1996 K2500 “Krovvy”

[n8in8or]

Carry on @n8in8or , excellent work, once you finish those projects, I would like to ask you if you are for hire?

Got some jobs down South in God's Country for you... .

Sure, let’s see how long it takes to get through my list and then we’ll see what’s left for your list.

 

[n8in8or]

Yesterday was yard work, but I was able to get back to Krovvy this afternoon.

After installing the body mount bolts I shifted to interior removal. I got everything removed except the dash and the door panels. I was pleasantly surprised by how good the floor pan looked under the carpet. There’s some nastiness at the door sills, but it could still be worse. It won’t take much to get this cleaned up.



There was a ton of change in the truck with a honey hole by the driver side seat belt.



I also found what looks like a mostly unused key fob under the center console so that was a nice find.

 

[ak diesel driver]

Are you doing a rubber floor?

 

[n8in8or]

Are you doing a rubber floor?

The plan has been to clean the carpet and reinstall it, but if I could find a rubber floor mat in good shape I’d be tempted to run it.

 

[ak diesel driver]

I put a rubber floor in my plow truck, I really like it. I'm hoping it keeps the floor drier so it doesn't rust. The weak spot is the threshold. I actually considered doing a spray in bed liner system on it.

 

[n8in8or]

I rolled bedliner on the floor of my F350 and liked it for that truck, but I want more noise suppression for this truck. It would be nice to improve the thresholds and make a gutter system for them to drain the cab better.

 

[Husker6.5]

Wow! All that "buried treasure" almost pays for the truck!

 

[Husker6.5]

Are you doing a rubber floor?

No, he's just doing rubber walls for his crazy room!

 

[Husker6.5]

Those door sills don't look too bad, all things considered. Now, if that was a 1980's Ford, you would be able to see the ground through them!

 

[n8in8or]

I had a couple hours today so I was able to get the rest of the interior out. No real surprises found. I’m happy to see that the upper dash mounts are still intact - I feel pretty fortunate about that.

 

[Duvall]

I am a little disappointed that there are still speakers in the doors.

You are slipping ,Nate.

 

[ak diesel driver]

Can I get you to take more pictures of the dash assembly? Would have been nice to see more of how it came apart

 

[n8in8or]

I am a little disappointed that there are still speakers in the doors.

You are slipping ,Nate.

I’m still deciding on if I’ll leave the speakers or do some replacements. I have further decisions to make on the doors since they’re rusty in the bottom - leave them for now and address/replace later (since it’s easy to do anytime down the road and not dependent on the truck being torn down), try doing lower doorskins for the first time now or try to find some clean, red doors now. Smart money says I leave them alone for now, but I never did claim to be smart, unless it was followed by the word “ass” in some cases.

 

[n8in8or]

Can I get you to take more pictures of the dash assembly? Would have been nice to see more of how it came apart

I bought a GM manual set off eBay a couple weeks ago and it still isn’t here, so I Googled “GMT400 dash removal” and found a good thread with helpful info. The only thing mine didn’t have was the airbags, but otherwise the info was spot on.

Dash removal and replacement

I replaced the dash in my 1998 K1500 and thought I'd post a how-to. The steps below are from alldatadiy.com which, I think, mimics the factory service manual. I've added pictures to relevant parts as some of the steps are a little vague. I'd really recommend getting a box of ziploc bags and...

www.gmt400.com

 

[ak diesel driver]

Thanks

 

[n8in8or]

Thanks

You’re welcome. If you need any specific pics let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

 

[Husker6.5]

I’ll talk to the Vegas odd makers on if Nate accidentally does a full frame off restoration by accident to this one...

It looks like he's well on the way now!

 

[n8in8or]

I’ve been picking away at this truck a little in between other projects. Earlier I reinstalled steering bits since I had robbed the Moog parts from this truck to put on the dually. I upgraded this time by installing Mevotech TTX tie rod ends, solid tie rod sleeves (can’t recall brand now) and a Super Steer idler support.



I used the green Tahoe’s front hitch to pull the truck out of the barn and turn it around. So handy.



I need to get a mockup engine and trans in the truck so I can start fabbing the turbo hot pipes for it, but first I wanted to get the front diff installed. I spent a couple hours the other day get it cleaned up. I think I’m going to leave the aluminum raw, but paint the steel parts with KBS.



I didn’t want to open a can of KBS just to do those little pieces of the diff so I was trying to think of what else I could paint. I decided I might as well work towards getting the floor ready for paint so I could paint the floor and diff at the same time. I lightly wire wheeled the floor to prep it and found my nemesis - rust. Tonight I cut out and patched the rust. Now I can get back to paint prep.

 

[Big T]

Feel for you who have to deal with rust. For me, so not worth it.

 

[DieselAmateur]

If the condition of the front diff is unknown, do yourself a favor and replace the front axle seals while it's out of the truck. The driver's side is incredibly frustrating to do in frame. Wish I had done the same when I swapped mine