1989 Chevrolet K1500 – Dale S.

I bought my truck May 8, 2010. It had been sitting in ladies driveway for 8 months. She said it had a bad oil leak. I checked it over, got it started and told her I was going around the block. Before I made it half way, the temp gauge pegged so I turned around and went back to her house. I told her it overheated, the air conditioner didn’t work and it definitely had a massive oil leak. We negotiated the price, I paid her, got a receipt and left for home. The temp gauge was normal all the way home.
I immediately went to work on it, wash job, oil change and drove to a friend’s house. We picked up my truck, pulled the drive shaft and transmission. I had my friend get in and start it up. Oil shot out around the oil filter. The o-ring on the filter adapter had broken and was the cause of the massive leak. I put a new o-ring in and drove home.
The truck was equipped with a 350 cid, 5 speed manual transmission and 4 wheel drive.
I swapped the 350 for an all aluminum LS 5.3, rebuilt the five speed and replaced the reared with a unit from a 2015 Silverado with disk brakes. It wasn’t a bolt in, I had to move the spring perches out to align with the plates on the rear end housing.
Then I went to a friend’s body shop. The truck looked bad but there was no rust. We pulled the bed, doors, hood, front fenders and started pulling dents and sanding. Finally got the bed in the paint booth, painted and then put the truck in the booth and hung the fenders on the truck and paint the cab. Put everything together and went home. I took out the bench seat and replaced with seats from a 1994 Silverado. I took the truck to the upholstery shop to get the headliner, door panels and seats. The seat and door panels were covered with leather. I converted the doors from manual windows and locks to power windows and locks. I even had a key fob to lock and unlock the doors. Then I pulled the radiator and core support for one out of a 1994 diesel truck because the radiator was much bigger. I found a guy willing to sell his ’20 Silverado SS wheels from his truck. When I put them on, the front brake rotors were so small you could hardly see them. So I changed the front brakes to the large rotors and calipers. Also had to switch to the large master cylinder to push enough fluid to stop. Then I added the third brake light to the cab and an overhead console in the ceiling.
I added the Chevrolet bowtie and tree letters to the tailgate: HDT. No, it does not stand for Heavy Duty Truck, it is short for: Hundred Dollar Truck. I paid $100 dollars for it.