'88 RCLB C3500 "Roscoe P. Coltrane"

[Erik the Awful]

It's amazing how well mouse poop works as a bolt lubricant. I got the seat out easily with no broken bolts.

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The hardest bolt was the one holding the storage shelf behind the seat down. I got it out, removed the seat belts, and rolled the carpet right into the trash. I found about a dollar in change, but there's no way I'm risking getting a new strain of the hanta virus named after me, so I vacuumed it up with the mouse poo.

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The floor pan doesn't look too bad. All you northerners can cry now. This is AFTER being open to the elements for ten years with a foot of mouse excrement piled on top.

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My next goal is to get the Caddy frame out of the shop and roll the truck in. Then I can start working on tearing the dash down, de-nesting it and putting a good harness in it.

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I finally got the hood open and discovered I towed it home with no hood hinges. The only thing keeping the hood on was the latch, which we'd tried to open. Once again I attribute my luck to clean living. By all rights that hood should be somewhere on the side of SH177. The master cylinder fittings are unplugged and open to the elements, so I'll be looking for a hydroboost setup. There is no wiring ahead of the firewall, so it looks like a trip to Pull-A-Part is in order, but not until I get the truck in the shop, the dash cleaned, and the title signed.

 

[DonYukon]

i love seeing rescues like this

 

[frito-bandito]

You and me both! I’m eating this up lmao

 

[454cid]

Nevermind

 

[454cid]

This is the bad part.

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Just when I got rid of all my scrap metal, I get another load. If only I had a good use for barbed wire and rusted all-thread.

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Even the glovebox was packed full.

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If you're queasy, click away to another thread now.
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Seriously.
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Fortunately it was cold and breezy out and the poo didn't stink. Even the stuff that had rotted away only smelled like dirt.

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Wow!!! Thats a ton of poop! That doesn't look like mouse poop to me, though.... way too big, or is it the picture making it look big?

 

[PlayingWithTBI]

Love it, as long as you're doing the work Another 2-tone blue interior. Must have been quite popular in the early GMT400s

 

[MrPink]

I am going to follow this one for sure.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Today's big project: getting it off the trailer and into the shop. I backed the trailer up to the pad in front of the shop and put the ramps down. I have a chintzy Harbor Freight 2000 lb winch that one of my kids broke, so I have to jam the control switch wires into place to get it to work. The cable was about 10' short of what I needed to drag Roscoe off the trailer, so I hooked the cable up to a cargo strap and wrapped the cargo strap around the crossmember. Once I got it in the shop I was able to just use the cable. The winch itself was strapped to one of the 4"x4" posts that support the shop wall.

Of the four tires, one still had air in it, so I aired them all up. The front left tire has grass between the tire and wheel, so as soon as I aired it up, it started leaking back down. I had to air it up four times before the truck made it into the shop. Funny note - the truck has three different tires sizes in four different brands.

Success!

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Hey, did you notice the cable in that pic above? Neither did I. I forgot that it was there and tripped over it. That hurt like a @#%$$#@^$#%&$@!%$#@! Here's the pic from the other side that I was going to get when I nearly smashed my phone. I don't regret spending money on a good phone case. The strap tail hanging on the driver's mirror is holding the exhaust off the ground. There's another one underneath holding up the driveshaft.

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Tomorrow I need to park the Cadillac frame on the trailer, then stow the trailer behind the shop. Then I can put Way Cool Jr just outside the shop and start transferring all the scrap metal to it. I also discovered the bed has about an inch of mouse poo, so at some point I'll want to sweep that out, but I'm plenty busy the next couple days, so that might be a while off.

If you've noticed, the front wheels are DRW while the backs are SRW. The previous owner was in the process of a DRW swap when the truck crapped out, and he never finished. Once I get it running, sourcing three SRW wheels will be a priority. The brake drums are garbage, so switching back will be fairly easy.

 

[stutaeng]

Absolutely not. I googled it this morning. What do I know?

That said, you have to remember that when this truck was built the nationwide top speed limit was 55 mph. I'm thinking that a 454 with a TH400, 5.13 gears, and tall truck tires would run down the highway just fine if you're not going more than 60, but I haven't done the math. Reading a little more, it appears that 2.xx and 3.xx were common gears as well, but I can't find a spec on early GMT400s with Dana 70s. Anybody got a link to better info?

Page 6 of this PDF says 3.42 with the manual transmission. It doesn't have a configuration listed for an automatic, which seems strange...

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.gmheritagecenter.com/docs/gm-heritage-archive/vehicle-information-kits/Chevrolet-Trucks/1988-Chevrolet-Truck.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjbuY3zvc32AhXZnGoFHdAbAK0QFnoECAMQAQ&usg=AOvVaw081QBQKHo9JQmm3XWXjAYI

 

[PlayingWithTBI]

Page 6 of this PDF says 3.42 with the manual transmission. It doesn't have a configuration listed for an automatic, which seems strange...

I think that's "standard specifications" without any options.