1993 C1500 ECSS

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ima93chevyguy

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Well I completely forgot to update this after all my troubles, but they're over with now so I can recap.

Spent several weeks diagnosing the trans, ended up ordering a new solenoid kit to put in it. Spent one night installing them and took it for a test drive. Trans did great and didn't have any problems; however I no longer had A/C.. it had leaked all the freon out while sitting for a week. So I just left it at the shop because I needed to get an alignment. Took it the next day to see about an alignment and he said the alignment was fine that two of my tires had knots in them. I then took the truck somewhere else and got a set of tires put on. I then drove it home that weekend and had it until that Sunday.

I finally did the rear brakes that weekend. They were disgusting. After i got done i couldn't get the rear to bleed out. Pretty sure I tripped the ABS and it was blocking fluid to the rear. Took it to the shop to get them to vac bleed it but that wouldn't work. Ended up having to put a new master cylinder on it and that solved the brakes.

Into a reoccurring problem... while the brakes were being looked at, the truck leaked all the trans fluid out. Siliconed the pan gasket because we thought that's where it was coming from. Took it to my dad's shop to charge the A/C and it leaked all the fluid out sitting at his shop. Cleaned it really well with the steamer and let it sit to determine where the leak was.

Checked it a couple days later and turns out the new harness plug that came with the solenoids the little clips weren't pushed out so it wasn't grabbing on the trans housing. It would get sucked down in there and fluid would seep up around it. Got all that figured out and finally got it to stop leaking.

Turned out to be about a 3 month adventure of not having the truck and I almost gave up on it. To make matters worse while I was driving the Toyota the water pump and alternator both went out on it within two days of each other.

But since all of that hassle I haven't done anything to the truck. I plan on trying to find some vinyl wrap that's close to my paint color because my roof is pretty much gone and I figured I could just wrap it for now to protect it until I decided about painting it again.
 

ima93chevyguy

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WOW, can't believe it's been over two years since I posted in my thread. Well I have a lot to catch up on so I'll get some pics and stuff together and make a few posts over the next few days to update on everything that's happened since then :rotflmao:
Basically I kinda stopped messing with the truck as much and I just didn't get on here then I forgot my login and just recently needed to find something on the site and was able to log back in. But I'm back and gonna try and stay a little more active!
 

ima93chevyguy

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Alright well to catch up where I left off:

The biggest thing is that I quit daily driving the truck. My mom had a 2014 Buick Regal that I bought from her to save some gas and to keep miles off the truck. I took it over ~ May of 2021 I think. I've done a few things to it but it gets ~30MPG so I currently drive it most places and only take the truck out on the weekends usually now. I started a new job at the beginning of the year and I have about a 50 minute commute one way so I'll probably very rarely drive it to work now.

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My car


Before I quit driving the truck I did vinyl wrap the roof and Avery Dennison "Gloss Indigo Blue" vinyl is a VERY close match to the factory Indigo Blue paint. However it's not metallic, just gloss, so it lacks a little depth. May end up trying some metallic blues and see if I can find anything close in a metallic but it looks better than an oxidized roof.

But now it mainly just stays in a "portable tent" pretty much just a giant vehicle tent just to keep it out of the sun and elements. It works pretty good for what it is and that's all I really need it for.

Things I've done since I quit driving it:
Radio upgrade
Subwoofer/amp upgrade
Paint correction & ceramic coat
Replaced header bolts and collector bolts
I painted a few things included wipers and mirror caps
The most recent, headlight upgrade

But right now it's pretty much just stored and I try to drive it on the weekends if the weather permits.

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This is basically what the truck looks like now, I did change the headlights I gotta get some pictures of that and some other things and make another post but enjoy these from Cruisin' the Coast 2022
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and an extra

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ima93chevyguy

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First I'll cover the radio upgrade.
Pioneer "DMH-WT76NEX". It's a 9 inch screen with the free float design. Has a single din chassis so it fits in the original cassette slot like most aftermarket radios. Used the same harness as my original so all I did was swap the plugs and other connections. Has all the bells and whistles like wireless Android Auto/Apple Carplay, Bluetooth, backup camera, all the traditional high end radio stuff. Has screen tilt, up/down, and left/right movement so you can adjust it to any position you need. They also make a 10 inch version but I thought it may cause some complications plus it was $100 more expensive. The main reason I like it is that you got a full size screen in a single din chassis and it doesn't block the air vents either.
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Then shortly after that I also upgraded the subs, amp, and wiring. I was just running a regular sealed underseat dual 12" box and a mono amp under the seat with 4 gauge wire. Stepped it up to bigger 12's a bigger amp and 0 gauge wire.
I also changed box styles to an upfiring one. This box is for a 99-06 chevy truck but it fits for the most part. It sticks out from under the seat but I have no intentions of hauling anyone around back there so I don't really mind the space it takes up. Subs are Skar SVR-12 on a Skar 2000 RMS amp.

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ima93chevyguy

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Lastly just to kind of show off
This past October I took the time to paint correct and ceramic coat the whole truck. Honestly something I should've done a long time ago because it makes cleaning it soooo much easier! Took about a weekend and three days of working on it after work to get it right. The most labor and time consumption is in the paint correcting, but there's not really a point in coating it if you don't correct it first. Should be sealed in now for a minimum of two years. I also attempted to polish my toolbox and it did look better but it wasn't the best, had intentions of doing my wheels as well but never did make it to them and haven't been concerned about it recently. But this is how the truck looks currently and the roof still has the vinyl and these are good pics to show how close it matches the paint. The tires in the back are for my Can-Am lol.
Also I got the new style headlights installed that a lot of people have been talking about. Installation was not.. great.. but it wasn't horrible. The headlights don't separate from the bracket so you pretty much have to remove the grille to install them. Then when I went to reinstall the grille it hit the headlights on the inside corners. After some tweaking I finally got it to go back in and they rub a little on the inside. Which luckily in the adjustment to whole assembly doesn't move so it's technically not hurting anything. I also swapped the sides the parking lights are on, they're supposed to be flipped from the way I have them in the pics. The half U-bars are the dedicated parking lights and plug into one of the parking light sockets. They're only white. Then there's a dedicated orange turn/hazard which is the larger solid piece. Then the headlights have two individual LEDs each for low and high beam. They have a pretty nice cut-off and projection. I still have to adjust them left and right. I've been holding off because the adjust screws on the backside DO NOT line up with the existing holes in the core support where they should be. I will have to drill two new holes to be able to access them. Overall pretty satisfied with them, change up the look a little.

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