Texas82GP's GMT900

[Texas82GP]

I see you have the same broken dash pieces as me...

That's cuz you both live in hot AF TX

Negative. It's because the GMT900 dash is a POS. They all do this. I bought my truck new. For the first few years, I parked it in a parking garage during the day. It's pretty much had a sunshade up in the windshield at all times except when driving ever since. I've recently considered replacing it but it's $600-$700 to buy the new GM replacement and it will fail the same way in short order.

 

[Texas82GP]

BTW, I was just going to give you a hard time in your GP thread. It's locked due to inactivity. That alone should be shame enough.

Yeah it sucks. It's pushed in the back corner of my storage, 30 miles north of where I live. The hard truth is buying both it and the Roadmaster were big mistakes, financially. Renting is a mistake. It's throwing your money away. I've wasted more money than I want to add up paying to store cars since the fall of 2014. In the end, if and when we ever get out to our new home and have a shop building, I'll be glad to own the cars and it will be fun to put the Grand Prix back together but if I had it to do over again, I wouldn't have bought either of them.

 

[ck80]

Yeah it sucks. It's pushed in the back corner of my storage, 30 miles north of where I live. The hard truth is buying both it and the Roadmaster were big mistakes, financially. Renting is a mistake. It's throwing your money away. I've wasted more money than I want to add up paying to store cars since the fall of 2014. In the end, if and when we ever get out to our new home and have a shop building, I'll be glad to own the cars and it will be fun to put the Grand Prix back together but if I had it to do over again, I wouldn't have bought either of them.

I agree, and I don't.

The recent run-up in prices, and the difficulty finding clean examples that are exactly what you want flip that paradigm somewhat on its head.

I don't want to think of what else I could've bought with the money spent on storage. But I also don't know if I could ever find what I've stored either.

In your case that's more true for the roadmaster which had lower production, higher abuse and deterioration rates, and lacks aftermarket support.

 

[Texas82GP]

I agree, and I don't.

The recent run-up in prices, and the difficulty finding clean examples that are exactly what you want flip that paradigm somewhat on its head.

I don't want to think of what else I could've bought with the money spent on storage. But I also don't know if I could ever find what I've stored either.

In your case that's more true for the roadmaster which had lower production, higher abuse and deterioration rates, and lacks aftermarket support.

I might rent a car but after I get the cars moved to the new home, my renting days will be behind me. If I could have bought a place to store the cars, that would have been the thing to do. Strictly speaking, I don't need either of these cars and with what I've spent storing them, it just doesn't make much sense. I'm glad to have the cars and they would be difficult to replace but I feel like I've paid a steep price when you include the storage. Right now, I pay almost $300 a month for all those cars and the other stuff to sit out there. It's lunacy.

 

[joesregalproject]

The hard truth is buying both it and the Roadmaster were big mistakes, financially.

 

[Texas82GP]

View attachment 221971

The ugly truth.

 

[Texas82GP]

I've put quite a bit of work into the truck lately. By the end of this summer, it felt like the list of the truck's needs had gotten pretty long and it felt like it was getting away from me. It was a very hot summer here which hurt motivation for big projects on the truck during evenings after work or on Sundays. Dad has gotten nearly every Saturday since Mid-July, with us working on rebuilding his detached garage. I took the week of Thanksgiving off, and my plan was to get as much done on the list as possible that week and then, follow-on during Christmas break to keep the progress going. A lot has been done and I'm enjoying many of the fruits of the work but there is still much work to do.

The first problem I chose to address was that the third break light was leaking, again. This has long been a problem on this truck. When the truck was nearly new, the headliner got water stained from that light leaking. I've replaced the lens a few times, with limited success. At one point, I had the lens sealed to the body with clear RTV. That worked well until the lens got to be looking pretty weather beaten and I had to get all that RTV off the paint. It was not a good experience. A year or two back, I bought a new lens, gave it the smoke treatment with VHT Nightshades and installed it as is. That seemed to work at first, but the success was fleeting. Early this fall, the interior was smelling musty, and I could see evidence where rain water had been running down the inside of the rear window.

Over a few evenings after work, a week or two before thanksgiving, I started working to get the headliner out of the truck. From the factory it was grey. My plan was to have it redone black to play off of the black/beige door panels, dash and seats. The front edge of the headliner was starting to let go in addition to the ugly water staining on it. Out came the A-Pillar trim, overhead console, sun visors, thresholds, cab corner trim, coat hooks and then the headliner....

I also pulled the passenger door panel at that time. I did this since the passenger door latch needed replaced. In GM's infinite wisdom, they combined the latch, door lock actuator and the switch for the dome light/BCM in one assembly. The switch failed in the passenger door earlier this summer. As a result, I had to remove the dome light bulbs so they didn't burn all the time. The real treat was that every time I pulled the truck into gear, the warning chime activated and "PASSENGER DOOR OPEN" showed in the Driver's Information Center. Very annoying. I lived with that for a few months.

Next, I pulled the custom grill insert. It's powder coated aluminum. The powder coat has been flaking off of it for years and it looked like hell. I wanted to get it pulled so I could drop it off at the powder coater and hopefully get it back the week of Thanksgiving.

It just doesn't look like my truck without that grill insert....

While so much of the trim was out of the interior, I wanted to go ahead and replace all of the speakers. I had long had a set of replacement speakers for the cab corners but never found the time to put them in. The door speakers had already been replaced, maybe 8-10 years ago, but the left door speaker had started cutting in and out. The night after pulling the headliner, door panel and grill, I replaced the cab corner speakers. I put them in foam baffles to keep them dry and hopefully help direct more sound out into the cab.....

Somewhere along in here I got the headliner over to the trim shop and had them recover it in black fabric. They did a pretty decent job......

Before the headliner was going to go back in, the leaking third break light had to be addressed. I pulled the lens, which wasn't looking that great. Much of the VHT had worn off. My initial plan was just to re-shoot it and put it back on. In cleaning it with paint prep spray, what little of the Nightshades that was still on the lens started coming off. I ended up removing all of the VHT and polishing the lens a bit. The lens showed some sun damage, which was disappointing. It's not that old. I put three light coats of Nightshades on it and it looked much better. I set it upstairs to dry overnight....

When I installed it this time, I used 3M Strip Caulk to supplement the seal to the body that the gasket fails to provide. It didn't turn out a beautiful as I would have liked. Normally I tool that stuff with 3M Adhesive remover, but I was afraid that would take of the Nightshades. Also, I'm running low on that stuff and I didn't want to go spend $35 on a quart right then. Still, nobody is going to look that closely to it and it looks ok from a few feet away. Most importantly, it's not leaking.....

To be continued -->

 

[Texas82GP]

With the leaking third break light issue addressed, I started going back together with the interior, starting with installing the headliner, then the cab corner trim, thresholds, sun visors, coat hooks, overhead console, etc. I deep cleaned everything as I went. I was surprised at how dirty everything behind the front doors was. I guess it hasn't been deep cleaned like this since when I last had the seats out, when I replaced the cloth covers with leather.....

This is as clean as it has been back here in a long, long time....

The A-Pillars, sun visors and coat hooks are grey. I think they were grey in all of the trucks, no matter the interior color. I wasn't sure how the visors and overhead console would look with the black headliner and the beige on the door panels, dash and seats but I think it turned out great....

In the picture above, the passenger door speaker and latch had been replaced. I had deep cleaned the door panel and reinstalled it. The door latch was a tremendous improvement. The passenger door has long seemed easy to slam and has had a metallic clangy sound when then door is closed. With the new latch, it sounds like a new car. It's hard to describe. It was such a transformation, that I ordered a new latch for the driver's side within a day or two of installing the passenger side. I have since installed it. I've really enjoyed how the doors operate and sound now and have really enjoyed not seeing "PASSENGER DOOR OPEN" all the time.

Here I've replaced the driver's side door speaker, have deep cleaned the door panel and reinstalled it. The driver's side door pull had been very dirty. You have to be careful cleaning it because if you scrub on the switch pod ahead of it, you take off the beige paint very easily, revealing the silver paint underneath it. Ask me how I know.....

I've thoroughly enjoyed the clean interior and am really enjoying the new speakers. The cab corner speakers have needed replacement for a long time. I can actually hear them now. Lots of wins in the interior. Somewhere along this time I got the grill insert back from the powder coater. He had it for nearly two weeks. He had trouble getting the results he wanted and I'll give him credit, he kept doing it until it was right. I think it looks great.....

One of my next big projects was to try to cure the EVAP system leak, which has been a problem for a few years. My first attempt at smoke testing it six or eight months ago was inconclusive. I was closing in on the source of the leak but had to give up the search as I was suffering badly from dizziness. It was strange. I think I may have been dehydrated. That's my doctor's opinion, anyway. I gambled and threw the parts cannon at in preparation for the Thanksgiving thrash week. I bought a new fuel pump module and a new EVAP canister. I got both of those replaced. Unfortunately, it didn't fix my problem. I don't feel bad about the new parts though. The truck now has 220k miles on it so I don't feel bad for giving it a new Delphi fuel pump module. The EVAP canister that I removed was a lot heavier than the one I replaced it with so I'm guessing it needed replacement as well. Guys, take a close look at the picture below and tell me what you think. I didn't pay that much attention to it at the time as I guess I was a bit overconfident, but the tank vent connection to the right of the pump module looks suspect to me. What do y'all think?

To be continued--->

 

[Texas82GP]

The day of Thanksgiving my brother, sister-in-law, and their kids went up the east Texas to her aunt's house. I stayed home and got some more work done on the truck that morning and early afternoon. I went over to my uncle's house (my dad's sister and brother-in-law) that evening like I always do. My dad's mom lives there now. She's 102 so there was no way I was going to miss going to see her. It's a tradition.

I adjusted the pressure in all four primary tires and both spares. I have one spare under the bed, which I hope I never need to use again and I have a spare in the bed, which is a blemished wheel and well worn tire that I took off the truck the last time I replaced the tires. The reasoning is that if I find myself on the side of the road again, the factory jack is of little use in the rear as a result of the lowering and I don't ever want to have to pull down/out that factory spare on the side of the highway again.

That same day I also rotated the tires and greased the front end. I also addressed an annoying squeak that had manifested itself on the left front during the summer. I was a bit upset by this since I just replaced all four control arms and both coil overs in the spring. I think it was the spherical joints on the control arms. I lubed both joints on both sides with Suber Lube spray (UMI suggests it for the spherical ends on their control arms) and that solved the problem. That was a big source of irritation/misery that got solved.....

If I did something else that day, I don't remember. The day after Thanksgiving, I did a rear brake job that included replacing the wheel cylinders, shoes, drums and all of the hardware. I bought a kit from Powerstop that included coated drums, shoes and the hardware. I didn't plan to replace the wheel cylinders but early on, on the driver's side, I broke one of the pistons on the wheel cylinder which necessitated getting cleaned up and going to NAPA for a pair of overpriced replacements. The front shoes were getting pretty thin, particularly at the bottom....

I can't complain though. I've gotten over 100k miles out of that brake job, which I did 11 years ago. What I can complain about is this ignorant design that GM came up with. The big W spring isn't that bad once you learn how to work with it but the way the parking brake cables attach to the shoes on this design is absolutely ignorant. It took me all day to do drum brakes. It shouldn't be that hard. I did a brake flush in conjunction with the rear brake job....

The next item on the list was to attempt to polish out the hood and top, and wax the rest of the truck. I had my brother lined up to help me. He clay-barred the hood, top and bed cover for me. The polishing was a struggle to start with. I had trouble with the hook-and-loop pads coming loose from the polishing pads. I guess they've sat around too much and the glue has rotted away. Then the foam pad that the polishing pads mount to flew apart. I guess it was rotten. A 45 minute trip to Harbor Freight yielded a replacement. While I was there, I bought a few polishing pads, in case. The results on the polishing were mixed. The hood and top do look much better, for the most part. Still, the paint on the hood and top are beat. 16 years of sitting outside have taken their toll. Here's a before on the hood. The haze is pretty obvious....

And here's a shot outside after the polishing was done and the whole truck had been treated with Cerakote ceramic paint sealant. So far, I'm impressed with the Cerakote. It's pretty friendly and I like the shine it gives.

Much, much better but you can see the damage to the paint in the right light.....

Last Sunday I changed the oil and I did a drain/refill on the transmission (no pics, it didn't really happen). The truck rolled 220k miles on Thursday. Oh, I almost forgot. A month or so back the battery gave up here in the driveway. I shopped it around and ended up buying a battery from Wally World. I don't particularly like Wally World but I have been doing some business with them recently on Oil, filters, Antifreeze and the like. They are hard to beat. They had the Group 48 AGM for the best price for the longest warranty. The battery was made in Germany. I bought it online and picked it up curbside. It was pretty convenient, I have to admit....

I started off with a pretty long list. Much got done but much is left to do. Still, the truck is much more enjoyable now that it was at Halloween. Here's what's left of the list. I need to add smoke testing the EVAP system. That's my next priority. Also, the bumper adjustment is another thing that got done. If you look at the picture above where the truck is on stands, you can see the reveal between the style line in the chrome bumper and the bumper cover is diving down as you get closer to the leading edge of the wheel well opening. If you look at the picture of the clean truck after the polishing a few pics above, you can see that's been addressed. Anyway, here's what's left of the list. I'm planning to knock a few more things off of it next week.....

If you've made it this far, thanks for the interest. I'll update when I make a little more progress. If I don't post again before then, Merry Christmas friends!

 

[scoti]

We do punch lists as well on our project work. Well, yours is typed up nicely for the thread. We have a dry erase board and/or use pieces of cardboard & a Sharpie that I take pictures of w/my phone 😆