1989 Crew Cab Service Truck - Big Red

[80schevyaddict]

Howdy. Thought since I browse the forums here a lot that I would get off my butt and actually register so that I could post my own little build thread.

I have owned more than a few third gen chevy trucks over the years (I actually have 5 in the yard at the moment and 4 are complete runners). But one that I have never seemed to get my hands on was a crew cab model. Hard as hell to find up here as they are usually in horrible shape, since most were bought by companies for work (and they were worked to death). Or someone has already restored/customized one and now wants big dollars for a truck that I would have tear back down to get it the way I want.

So naturally one day I was checking the online classified section for trucks (which I seem to do every day, even when I am not looking at buying a truck) and found what was just about the perfect truck at an actual reasonable price. I had seen the truck for sale before in passing, but didn't think much of it as there was never a picture posted. But this time the owner actually posted a pic. The truck had been for sale for a while as he was pretty much in the middle of no where. I really liked what I saw, called him up and went to see the truck that day. The next day I went back with cash in hand and a trailer to bring her home.





1989 Chevy R3500 (1ton), dually, crew cab, long box, dual fuel tanks, with a service box on the rear, 3spd auto and a 7.4L big block V8 454 under the hood.

The truck was owned by a paving company that owned it since new. The truck was all original. Even the service box in the back had a data plate from 89.



The truck was in excellent shape as the paving company only used it during the summer and it was stored inside during the winters.

The only little problem I could see was the rockers.

Passengers side (this was later on when I removed the stupid side steps):



Drivers side:



Other than some surface rust here and there she was great.

Though like I said above, she is almost the perfect truck. The one thing I was sad that it didn't have was 4x4. This is actually the very first non-4x4 vehicle I have ever owned. Yes I mean out of all the vehicles I have ever owned, they have all been 4x4. My very first vehicle back in the day was an old 4x4 Jeep J10 and since then I have always gravitated towards the 4x4 trucks. But even then, I very rarely need 4x4 unless I am off roading. And this truck really isn't destined to be an off road rig.

The truck runs well and drives great. I have already started digging into her to fix the little boo-boo's she has here and there. Naturally I have found a few more since I bought her.

More to come...

[str8axle55]

Nice looking CC, welcome to the club.

[91V3500]

Sweet! I love all the crew cabs in all shapes and forms!

[80schevyaddict]

Thanks guys.

Was going to post more but I have been pretty busy at work lately.

One thing I have to fix is the rear bench. Last owner had unbolted the rear bench as he had planned to use the back seat area to store tools. He unbolted the bench as well as removing the seat belts. He ended up never actually using the truck, so he just threw the bench back in. It has been sitting loose back there since then. I started by pulling out the bench to get it out of the way.




Now before I get any further I have to ask, what is the number one stupid ****en idea GM came up with? Some ugly looking car maybe? Some crappy engine?

Dun, dun, dun.....I give you THE TORX BOLT!



In their infinite wisdom, GM decided that to hold the seat belts down in their vehicles that they would go from a standard bolt head to one which used a tool style that is almost impossible to remove once installed. If you have ever tried to remove a set of seat belts in a GM vehicle that have one of these wonderful inventions of the devil it likely ended in much cursing. The torx bolt will do only one of two things when you try to remove it. It will either become completely stripped or you will snap the bit. I had the honor of doing both tonight!

First I stripped one bolt head, then I snapped the bit on another:



Even heating them from underneath didn't help. They are completely and totally ****en stuck. The previous owner didn't even bother to try getting them out and just cut the seat belts. Which sucks for me as it means I not only have to get the bolts out myself, but also new seat belts.

So after some cursing in three languages I pulled the truck up to shop, pulled out the welder and did this:




Welded a standard bolt to the head of each torx bolt. Cost me about $3 worth of good bolts, but it was pretty much the only way they were coming out.

Though even then the battle was not easily won. Had the impact sitting on the bolts and none of them moved even slightly. Had to get out the breaker bar, but even then I only got them moving a bit. Ended up having to go under the truck again, heat up the bolts till hot, yanking on the breaker bar a bit, then putting on the impact before they finally popped.



They were just put in really damn tight. Likely with an impact the size of a small car. Yet they expected someone with a wimpy torx bit to remove them?!

Three of the bolts came out like that, but one of the middle bolts still did not want to come out. Took 10mins just to get that one out. Had to heat it till it was red hot under the truck. Even then it didn't "pop" loose, it was a lot of work getting out. And unlike most trucks, the threads on the bolt under the truck were completely clean and had zero rust. But I didn't give up and it finally came out eventually.



So it took over 2 hours to remove four damn bolts....

[80schevyaddict]

Didn't get much else done today. Still recovering from a bad welding flash at work, so I just did a few little things.

Started out by cleaned out the back of the cab. Under the bench seat it was covered in grease, oil and dirt from 20 years of work. Took a lot to get rid of it. Had to use an entire can of break cleaner to get it done.

Then I got started on installing the seat belts. I had picked up some new bolts at the store earlier in the day. As well as finishing to pull out the rest of the seat belts out of the other truck.

Pic of the clean up and one of the seat belts I got installed.



Other seat belts went in well. But before I installed the bench I decided to give it a good cleaning as well. It was covered in dust and had some grease on the seat. After a lot of armor-all it cleaned up pretty well. Pretty good for a bench over 20 years old.



All installed.



Yeah is nothing great, but I am just glad it is finally installed.

Also got a nice surprise from a friend. He owed me a big favor and decided to pay it back by buying me new rockers for the truck. Not bad at $40 each.

[91V3500]

lookin good! I had the same problem with my seatbelt bolts. The only thing that makes sense to use torx bolts is to try to keep people from removing them, maybe for liability reasons, but it's a stupid idea imo. needless to say i'm goin back with hex heads on mine! I had to use a Snap-On torx bit, because I kept breakin the cheaper ones, too. Then had to heat them up underneath red hot like you did. I found it worked better to heat em up and wait about 5 min, then heat em up again, wait another 5 min, then they came right out with the impact gun. Had to drop the fuel tanks to get the rear corners heated up, but that's a whole other story.

[80schevyaddict]

Thanks.

Luckily I didn't have to drop the tanks. I am doing everything I can not to drop them while fixing up the truck. I have walked into the house way too many times reaking of fuel that the significant other said the next time it happened she would put a match to me to make sure I didn't bring the smell into the house again

I replaced the stupid torx bolts with standard grade 8 hex bolts. For fun I asked how much replacement torx bolts were at the GM dealer. He quoted me $22 each!

[80schevyaddict]

Did a little work today....





I had to remove it because I found this while working under the truck.





I hadn't noticed it before as the service box was sitting very close to the corners and the previous owner had filled them with bondo. The old fashioned screw driver test found that the little bit of surface rust on the cab corners was actually a lot more.

Back to its original configuration as it came off the assembly line at Chevy. My faithful aid Zak assisting in the operation.

[Truck Guy99]

So what's the plan for it now? Flat bed? C&C tow pig?

BTW THE definition of overkill




Now the question is..... How did he afford that?

[80schevyaddict]

Not 100% sure what I am going to do with it. Was thinking of maybe putting the service box back on, but that is a lot of weight. Was also thinking of putting on a flat bed with stake sides. That would let me install a 5th wheel connection to tow the 30ft flat bed trailer around with (to pick up other project with) as well as let me haul around bigger pieces of equipment when needed. Also been thinking of putting an enclosed service box on the back like my other truck has:



Bad photoshop job, but it gets the idea across:



The other service truck has a 14kW diesel generator in the back as well as being full of tools. I am thinking this truck would become my welding truck. Maybe pop a Miller Bobcat in the back so that I can do some field welding when needed as I am a welder by trade.

As for the 5 ton wrecker....well that is there to help me pick up stuff around the yard. Plus it goes well with some of the other trucks...



Missing some of the trucks in the picture but I didn't feel like moving them all together that day. Plus it would have made one very long picture.

[mooseknuckles]

wait a minute, that's the one that sat in Crozier's yard....good to see someone found a use for it....

[80schevyaddict]

Originally Posted by mooseknuckles

wait a minute, that's the one that sat in Crozier's yard....good to see someone found a use for it....

Yup he had it for sale for quite a while. Decided I had to save it since it was in such nice condition. By the sounds of it they were tired of having it sitting around and probably would have ended up stripped for parts or sent to the scrapper.

[80schevyaddict]

Little change of look.

[80schevyaddict]

Once I put her back together and murdered out some of the parts I decided to take some pictures outside.

[80schevyaddict]

Helps to show the change.

[Truck Guy99]

Sweet job! That paint job came out great! I would lean more toward the stake bed idea. Could haul your 30 footer, reach your welding stuff easier, and be able to back up easier. Not to mention you could pull more weight and save your suspension, frame tail, and brakes some wear. If you would rather a utility body I'd paint the original tool bed to match the front end and cab and throw in your welder and all your equipment for a mobile tool rig.
Posted via Mobile Device

[DBLSPRT68]

Great job so far! I like the two tone look

[80schevyaddict]

Thanks for the comments.

Yeah I am still a bit undecided on what is going to be put on the back. I am leaning towards a flat bed with stake sides. As it would let me haul around my gooseneck trailer and serve as a regular pickup bed when needed. Though I am still a bit tempted to put the service bed back on, as it is in very good shape and would let me haul a lot of gear.

Another idea would be to go with the flat bed with the removable stake sides and also make a frame that can hold my welder and tool boxes. So when I need the welder and tool boxes, I can just pop it on the trailer and bolt it down. Yet when I just want the flat bed, it would be easy to just pull off the tool setup, giving me access to a complete bed.

Ideas, ideas

[Truck Guy99]

What happened to this? Anything?

[Hankster]

Just read the thread, pretty interesting. Lets hear some more on it!