gstubbz
Hi I'm Gavin and I have an OBSession
Here's my monthly update!
In terms of life, things have been going decent enough. I have another gnarly Tinder date story that actually was totally bizarre, and my coworker told me I need to write down the entire thing while it's fresh in my memory lol
Work has been okay, and at this point I have only ever driven the c20 to work once since owning it, besides that I've been driving and abusing the 07 daily and it's been holding up. I'd like to take the c20 all the time but I'm constantly hauling trailers and take my tools home every night so they stay in the 07.
My GM 3500HD group has now crossed 1600 members, it reached 1000 I think back in late March, so that's another little accomplishment of mine! If you are interested the page is here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/3500hd/
I also picked up a door locally and installed it in my shop last weekend, I think it turned out nice and it's nice to have a tiny bit more of natural light in my shop during the day!
Bought a Google Pixel 4 128gb, happy with the phone, nice to upgrade from my vintage iPhone 6!
----
Okay, more sad news about the Army Truck. A few days ago I received this snapchat from a friend back home and I was actually a bit heartbroken and all I could say in my head repeatedly is "I'm sorry army truck!" and man all the time I wasted on that thing lol
So CayenneCheyenne/Army Truck is now officially toast. I am actually kind of sad about it but at least I still have the lightbar and bumper from it. I learned a lot with this truck and I'm glad I was able to keep it on (and off) the road for four years. And all to think this was a $500 CL find with a bad 350 and I only bought it because it was a manual trans truck.
However I do know it's the lifecycle of a vehicle and it survived 31 years, so I can't be totally bummed over it!
But that tweaker shouldn't have spray painted the black over the green it was just fine!
--
Onto the 07.
The truck really did squat and sag ass every time it had a trailer connected to it, and at work we have a huge enclosed trailer full of house cabinets that is extremely heavy. Long story short, it squatted my truck so much the first time I connected it to my truck, and unhooking the trailer when we were done was a disaster. I broke the trailer jack in the process. This caused me to spend $650 at Rockauto that same evening for new springs, so I went with a 3500 SRW pack rated at 3300lbs per side with a total of 8 leafs on each side rather than the five the truck has currently. I knew this truck sagged constantly but I wasn't irritated until that stupid enclosed trailer that I spent half an hour unhooking from.
I installed these at my coworkers house and on the same day we swapped over the gmt800 parts onto his son's denali (parts that I traded for the c20).
The truck pre-new leafs was 1" lower at the rear wheels than the fronts. Now at the rear tire it is 3" taller than the front so it has a serious rake!
So the other day I had to move the cabinet trailer and my truck squatted two inches. We had to use the gradall to lift the trailer on and off of my trailer hitch lol
Anyway, I'm happy with the improvement and I won't feel so bad when the time comes that it will be tugging a 25ft gooseneck trailer. However the springs were truly shot. Truck lived 13 years toting around a big welder, air compressor, generator, tools, etc so the springs were shot. #nomoresquat
I bought another tailgate and cheap tail lights for $75, and the new tailgate is a total PITA to close but looks better. Painted the top to match the sides of the bed. The tail lights on the other hand, well they lasted two days. The left side popped out and I had to electrical tape TF out of it to stay. I have a set of cheap $45 tail lights on the way, didn't want to buy fancy tail lights since the bed is toast and I want a flatbed anyways.
Installed a compass/temp mirror I bought from @Z71Hobbs too, I'm super happy with it! Hopefully he comes across some more nice stuff that I can buy for my truck.
Also have some white color match paint for the k2xx mirror caps and the ACDelco ignition kit for a new lock cylinder I still have to install. Maybe this weekend I'll get around to doing some stuff with this truck.
--
Well the c20...
I've been going crazy painting stuff on it and had the front end looking really nice, and one day last week I hit a deer ruining the grille, radiator, and the lower chrome surround for the grille. So what a wonderful time to buy a 73/74 grille like I said this truck may get on my post from a month ago.
How it looked with the painted 76 grille:
The new radiator showed up and installing it wasn't bad. Said it was compatible with a 76 c20 but that is not the case, its like an inch too tall so I had to modify the bracket a tiny bit, no big deal.
I was stoked to see my new GM restoration grille and come to find out it wouldn't work. I need some additional brackets and the 75/76 have a one off external hood release handle thing so I need to find one off a 77+ or a 73-74 truck. However there is a shop in town that has a 73/74 truck sitting in a field so tomorrow after work I'm going to see if maybe the guy will sell the parts I need, so for now my $170 grille is wall art. Gas is currently $1.77 a gallon so I filled up both tanks on the c20 last night (and fortunately the pass side tank works properly!)
My plan for this c20 is to list it for sale in a month or so that way I can have a little bit more extra cash for a down payment on the 25ft gooseneck I want. Although on the other hand here I am throwing over $300 into the thing due to a stupid deer.
It could become my keeper battle wagon truck! I like it a tiny bit.
--
Gambler S10:
I decided to just send this one to the dump. I yanked the nv3500/np241 out of it and even putting this truck on it's side was a massive pain.
Even with this S10 (yes it was a little far on the tongue), the truck still sagged like crazy and it annoyed me. When we unloaded it at the dump it was like the easiest experience ever. I put air in the tires and it rolled itself off!
Funny enough, James went to the dump one Monday morning (exactly a week after we dropped it off) before work and it was on the transfer station's gooseneck being mounted by a first gen 4runner on it's way to who knows where.
--
That's it for now. Going to try getting this gooseneck at the end of June, and in that case I need to spend a day preparing the 07 for it too. I'll be excited when I can post a pic of that future trailer behind my truck!
In terms of life, things have been going decent enough. I have another gnarly Tinder date story that actually was totally bizarre, and my coworker told me I need to write down the entire thing while it's fresh in my memory lol
Work has been okay, and at this point I have only ever driven the c20 to work once since owning it, besides that I've been driving and abusing the 07 daily and it's been holding up. I'd like to take the c20 all the time but I'm constantly hauling trailers and take my tools home every night so they stay in the 07.
My GM 3500HD group has now crossed 1600 members, it reached 1000 I think back in late March, so that's another little accomplishment of mine! If you are interested the page is here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/3500hd/
I also picked up a door locally and installed it in my shop last weekend, I think it turned out nice and it's nice to have a tiny bit more of natural light in my shop during the day!
You must be registered for see images
Bought a Google Pixel 4 128gb, happy with the phone, nice to upgrade from my vintage iPhone 6!
----
Okay, more sad news about the Army Truck. A few days ago I received this snapchat from a friend back home and I was actually a bit heartbroken and all I could say in my head repeatedly is "I'm sorry army truck!" and man all the time I wasted on that thing lol
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
So CayenneCheyenne/Army Truck is now officially toast. I am actually kind of sad about it but at least I still have the lightbar and bumper from it. I learned a lot with this truck and I'm glad I was able to keep it on (and off) the road for four years. And all to think this was a $500 CL find with a bad 350 and I only bought it because it was a manual trans truck.
However I do know it's the lifecycle of a vehicle and it survived 31 years, so I can't be totally bummed over it!
But that tweaker shouldn't have spray painted the black over the green it was just fine!
--
Onto the 07.
The truck really did squat and sag ass every time it had a trailer connected to it, and at work we have a huge enclosed trailer full of house cabinets that is extremely heavy. Long story short, it squatted my truck so much the first time I connected it to my truck, and unhooking the trailer when we were done was a disaster. I broke the trailer jack in the process. This caused me to spend $650 at Rockauto that same evening for new springs, so I went with a 3500 SRW pack rated at 3300lbs per side with a total of 8 leafs on each side rather than the five the truck has currently. I knew this truck sagged constantly but I wasn't irritated until that stupid enclosed trailer that I spent half an hour unhooking from.
You must be registered for see images attach
I installed these at my coworkers house and on the same day we swapped over the gmt800 parts onto his son's denali (parts that I traded for the c20).
You must be registered for see images
The truck pre-new leafs was 1" lower at the rear wheels than the fronts. Now at the rear tire it is 3" taller than the front so it has a serious rake!
So the other day I had to move the cabinet trailer and my truck squatted two inches. We had to use the gradall to lift the trailer on and off of my trailer hitch lol
You must be registered for see images attach
Anyway, I'm happy with the improvement and I won't feel so bad when the time comes that it will be tugging a 25ft gooseneck trailer. However the springs were truly shot. Truck lived 13 years toting around a big welder, air compressor, generator, tools, etc so the springs were shot. #nomoresquat
I bought another tailgate and cheap tail lights for $75, and the new tailgate is a total PITA to close but looks better. Painted the top to match the sides of the bed. The tail lights on the other hand, well they lasted two days. The left side popped out and I had to electrical tape TF out of it to stay. I have a set of cheap $45 tail lights on the way, didn't want to buy fancy tail lights since the bed is toast and I want a flatbed anyways.
Installed a compass/temp mirror I bought from @Z71Hobbs too, I'm super happy with it! Hopefully he comes across some more nice stuff that I can buy for my truck.
You must be registered for see images attach
Also have some white color match paint for the k2xx mirror caps and the ACDelco ignition kit for a new lock cylinder I still have to install. Maybe this weekend I'll get around to doing some stuff with this truck.
You must be registered for see images attach
--
Well the c20...
I've been going crazy painting stuff on it and had the front end looking really nice, and one day last week I hit a deer ruining the grille, radiator, and the lower chrome surround for the grille. So what a wonderful time to buy a 73/74 grille like I said this truck may get on my post from a month ago.
How it looked with the painted 76 grille:
You must be registered for see images attach
The new radiator showed up and installing it wasn't bad. Said it was compatible with a 76 c20 but that is not the case, its like an inch too tall so I had to modify the bracket a tiny bit, no big deal.
You must be registered for see images attach
I was stoked to see my new GM restoration grille and come to find out it wouldn't work. I need some additional brackets and the 75/76 have a one off external hood release handle thing so I need to find one off a 77+ or a 73-74 truck. However there is a shop in town that has a 73/74 truck sitting in a field so tomorrow after work I'm going to see if maybe the guy will sell the parts I need, so for now my $170 grille is wall art. Gas is currently $1.77 a gallon so I filled up both tanks on the c20 last night (and fortunately the pass side tank works properly!)
You must be registered for see images attach
My plan for this c20 is to list it for sale in a month or so that way I can have a little bit more extra cash for a down payment on the 25ft gooseneck I want. Although on the other hand here I am throwing over $300 into the thing due to a stupid deer.
It could become my keeper battle wagon truck! I like it a tiny bit.
--
Gambler S10:
I decided to just send this one to the dump. I yanked the nv3500/np241 out of it and even putting this truck on it's side was a massive pain.
You must be registered for see images attach
Even with this S10 (yes it was a little far on the tongue), the truck still sagged like crazy and it annoyed me. When we unloaded it at the dump it was like the easiest experience ever. I put air in the tires and it rolled itself off!
Funny enough, James went to the dump one Monday morning (exactly a week after we dropped it off) before work and it was on the transfer station's gooseneck being mounted by a first gen 4runner on it's way to who knows where.
You must be registered for see images attach
--
That's it for now. Going to try getting this gooseneck at the end of June, and in that case I need to spend a day preparing the 07 for it too. I'll be excited when I can post a pic of that future trailer behind my truck!