1980 Pickup - 40th birthday gift to myself (2 Viewers)

[msahr]

Pretty good. Found a rebuilt OEM carb and she runs like a champ.

It's weird you had problems with it. Always worked fine for me oh well. Glad to hear it!

 

[johnnythunderr]

Probably the number one issue with your heater is the control valve. They're no longer available from anyone, but the later model truck's (84-88) will work with some creative additions. I found this on of all places Reddit, just looking at the pic was enough explanation.

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I've had my '80 for several years and couldn't tell you if the heater works either. I'm in AZ...

The PO of this truck did what ca. Be described as "jump-starting" the AC, bypassing the relay and energizing the compressor coil directly. Again, not sure it works.

Search around for a 5-speed conversion write-up, it doesn't require much more body mods than just a hammer to the underside of the floor to clear it. I would agree getting rid of that awful 4-speed would be high on the list if you drive it a lot. If yours is sloppy too, even new bushings for the shifter won't help very much.

Your door panels look to be pretty good, why change them out?

Nice find! Although, it's been too wet and rainy here in PDX to get under the hood and see if it is, in fact, the heater control valve. I'm in the process of trying to clear out garage space so that I have a dry place to work again. Hopefully I'll be able to check the valve in the next month or so, so that I can cross that issue off the list.

The transmissions swap isn't too terribly daunting. I have seen quite a few people mentioning that it was hard to clearance enough space in the '80 tunnel for the L52, so I was concerned that I might end up having to cut a section out and rebuild the tunnel higher. I'm still a ways away from having the space and time for that project though.

As for the door cards, they look decent in the photos, but are actually pretty old and crummy. The vinyl is cracked quite a bit and they've been painted with vinyl paint, it appears. I'd much prefer to either find replacements or have some fabricated. And while I'm at it, maybe through some Kilmat or something in the doors.

 

[cruiserdan]

'79s also did not have the welded front axle truss. First year for that was '80.

Mid 1980 model year. I had a September 1979 built 1980 RN47 and it did not have a trussed front housing.

Early '80 RN37 siting right outside for my reference. No matter.

What month? I don't remember the changeover

I found my 40-year-old microfiche this morning. The truss was added in January of 1980. Beginning VINs RN37-024076 and RN47-022001.

 

[msahr]

If anyone here would have old microfiche (and a reader) it would be you, sir. Haha love it!

 

[cruiserdan]

I wish I had a photo of my mid 1980s work station. It was kitted out with stuff like this:

 

[msahr]

I've done IT work at dealerships for years. CDK and Reynolds green screens, hard-wired to local minicomputers. It's pretty amazing how far it's come. Seeing your old hardware sure brings back some memories. Unsurprisingly, Nissan had the absolute worst software (and still uses Microsoft Access (think Excel) ported software for their vehicle diagnostics). As recently as 2020, they were still sending out monthly CD updates to their FAST parts database. Toyota was way ahead. The most tech-heavy manufacturer at the dealers is BMW, the system literally knows everything about your car the moment it hits the service drive. Every tech has a BMW-blessed PC required at their workstation, and we had a separate bay with 3 PCs doing nothing other than reprogramming ECUs.

 

[cruiserdan]

The group I worked for used ADP, later CDK. Over the decades I did a lot of outside parts inventories in stores that used Reynolds and UCS. UCS was nasty. We called them Useless Computer Systems

 

[msahr]

The group I worked for used ADP, later CDK. Over the decades I did a lots outside parts inventories in stores that used Reynolds and UCS. UCS was nasty. We called them Useless Computer Systems

Useless, and ironclad contracts. We had a Honda store that we acquired and we had to keep their system up for 2 years before we could shut it off. Hated them.

 

[cruiserdan]

I forgot to mention. Now that I have located my catalog I am able to look up everything that is no longer available.

 

[pappy]

I found my 40-year-old microfiche this morning.

When did AmToy stop using microfiche? I seem to recall you looking up parts for me on that system back in the day. Maybe it was another dealer before I moved to NM.

 

[cruiserdan]

We switched to digital catalogs around 1996. The original catalog vendor was Bell & Howell.