"Clifford" the 1999 GMC K2500

[richclemson]

I picked up this truck for 5k locally after searching the rust belt for a while. My wife named it, believing all vehicles need people like attitude and characteristics.

Here is what it is: a 1999 GMC K2500 with the work truck interior, 4L80 transmission, 5.7L Vortec V8 with 4.10 gears. With 113,000 original miles and not a ton of heavy rust, I thought I got just what I needed.

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[richclemson]

Searching Craigslist I found a matching cap for sale. I like the look of the straight truck, but you can't beat a cap in terms of functionality.

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[richclemson]

Picked up a set of power, heated tow mirrors with LED lights in them. Changing the mirrors was fairly easy. I still have to hook up all of the electrical and will capture details later on. I did have to notch out the inner brackets. Here are a few pictures.

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[richclemson]

I continued looking for parts and at the junk yard found complete doors from a 1997 with power windows, power door locks, power mirrors and the interior wiring harness to connect it all up. From a guy locally, I was able to pick up an overhead console, floor console, bucket seats with power lumbar and a set of grey door panels. Walking around his shop, he also suggested I slip in a radio from a 2001 - so I picked up what I think is an early GMT800 radio with integrated CD Player.

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The radio was really easy, so I did it right away. I pulled out the JVC aftermarket and now have the factory look with integrated CD player. Very pleased with how quick and easy this one was.

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[richclemson]

Next the rear panels came off and a set of Polk Audio DB461P 4-by-6-Inch Coaxial Plate-Style Speakers were installed. I had to trim the factory speaker holes just a bit and put in Dynamat Xtreme as much as I could.

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[richclemson]

The front set of speakers in the door are component with tweaters on the power door, mirror and window switch carrier. I installed Polk Audio DB6501 6.5-Inch 2-Way Component System with a crossover to send the right sound to the right speaker.

Here is the switch carrier. I had to use a belt sander to flatten the landing for the tweater.

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Once flat I carefully used a hole saw to over drill the mounting hole. This left me with almost no plastic to work with, but the speakers have a solid plastic mount that with a little jb weld, will have add strength.

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Finished product, looks completely stock.


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[richclemson]

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[richclemson]

After the test fit and sound shown above, the door panel came back off and Dynamat was placed on the door panel insert. I did not put mat against the outside of the door skin as I would like to find a set of rust free doors to swap in at some point in the future.

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[richclemson]

The door panel insert pictures is one from the junkyard mentioned above that has the power windows, doors locks and mirrors. The inserts were easy, the wiring a bit tricky.

Pictures is a cross body harness from a 1997 which runs under the dash to each door panel harness located behind the kick plates. It also runs down the firewall between the gas pedal and 4x4 shifter to the seat belt indicator, shifter lights and power lumbar for the seats.

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Everything you see that is yellow is the air bag system. First, I untapped and separated out the air bag wires since the 8600lbs 2500 series doesn't have them.




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[richclemson]

A quick test fit, plugging the connector into the courtesy center and the door harnesses left the horn sounding continuously.

This is the courtesy connector.

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It's hard to see, but the top location "F" connects through to the horn relay and must be grounded for the horn to sound continuously. Cutting the wire made the horn stop - windows and power door locks don't work.

Connecting the now cut horn wire (harness side) to ground completed the window circuit. Looks like I've got a ground problem to work out. No power door locks though.

Going through the rest of the connections, it looks like the courtesy light connection point on the 97 harness is male and the connection point on my truck is also male. Looks like I'll have to buy a connector and flip it over to female.

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Going to plan out connectors for the power, heated mirrors with LED lights as well as connecting in the tweeters with a disconnect and flipping the courtesy connection point over.


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