95 C2500 pancake

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Jermu

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Soooo, here goes. Decided to finally make a build thread on my little truck. As y'all are wondering, why the hell pancake, it's a eclb that's green, it's a translation of a name I've given her based on the nickname Chevrolets have here in Finland. Now that that's out of the way, lemme give y'all a little background. She's my second car I bought some several months ago, traded my s203 C220 CDI Mercedes for her. She's a 1995 C2500 6.5 turbodiesel extended cab and long bed, with a tan interior. She has not quite been taken care of properly, which has resulted in all sorts of headaches, mostly small but very annoying electrical faults and/due to some rather very questionable wiring.

Here's how she looked the day I got her after a proper wash. Got some bruises and scrathces here and there, the paint ain't perfect, some of the side markers are missing their shells and so forth. But runs nice and best of all, very un-Finnishly, she is rust free, which is almost unheard of here, because of all the snow and salt and generally moist and ****** weather.
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And so, I was happy. For two days. Then on that one very dark and rainy morning I woke up and was headed to work, I was introduced to a situation I had not yet faced during my short lifetime. As I walked out the door to the parking lot, I came to see that all the cars that were there the previous evening, were all still there. Except for one, mine... Welp, called the police and they found the car 2 hours later, with the robbers still sitting in the car on a back alley next to a railroad track, injecting themselves, all stoned out. And as if the trauma wasn't enough, I came to pick the car up later that evening after work and found that they had reversed her very hard into a tree or a wooden house. How can I tell? By the wood shards on the bent tow hook, it's frame and the cars rear frame. Oh yeah, and the bent bumper too.
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Also got some more scratches here and there, but those didn't bother me much at all, seeing how the paint was pretty bad already. Also what got me was the fighting with my insurance company for some months, the robbery took place on the 12th of june and finally got the money and her in the repair shop on the 12th of september. So I before the repairs, I got some little things bought here and there, new side markers, markers for the tailgate, roof markers, and the whole front light set, tail lights, LED lights for the bed, a 3rd brake light and such, little things that make a lot of difference.

So shiny :3
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Now you might be thinking to yourself, why did he order a whole front light set, why do his driving lights look so weird, and what sort of an abomination are those taillights..? Let me explain, Finland is a part of the European Union, and the laws of the EU stated that you can only have white light frontwards, orange on the side and red to the back. Now, all the turning indicators have to be orange, and thus separate of the other lights. So no red flashing lights in the rear and no orange parks in the front. Also, the driving lights need to have height adjustment. So, the cheapest and easiest way to make the car legal for the Finnish markets, is to do a little tinkering on the lights upon importing. The rear lights get drilled through and separate bulbs and housings installed and this bit you're going to like, the driving light and high beam housing is taken out and thrown away in favor off of the driving light assembly of: A 1990 Mitsubishi Lancer. Also, to make those fit, they need to cut up the grille and shave some metal. Also, the adjustement motor pokes the battery.

But, thank goodness, an adjustement to the law was made this year, which allows DOT lights again. You can be damn sure I started swapping lamps as soon as I possibly could x)
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Loving the LED parking lights
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Sadly though, I still haven't been able to swap out the driving lights for the originals as I haven't found a new grille yet... Also I'm a student, in other words: poor. Thinking of the same style or a billet, which would get black centers... Anyhow, next bits to get under my tender caress were the side markers. 1: Because I like their look 2: Because I'm required to have them by law, as this precious little thing belongs in the light truck category, which requires them. A little explanation here as well, in Finland cars are categorised by weight. for example 1500 trucks are considered vans, due to their larger than a normal car cargo space, but still little weight. Then there's light trucks that consist of cars that weight between 3500 and 10 000 kg's. 2500's and 3500's fall into this category. On the plus side, taxes and insurance are lower, as the belongings of the weight group are usually commercial vehicles, but then on the downside the speed is limited to 80km/h. Not too bad but makes travelling long distances a bother.
 

Thatlowchevy

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Looks like a good project! Always nice to see one of these trucks over seas. Good thing you also recovered the truck before any serious damage from theft.


My momma taught me to drink my juice from a brown paper bag
 

Jermu

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Found some friends at a local American car meet
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Onwards with the mods, Next came the winter tires... As if the 245/70-16's weren't small enough, the studded tires are 225/70-16's, just swapped them onto the original wheels for the winter, and as we were about to take a trip to Norway, they were sorta vital. Or well, so we thought, but they didn't have much snow either, so didn't need them...
But got pretty pictures and to my big surprise, she didn't leave us on the road either, weeeeee! Why was I expecting her to leave us on the road? Because of some idling and transmission issues, diesel and automatic, weeee.........
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So, some little time after the trip, I got a new PMD box and transfer kit for that. What I didn't realise is how big a god damn bother they've made out of it. As in you have to take off the intake manifold...
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Now, as that got rid of a bit of the problems, I still have a malfunctioning turbo wastegate, due to get changed shortly, and some transmission trouble, possibly due to faulty shift solenoids or wiring issues, who knows, not me... And the patient in question is a 4L80E. Not a lethal problem, just sometimes resulting in the transmission refusing to change up from 1st gear. Disconnect the batteries for a few minutes and problem solved...

Onwards, my friends, because next up, roof markers! These were a bit of a project... Got universal LED markers made to fit in place of factory lights, in other words, they had a t10 bulb end. So, first of all, I needed to get a factory wiring harness. Couldn't find one so I decided to make my own:
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Yes, I covered all the joints with sock after that, don't worry. I made up the measurements on the basis from here, great thread, I recommend y'all check it out: https://www.gmt400.com/threads/cab-light-install.117/
There are all the measurements you need to install the lights, I made the harness on those meausrements, added an inch there, another here, and measured the lenght of the A pillar and so on.
 

Jermu

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But upon installing the lights, plugging them in, I made a slight little bit of a mistake... They were LED lights. So the electricity only flows in one direction. Naturally, because I like being hasty, I plugged them in like normal bulbs, like it didn't matter. And so, I managed to plug 1 in correctly. And this I found out later that evening at my parents's place where I went to finish the install, to plug the whole system in, because I had drilled the holes and taken the wiring inside the cab at a truck shop, which closed as I got the last light put on and filled the gaps with motor silicone...
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Welp, pulled 'em all out, turned the bulbs right way into the socket and life was good again. Well, the silicone looks hideous now, but it ain't leaking and the lights are working so screw it, she ain't a beauty queen yet anyway :D

Looking pretty all lit up
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We're starting to get up to date with the build now, after that run up. Now I've still got some lights to install, front and rear, need to some back up lights as well, but haven't got around to those yet. Also got stuff to fix... Wiring and actual problems, some of which are a bit hazy and some I know are down. Like for example, I noticed a bit of a problem when trying to install a new 3rd brake light. I have made a thread on that, but I'll explain it here: Basically, when I plug the new LED light in, it lights up. Doesn't sound like a problem. Until I tell you that this happens with the power off.
So I started figuring that out last weekend when I was doing maintenance on her, changing oils and such, and as I was reading about the problems others had had, it came to my knowledge that the light is in the same circuit as the dome light. Funnily enough, my dome light doesn't work, so I pulled the light out only to see that it was like new, just had a darkened rim on the glass, like burnt. As I investigated further, I plugged the light on the other side and took a bit of wire, which I took from the other end of the lamp to the screw that holds in the dome assembly. The dome light came on and the brake light went off and I was happy to come to the conclusion that I just had a bad ground. Then I remembered that the dome override button doesn't work. Also, when investigating that and reading the forums further, I realised that the dimmer doesn't work either, so now I'm suspecting the light switch, as it has been playing around with the parking lights also, sometimes it shuts off and the lamps come back on and off when you press the switch inwards and change it to middle position and such, we shall see, as I'm looking to get some piggy tails for the front side markers, probably going to do the upper one as well and ground them on the blinker. Rockauto here I come :)

For this project I'm looking to get a proper bull bar on the front and some nice roll bars for the bed, maybe stacks at some point, definitely a sunvisor, probably 33's and an 1" or 2" of lift, but these are going to take time, for as I said, I'm studying at a university of applied sciences and only work night gigs with a semi now and then, so money is tight, especially when those are some pretty expensive mods, at least here, where the population of these things in general is pretty small. The american car culture here in Finland is pretty big, and these GMT400's and vans especially are hugely popular inside the scene, but it is still just a hobby scene, so a minority, which means that most of the parts have to be shipped from the U.S.


I'll post when something happens, but don't bother checking in daily, even weekly, this'll take time :D
But before I end this for today, I want to ask your opinions, on the front side markers specifically. Should I keep them clear, or should I get the factory orange? I really like the clears, and when I get the lights done on them, they'll light up to be orange, but with the lights off, the clear has started bothering me because of the roof markers which are somehow strikingly orange and the side markers are all orange too. The huge size of the cab lights probably doesn't help either... But yea, tell me what you think
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Jermu

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Ok so i haven't really done anything lately, got the tailgate handle bezel and a new light switch, but the 3rd brake light/dome light problem still exists. Oh well, at least the parking lights now stay on and the switch isn't flimsy. But here's a few winter pics to lighten up the thread!
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Jermu

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Encountered a problem yesterday that I first thought was just the old problem getting worse, but as the truck shut down mid drive today, I'm fairly certain it's a new problem :dancingpoop: She started out of the blue kinda like hopping, as in missing a beat or two, several times, then back to normal, goes on for a while and again. As I was headed to get some groceries, she did that thing again for a while, then drove nice, and when I was about to turn at an intersection, ded. Coasted to the side of the road and stopped, turned the key, bam, started straight back up. Now, I'm thinking fuel pump, because the ticking is sort of uneven and as I was testing the relay with multimeter, at one point I realised it had gone silent even though it should've been running. And the voltmeter gave out a reading of max 1.2ish volts, dunno how much it should, 12-14? Any of y'all got ideas I would be very happy to hear 'em before I go out and buy a new pump, thanks already
 

Jermu

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Got the problem fixed (or at least so it seems, did a long test drive and nothing) thanks to the parts shop guy! He suggested that it might well be the temp sensor on top of the manifold, as it's in some way connected to everything... [emoji23] Welp, she might not be reliable but she's running again and looking pretty!
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Jermu

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Aaaand ****'s ****** up. Had to start her up again 3 times on the way to the store and 5 times on the way back. Stalls outta nowhere. Now, going to the store, I was coming from my folks's place, which is 10 minutes from here, but the way from the grocery store to my place? That's exactly 1 kilometer. And all except one stall happened inside that 1 kilometer batch... And I know, I shouldn't beat on her like that in that state, but it was raining bad and I had had a pretty crappy day, so I just wanted to get home quick.
Now, the fuel pump was ticking as usual, at least when trying to start her up, but she would resist starting to the last, so that tells me ain't no fuel getting to the engine. Suggestions? My father was thinking the film inside the fuel pump may be done. Or some film at least, he wasn't too clear about it, mumbling to himself... Btw he had a really mint 1990 sportside back in the day with a pretty rowdy 350 powering the rear wheels, which, according to him, would beat 454SS's easily. Had to sell it in the late 90's because of, well, me.
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