1986 GMC S-15

[TwinDuro]

I just found your thread yesterday when I was sitting down to call it a night and have a cold Puppers and couldn’t stop following along. Thank you so much for taking us along with you and your wife on all of your travels, adventures, hunting, fishing, camping and of course, the build-up and evolution of your super cool S-trucks Andrew!

I grew up with a black and red ‘88 S-10 Tahoe 4x4 in the family that was our backwoods rig and I still have the ‘85 Celebrity (with the carbed LE2 2.8 V6) that has been in my family since new. I got the bug to build it up for auto crossing a few years ago, and have been modifying the heck out of it since, so reading about all your work with the 60 degree V6 has been I really neat and informative as well!

Reading your thread from stem to stern has reminded and inspired me that it’s more about the doing and enjoying the experience of what you love then focusing solely on the equipment. Living just a hop, skip and jump down the road from the beautiful area you call home reminds me of how much I love the Northwest and BC as well.

Keep up the good work and keep doing what your doing. Thanks again for bringing us along!

 

[Andrew_S]

^ that's amazing about the celebrity. I totally grew up in an 80's celebrity. Would love to see some pics of it all set up for auto cross.
Thanks for the good words. Glad to hear someone else is enjoying these posts.

Ok well I finally just got to the end of helping out a few buddies with all their vehicles. Quick run down.
NNBS needed 2 new hubs, 1 CV and new front pads and rotors.

Next up was 4 shocks, 1 ball joint and a bastard pack to bring up the back end a little bit.

After that I rebuilt another buddies power steering pump and ran new lines.

After that I helped rebuild the rear leaf pack in a friends camaro to stiffen the back end up a bit. He was bottoming out everywhere.

Lastly the wifes civic needed some love. New front pads and rotors, wheel bearing, distributor seal, Vtec solenoid seal, Cam seal, Oil pan gasket and fuel filter.

^ Just to prove I haven't been sitting around doing nothing. Now back to my own projects.

I did door pins and bushings. The passenger door lower bushing was clunking real nice...

So glad I spent the $5 on this tool for the door springs.

Manual locks and windows sure are nice when it comes to pulling the door off. No harness to deal with.

old vs new,

For whatever reason this v-belt squeaked like a bastard at idle sometimes. Well I finally had enough of it. It's the little things like an annoying noise going away that make it worthwhile.

Got some more ice fishing in,

Got my euro mount all cleaned up. Just need to make the back board for it now.

Pulled the canopy off the truck to start on some bigger things.

 

[Andrew_S]

We've been spending a bit of time out looking for sheds lately. Found this great little forest that's burnt and a lot of trees have been completely debarked by woodpeckers even though they are currently still alive. 2' thick piles of park at the trunks.

Stumbled onto this great campsite only about 30 mins from our doorstep.

Made a little rig for nicoles bike so we can trailer the canoe into a nearby hike in only lake.

Last bit of "ice fishing" on this lake for the season.

Nicole enjoying her new artwork and antler chandelier she made.

I'm so sick of doing front end work to the truck. I should have just replaced every steering component 6 months ago when I started with the first one.
This is literally the last joint to replace. Thank god for the lifetime warranty on these parts or I would be going broke. If I can find a set of narrow track 44's off a wagoneer I'll cut all of this stuff off as quickly as it wears out...

Washed up the old girl for the first time in 6 months. This is getting a trans rebuild and a new blower shaft in a week or two.

Splurged and bought some more tools recently. So excited to finally have a decent die grinder.

This is a local trail about 15 mins from our place.

The wifey was bored so I took her up to a look out.

Great spot to have a beer and get away from the insanity of corona virus and the city.

Got out ice fishing again

A lot less snow but still 2' of ice.

When you want to go look for sheds but might loose a leg to a bomb.

Ran into these guys on the way.

We found an absolute hot spot for deer and moose activity. No sheds but tons of rubs. Ran into about 20 of these in 4 hours.

 

[Andrew_S]

Another day shed hunting. Stumbled across this incredible pine.

Looked like it was struck by lightning and only the middle was still growing.

Another cool little tree. Over corrected a bit to much.

No sheds but Nicole found this nice little havalon knife.

We've been making a habit of picking up cans and trash. New high score on cans this day, 108! ******** people are slobs.

Gave the bed a good scrub, not bad for 34 years old.

The line-x sure makes it look a hell of a lot better though.

Need to get some mud and deer blood on it though. Looks way to shiny for the rest of the truck.

So now onto something I'm really looking forward to.
I'm just gearing up to build our own custom camper for the truck. It will be an all aluminum hard sided pop up. Taking cues from OVRLND camper and the Alaskan style campers. Our old canopy did the trick for a while but the internal frame is starting to rot and also the fiberglass is starting to crack in a few critical places. So onto bigger and better things.

I've been thinking about this for a year or so now. First thing I need are some windows. After calling around and just about wanting to call it quits on this before I started due to pricing. I decided to go with some canopy windows. Picked this mint ARE windows for $50 a piece.

They are tinted sliders with screens. Something equivalent to this for an "RV" is worth $500+, crazy.

I need two more windows and I'm going to pick up some material this week.
The goals are
-hard sided pop up
-more room
-350lbs or less
-skookum as frig

Lastly I weighed the truck at the pit before I pulled the canopy and everything out of it.

Previously it weighed 4088lbs
Empty as it sits now it weighs 3581 lbs
The old canopy is 250lbs and the bedmat was another 130lbs.... The rest was the winch and some tools/recovery gear.
It would be nice to throw the camper on in come under 4000 lbs.

 

[Jeffer949]

Am I the only one who noticed he slyly mentioned he received a T4 flange with his parts order? Or noticed that he is installing low compression pistons in an engine which from my quick googling doesn't normally take dished pistons?

So... What turbo are you throwing on the new motor? Been dropping little hints around and seeing if anyone notices? Well played.

 

[1stDeuce]

This old truck is skookum as frig anyway.
Looking forward to seeing your camper build progress!!

I just got the ECM for the Comanche (3.4L Camaro V6) reflashed to remove VATS, change the "ac on" idle to 1200RPMs so I can use it as a high idle, and correct the vehicle speed, which was reading 2x what it should have, resulting in a 60mph fuel cutoff since it thought it was going 120mph... If I ever find a '88-92 S10 to rob the TBI off, I'll make you a deal on this ECM.

 

[ejs262]

I really like your truck dude, and man, you're so lucky to have all of those beautiful places within an hour of home.

 

[tennesseewj]

You are a good man for diligently chasing down those stainless body KC's. An LED light bar would incredibly stupid on that truck.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[TwinDuro]

Just awesome. I can't wait to see the buildup of the telescoping, light-weight, skookum-as-frig camper! Also, your euro mount came out great and your wife's birch bark artwork and shed-chandelier are super cool, very nice!

A neighbor of mine has a newer 10ft cab-over Alaskan Camper for his 3/4 ton pickup. They build them just down the road from us in Winlock, WA. The only downside to them is even the lightest ones are plenty heavy. I know you can do one better ?

Will do on the Celebrity. Oddly, I don't have any photos of it in action or even stationary, just a bunch of parts pictures and old photos when it was stock. When I pull it out of hibernation this summer I'll send you some photos. Its got big brakes front and rear, addco sway bars, Bilstein shocks and struts, Eibach springs, a quick-ratio steering rack and some other tweaks here and there. It still looks very stock though which is the fun part...

I really enjoy seeing the work on friends' rigs too. Thats a sweet Camaro.

 

[Andrew_S]

Am I the only one who noticed he slyly mentioned he received a T4 flange with his parts order? Or noticed that he is installing low compression pistons in an engine which from my quick googling doesn't normally take dished pistons?

So... What turbo are you throwing on the new motor? Been dropping little hints around and seeing if anyone notices? Well played.

I thought I had posted something about it maybe I didn't? It's just a Chinese hurricane I picked up off a guy locally for $150. I may upgrade it to a precision when the time comes but for now it will at-least get me mocked up. It's a .70 compressor and .63 turbine. Need a few more pieces and then I'm going to start on the manifolds. Depending on the head-gasket I select the pistons should drop the compression down to 9.0:1 or so.

This old truck is skookum as frig anyway.
Looking forward to seeing your camper build progress!!

I just got the ECM for the Comanche (3.4L Camaro V6) reflashed to remove VATS, change the "ac on" idle to 1200RPMs so I can use it as a high idle, and correct the vehicle speed, which was reading 2x what it should have, resulting in a 60mph fuel cutoff since it thought it was going 120mph... If I ever find a '88-92 S10 to rob the TBI off, I'll make you a deal on this ECM.

Thanks!
What ECM are you running? stock or?

I really like your truck dude, and man, you're so lucky to have all of those beautiful places within an hour of home.

Thank you, the interior is a very beautiful area to live.

You are a good man for diligently chasing down those stainless body KC's. An LED light bar would incredibly stupid on that truck.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

Right on, my wife didn't think so lol. I had to pay $100 more for that pair vs if they were just the black ones.

Just awesome. I can't wait to see the buildup of the telescoping, light-weight, skookum-as-frig camper! Also, your euro mount came out great and your wife's birch bark artwork and shed-chandelier are super cool, very nice!

A neighbor of mine has a newer 10ft cab-over Alaskan Camper for his 3/4 ton pickup. They build them just down the road from us in Winlock, WA. The only downside to them is even the lightest ones are plenty heavy. I know you can do one better ?

Will do on the Celebrity. Oddly, I don't have any photos of it in action or even stationary, just a bunch of parts pictures and old photos when it was stock. When I pull it out of hibernation this summer I'll send you some photos. Its got big brakes front and rear, addco sway bars, Bilstein shocks and struts, Eibach springs, a quick-ratio steering rack and some other tweaks here and there. It still looks very stock though which is the fun part...

I really enjoy seeing the work on friends' rigs too. Thats a sweet Camaro.

That's my big hold up with any of the current truck campers, 900lb+. There are some pretty sweet pop top tent style campers being offered. The tent sides and the prices are holding me back on any of those. The celebrity sounds like an autocross unit. Thanks, will try and post more regularly.

I picked up some cheapo LED shops lights for $90 off amazon.

Huge improvement over the fluorescent lights in the garage.

I've got a list about 20 items long to fix/tune on this thing in the next month.

First up is a full rebuild on the T5. Should have this back in a day or two.

Mount all done, really happy with how it turned out.

I hope this is the last time I have to touch this car for a while.
Oil pan gasket, inspected crank and cam seal, new dipstick tube o ring, valve lash and some other tune up stuff.

Every time I fix something on the '86 if I don't just replace every piece I'm going back a few weeks later to do it. As soon as I did the pitman arm and reinstalled the steering box, this line decided it had enough. Did that, oil change/filter and air filter today.

Picked up 30' of 2"x3" angle and 80' of 1.5"x.1.5" 3/16" tubing on Thursday.

Picked up a couple yards of top soil. Putting the bastard pack to work...

Did some exploring the last two days in some new areas.

I love that you can go from bone dry desert to over 2m of snow in just an hour or so.

scoped out some new paddling routes.

 

[Andrew_S]

Went for a hike looking for some morels in a burn area from last year.

No mushrooms but a hell of a view.

Spotted this wicked rig in a guys front yard. Talk about some awesome inspiration.

We were checking out twin lakes and came to a narrow washed out section of road that was off camber and pretty slick. I was about to try and cross it when Nicole noticed the dodge in the ditch. If thats not an omen I don't know what is. We decided to turn around.

End of the day we found this wicked road overlooking the whole valley.

Finally made some aluminum chips this afternoon. Got the main rails cut and fitted. It'll be nice once I start building up and I'm not working directly off the truck bed.

Working with 20' sticks is pretty cumbersome. That combined with the truck bed being tapered and also not dead flat makes things time consuming.

Off to the races now after these 3 pieces.

 

[chilliwak]

? Once again some great pictures of your adventures Andrew. Its great to see you out there using your truck for what it was designed for. Good thing you turned around on that slick part of the road. It will be interesting to see how your aluminum project comes along. Please keep us posted. Cheers, Chilli....?

 

[1stDeuce]

What ECM are you running? stock or?

Stock ECM from the '95 Camaro. '95 used an OBD2 diagnostic connector, but OBD1 diagnostics with no manual way to trigger them... I have a scanner, but if you want to be able to use a paperclip and the the check engine light to check codes, go with a '94 ECM... Aside from speedo correction and A/C idle speed that I'll just use as high idle, I could find nothing to do to the tuning anyway. We even left the EGR enabled, since disabling it might mess up the way the engine runs at times when it is expecting some flow from EGR, and I wanted one and done ECM programming.

I need to do some google searching... It has always backfired occasionaly into the intake when I'm starting it, cold or warm... Probalby shouldn't do that. I need to get the radiator sealed up properly too. We're just about to start building our house, so it'll be like it is for another year or so.

Good luck with your camper build!! You going to build something like the new 4 Wheel Project M "topper"? Seems like if you aren't planning to take it on and off much, that's the way to go!!

 

[ZMagic97]

I'm never disappointed when I come back and see whats new. As always, I can't get enough of the scenic photos.

 

[Andrew_S]

? Once again some great pictures of your adventures Andrew. Its great to see you out there using your truck for what it was designed for. Good thing you turned around on that slick part of the road. It will be interesting to see how your aluminum project comes along. Please keep us posted. Cheers, Chilli....?

Thanks Chilli, I believe I still owe you a beer next time you come through town.

Stock ECM from the '95 Camaro. '95 used an OBD2 diagnostic connector, but OBD1 diagnostics with no manual way to trigger them... I have a scanner, but if you want to be able to use a paperclip and the the check engine light to check codes, go with a '94 ECM... Aside from speedo correction and A/C idle speed that I'll just use as high idle, I could find nothing to do to the tuning anyway. We even left the EGR enabled, since disabling it might mess up the way the engine runs at times when it is expecting some flow from EGR, and I wanted one and done ECM programming.

I need to do some google searching... It has always backfired occasionaly into the intake when I'm starting it, cold or warm... Probalby shouldn't do that. I need to get the radiator sealed up properly too. We're just about to start building our house, so it'll be like it is for another year or so.

Good luck with your camper build!! You going to build something like the new 4 Wheel Project M "topper"? Seems like if you aren't planning to take it on and off much, that's the way to go!!

OBD 1 tuning has become really difficult to come by it seems. I've been trying to figure out an aftermarket ECM/crank trigger combination that'll work together. I've looked at fuel tech, mega squirt, haltech and holley. I've yet to find something that satisfies the desires and at a lower price.
With that backfire I would be inclined to check your timing initial and advance?
Thanks, it's kind of tough to describe but essentially I'm just doing a hard side pop top. More like an alaskan camper though with no tent and drop down walls over the cab portion. It'll start to come together in the pics better then I can describe it.

I'm never disappointed when I come back and see whats new. As always, I can't get enough of the scenic photos.

Right on, thanks I really appreciate that.

Halfway done the '84. Got the new front drive shaft for the blower replaced. You can see where the bearing spun on the shaft of the old one.

All back together. Trans is suppose to be done on Monday.

Borrowed a miter saw from a buddy and it needed a serious tune up. The main bolt for the pivot was totally seized and pretty much every other moving joint was jammed up. Spent an hour disassembling/freeing up/cleaning/greasing and the thing works like a champ now.

Spent a couple nights after work getting the main frame built out. Cut up everything for the two sidewalls one evening.

The spool gun doesn't make the prettiest welds but it sure is quick and easy to use. I really wish I got a 240 volt plug wired up in the garage before starting this. 3/16" wall is the very limit of what this gun can do on 110.

more progress pics along the way

It looks a little large on the truck but once I get the sides sheeted and some windows etc it'll break up the size a bit.

I built the main frame/inside box of the camper very stout 1.5" x 1.5" 3/16" wall fairly heavy aluminum because it will be what sees all the load. The outside pop up box will be much lighter material like 1"x1" 1/4" wall or lighter. We had a couple of desires with this camper and that was tricky when it came to playing with the dimensions. We want to be able to stand up in it. So the overall height popped up is 6'4" and we wanted a bit of room to move around even with the bed set up, so we ended up with a touch over 4' in this space. The sleeping platform will be super nice, a little over 5' wide and 6' 6" long with about 3' of height. One of the other goals was not to widen the truck out like crazy and we definitely accomplished that. Lastly we didn't want to get much higher when travelling and that was tricky. We ended up being 8" up over the cab.
I think i've got the back door figured out, and also most of the gaskets/seals. Need to do some more figuring before I make anymore progress.

I've got to say my hat is off to the guys who manufacturer any of these overland style campers. This is a ******** load of work. I've got about 12 hours into it at this point. More like 100 hours if you consider the time spent sketching and looking at other builds.