GMC / Chevy Grandpas Truck

My grandpa bought this truck long ago and I have fond memories as a kid riding in it with him and my grandma on camping trips. He used it to pull his 5th wheel and fishing boat during his retirement years. Around 5 years ago he passed away and my uncle got the truck. Whether they were just hard on it or the truck was just getting old the poor thing was showing its age. It put out blue smoke, AC sorta worked, and many other quirks. Honestly it made me sad to see it in such shape. Then about 4 months ago my uncle decided he was done using (abusing?) the truck and it came into my parents possession. I was ecstatic and immediately told them the truck is mine when they are done using it. They needed something to haul dirt around, loads to the dump, etc... since they had a big yard and the truck did the job well. They proceeded to sink 3k into it for new tires, exhaust, AC tune up, and various other things. The motor still smoked but pulled strong. I imagined getting the truck one day and restoring it to its original glory until....

A few days ago just after 8 .m. when my parents left for work, a driver of a SUV who was on drugs or alcohol ( or both) was going fast north on 400 West near our house when he veered off the road for some reason and crashed through our neighbors fence, our mailbox, and the big green electric-company box, and then smashed into the driver's side of our truck that was parked in the driveway. You can see from the photos that the SUV pushed the truck nearly to right angles with the garage.
The SUV had no plates; and, of course, the driver had no driver's license and was not insured. He got out and ran around the fence into our other neighbors' yard. That neighbor saw him--she had heard the crash and was coming out to see what had happened. She followed behind him and saw him climb over their fence in the back of her yard. The driver behind the one who hit our truck saw everything happen and called the police, who arrived in just a few minutes, found the man cutting through yards, and arrested him. He is in jail now.

The electricity was out for several hours while the power company brought in a new green box and installed it. My parents were at work until nearly 6 p.m. and came home to find the mess.

My parents got a quote for the damage. 7K to repair it, and no guarantee that the door would close right even at that price. As much as they wanted to keep it they just couldn't justify it and are now sadly looking for a new truck to haul stuff around. Craptastic part number 2? The Toyota was stolen, druggie has no insurance or assets, and my parents only had liability on the truck which translates into them being completely SOL.

My parents have now offered this truck to me, and although my dreams of an immaculate grandpa mobile are crushed, I still cannot allow this truck to go to the scrap yard. Ideally im going to try and get it useable again, new door, new fender, new whatever else, but worst case I figure I can turn it into some kind of crawler.

So here is where I need help. I have never worked on full size trucks before, although I have always wanted to try wheeling one off-road. Right now the main issue that may or may not be evident in the photos is the upper ball joint on the driver side tire has sheared off. Looking at it there appears to be 4 bolts that hold the ball joint in, not familiar with how that works. I ordered the part but my question is tomorrow when I go to put this part in, what all is involved in replacing that joint? Seems like 4 bolts come out, new joint in, 4 bolts back on, or is there more to it? Any special tools I need? Also this truck is a 88 GMC Sierra 2500, but do 1500 doors interchange? I found one online down south I was thinking of picking up but its out of a 1500.

Not sure if we have many fullsize rigs on here but I will definitely need all the help, advice, and experience I can get going into this unknown territory.

If the ball joint is stock, it will be held in with rivets. Either way, new one goes in with bolts.

88-98 1500-3500 doors will interchange.

Any specifics you need you can pm me. Ive had this era full-size one way or another for over 10 years now.

If that joint is stock and has those rivets I see lots of bloody knuckles in your future. At least thats what happened when I replaced some. I ground the tops off and drill a hole in the center and was able to push the rusted rivets out after that. If its got the bolts its pretty straight forward, just take the knuckle side out first.

Bummer about the druggie and the accident. Hope that jack@ss rots in jail. Good luck with the truck. On the show "Trucks" they did a ball joint change on one of those and had a couple of tricks to use. Can't remember what they were.

my advice... Get a door and fender from the junk yard. Dont fix the front end, do a dana 60, 14 bolt full float swap, bob the bed or just cut the whole thing off behind the cab and go truggy with 4 link and coil overs, then have a sweet full size wheeler

OR something similar to this, he kept the frame and leafs in the rear

OrvisKrawler said:

my advice... Get a door and fender from the junk yard. Dont fix the front end, do a dana 60, 14 bolt full float swap, bob the bed or just cut the whole thing off behind the cab and go truggy with 4 link and coil overs, then have a sweet full size wheeler

OR something similar to this, he kept the frame and leafs in the rear

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x1000

I've always loved offroad design's ultimate adventure truck (except for the stickers):

heres another one, I have a feeling that this is how mine will eventually end up

Thanks for the info about the rivets. I'm getting ready to head over now and will bring a grinder then. I did consider a SAS for it. Seems like axles from a CUCV would be a good choice? Just haven't had time to research the cost of it, but I imagine it won't be cheap. I definitely like the look of the fullsize crawler rigs, but don't have the tube bender or skills to use one though. Guess here's my chance to learn

whether it ends up a full blown crawler or mild weekend wheeler I'm still pretty excited about taking it on a trail sometime. I've always wanted to try wheeling a full size rig.

78-79 ford dana 60 is what you would hope to find to solid axle it, the diff is further towards center. I used a 91 ford dana 60 on mine, it works. Chevy 60's are passenger drop (diff on the wrong side) if you have questions or need help with anything concerning it just let me know Ive done a bunch of them. Wheeling a full size rig is fun, I find it more challenging and fun because youre trying to fit it in where jeeps and smaller rigs go, sometimes its tight

If you want a truck for parts to fix it I've got one! 96 chev 1500 short bed 4x4 body is pretty straight. It has a blown head gasket but still runs. It is my sons gf's truck. It's in my back yard in lindon if your interested $700 trans was recently rebuilt. You could probably make your money back parting it out after getting what you need. I've just got too many projects to take it on right now. Give me a call if you want to look at it 801-376-0462

OrvisKrawler said:

78-79 ford dana 60 is what you would hope to find to solid axle it, the diff is further towards center. I used a 91 ford dana 60 on mine, it works. Chevy 60's are passenger drop (diff on the wrong side) if you have questions or need help with anything concerning it just let me know Ive done a bunch of them.

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Hmm. I thought Chevys and GMC was the same trucks with different badges. Learn something new everyday. Sure would have been nice to use CUCV axles though

rockdog said:

If you want a truck for parts to fix it I've got one! 96 chev 1500 short bed 4x4 body is pretty straight. It has a blown head gasket but still runs. It is my sons gf's truck. It's in my back yard in lindon if your interested $700 trans was recently rebuilt. You could probably make your money back parting it out after getting what you need. I've just got too many projects to take it on right now. Give me a call if you want to look at it 801-376-0462

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Thanks I may consider that. This truck is actually also in lindon so your probably right around the corner.

edit: does it happen to be tan/gold?

If it were mine... i would have the framr checked for square. If it is square redo it. Build it into a hauler. New/used cab, new doors and make it nice. The cabs are cheap at junk yards and with it off any repairs are simple. Just my 2 cents.

Team1k said:

Hmm. I thought Chevys and GMC was the same trucks with different badges. Learn something new everyday. Sure would have been nice to use CUCV axles though

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chevy and gmc are the same, the 88-98 chevy and gmc trucks are independent suspension with the front drive shaft on the drivers side, 73-87 trucks have solid front axles with the drive shaft on the passenger side

Team1k said:

Hmm. I thought Chevys and GMC was the same trucks with different badges. Learn something new everyday. Sure would have been nice to use CUCV axles though

Click to expand...

They are basically the same truck when you look at the same generation of the vehicle, meaning the solid axle and IFS models are different generations. Fixing a hit vehicle is usually a piece of cake, I have repaired 4 or 5 of them all by simply searching the internet for answers and went to town on them.

Ahh cool thanks for the info guys. I thought they were always passenger side drop.

Nope it isn't tan. It's black