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.
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.
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
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)
Loving the LED parking lights
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.
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.
You must be registered for see images attach
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
You must be registered for see images attach
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)
You must be registered for see images attach
Loving the LED parking lights
You must be registered for see images attach
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.