My 1989 Silverado is totaled - What years / parts Interchange?

[Logan71]

Good day,
New poster here, but seasoned mechanic and and I'm hoping the experts here can fill in my gaps in knowledge. My 1989 Silverado was hit hard in the back end a few weeks ago. The other guy's insurance has totaled it (no surprise), as the frame is bent under the cab area, and the bed slammed into the back of the cab. Even if I got the frame repaired, the cab doesn't look repairable and I'd still be stuck with a 'rebuilt' title at best.

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With that said, I'm shopping for another truck and trying to salvage what I can from my vehicle (I bought it back from the salvage company).
What I have to work with:

Perfect interior (new carpet, uncracked dash, reupholstered door panels, etc)
GM Vortec Crate Engine (installed 20k miles ago, using all stock accessories and a Vortec-to-TBI intake)
Fairly fresh transmission (about 30k miles on it)

There's lots of trucks out there that have been been rode hard and put up wet, so I'm hoping to find one with pristine paint and I can move some of my interior/drivetrain over to it. A blown engine truck would save me some $, but it also means I'm still w\o a truck until I move everything over. I've been excluding any rusted or lowered trucks - I use my truck for hunting/fishing/daily driver duties and I'm not interested in buying anything that's not close to stock.

Question for the experts here:

What years of truck (Chev/GMC) interchange fully - just 88-92? What about '93?

I know later body parts _look_ the same but I'm afraid I'm going to get into ECU or transmission mismatch (my 700R4 vs 4L60E differences) if I buy something beyond '92. What changes after 92?

Is a 1988-1992 4wd worth considering? Mine is 2wd I'm not sure I'm up for things that might be different.

Thanks in advance for the answers!

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

Sheet metal is pretty much the same from 88-98 except for the bumpers and brackets on the front. 88-93 are different than 94-up, as is the grille. I've read that there are some differences in the early and later doors. The interior is different on the 88-94 and the 95-up, and there's several things that are 94-95 only or only 94 or only 95. The quad sealed beams are factory on the 88-89 trucks but can be adapted to the later ones fairly easily, as long as you have all the parts and wiring harness.

 

[Drunkcanuk]

The biggest difference will be in the interiors of the 95+.
Id try and stick with the 88-92 years if you wanna just swap your driveline over. But I guess any pre-vortec truck would be pretty hassle free. May have to swap ECM over from yours if your donor truck has a 4L60E and you wanna stay with the 700r4.
As for the 4x4 question, I'm sure it would be relatively easy to accomplish especially if you have the floor shifter for the transfer case instead of later years push button one.

Sure others will swing by and give their more experienced opinions.

And that's a shame what happened, nice looking truck!

 

[Logan71]

Thank you both for the replies so far. The whole front clip on my truck seems to be good, so knowing I can reuse the grille, glass headlights buckets, hood, fenders and maybe the doors is useful (not sure if they're damaged - they're very tight to open due to the cab damage.

I'm hoping the moon-style gauge cluster (what I have) is directly interchangeable with the needle-style. I think it would be nice to move away from the moon-style if the connections were the same.

 

[Logan71]

>> And that's a shame what happened, nice looking truck!

Thanks for your kind words. I get depressed every time I walked outside and look at it. Here's to hoping the shopping for something similar will go smoothly and quickly. There doesn't appear to be many black ones, but time will tell.

 

[Schurkey]

My 1989 Silverado was hit hard in the back end a few weeks ago... ...I'm shopping for another truck and trying to salvage what I can from my vehicle... ...Perfect interior (new carpet, uncracked dash, reupholstered door panels, etc)
GM Vortec Crate Engine (installed 20k miles ago, using all stock accessories and a Vortec-to-TBI intake)
Fairly fresh transmission (about 30k miles on it)
I use my truck for hunting/fishing/daily driver duties and I'm not interested in buying anything that's not close to stock.

Is a 1988-1992 4wd worth considering?

Wise to buy-back the vehicle from the salvage/insurance company. Also wise to avoid lifted/lowered trucks.

OVERALL, I would be looking for '89--'92, with '88 as a second-choice. '93-up only if you're willing to walk away from your transmission.

4WD is recommended for a hunting/fishing rig, but again means you're not using your transmission unless you pull it apart again to convert it into a 4WD-compatible unit.

And as long as you're getting a different truck, avoid the 1500 entirely as they nearly-always have the crappy rear axle and rear brakes; and the regular-cab 1500 models of the '88--early-'90s usually have crappy JN3/JB3 front brakes, master cylinder and power booster, too. A light-duty 2500 avoids those problems entirely by jumping up to JN6/JB6.

 

[Logan71]

And as long as you're getting a different truck, avoid the 1500 entirely as they nearly-always have the crappy rear axle and rear brakes; and the regular-cab 1500 models of the '88--early-'90s usually have crappy JN3/JB3 front brakes, master cylinder and power booster, too. A light-duty 2500 avoids those problems entirely by jumping up to JN6/JB6.

Thank you for the tip. My brakes have seemed borderline but since the truck is so light in the rear and prone to skid, I've not given it much thought - to me, I'd just 'skid sooner'

I will look at 2500 series trucks in my shopping, although I'd really hate to part with my chrome SS wheels - it took me a few years to find a good set and love how they tastefully accent the chrome on the rest of the truck. Point taken, though.

 

[Scooterwrench]

Man,that really sucks!!! I hope you were well paid.
What I can see it looks like it was a well maintained truck. You may be able to straighten that cab with a porta-power and some body work. It will require pulling some of the interior.
Find another frame,bed and bumper and put it back on the road.

 

[Ruff Idol]

I regret to say I'm in a similar boat myself. March always seems to be a string of bad luck for me. Below is the current condition of my baby (92 c1500); was on the freeway 2 weeks ago and a Ram in front of me spun out for seemingly no reason and I couldn't stop in time, even though I had all new brakes and even the NBS master cylinder upgrade from an 01 Silverado. I keep several car lengths of distance whenever I drive ANYWHERE to the best of my ability so I was not happy with what happened. North Jersey drivers are insane, everyone tails each other up there.

Can't tell if the front of the frame is bent, looks like just a little bit by the left tow hook. Other than that we're looking at all body/front end/radiator/yadayada depending on cost of repair and if the other guy's insurance totals out my truck. I might fix it regardless with all the hours of my own blood sweat and tears I put into this thing, but have to see. Those who know me on here can probably back me up on the fact I had LITERALLY JUST gotten the steering to where I wanted it to be after going through 2 pumps, 3 gearboxes (including 2 Bluetop reman's), and a whole new front end.

Sorry for your situation, that is a CLEAN truck and here I thought mine was pretty special. Push comes to shove maybe we can exchange parts haha.

Btw, if anyone has an expert opinion on my frame (pic below) and can tell me if I'm about to waste money or not I would greatly appreciate it.

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[Scooterwrench]

Can't tell if the whole frame horn is bent or just the bottom of the tube. Once you get the doghouse off it will be easier to look across the horns and see if the left is tilted up higher.