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1989 Crew Cab Tow Rig Build

Overview Gallery Discussion
Kay86K5 said:
So, the truck is finally back home in CO so I can start into this build. As some may remember from the earlier posts, I purchased this truck in Washington state. Luckily my brother was kind enough to get the truck for me and keep it at his house for the last couple months (since he lives in WA) until we could figure out a time to transfer it back to CO for me. We have been trying over the last couple months to plan a trip where he tows it down to Boise for me, we meet up, and I tow it the rest of the way home. But every freaking weekend it was either bad weather for my drive, or his, or both. Last week my wife's grandpa who lives in Burley, ID passed away so my wife was going to be going to Idaho no matter what. I talked with my brother and looked at the weather and it was miraculously clear for both of us. So after the funeral on this last Saturday, I then headed up to Ontario, OR to meet my brother. We swapped the truck over to my trailer, had some dinner, then he headed back to WA and I headed back down to Burley. The next morning, everything was going smooth, we stopped at the gas station to fill up in Burley just before heading out to come home. As soon as I filled up, I went to start my pickup and the fuel pump gave up right there at the gas station :angry1:.

Luckily my wife's grandma's house was only a mile and a half down the road from the gas station so we towed me back there real quick. And with minimal tools (grandma's house didn't have any tools to help and I was laying in the dirt the whole time with goatheads in my a$$), dropped the tank (mind you I just filled up the tank completely full :angry1:) and changed the fuel pump with my father in law in just under 4 hrs. My father in law had to be back to work the next day and we had another passenger that needed to catch a flight the next morning from Denver....so a long night we had driving all the way from Burley, Idaho to Denver, Colorado all night long. Left about 5:30 pm Sunday night, and arrived about 6:30 am on Monday morning.....once I got home I didn't even unload anything, just went inside and passed out :D. Thanks goodness my kids did so well throughout the night. I have 3 boys all 4 yrs old and younger. They just slept all night while I drove home. So @WyoSquareMan, when you saw me at Cheyenne yesterday morning, I was dead tired and was trying to get home as fast as I could, haha. Wish I could have shot the shiz with ya for a while though.

Anywho, the next two pics are in Burley, ID just after I got the fuel pump changed and we were loading the kids up in the truck to head back.





And this pic is in front of my house in Castle Rock, CO (after I woke up from my nap :D)



So, drove a total of just over 1200 miles starting Thursday night after I got off work until yesterday morning. My truck ran good and towed that beast pretty well the whole time (minus the fuel pump crap). I thought about getting rid of that truck after I get the crew cab rocking. But I don't think I will....its just too good of a truck.

But now I can get to work on this build. Probably this weekend I will work on getting the interior cleaned up. I have a few more misc. things left to get for the motor/tranny swap to start.
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I don't blame u i had been driving since midnight to get my wife to Denver for chemo, you got some good looking rigs that silver Chev has a good clean look love it!
 
WyoSquareMan said:
I don't blame u i had been driving since midnight to get my wife to Denver for chemo, you got some good looking rigs that silver Chev has a good clean look love it!
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Thanks man. Like I said before, I really do like my current 96 K2500. It's been a really good truck and pulls pretty darn good for a bone stock L29 454 with 185k on it, but 3 kids in the back of that thing was getting ridiculous, so decided to build this crew cab and be little different than just buying a newer diesel. I originally thought was as soon as I got my crew cab rocking I would sell the 96 to try and recoup some cost of the crew cab build, but I have decided I would probably kick myself for getting rid of this truck and am going to keep it. It will be a great extra truck to have around for anyone to use in my family or in case a rig is down for maint. and you need to get to work the next day, can just hop in that thing. Plus, I kinda like the mid-90's body styles...they do have a cool look. Who knows, maybe I'll do a SAS on it one day when my other projects are rocking :whistle:
 
Just don't do like I did and put high-back seats in the back. They push the seat bottom out too close to the front seats. When my youngest was riding in the buster seat it would cause is feet to be right against the back of the front seats so he was always kicking and pushing on them. Now that my oldest is in junior high I'm starting to worry there's not enough leg room for him.

I'm looking to pull a rear bench out of a newer extended cab like my '08 Silverado company truck. I like them because they are shallow and they have built in headrests. I've also thought some about a PRP bench seat, low-back style and then adding a bar across the back window with headrest pads. I had bp71k5 get me a measurement on his PRP bench and the seat bottom is about 8" further away from the front seats.
 
mrk5 said:
Just don't do like I did and put high-back seats in the back. They push the seat bottom out too close to the front seats. When my youngest was riding in the buster seat it would cause is feet to be right against the back of the front seats so he was always kicking and pushing on them. Now that my oldest is in junior high I'm starting to worry there's not enough leg room for him.

I'm looking to pull a rear bench out of a newer extended cab like my '08 Silverado company truck. I like them because they are shallow and they have built in headrests. I've also thought some about a PRP bench seat, low-back style and then adding a bar across the back window with headrest pads. I had bp71k5 get me a measurement on his PRP bench and the seat bottom is about 8" further away from the front seats.
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I'm planning on keeping the bench seat front and rear in this crew cab. I like the fact I could seat 6 if I really wanted/needed to. The rear bench on this thing looks like nobody has ever sat in it, and the front bench is still in pretty good shape too (could use some new foam in it, but that can wait...it's not horrible at all). Since this is just going to be a truck that I use to tow, haul, and just enjoy as a truck, I want to keep it as is just a little nicer inside.
 
Kay86K5 said:
I'm planning on keeping the bench seat front and rear in this crew cab. I like the fact I could seat 6 if I really wanted/needed to. The rear bench on this thing looks like nobody has ever sat in it, and the front bench is still in pretty good shape too (could use some new foam in it, but that can wait...it's not horrible at all). Since this is just going to be a truck that I use to tow, haul, and just enjoy as a truck, I want to keep it as is just a little nicer inside.
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Yeah, my seats were gross. You should still think about something for headrests. When your boys get bigger you don't want them slamming their heads on the glass if you're ever in an accident.
 
I actually really like the stock bench seats.

My buddy who does upholstery has seat heaters waiting for me when we do the seat covers. Gonna do em front and rear.

Maybe massage too gotta see if my wife like it
 
The stock back seat is very comfortable, it is the leg room that sucks.

Martin
 
82355 said:
The stock back seat is very comfortable, it is the leg room that sucks.

Martin
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Yeah, it's a little tight for a full size person, but my boys are young. 3 boys and the oldest is 4 yrs old. So it will suffice for a long time. And I think it would only get really annoying on longer road trips. For an hour or so at a time, it's not horrible. Plus, in my family we are short people. I'm one of the tallest and I'm only 5'9". So for people like us it's not that big of a deal
 
Worked all day on the interior of this thing. It was pretty nasty and looks like this truck has never been cleaned out. This is what it looked like to start out:





I swapped my new steering wheel on. I love the feel of these wheels so much better than the stock ones.

Next I put on my new dash cover. I first had to knock down all the high spots that had been created by the cracking. This was pretty easily done with a razor blade and pretty much cut the high spots out. How the dash looked to start:





Then I cleaned the dash off, and started laying down the clear RTV that is included with the dash cover. I used the whole freaking tube and put it all over the dash. Then the dash cover truly just slips over the top and fits like a glove. I then put some sand bags on the top of the dash to keep it held down as the RTV dried.





All in all this dash cover is freaking awesome and looks so good. I recommend it to anyone. Obviously a brand new whole dash pad is a true overall fix, but I didn't want to pay the money for one of those. So if anyone else is in the same boat as me for this....I recommend going this route. Lot cheaper and looks freaking great
 
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I then pulled all the seats out and vacuumed everything out. I also pulled all the interior trim out and also the headliner





 
I never really liked the white trim pieces/head visors/and headliner, so picked up some trim paint from LMC to change the color back to factor blue. I must say, that stuff was freaking awesome. It sticks on plastic, vinyl, whatever. Cleaned all the pieces off and painted them all up. I think it looks a TON better now.

I also picked up some Cabela's seat covers a while ago and put them on. And also a little kit from LMC to change the dome light to an LED unit. All of these pics below will show you all of that installed and the interior pretty much done (I wanted to shampoo the carpets but ran out of time. I will probably do that when I need to cut a whole for the NV4500 swap later on). It feels so much better to sit in this thing with all this done now.



 




And I barely fit this truck in my dads shop so I can close the door, haha.

But now I just have a few more things I need before I can at least bolt the 8.1/NV4500. So will be picking those up and starting to pull the 350/400 out of it soon.

My next question to anyone who knows anything about these crew cabs....does anyone make a replacement headliner for these things???? LMC only does it for the K5, stand cab trucks, and burbans, but no crew cabs. Is there any company out there who makes a replacement???
 
Kay86K5 said:




And I barely fit this truck in my dads shop so I can close the door, haha.

But now I just have a few more things I need before I can at least bolt the 8.1/NV4500. So will be picking those up and starting to pull the 350/400 out of it soon.

My next question to anyone who knows anything about these crew cabs....does anyone make a replacement headliner for these things???? LMC only does it for the K5, stand cab trucks, and burbans, but no crew cabs. Is there any company out there who makes a replacement???
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The painted blue trim looks seamless, very nice.
 
blazinzuk said:
No one makes a replacement headliner.

Gotta fix yours
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Suck. My wife thinks she can recover it. The rest of it is in decent shape just the fabric falling away. So dumb nobody makes one for the crew cab

jtk26 said:
The painted blue trim looks seamless, very nice.
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It seems like a small upgrade, but it's crazy how much better it makes everything look with the painted trim. Looks/feels so much better inside the cab
 
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