hmmmm...

[1badgmc]

Well, I'm mostly into '88-'98 trucks, but I do have an '88 crew cab dually that I have big plans for and no money or time to execute them. I've also got an '84 K5 Jimmy, but that project is all but dead right now.

I just figured I'd drop in and check the place out and say "Hey!"

 

[Shaggy]

got any pics as I haven't seen them yet.

 

[1badgmc]

This is the truck...

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It's a one-owner truck. My dad took delivery of it in August of 1988 with 12 miles on the odometer. It's at 78,*** original miles now, but unfortunately the truck's appearance makes it seem more like 178,000. It's a Centurion conversion that we actually got to see on the line at the Centurion facility in Michigan a couple months before taking delivery. It's powered by a 454 and after the third TH400 tranny started to give up the ship, my dad had a 5-speed swapped in.

My dreams ("dreams" being a more appropriate word than "plans" at this point) are for it to look something like this...

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...probably not laying body and maybe even not bagged, but nice and low on some 22" semis with the black & blue 2-tone. The blue in the 2-tone is the same blue as I have on my '91. I already have the '89-'91 GMC grille to swap on. The body would get nothing more than the removal of all the conversion doo-dads and get straightened out. A shaved tailgate and a rollpan are the only real mods I'd make, though I would like to suicide the rear doors.

I would like to change the burgundy interior to gray and go with '95-'98 buckets in front and bench in the rear and probably a matching year center console. Some Auto Meter gauges behind the dash bezel and a couple of screens for the kids and I'd be happy.

Something needs to be done with the drivetrain too. The 454 in this thing has always been pretty anemic. It needs more power. A Cummins swap might be a possibility and convert it back to an auto.

Big (but realistic) dreams, just no budget right now. I need to sell my soul.

 

[bucket]

Honestly, I like how it looks now better than the blue/black one.

Why did it keep eating the th400's? Something had to be rotten in Denmark.

 

[1badgmc]

Honestly, I like how it looks now better than the blue/black one.

It looked good when it was new, but it has a very dated look. My tastes have evolved since I was an 11 year old boy when my dad picked the truck up at the dealership. Clean, simple and understated is how I prefer my vehicles. The truck's current look doesn't fit any of those. Gotta take it down a few notches. Then there's the fact that I'm a blue fanatic. Nothing attracts me to a vehicle more than a beautiful shade of blue. I want some blue on it without the expense of having to do a full color change.

Why did it keep eating the th400's? Something had to be rotten in Denmark.

The first one let go around 48,000 miles one day when I was driving it. I took off from a stop light, looked in the mirror and saw a huge cloud of white smoke. A seal let go and sprayed transmission fluid on the exhaust. Why it decided to go will always be a mystery. The truck made a few cross-country and short trips pulling my parents' RV, but the majority of those miles were unloaded.

My dad took it to a shady transmission shop to have it repaired. The next transmission blew in the middle of St. Louis rush hour traffic pulling the RV coming home from vacation. This was about 3 months and less than 4,000 miles after it had been rebuilt. We spent a week in St. Louis while it was rebuilt again. That one lasted a while, but was on its way out when my dad had enough and went for the 5-speed.

 

[1badgmc]

This was my dad's first dually...

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It's a '75, 350 4-speed that he bought in '76. It is the truck that began my love of square bodies and duallies. He sold it in '88 before taking delivery of the new truck. These pictures were taken only a few months ago. I just happened to be driving by Home Depot and saw it sitting in the parking lot. I wished I would have had time to wait for the owner to come out and talk to him about it, but I didn't. Hopefully I'll get lucky and see it again someday. I would love to be able to buy it back sometime, but I'm just happy to see that it's still on the road and appears to be reasonably cared for.

 

[bucket]

Looks like it's still in great shape, the owner must care about it a lot. That's not something you see very often. Usually when you sell something that's been cared for, if you see it again, it's had the crap beat out of it.

 

[1badgmc]

Looks like it's still in great shape, the owner must care about it a lot. That's not something you see very often. Usually when you sell something that's been cared for, if you see it again, it's had the crap beat out of it.

So true. It had been a good 10 years at least since the last time I had seen it running around. I had thought about the truck not long before the day I saw it. I wondered where it had gotten off to and hoped it didn't end up in a salvage yard somewhere. Obviously it didn't. I sure hope I can run across it again in the future.

 

[Old77]

Welcome 1badgmc...Now I get to see that sweet GMC sig on both FSC and here!

 

[1badgmc]

Thanks.

 

[Butch]

Gonna look sick, love the 2 tone plans

 

[Manbearpig]

Gonna look sick, love the 2 tone plans

This


Welcome to the site man!