I'm blogging here!
I bought it and had it trailered near home. it sat on a friends farm for a couple years before I did anything with it
I had a couple other trucks same body style at the time.
My objective was to restore my dad's 82 gmc diesel
I was a teen when he bought it and learned to drive in it. I got to ride with him to bring it home for the first time.
Man it was a gorgeous truck. Old trusty was a black and chrome GMC 1500 with tan interior white letter tires and rally wheels.
It had 150k miles on it when he gave it up.
I ended up putting the GMC grill, hood, fuel tanks, 6.2 diesel engine, 700r4 tranny, fuel lines and engine harness from the 82 diesel in this 86 454 truck.
It was an adventure and required a manual to trace the circuits. I had to re-pin a few things at the firewall junction.
While I had it torn down, I bought a junk 83 4dr c30 dually.
It had the heavy duty front brakes which have rotors about 1/4 inch thicker than a 3/4 ton or standard 1 ton, and the large calipers.
Had an accident bringing it home.
Going about 50 mph the suspension broke on the trailer and it got squirrely.
I took it to the shoulder to avoid the trailer hitting an oncoming car and the crooked trailer axle dug the wheel into the soft shoulder and rolled the trailer
Just before the 1-ton van was about to go over the center of gravity the hitch twisted off.
The van released from the trailer shot up the shoulder jumping the lane I was in and it bounced once in the other lane and landed in the ditch opposite the trailer wreck.
I got it stopped before it jumped the rr tracks and wheeled it around to see the trailer.
A trucker stopped and we drug the trailer further off the shoulder.
The Sheriff gave me 2 days to get it cleaned up. I dreaded the idea of paying for a loader and flatbed...
I came out the next night and jacked it up and welded in new suspension
The Dana 70hd rear in the 4dr was shot. the pinion pin had wallered out the case.
I got lucky and bought a 1990-something 14 bolt true dually rear off Jack Alger out in Vegas. it only had 40k miles on it for $300 He does towing and junks cars. he loaded it up behind the cab on my semi and I took it home.
I got that 14 bolt in there and got her on the road. it ran just as good as dad's truck but after about a month the 700r4 pushed the front seal out and died.
I swapped in a th400 and got a year out of it. I don't think the old 6.2 liked the 4:11 gears. It started leaking antifreeze past the head gasket to the outside on the passenger side and began to use oil. sometimes a little almost nothing...and sometimes 4 quarts a day.
I nursed it through the winter and most of the summer.
My plan was to overhaul it this winter but she sucked the pan dry one day and threw a rod a few seconds after losing oil pressure.
I had a mean 4x4 van
that I traded my brother for his old 85 chevy
and an air compressor.
He had put an engine in the 85 I gave him a 350 steel crank 4 bolt main and he built it up pretty good. I took it to denver and it got 13 mpg running 70 with 3:73's