1994 C3500 Crew Cab Long Bed to K3500 Short Bed Build

looks so pretty

Great looking truck and you are doing a great job on the build!

mars2878 said:

any benefit to gmt800 leaf springs over gmt400 units other than another source of supply?

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Newer junkyard part would be my line of reasoning.

Those seats are ridiculously clean Scott. By chance could you measure your frame thickness? I measured my 1500 at just shy of 3/16" thick, an ECLB dually at 1/4", and my CCLB dually at 5/16". Trying to verify what triggered the thickest of frames, was it CC anything or only CCLB?

Supercharged111 said:

Newer junkyard part would be my line of reasoning.

Those seats are ridiculously clean Scott. By chance could you measure your frame thickness? I measured my 1500 at just shy of 3/16" thick, an ECLB dually at 1/4", and my CCLB dually at 5/16". Trying to verify what triggered the thickest of frames, was it CC anything or only CCLB?

Click to expand...

let me go do some lookin and see what i can come up with. I've got C3500 and K2500 frames here.

Alright folks, for those who haven't seen elsewhere... we're underway.

Started Friday around 5pm... got the truck there and immediately started tearing it down.



Then pulled the bed. Dad was a huge help in this whole thing, couldn't have done it without him. Having the right equipment was also huge.





Then took the 2 post and pulled the cab





Then the next step was to strip down the old chassis.



with this chassis pretty much being rust free, the removal of the old axle was pretty easy. One stubborn bolt but otherwise pretty straight forward.



By the end of night 1, the new chassis was sitting under the cab, the motor yet to be installed, but everything was ready for reassembly. Pretty pleased with the progress given 4-5 hours of work.

Day 2 was all about reassembly. We got the motor back on the CCSB frame and bolted in.



Then dropped the cab back on.



Followed by the bed.







Overall, i love the look. Going to be perfect for what i need on a daily basis. Having the CCLB Cummins this truck really doesn't need to be a long bed, or a serious worker.

However, the smaller truck with 4wd will be perfect for a daily driver. I don't NEED the crew cab now, but down the road as life progresses it will likely be a must have.

Truly is a GMT400 unicorn. A truck that never existed. (cab/bed/interior combo wise) The combination is something i've dreamed about since i was a kid. Victory red crew cab short bed with garnet interior and a 6.5 diesel. Obviously GM never made this from the factory in 1994 so this was the only way to make that come true. Makes all the hard work worth it.



RIP.




Now whats left....

My rad hoses/power steering hoses and oil cooler lines i just decided to replace. There were nothing wrong with the rad/power steering hoses, but while i'm here, it just feels right to spend the money to replace them. The oil cooler lines did leak, which is why i went ahead with the upgrade from Leroy Diesel. Everything has been ordered, once it comes in the truck will be finished.

If i had all of the parts at my disposal this thing would've been done in a weekends time. We really busted our tails on it Friday and Saturday and kind of evaluated everything Sunday to determine what parts were needed.

Good weekends work though, hopefully everything gets here by Friday so we can finish it next weekend.

Also, for those who will probably ask.

The truck cab is very faded. Someone did a single stage job on it before i bought it. It needs buffed badly. Knowing i was going to cab swap it i got kind of lazy in the last several months.

Eventually i plan to have the entire truck repainted when i find a set of 4 power doors to add PW/PL/PM. Obviously that's way down the road.

excellent progress

Nice job so far.

Love the 6.5 in it!

Looks great man! You made it look easy.