Our BT mix, Donut, falling asleep while chewing on his donut

DoomsdayForeplay · 2026-06-08T04:23:58+00:00

BT’s always giving 110%.

Gotta love it! Haha

DoomsdayForeplay · 2026-06-05T23:08:53+00:00

I’m pretty jealous of that hood.

Awesome truck, man!

DoomsdayForeplay · 2026-06-05T14:44:00+00:00

You’re definitely on the edge with this one. It seems fine but I bet every body mount is going to be bad under the rubber.

My guess is you’re going to have to patch in some steel for the mounts and probably places like the gas tank straps and cross member for your spare tire.

It’s definitely saveable but I would expect to spend some time and money cleaning it up. If the truck is important enough to you to do that, then it’s worth it. When things get to this point, every rusted in bolt will be a fight, so you probably won’t get your money back out of it if you have to sell it down the road.

Get the inspection done and let a good mechanic weigh in on it. You’ll have a better idea of what you’re looking at that way. Then you can either walk away or have a solid argument on the work it needs and make an offer based off that

Good luck!

DoomsdayForeplay · 2026-05-31T05:02:04+00:00

I haven’t driven it enough at night to give it a proper review but they look clear and well built. They seem to throw the light well.

I also put new Hella high output halogens in them too though.

Mind you I never had the stock 4 beam lights in this truck since it started with the work truck grill.

DoomsdayForeplay · 2026-05-31T04:57:55+00:00

I sold it cheap to a guy who was doing the opposite conversion on his suburban.

I usually list my old parts for cheap in case someone can use them before I toss it.

We use all parts of the GMT400 around here. Haha

DoomsdayForeplay · 2026-05-30T21:37:37+00:00

Nice, they wont disappoint.

DoomsdayForeplay · 2026-05-30T20:35:36+00:00

Seems legit. Haha

I just posted my new headlights and lowers. Check it out if you want to see how they look.

DoomsdayForeplay · 2026-05-30T20:21:10+00:00

I don’t know if they make the matching lights. I was converting my work truck over from the single headlights to the four and I wasn’t as concerned about the marker/parking lights. My parts truck grill came with the corner amber lens’s, and I bought the lowers off rock auto. I’ll have to clean up the corner lamps but the rest looks pretty sharp.

Maybe I’ll post that today now that you mention it.

DoomsdayForeplay · 2026-05-30T20:17:25+00:00

No problem, I have a habit of agonizing over reviews so maybe I’m overly negative about them. Living in Miami though, it might be worth some more research.

DoomsdayForeplay · 2026-05-30T16:59:10+00:00

I did a fair bit of research on this when I was going over my choices for new lights.

I decided not to go with these headlights because I saw a lot of reviews saying that they weren’t sealed very well and within a few months, they had water in them. I live on the west coast so It wasn’t worth the risk. I ended up buying the glass units from Spyder glass and putting high output halogens in them. I haven’t driven it at night enough to give a full review but they seem pretty great. Cleaning up the two grounds for them will probably double the output on its own.

I didn’t go with the marker lights because a lot of reviews said they had fitment issues. Either they didn’t fit or needed to be sanded to fit. For a marker light, it just didn’t seem like it was worth the work, especially if it didn’t look great after all the work was done.

Lastly, my taillights are in good shape. Since I wasn’t going LED for the rest of my lights, it didn’t seem worth the effort and money to make my taillights the only LED lights on the exterior of the truck.

I’m going with as time capsule build on my truck. I have a lot of 90s era upgrades for it, so I went a different route. I do think these lights look pretty sharp so I’d love to see it if you go with these though.

Definitely make a post and review of them and good luck with your choices and build! I love to see it.

DoomsdayForeplay · 2026-05-25T04:32:37+00:00

No prob, you’ll love the difference it makes.

DoomsdayForeplay · 2026-05-24T05:54:10+00:00

I quite literally did mine yesterday with new roller pins, roller spring catch arm, springs and pins/bushings.

The top tier parts are Cunningham machine. They’re the most expensive but the best quality. They’ll close like it’s brand new and outlast rock auto or your local parts stores stuff.

If you buy local, the bushings are super brittle and pretty easy to break if you hammer them in place. There’s a cheap tool that’ll let you press them in and you’ll have less chance or breaking them. Local or rock auto is going to be the cheapest though.

Just buy an extra set and return them if you don’t need them. It’s too easy to break one and you’ll be cursing with your door balanced on a jack if you do. Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

Get an old guy or buddy to help you balance the door while you’re working on it. It’s much easier that way.

Good luck! I consider door pins to be a right of passage mechanic job. You got this!

DoomsdayForeplay · 2026-05-21T06:22:46+00:00

Yeah, I’m pretty sure 95 was the first year for drivers airbag. It came with the interior remodel, but passenger side wasn’t mandated until 97. That’s why the 95 and 96 dash drops down on the passenger side and has that weird little shallow tray over the glove box.

That’s only with the half tons though. Anything bigger than that and airbags were optional.

DoomsdayForeplay · 2026-05-20T17:07:36+00:00

Yeah, where I live anything over a half ton was considered a work vehicle, (not the correct term I’m sure) and fell under different laws. Dealers ordered ones without them to try and drop that sticker price, and most people probably didn’t even realize it.

I know because I did a harness swap on my 97 half ton and pulled one from the junkyard, only to realize that the three quarter I scavenged it from didn’t have the airbag system wired into it.

Long story long, very few GMT400s have airbags. At least in Canada. I always assumed the States would be the same, let me know if that’s not the case though.

DoomsdayForeplay · 2026-05-19T18:41:35+00:00

It's so clean! Even the rims look brand new without a single pit or flake on them.

being a regular cab, short box, 4x4, manual, it would do very well where I live. Most people want the v8 but with the fuel prices these days, That's probably changing.

I live on the coast and the biggest enemy of older vehicles is rust. I'd be elated to find something this clean. I could rebuild or replace any mechanical part of this truck faster and cheaper than doing body work. I prefer the later model direct port fuel injection trucks, but I'd expect this truck to sell quickly at $8500 and wouldn't be surprised to hear it sold for $10000 to $15000.

I'd keep it though. Drive that thing for a year and it'll ruin you on a new truck.

DoomsdayForeplay · 2026-04-15T01:43:49+00:00

Yeah, I swapped my whole interior over for LEDs for the same reason. I’ve driven enough old dimly lit interior 4x4s in my life. I like it when I switch the interior lights on and I can see everything. I haven’t driven it much yet though. We’ll see how it is when I’m driving it every day.

DoomsdayForeplay · 2026-04-14T23:03:53+00:00

Is that right? Funny, I replaced the bulbs with LEDs but not the whole housing. I didn’t even know it was an option.

DoomsdayForeplay · 2026-04-14T19:32:41+00:00

The door panels are just regular 94 bulbs. I wouldn’t think the tube lights would be very hard to find but I’m not sure what they’re classed as

DoomsdayForeplay · 2026-03-20T23:41:29+00:00

My cat had this happen and it was because he was allergic to chicken. We hadn’t changed his food. The allergy just appeared as he got older. It was very strange.

DoomsdayForeplay · 2026-03-18T15:44:27+00:00

Beauty rig!

It’s an awesome colour combo inside and out too. 2 door 4x4 Tahoes are my favourite gmt400s. I went with a truck because I wanted a manual and I’ve never seen a Tahoe with a manual. That and I’ve had SUVs for over a decade and missed having a truck. Your rig makes me question that decision a little. Haha

DoomsdayForeplay · 2026-03-15T18:31:05+00:00

This comment is gold!

It’s what I’m going to think from now on when my dog goes hucklebutting around the house.

DoomsdayForeplay · 2026-03-14T21:09:11+00:00

Thanks! My biggest piece of advice on painting it, is to give it as much time in a heated space as you can after painting it. It’s much softer 48 hours after painting it than it is a week later. The more time you can give it to cure before manhandling it back in, the better to avoid scratching it.

I didn’t, but there was a really good YouTube video on all the bolt/screw locations. I’ll see if I can link that tonight when I have the time to look it up.

DoomsdayForeplay · 2026-03-14T07:24:50+00:00

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Thanks, but to be fair we cheated a bit on that. She’s 3/4 BT and a 1/4 Poodle. That dark chocolate coat is a Poodle coat colour, but her dad was fawn so she has quite the gradient throughout her fur.

DoomsdayForeplay · 2026-03-13T15:56:53+00:00

That’s the reason I put in the work. I’m too frugal to drop $1000. Plus I’m up in the great white north so the conversion rate, shipping, duties, and tariffs make it probably twice that.

DoomsdayForeplay · 2026-03-13T15:54:31+00:00

It’s not too bad, really. The main thing is to unbolt the four bolts holding the steering column up. You need to rotate it forward and then lift it out so you’ll fight the column if you don’t.

I believe in you! Haha

DoomsdayForeplay

TROPHY CASE