GrimsterGMCs Kiwi1500

[GrimsterGMC]

Hey everybody, after appreciating all the pictures you have put up of your trucks I thought I had better share some of mine. This is the first American vehicle I have owned and had wanted a truck since I was a kid so I found a 1988 GMC K1500 Sierra that ticked all of the boxes and bought it. It had it's share of things needing fixed but it had a solid rustfree body. It has a 350TBI that had 165,000 miles when I got it 9 years ago. It has a 700R4 transmission that had been rebuilt and the diffs were 3:41 ratio that didn't work well with 33" tires.

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It was a 2 hour drive from Taupo where I bought it and having never driven a lefthand drive vehicle before I had quite the learning experience. The tie rods were worn out and the UCAs were to short for the lift so the front wheels are leaning over and pointing outward making the steering a bit hit and miss. Also having 12.5" tires on 8" rims didn't help either. The first job was a new set of tires, new suspension parts and a wheel alignment. Felt like a new truck, so a good wash and polish up the mags made it look like a new truck as well.

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Because this is both my work truck, as well as an off-road adventure truck, I needed to have a canopy to keep my tools secure and my stuff safe and dry in the back so I ordered a Snugtop from the USA and had it painted to match the truck. This was my first lesson in how much it costs to get parts sent half way around the world, and it's not cheap. I also got a new set of wheels that are 10" wide and you can see the big difference in the tire walls, they now sit straight instead of bulging out, making cornering far more stable.

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Because this truck had the low-back bench seat that needed reupholstering, I decided to make it a lot more comfortable by installing a set of high back bucket seats that I got from a Honda Accord. Because I am sitting in the passenger side seat so had hardly been sat in it was like brand new and also being a bucket it keeps me in place when the going gets rough.

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I started with a basic console but soon found that when you are bouncing around on a rough track it is very difficult to shift down 1 gear without overshooting so a new console, incorporating a B&M Hammer shifter, was created. The first concept went around the Transfer case lever but since it was quite a reach to push the lever into 4Lo I decided to redo the console and make a remote to bring the Transfer Case lever in line with the gear shifter.

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[GrimsterGMC]

Next up was a winch as my wife and I like to get out and explore the lesser traveled paths we had to be prepared to get ourselves out of any predicament we found ourselves in. Also, because I drive into the city with my job I needed something more substantial in front of my truck as the odds of having a collision go up exponentially. So a winch bumper that would handle a reasonable shunt and incorporating steps to allow my to get up in the engine bay was created.

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Unfortunately, with fitting 2 inch wider rims it pushed the tires out the same amount so I tried these rubber extenders to try and keep the mess off the sides but they didn't really make much difference.

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It would be a while before I found some proper flares that were wide enough to do and justify the freight costs to get them sent "Down Under". This picture here was on a forestry road that takes you up to a lookout that over looks Whangamata Beach where the annual "Whangamata Beach Hop" is held over 5 days featuring a parade of nearly 1000 classic and muscle cars and hotrods, it's one of the biggest shows of the year.

Repco Beachhop

beachhop.co.nz

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Next modification was a roof rack that I made from aluminium box section to keep the weight down. I fixed a set of LED flood lights, one on each corner, and a reversing camera at the rear and ran the wires through the box to prevent them from being pinched. The light have individule switches on my console so if I need to set up camp after dark I can light the whole area around the truck. The whole rack can be picked up with one hand but is still strong enough for what I need.

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[GrimsterGMC]

Now we get to the big investment. Having the truck taken back to bare metal and a full respray. Like most of our trucks that suffered from the clear-coat braking down and peeling away mine was no different. To make matters worse a previous owner had it resprayed on the cheap and the new paint was seperating from the factory paint so it had to be taken right back to metal to prevent it from failing again. It was black on black from the factory but the new colour was a Volkswagen colour that is dark grey with blue and silver metal-flake that actually looks really cool in the sunlight so I had it resprayed with the new colour. While I was saving up the necessary funds to pay for such an involved job I found a set of flares that were 3 inches wide and looked like the factory ones. Along the way I had replaced the slippery when wet chrome side steps and made my own square box section "side impact bars", remember I have to drive in the city, with treadplate on them to get some grip. I also had the rear bumper dechromed, replaced the side mirrors and had everything painted the same colour. This is how it started...

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And this is how it finished...

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I am always looking and thinking of subtle changes to make that improve, but look like they could have been a factory option. I wasn't happy with the "Moonie Gauges" but I didn't want to do a major upgrade to a newer style dash with all the wiring changes etc that would require so I came up with a simple upgrade. I took the gauges apart and painted over the white section with flat black and changed the green strip to a white one. I painted the surround a light grey to match the dash board as the original was black on black with no contrast. I also upgraded the back lights to LEDs while I had it apart. Here is before...

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And her is after...

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[GrimsterGMC]

When I got the truck the previous owner told me he had cooked the transmission by towing a boat up the Thames coast and over the Coromandel ranges in overdrive. It had a reasonably large trans cooler but when ever I climbed up steep climbs even in 3rd the temps would climb quite high with the TCC unlocked. After reading on here about upgrading the cooler I found an article describing the stacked plate cooler and how they couldn't be flushed out. It got me thinking about how much crud would get clogged in the cooler when a transmission failed and figured I had better get onto replacing the cooler. As all of the suggested coolers were smaller in size than the one I already had I chose to go the safe route and get one with a pusher fan mounted on it working on a thermostat. It was a tight fit but I made it happen. I am adding a red LED next to the trans temp gauge on the pillar pod that will light up whenever the fan comes on so I know when it's working as the fluid coming out of the torque converter and going into the cooler is a lot hotter than the fluid returning to the pan from the cooler that shows up on the gauge. This is the old cooler next to the new one, you can see the difference in size but does a better job so I figured the old one is clogged up.

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It's really hard to remember all the things I have done but I will add to this thread as I remember and get pictures.
I fitted a set of Headman long tube headers a while ago and since the o2 sensor is now downstream from where the computer thinks it is I had bad fluctuation in the fueling showing on the WBO2 gauge. So thanks to a suggestion from a member on here I purchased a EBL Flash II modified ECU that allows me to modify my tune myself. You just plug a cable from the ECU into your laptop and away you go so I made up a stand that screws to my console top and holds my laptop up high beside the dash so I can read it while I am driving and can pull over and make instant changes on the fly. I have my Wideband hooked into it and are adding a fuel pressure sensor to see if it can keep up with demand and an accelerometer to show how much pull I am getting across the rev range, kind of like a torque meter is what I am hoping for.

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[Drunkcanuk]

This is freaking awesome!!!
Thanks for sharing with us. You must get lots of questions about it wherever you take it, gotta be quite rare in your part of the world.

 

[SNCTMPL]

Nice work, Thanks for sharing this. Looking forward to seeing more.

 

[0xDEADBEEF]

You been holding out on us, Grim. That's a neat truck you got.

 

[fancyTBI]

Everything is great that you’ve done keeping her going. I really like the gauge modifications. That is a really subtle yet awesome upgrade.

 

[GrimsterGMC]

I just cleaned out the back ready for work tomorrow, thought I would show you what I had done in there. Keeping in mind that this is my daily driver/ work truck I am limited to how much I do towards camping but I have covered all of the essentials for getting myself out of trouble. I made a front rack that was of the deck so I can still use the full deck space. On this rack are 2 boxes, one has tools, oils, water and spare parts etc that might be needed over a long trip and the other has all of the winch gear and accessories. On the end is my 2nd battery that runs all of my accessories but can be used to jump start the engine if needed. To the right is an air compressor that feeds down through the floor and tees off to each side just behind the side steps where I can plug in an air hose that sits just inside the tailgate. I have overhead lights front and rear. I made a frame to securely hold my tow hitch and other fittings so they won't fly forward in an accident and enter the cab at speed. I originally kept them in the tool box up front until one day I loaded the truck completely full and realised I needed a trailer to carry the rest, when I went to get the trailer hitch out I remembered it was way up the front and had to unload the whole load to get to it so it's worth having them just inside the tailgate. Always carry a fire extinguisher, I have one in the back and one bolted to the drivers seat frame so it's just inside the door when you open it. Fire has got to be one of the most damaging things to happen to a vehicle and hardest to fully repair.

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[SNCTMPL]

You been holding out on us, Grim. That's a neat truck you got.

I’m kind of feeling like this.