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88GMCtruck's 99 6.5L Towpig slow build.

88gmctruck

88gmctruck

02GMCtruck
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Location
Auburn, Wa
Well, for those of you who didn't catch the initial thread of my newest "project", I decided to start a thread to document what I'm doing to the truck.

Anyway, here is the towpig. It's a 1999 Silverado K2500, 6.5L 5-speed I bought with 146,000 miles. It was in good shape, just needed a cleaning.

After the initial bath
P1110170.jpg

P1110172.jpg

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Anyway. The truck is going to be the roadtrip vehicle and the towpig for the trailer. Short term is a few cosmetic mods, midterm is a few performance mods, and longterm is a SAS. It will at some point also be converted to a GMC.

Few things I have already gathered.

Cablights
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Underhood reel light and Kodiak door handle
IMG_20110209_163322.jpg


Set of PYOs for $150 (had to set a centercap on there to see how they would look)
IMG_20110213_163854.jpg

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Now, you might be wondering what the thing next to the tire is......It's a 33"x10"x2.5" aluminum heatsink.
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I need a better PMD cooling setup on the truck now and want to remote mount something in the bumper area, I honestly just can't justify spending over $100 for a PMD heatsink kit because all they are is a big aluminum heatsink. Well I ended up getting this thing for $30 at a local surplus place, and will cut it to a smaller size obviously.

Few other things the truck will be getting soon:
A set of 235/85R16 Load E Wild Country TXR tires
Swap the towing mirrors & brake controller off the 88
LED clearance light under tailgate
Tinted windows
New hood
Some sort of CD player. Anyone have their factory Delco they wanna get rid of?!

So, there it is. The truck honestly runs great, and strictly highway has shown me 22MPG, mixed highway and city 18.5MPG. I can't complain too much about that.
 
So I have to ask in the picture with the pass seat leaned forward there is a plastic thing on the side of the tunnel behind the slide rail. What is it?
 
Rear floor vents. The later generation of ex-cabs and SUVs had vents back there for the rear passengers.
 
Nice lookin rig. As mentioned in detroit dan's thread, those center caps won't work on those wheels with the original plastic lug nut covers. Burning oil says the lug covers from the center caps that came with those wheels will work with those center caps. I'm a big fan of the PYO wheels also. I have them for most of my trucks. Something you need to do right away is get the uncoated balance weights off of them and get the plastic coated ones made for aluminum wheels. The uncoated weights will eat the clearcoat off the rims. Before you buy tires, google "treadwright". They sell very high quality tires at a reasonable price. There has been several towing mirror threads here you might want to search for.
 
Well the wheels have a little bit of fubared clearcoat where wheel weights once were. I'm actually setting out right now to strip the clearcoat off them and just maintain a hand polish on them like I do with the 88. I wasn't aware about the lugnut covers not fitting, but I do have a few of the other style floating around so I might give them a shot.

Also, I know plenty about towing mirrors, infact I installed the GMT800 style ones on my 88, that is what I'm swapping on to the 99 since it's the dedicated tow rig now.
 
Yup, all 4 of them.

Anyway, with the help of Devin we set out to strip the clearcoat off the PYOs. It was easier than I expected. Only problem with them is wherever there was bad clearcoat the aluminum was lightly etched and pitted under it. Most of it came out and isn't noticeable with a bit of elbow grease. PYOs shine up extremely well and have a better luster than when they were clear coated.
IMG_20110214_131639-1.jpg


Then we took the wheels off to get mounted to a set of Wild Country TXR 235/85R16 Load E tires I traded Devin for. I also polished up the GMT400 center caps and installed them with the GMT800 lug covers.
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Also repainted the used kodiak door handle I picked up at the junkyard, NOS one is on the left, re-painted on the right.
IMG_20110214_175036-2.jpg
 
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Good LORD those PY0s look sexy on there. I really want a set of GMT-400 GMC Caps. They look sooooooo much better on there, it isn't even funny.
 
@#$%^& young'ns got too much energy. Ok the truth of the matter... you inspire me and I just can't keep up.

I've got the carpet and everything touching it out of my rig now but, it will be probably Monday before it is all put back together. In the meantime, it is pretty loud in the cab.

Keep up the good work.
 
Thanks guys! Well, I'm hoping that tomorrow I'll feel well enough to swap the towing mirrors and install my Kodiak door handles. I've been a bit under the weather and all the work yesterday took it out of me.
 
Im running the same wheel/cap combo, but GMC. Im still looking for a second set of Kodiak handles for the rear doors if anyone has a set for sale.
Truck looks good, how much to come detail mine?
 
Leroy, If i had time to keep all 3 trucks clean i'd start cleaning other's stuff as well.

There was at least another Kodiak handle down at the wrecker's I got this one from. Devin and I are planning to head back that way in the next few weeks to pilfer parts, if he has 1 or 2 i'll snag them and sell them to you for their price + shipping. IIRC they charged $20/ea with lockrods. Or maybe I can trade you a set for a PMD extension cable.
 
88gmctruck said:
Leroy, If i had time to keep all 3 trucks clean i'd start cleaning other's stuff as well.

There was at least another Kodiak handle down at the wrecker's I got this one from. Devin and I are planning to head back that way in the next few weeks to pilfer parts, if he has 1 or 2 i'll snag them and sell them to you for their price + shipping. IIRC they charged $20/ea with lockrods. Or maybe I can trade you a set for a PMD extension cable.
Click to expand...

Heh heh heh. I like the sound of that.
 
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