My 1988 C1500 RCLB

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This truck was somewhat of an impulse buy for me but its really turned out to be a gem so far. I was in Idaho last summer for work for a couple of weeks and noticed how many clean cars and trucks were around. I had wanted an older car/truck for awhile now so I decided I was on a mission to bring a clean truck back to WI. I already own a car and a 20ft ski boat so a truck made the most sense for a second vehicle. My first choice would have been a square body but with a budget of a few grand I quickly realized there was no way that was going to happen for the turn key, rust free truck I wanted. I was all over the map on my search. The absolutely top priority for me was that it was rust free and had all the original body panels with factory looking paint. I was seeing lots of Fords and Dodges around for cheap but the Chevy's and GMC's for sale were really limited but yet I was seeing a lot of them on the road. Most of the Chevy's I was seeing for sale were 3/4 ton farm trucks or 4.3l work trucks. You always want what isn't available so I knew I needed a 1/2 ton 350 GMT400.

I found this truck on craigslist in Boise. A 1988 C1500 regular cab long bed, 350 auto with 147k on it. The truck looked really clean in the pics but no phone number. I emailed the posting and finally got a response a couple of days later. I drove up to Boise that afternoon and looked at the truck. It seemed like it was well cared for and had a new alternator, new upper and lower radiator hoses and new tires. The truck was super straight and not a spec of rust. A couple of small dents here and there but overall super clean and largely original. I took it for a test drive, made a deal on it and drove back to Twin Falls. The next day I took it to Jiffy lube for an oil change and then drove it back 1,800 miles to WI.

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Day I bought the truck

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The truck came with a full set of studded snow tires

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Garnet red interior.

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In Colorado on the drive home.
 

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Some other pics from the drive home.

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I made it 1,800 miles back to Wisconsin without any issues, truck ran perfectly. Averaged almost 17 mpg on the way home, not bad for a 30 year old truck. I towed my boat up north last summer, over 500 miles round trip. Truck handled it no problem.


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I parked the truck last fall I've spent a ton of time here planning on what I want to do to the truck. Initially, being a C1500, I definitely wanted to lower the truck but the longer I have it the more I realize stock height is better for me and lowered it may not be necessary. So far I haven't purchased any mods for the truck. I'd like to keep it largely stock and get some oem tail lights and an oem rear bumper. I'd also like to get some 295/50/15 rear and 245/60/15 fronts with raised white letters and a 4.10 rear end with some sort of lsd.

I brought the truck out of the garage a couple of weeks ago and started giving the interior a much needed clean. I'm really glad I waited to buy anything for the truck. A few times I almost pulled the trigger on some new carpet but an hour with some degreaser, a nylon brush and a shop vac did wonders. Same with the steering wheel. There was black duct tape on the spokes of the wheel, I thought for sure it was damaged underneath but after removing the tape and some WD-40 cleaning its in great shape!

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Nice looking truck. Those tires look tall, or maybe it is just the camera angle. Guessing it came with 23575 tires stock?

Yes, currently I'm on 235/75/15's. I agree, they look very tall. I saw Revered Mike's truck on here and fell in love with his look at stock C1500 height. I'm planning on going 295/50/15 in the rear and 245/60/15 in the front in either the Cooper Cobra's or BFG's they're just so expensive, especially when the tires on the truck only have 5,000 miles on them. I was also planning on going with some different rims but the rims on the truck are so 1988 that I think they might actually work really well with the new tires.
 

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The truck hasn't left my garage all winter but I'm excited to get it back out again. I was looking though some pics from last summer and thought I put up some updates.

I bought an red OEM cupholder off ebay. Not having one in the truck drove me absolutely nuts. Well worth the investment and installed in only a few minutes.

I also installed OEM tow hooks and a front spoiler I bought at a local part out. The front end looked bare with nothing on the bottom of the bumper. For what I use the truck for I thought the tow hooks might come in handy some day.

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The other big investment last year was the purchase of a Softopper. For trips up north with the boat and camping it made sense for me to get something to cover the bed. I knew a hard camper shell was too cumbersome to move and store and I've been seeing these Softopper's around on modern trucks but never on a gmt400. Overall, I've been really happy with it. I went though some pretty hard rain and highway speeds and it held up great. Initial install too about an hour to assemble everything and now I can take the whole top and on off in under 15 mins without any extra hands. For the most part is water tight. The biggest issue is the gap between the tail gate and the bed, but I'd have that same issue with any bed cover.

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Not too many updates on the 88’ this year. I maybe only drove the truck 1,000 miles but the weather has been so nice over the last week in WI and I did drive it and gave it a good wash before it goes into hibernation until spring. Overall just a nice, original clean truck here, much cleaner than my 93’ stepside. I’d really like to get some 275/60/15’s on it but I can’t justify new tires right now when the ones on the truck are easily over 75% tread life. I do love the look of the 88-89 front end though.
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The entire truck has hand painted pin striping on it. Kind of a unique feature. Some of it is pretty faded in places but it gives it a nice patina.

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I am having an issue where the truck will die when I put it into gear from park. It’s not all the time though, it seems to be worse when the truck isn’t warmed up all the way. I checked the TBI gasket, seems good. Cleaned the IAC, no difference and checked the vacuum which was also good. Any suggestions?
 
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