adding a gear vendor will also give me essentially 7 gears, which will be awesome for towing.

I had my seats redone at Sonny's Auto Trim in Midwest City. I picked them up today, and they look really good. I hope to get them install this weekend and then I'll get some pics up.

 

Alright, update time.......first off, the rain here on Saturday really slowed me down, but I still got a lot done. Truck won't fit in my garage, so I'm at the mercy of mother nature.

Friday I picked up my seats from the upholstery shop. I love them, they turned out awesome!


I also picked up my brand new set of seat belts. So the next item on my list was to get all my stereo and speakers taken care of. I bought the custom kick panel speaker pods and the metal 6x9 brackets for the rear corners (can't remember if those are from someone here on this forum or not). I got them all painted up and installed. I also went ahead and plugged in the head unit just to test everything, and let me tell you, the system rocks (gotta have my tunes for long drives, lol). I really like both the kick panel pods and rear speaker brackets.

Here is the kick panel speaker pods installed.


And here is the rear speaker bracket installed with my new seat belt, which now gives the rear occupant shoulder and lap belts instead of just a lap belt (makes me feel better about putting my 5 year old and almost 3 year old back there).


It's coming together. I hope to wrap up the stereo and bezel tomorrow, then get the headliner put back in and finally install the seats. Then install the new steering wheel and get my trailer brake controller installed. Then its on to the mechanical side of things (new radiator, cap, rotor, wires, plugs, thermostat, fan clutch, hoses, belts, brakes, tranny fluid change, rear end fluid change, etc. I could keep going. lol). I've done a lot, but still a long way to go...........

 

I'd love to find a used GV overdrive, but they are fairly rare, or so it seems. I have yet to find one that wasn't ridiculously priced. If I have to pay full price for a new GV Overdrive, I'm okay with that. I'll get lots of good use out of it.

 

Project is coming along great, and go with a Gear Vendor you'll love it..

 

I haven't checked to see if it will clear, but there does seem to be enough movement that if you had the brake adjusted properly that it should engage before hitting the speaker pod. I'll know better once I get done on the interior and move on to the mechanicals of the rig.

 

I finished up the stereo install tonight, and am now working on installing all the new seat belts. I also put the cleaned up headliner back in so that once I get this thing done I can drive it down to the upholstery shop and have them redo the headliner. I hope to finish the seat belts tomorrow and install the last of the door panels, then install the seats on Wednesday. If only I could afford to not have to work, then I could work on this thing all day...............lol