1st some vehicle background. Ive owned several from 1st & 2nd gen s10 platform, several gmt400 & 1 gmt900. So im overall pretty familiar w/ GM trucks & know what to expect from them. Due to an extreme curveball thrown in my life in early 2022, i was forced to sell everything off over the next 2yrs. At that time I had an 84 t-top W62 Trans Am, an 84 hardtop W62 Trans Am project car, a 99 Suburban 1500 SLT, & a 99 GMC C3500 cclb, 2014 Charger RT (dd) & an 08 Sierra WT. I traded the Charger towards a 2013 Chrysler 300s w/ 18,618 miles, had it shipped to me from CA. I was going to keep the c3500 as we all need a truck for something, but it was going to kill me if brought it w/ me to my next chapter in life. Did he just say what I think he just said? The truck was going to kill him! Yes, yes I did. Let me explain. The truck was factory AC delete. Being from RI/MA, not a super big deal for the most part, but if you live in the Southeast, then you NEED AC. I didn't feel like roasting in the truck. Honestly, the biggest problem w/ selling the c3500 was the mileage. Didn't matter that it was rust free & everything worked. Mechanically, it just needed a set of valve stem seals & you only noticed it if the truck sat for a couple of weeks. But if driven daily, you would never know it. It was the mileage that scared everyone off. It was pushing 498k original miles on the 5.7L Engine/4L80 Trans had never been opened up. I was the 2nd owner. July 2024, i totaled the 300s on I95n in Boston in a 5 car accident. The 300s had 126k miles at time of the accident. Yes, i put over 100k miles on the car in 26 months. I replaced the 300s w/ a 2021 Hyundai Ioniq hybrid w/ 21k miles. It was an ex-government fleet car. Between Oct 2024 & April 2025, I put 20k miles on the Ioniq. So, once I thinned everything out, I moved across country to make sure that i didn't end up w/ 3 hots & a cot. No, I wasn't running from Johnny law. I moved to make sure that i didn't do anything stupid towards those that messed up my life. Shortly after I moved, I started looking for another truck. I looked @ alot of crap that people said were good. I literally drove 1.5hrs to look @ a 3dr S10. They knew how far I was coming & was on the way. The S10 was on a dealer lot. I get there & the salesman that I had been talking to wasn't there, went to lunch & passed me off. The 2nd couldn't find the truck, there was about 80 vehicles behind the building. The kid finds it, it's dead. He gets a jump pack, jumps it & drives it up to the building. I can see that it has a cracked windshield, 3rd door handle is missing & none of the lights are working. He gets to the building & the radiator pukes. Goodbye. Go look @ a Dakota ext cab. They said that it was a Laramie, it wasn't. Somebody stuck badges on it. Bad body filler job on the hood, couldn't see that in the pics. Roof was rotted & filled w/ silicone. Goodbye. So on, So forth. Over & over again. Chrysler dealership an hr north lists a 3dr 2000 GMC Sierra 1500 SLT w/ 136k miles. I see the ad about 5min after it's posted & call them. It was a trade in towards a new vehicle & because it was pretty solid looking, they figured that they try to sell it vs shipping it to the auction. Told her that I'd be there about 5pm & I left the jobsite early. Get there & the truck is sitting out front in the open. I look it over. Zero rot. Clean rockers & cab corners. Bottom of doors are clean. No frame cracks around the pwr steering box. Rear framerails are solid. No frame cracks between the cab & bed. I'm inspecting it like it's a rust belt vehicle. I don't care about ripped seats, dings or bad paint. Pretty much everything works. The stuff that doesn't is electrical & is easy enough to fix. The only rust on the body is on the driver side c-pillar. Someone had stickers there & tried to remove them. Whatever they used damaged the surface. Truck sounded & drove great. On the way back from the test drive, the ABS & brake lights came on. Pull back into the dealership & relook the truck over. Through the LF wheelwell, I can see that a brake hardline let go. It's late in the day, so it's not getting fixed today, nor can I drive it home, plus it's Friday. We come to terms on the price. They replaced the line on Tuesday & drove it to me on Wednesday. I did the ppw & paid them when the truck arrived. So I took delivery on April 23, 2025. This is my 1st gmt800.
That 1st weekend I looked the truck over & wrote up a shopping list & started to order parts. Plus, I looked up where the closest self-serve & full-serve yards are, because not everything is being bought new. Sorry, I know that was long winded. But @ least I used proper grammer & punctuation, lol.
That 1st weekend I looked the truck over & wrote up a shopping list & started to order parts. Plus, I looked up where the closest self-serve & full-serve yards are, because not everything is being bought new. Sorry, I know that was long winded. But @ least I used proper grammer & punctuation, lol.
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