Triple Threat

[izzy_Britton]

I have purchased several 99-06 chevy and gmc trucks over the past year(ish). I have mostly purchased them for the engines and transmissions. This time however I have purchased 3 trucks from a tow yard 250 miles away from home, all 3 for a smoking deal that i am planning to 'rebuild'. One for ME, one for my Wife, and one for a shop truck.


Shop Truck: 2003 GMC Sierra 2500HD 4x4 6.0L 4L80e Standard Cab Long Bed White

This truck is pretty ugly, ugly might be an understatement. Not only is the truck pretty darn ugly, it is also a complete and total basket case. and again, this is putting it mildly. The body is hammered! there is not a single straight panel on it. The body is the least of my worries as this is going to be a shop truck for pulling the garbage trailer and whatnot so i dont particularly care what it looks like. The biggest issue with the truck are the mechanical portions.

As mentioned the truck was bought from a tow yard, the owner was arrested for driving while intoxicated, well, actually he was arrested after crashing while intoxicated. In california intoxicated does not always mean drinking or drunk driving. In this case the owner was apparently high as a kite on good old fashioned MJ. Needless to say his truck was impounded on a 30 day hold. After 30 days the tow yard lien sales the truck giving the owner his opportunity to pay his bill and collect his vehicle. Since the tow bill is around $3k the owner chooses not to pay the bill, forfeiting the truck. I bought the truck.

The truck has been crashed, not hard and not horribly. The left front lower ball joint failed, somehow taking out the knuckle. In the process of the failure and ensuing crash the axle is yanked out of the front 3rd member. there is some sheet metal damage from the crash, but there is so much sheet metal damage everywhere on the truck it is impossible to figure out where the old damage ends and the new begins.

Also there are many issues with the truck. the right front brake line has been removed from the caliper and capped off because the rotor there has been worn down to only the cooling veins. the left rear brake line has also been capped off, the rotor, caliper, and ALL brake components have been removed from this spot. so thats the left front, right front and left rear that have issues. I have no idea about the condition of the right rear braking components. The key is also missing. LOL what a mess. I am not certain that this truck is salvageable but time will tell.




Wifes Truck: 2005 Chevy Silverado Z-71 Xtra Cab 5.3L 4L60e Blue

This one is not so much of a basket case but it is in need of some serious love. This truck also was on a 30 day impound because the driver was intoxicated and crashed. The body damage to the truck during the accident was not so bad, but far from good. I dont know what the driver hit but he hit it square between the frame rails, not real hard but hard enough to damage the hood, bumper, both fenders, radiator support, a/c condenser, and transmission cooler. The tranny cooler was damaged in such a manner that it ruptured and pumped ALL of the transmission fluid on to the ground. The drama of this impound came 30 days after his arrest when he decided he would come claim his truck. He showed up to the tow yard, when the truck started but wouldnt go into gear because there was no fluid in the transmission he got angry and planted his boot squarely in the center of each of the driver side doors, the front door and the xtra cab door. needless to say he chose not to pay his bill, threw the keys at the tow guy, and stormed off. This truck was lien sale'd and i bought it. From the time i bought the truck, on a wednesday, and could have it towed home (250 miles) the following wednesday, someone broke into the tow yard and robbed the complete stereo system from the truck. The thieves broke into 7 other impounded vehicles as well. but one of the main reasons i wanted this truck was because of the very expensive installed stereo system. there was a 1000 watt kicker amp two 12 inch subs, mids and highs in the doors and a navigation/dvd double din deck in the dashboard as well as an assortment of other electronic goodies. everything was yanked, wires cut dashboard destroyed and door panels just ripped right of the doors.

This truck is also pretty beat up but very fixable. My wife loves to go 'wheeling' but as far as i know she has never been any deeper off road than a gravel parking lot. So this should fit the bill for her. we can get out from under the Kia Soul she drives that i absolutely hate making payments on.



For ME 2006 GMC Sierra 1500 crew cab short box 2WD 5.3L 4L60e Gold

This truck is in the same boat as the other two, its pretty ugly. it is uglier now that i have gotten it home and had more of a chance to look at it. this one was towed because the dumb @ss who owned it smoked the transmission. Keep in mind that this is a 1500, 5.3L 4L60e SHORT BED truck, there is a 5th wheel mount in the bed. seems the problem is pretty evident right? well apparenty the owner was using the truck to tow an old 5th wheel camp trailer that he removed the CAMP portion of the trailer, converting it to a flat bed trailer so he could haul all of his weed growing goodies from town (down in a valley) to his farm(high in the hills). This genius hauled 6 of those 330 gallon plastic totes full of water and other supplies on this trailer so he could have plenty of water on hand for his crop. needless to say he smoked the trans because that is a lot of weight and this truck is not even remotely capable of hauling that kind of weight, not even down hill, period. Yet he was making this run every couple weeks.

The body is beast, the ONLY remotely straight panel on the truck is the roof and even that is questionable. The "A" pillar is bent pretty good, when it bent because they ran into something they had the windshield replaced. the new windshield fit ok except there was a gap on the passenger side and the windshield install person just filled the gap with urethane. I have a body shop buddy who looked at it and wrote an estimate to fix, which was fairly cheap, he said it is not as bad as it looks, great.




The Half Baked Plan:

My Wifes truck needs all new front end sheet metal, both left side doors and could very much use a bed. the left side "C" pillar is pretty jacked so i will probably skin that as well.

MY truck needs both front fenders, hood and both right doors, it could use a left bedside as well, but it is fixable. The right side "C" pillar is also jacked almost exactly like the left side "C" pillar on my wifes truck, so it will likely get skinned as well.

Shop truck needs sheet metal 360* but will likey ONLY get a hood, since it is ugly already i dont see the sense in wasting time to pretty it up any. It as mentioned also needs lot of mechanical love.

I work for a large auto salvage yard, and i also work directly across the street from a pick your own parts yard. Last week was half off day at pick your own parts, so i made my way across the street on my lunch break. by a stroke of luck they recently got two of these trucks in (normally they dont have anything newer than 1999), a 1999 GMC 5.3L standard cab long bed 4x4 and a 2006 Chevy diesel crew cab 4x4 short bed. as per the usual the trucks were pretty trashed before they got to the yard but i think i scored pretty good. I ended up with: chevy left fender, GMC right fender, gmc hood, GMC headlights & Turn signals, Chevy Headlights & turn signals, 2 front seats, both right side doors from the crew cab chevy, and a left front door from the crew cab, i also snatched all 4 interior door panels from the crew cab, and the plastic radiator vanity cover. today i went back and got the radiator support from the chevy along with the a/c condenser and the intercooler.

Let the parts swap party begin

My wifes truck will get the core support, radiator, and condenser from my crew cab. from what i have read the parts interchange directly. She also gets the headlights and turn signals from pick your own parts. I have a set of left side doors for xtra cab that i picked up from my work outta the scrap bin, these will go on her truck. other than a front bumper, hood and right fender and if i can locate one on the cheap, a bed, her truck will have all the major components, ready to install and start on bodywork and paint.

My truck will get the diesel radiator support if it will fit (including intercooler for a planned Turbo Install later on), a/c condenser, right fender, head lights and turn signal lamps that i snatched from pick your own parts. I also need a hood, front bumper, radiator and headlamps & turn signals, and again if i can find one on the cheap, a bed.

Shop truck needs a hood and could use a right fender. The hood from my crew cab will go on shop truck and i just so happen to have an extra right fender for it. Shop truck needs a front bumper as well but i think the one on my crew is not so bad that it cant be used on the shop truck. the problem is that the shop truck is a 2500HD and i am fairly certain that the bumper is WAY different. the hood looks to be the same tho.

So thats that...

This will bring the total vehicles that i am working on at the same time from ONE to FOUR. And to think time was short with only ONE truck build happening, Sheesh, what was i thinking?

-Izzy

[Cape Codder]

Now I understand why my wife no longer lets me pick out her rides.

[izzy_Britton]

Originally Posted by Cape Codder

Now I understand why my wife no longer lets me pick out her rides.

The difference here I think is that my wife has absolutely no clue that I bought these trucks. I hole to get hers together and 100% done before I surprise her with the news.

[Deer_hunter_088]

subed to these builds

[izzy_Britton]

This is going to be 2 posts tonight.

I got a little busy tonight and lost track of time. but i got a lot done in a short time.



so far:

front sheet metal removed (hood and both fenders need to be replaced)
front bumper removed (bumper and brackets need to be replaced)
radiator support removed (bent, needs to be replaced)
radiator removed (amazingly this seems to be unharmed)
a/c condenser removed (big hole, needs to be replaced)
trans cooler removed (damaged and needs replaced with bigger unit)
both left doors removed (these are damaged and will be replaced)
right front door removed
right rear/x-cab door is still on truck (9mm socket rolled away, cannot remove right rear door keeper without it)
front seats removed
center console removed
rear seat removed
carpet and pad removed

next will be the headliner and the carpet thing against interior back wall. I need to replace the left side rear cab corner where there is a nasty hole where it meets the roof, so all will be striped out, including windshield, rear window and bed.

still got a ways to go. I am hoping to get it on a trailer so i can take it to the car wash this weekend to get the nastyness cleaned out of the inside, and get the majority of the caked on dust and dirt in the engine compartment and under the cab cleaned off. if i can rope my brother into helping me sunday the bed also will come off as will the rear bumper.

I feel like i am replacing everything except the cab and running gear. but i think it will be worth it in the end and i think (HOPE!) my wife will be surprises and happy with it. if not i will sell it!!! and use the $$ to fund one of my many other projects.

stay tuned! lol

-Izzy

[izzy_Britton]

Now post 2 tonight is about the Shop Truck

Because the truck came without keys i needed to get the ignition cylinder out of the column to get it started.

so i took the plastic clam shells off the column and used a pair of large channel locks to twist the ignition, amazingly enough it turned and i was able to get the release to let me remove the cylinder like you would normally do IF you had the key.

fine and dandy so far.

the message center let me know the truck was outta gas, so this morning i splashed 5 gallons in and gave it a crank.

when turning the engine over it will not start completely. it reminded me of kicking an old dirt bike... crank crank bbbrrrr crank crank bbbrrr so on and so forth until the battery died. it kinda acted like it wasnt getting fuel but pressing the button on the schrader valve squirts fuel, and the pump is pumping.

any clues as to why it wont fire and stay running? is it possible that the key was a chipped key and the VATS is preventing it from remaining running? i have heard of this issue before but have heard many people say that the truck will run for 3 seconds or more and then die and other say it will remain running until it is put into gear and then it will die. but this is always from people doing swaps.

I have the reprogrammed computer for my swap that i can install and see if it will remain running, the VATS has been removed. the problem i see with doing this is that the trans in the shop truck is a 4L80e where my swap truck is a 4L60e. is it safe to assume that if it starts and runs then the problem with the trans will be with the shifting points? i only need to move the truck in and out of the shop on weekends, cant drive it until i get all the DMV paperwork done and in the mean time i can send the shop truck computer off to have the VATS removed.

plausible?

-Izzy

[BR3W CITY]

If anywhere in that pile is the grill from the GMC, and it is to be liquidated, I need one. Not sure whats being reused, but just tossing it out there.

[izzy_Britton]

Originally Posted by BR3W CITY

If anywhere in that pile is the grill from the GMC, and it is to be liquidated, I need one. Not sure whats being reused, but just tossing it out there.

I don't think they're is much of it left but your welcome to it. I will get photos when time permits and PM you details.

[izzy_Britton]

Shop truck lives! so after driving 465 miles for work today, thats a lot of seat time to just think about stuff... anyways, i was thinking that maybe the reason the truck wouldnt start was as mentioned above, a VATS issue. I thought maybe the VATS was linked directly to the encoded key but knowing that i didnt have a key at all changing out the ignition cylinder with a new one from the auto parts store i would still have the same issue.

so i thought maybe it wasnt a KEY issue and maybe the cylinder itself had something to do with it. so I grabbed up the old cylinder knocked the tumbler cap off and removed the mini springs, the tumblers themselves wouldnt come out so i thought 'heck i will force them out with a key from one of the other trucks'. i walked down to the other shop grabbed the key from the z-71 and started out the door. then it kit me. why not just snag the whole ignition cylinder from the z-71 and give it a whirl?

needless to say these things are so easy to remove the ignition cylinders from the columns, 3 minutes later it was out of wifes truck and in the shop truck and the dumb thing fired off and idled less than 3 minutes later.

so all that to say, a new ignition cylinder would solve these issues if anyone else was faced with such an issue.

also after this, i think i can confidently say that i could steal any one of these trucks with a small pry bar, a new ignition cylinder, and a medium pair of channel locks. if my truck was this easy and it is the standard, security my @ss! lol

-Izzy

[Hoods69BadBowTie]

Wow what a project or projects haha. Looks like you got your hands full for a bit. Hopefully the wife likes her new ride. Good luck on all the rigs can't wait to see how they all turn out. You got more patience and motivation them me made me tired just looking at them all

[izzy_Britton]

Had a busy but slower than expected weekend working on Shop Truck.

After getting the truck started i let it sit and idle for about 30 minutes while i worked on disassembling the left front parts so that it would get the battery changed up.


It is hard to tell but the oil puddle is about a foot and a half long and 10 inches wide. with a steady drip feeding the puddle.



The oil is dripping ONLY while the truck is running. the oil drips from the starter bolt to the floor and a second drip runs down the block to the the bottom and drips from there. picture shows it all. I am really hoping that the oil is leaking from the plug in the block directly above the starter.

Meanwhile;

Took the left front apart to change out the knuckle and lower ball joint, it snowballed quickly into a mess and 25 trips to the parts store.







changed out the knuckle for a used junk yard knuckle, when unbolting that the upper ball joint was obviously worn out so slapped a new one on there, new lower ball joint. the axle stub was pulled right out of the front differential so i took the axle and the knuckle out as a unit. I dont have a tool powerful enough to loosen the axle nut so i begged the neighboring repair shop to spin it off with the air gun. The neighbor guy had to use a 3/4 impact gun to get it off, it was stuck pretty good. New inner and outer tierod ends, new rotor and i 'rebuilt' the caliper. New left front brake line and brake pads.

you might be able to see in the photos that the PO changed out the brake line but left the old one installed. So the old line was attached to the caliper but not the brake lines of the truck and the new line was attached to the brake lines of the truck but not to the caliper. I think this guy was smoking a little too much if his own product.



found the old spare tire from a previous truck that i snagged only the drive train for, and the left is pretty much done. I still need to get it to the alignment shop and install the cotter pins to keep everything that i installed today, installed.

Next is the right front

-Izzy

[izzy_Britton]

Only had a little time when done with the left front to disassemble the right front and see what the heck was going on...

Well as mentioned before the brakes of this truck are a complete basket case. let see why.



First off this is the brake line, you can see the PO just sandwiched the end of the brake line with two washers and a bolt and nut and called it done.



Next is the caliper, after removing the mounting bolts it didn't immediately move so i gave it some gentle persuasion with a mini sledge. The caliper finally fell off to the floor and promptly exploded.



when it hit the floor one of the pistons, complete with seal, flew out and sludge oozed out on the floor. yes i said sludge, i have never before seen sludge in a brake system, but this stuff was thick like jello, thick like the sludge you get in your engine after 100,000 miles and no oil change kind of sludge.


i didnt bother even considering rebuilding the caliper, i boxed it up and on the 9th trip to the parts store today i bought a new caliper, this will maybe be installed tuesday or wednesday night.

brake pad, or should i say, lack of pad, but steel backing plate?



And what happens when you drive without pads, metal to metal?



YEP!

needless to say both ball joints are toast on this side as well. The axle appears to have been replaced once already so i don't know if i will do anything more with that, but at 53$ for the dumb thing and i will already be knee deep in this side as well maybe 53$ worth of preventative maintenance is not out of the question.

-Izzy

[izzy_Britton]

After giving all this brake system issues some thoughts, i think i have come to a conclusion that i really dont like but oh well, I am way past the point of no return.

The fluid reservoir cap gasket is swollen up and uber soft. the seals in the caliper that blew up are swollen and soft. the PO had brake issues front and rear. so this lead me to believe that the PO likely polluted the brake system with some sort of contaminant.

Because the brake system is a hydro boost and the gaskets and seals are swollen and soft, i am thinking that maybe the PO didnt understand that even tho the hydroboost is run off the power steering system the brake fluid is still brake fluid and i am thinking that he maybe accidentally put power steering fluid in the brake fluid reservoir? i suppose that is possible.

I have a complete hydro booster and master cylinder from a 2004 truck in storage. and i havent yet installed the new right front caliper, pluf i have a brand new left front caliper still in the box. the rears need both calipers and other brake parts. I think before i fill the fluid reservoir and start bleeding the brakes i will swap out the master cylinder and other brake calipers and completely flush the system to get the contaminants out of it of the system.

I really need to get this thing outta my shop, it is holding up progress on the 86 and the Jeep, I cannot get anything done to those two projects with this shop truck in the middle of the shop. however i dont want to do all the brakes again in a few weeks or months because of contamination. I think it might be better to wait an extra weekend and just get it right the first time.

anybody have any thoughts?

-Izzy

[Cape Codder]

You have already answered your question but I agree why take the chance of contaminating new parts. Do you think the abs unit is compromised?

[izzy_Britton]

Crap! I never even considered the abs unit!?!?

Well I hope not.

[BR3W CITY]

You can get the HB master rebuild kits from a few veeeery select sources if your interested. I did a thread on my basic rebuild of the unit on my '66.

My 05 has HB also, and it feels much softer than that on my '66. I might be undertaking another rebuild on that if it bugs me enough.

[izzy_Britton]

Originally Posted by BR3W CITY

You can get the HB master rebuild kits from a few veeeery select sources if your interested. I did a thread on my basic rebuild of the unit on my '66.

My 05 has HB also, and it feels much softer than that on my '66. I might be undertaking another rebuild on that if it bugs me enough.

Its not the HB that needs rebuilding, its the master cylinder, the ABS unit is what worries me the most tho. afraid that this one part will cost me more than the rest of the truck did

I have a used master cylinder in storage that i will dig up this weekend and probably get started on that.


I spoke to a brake shop that i deliver to, he said should not be a huge issue on the small parts, but that the ABS unit will be the kicker, if i get it changed and the brakes want to hang then that is where the problem is. he suggested flushing the entire system with denatured alcohol just to be on the safe side, said it couldnt hurt it anymore than the containment already did. He also said that people putting power steering fluid in the master cylinder of HB trucks is a very common problem, he is thankful for these folks as it keeps him pretty busy.

-Izzy

[izzy_Britton]

Was a lazy day. I didnt do a darn thing to the shop truck today.

I was able to hose down my wifes Z-71 engine bay, interior floorboards and front frame half with 2 gallons of simple green and then hauled it off to the pay n spray car wash to clean a lot of the caked on dust and mud. what a mess!

I also pulled the headliner out of her Z-71 and that was pretty much all i got done to any of the trucks today.

I did also get down to the paint store to pick up all paint supplies for the Z-71, $800 later I have 2 gallons of Base coat, 2 gallons of clear, 2 gallons of reducer, and lots of little can of hardener and activator.

I am hoping that next weekend I can start getting the cab corner off the truck and working toward getting the cab corner back on, or at least roughed in. I am hoping also that i can start getting the other parts jammed and start bolting sheet metal back in place.

Tomorrow is family day so i dont expect to get much done.

-Izzy

[izzy_Britton]

Originally Posted by BR3W CITY

You can get the HB master rebuild kits from a few veeeery select sources if your interested. I did a thread on my basic rebuild of the unit on my '66.

I will follow up this post with more info in a few... but for now this question is for you because your subscribed and you might have a little experience...

WHEN the hydro Booster goes bad, what is the most obvious sign? I have replaced everything in my brake system with the exception of the ABS unit and the hydro booster unit.

there is ZERO pedal.

I can depress the brake pedal with one finger, all the way to the floor and release it and it takes 10+ seconds to return, and by return i mean lift 2 1/2 - 3 inches off the floor. there is no pressure on the pedal and while my wife presses the pedal and i crack a bleeder valve (any bleeder) there is no extra fluid released and the pedal doesn't move any further.

without pressing the pedal, if i crack the bleeder valve of any caliper the fluid will weep from the bleeder, and if left open all night the brake reservoir will run dry. if my wife presses the pedal while i crack the bleeder there is no change in the amount of fluid escaping the bleeder.

is this a sign that the HB is bad?

yes i did bench bleed the new master cylinder before installing.

-Izzy

[izzy_Britton]

Very UN/Productive weekend ! ! ! GRRRR

4 New brake rotors
4 New Calipers
4 pair new brake pads
2 pair new park brake shoes
2 new front rubber brake lines
2 new rear brake rotor dust shields
new master cylinder
new master cylinder reservoir

used left front spindle
new left front wheel bearing set

2 new front axle shafts
2 new upper ball joints
2 new lower ball joints
2 new inner tie rod ends
2 new outer tie rod ends
2 gallons of dot 3
2 cases of brake cleaner
10 gallons of gasoline for cleaning parts

1 busted knuckle

I started off knowing that this basket case of a shop truck needed some front suspension and brake love. however i didnt plan to go all out and completely redo everything brakes and front suspension related.

started out with the left front knuckle, ball joints and axle shaft, inner and outer tie rod ends, bearings, rotor, caliper and pads. Then right front ball joints, axle shaft, rotor, caliper and pads. Over to the left rear, with disassembly and cleaning of all the parts that i planned to reuse, which being as how half the parts were missing this was fairly straight forward. replacing the dust shield was the hardest part because getting the parking brake cable free of the caliper mount. the left rear received new caliper mount, caliper, rotor, park brake shoes, and said dust shield. The right read got the same treatment as the left.

After installing everything, I called my wife out to the shop to assist me with bleeding the brakes. Wife has helped me in the past with brake bleeding, so i figured she could help me again with this truck. I let her pump the pedal while i cracked the bleeders. WELL!!!! I started at the right rear, she pumped the pedal i cracked the bleeders, got NO fluid out of the bleeders, worked my way around the truck with no better result. I sent my wife back to the house and screwed around with the truck some more. I hadnt realized that there was no pedal because the wife didnt say ANYTHING about it, I assumed all was normal except that there was not much fluid from the bleeders, figured i would start the truck, hydro booster and all, no change in pedal situation. SOOOOO i changed out the master cylinder too.

SO this is where i am now... after changing out the master cylinder and begging the wife to come out to the shop again to help with the bleeding...

guess what? NO CHANGE in the pedal situation.

I am now looking at changing out the last serviceable part in the system, the Hydro Booster... but before i do i am looking for info on whether or not the lack of pedal could be the hydro booster or some other &%#* part!

Thought ?

-Izzy

[izzy_Britton]

SHOP TRUCK UPDATE!

OKAY so i finally got the shop truck out of the shop. the biggest portion of the problem with the brakes turned out to be something lame that i would have never figured out in a million years, but thankfully there are some smart people out there that pointed me in the right direction.

After asking around to many different shops that i deal with for my work one shop posed a question that i blew off as a joke...

IS YOUR PROPORTIONING VALVE CENTERED?

honestly i blew this question off thinking i would find this line of repairs in the field manual right after BLINKER FLUID FLUSHING and MUFFLER BEARING MAINTENANCE. turns out the dumb ABS unit has to be bled BEFORE you can do a standard bleed. The ABS bleed can only be done with one of the expensive scanners like snap-ons solus among others. a friend of mine works at a shop and brought the shop scanner over after work one night and literally, 90 seconds later the pedal was off the floor and seemed normal. WOW!

it took me a couple weeks, maybe 3 to finish the good old fashioned brake bleed using a force bleeder (the kind that attaches to the master cylinder and forces brake fluid thru the line when you crack the bleeder valve). after the bleed was done i took it for a spin and the brakes work more or less like you would expect them to work. there was a drag on the rear brakes that ended up being the park brake shoes had expanded to the inside of the rotor drum and after readjusting that the problem there was solved. in the process the rear soft lines started leaking at the caliper and a new banjo bolt and 2 copper washers per side was required to fix this issue.

I replaced the windshield with a new unit, and had the rear window taken out of the z-71 cab and installed into the back of the shop truck.

Using a large crescent wrench and a small sledge hammer, an ugly hood that i picked up a month or more ago at peel your own parts was installed in more or less the proper position. because of the damage to the front of the truck the hood hinges were/are both so jacked up that the hood sits wonkey where it is kind of supposed to sit and only the secondary latch catches. I have the front of the hood held down to keep it from flipping up with a ratchet strap. totally redneck. but it works for now.

I installed a new outside driver door handle. the old one was busted. because the truck didnt come with keys i ordered new door lock cylinders from napa and they should be here saturday, once they are here i will install those and then have a truck that is kinda secure.

saturday i plan to take the truck in for an emissions test and a front end alignment. after installing new ball joints and tie rods i just eyeballed the toe and it is close but needs to be done properly before i scrub the inside edges of the tires down to the cords.

the oil leak turns out to be the rear main seal... oh well, no need to ever change the oil, just keep topping it off, right? maybe after christmas or after i give the Z71 to SWMBO then i will worry about pulling the engine and installing a new rear main seal, for the time being it is like a good dog, it always marks its spot.

-Izzy

[izzy_Britton]

Z-71 UPDATE!

The wifes truck has turned out to be a major pile of crap... body wise. at my last update for this truck i was hoping to get the cab corner off and start working on getting the new one installed so that i could start the body work and get that much closer to paint work... I had totally planned to slam this truck together and give it to my wife for an anniversary present. that was oct 31.

so here is what really happened.

I got the replacement cab corner all stripped down in preparation to trim it up and install it once the old wrinkled up cab corner was removed. i marked out the old corner with some tape and a sharpie and thought just for fun i would install the doors to make sure that nothing was out of whack too much. After installing the doors of coarse it would be second nature to CLOSE the doors right? yeah well, that didnt work out so well. the back door rubbed so bad in the jamb that i could only scratch my head. ya see i have worked in body shops in the past and i have done several panel replacements so it wasnt all that big of a job to me. this dumbfounded me so bad that i could only call over a body shop friend of mine for a moment of consultation and a second opinion.

So dude shows up, i show him what i have and ask him about where i had planned to splice the old corner with the new corner. I also asked him about the rear door hinges because i thought maybe they were bent. anyways he stuck his head in the truck and proclaimed that i was wasting my time. he pointed out that there were some issues that i never even saw. the cab corner was hit hard enough to kink the roof, bow out the back wall under the rear window, and wrinkle the inside of the cab corner to a point that it looked like someone had taken tin foil, crumpled it up into a ball, and then tried to straighten it out again... yeah, thats what it looks like. anyways dude says 4-6 hours on a frame rack and he can get it close.

next day i call one of the salesmen at work and using my employee discount i bought another cab that was in mint condition for less than the 4 hours frame rack charge. THEN the unthinkable happens. 20 minutes after getting the cab delivered to the loading dock so i can get it hauled home, the loader operator runs into the cab corner with the tip of the fork, screwed the corner up fairly well but not nearly as bad as the other cab was. beg the boss for a discount and bam! i got this mint condition with added smallish dent for about half of what a 4 hour labor charge on the frame rack would cost. SCORE! now i just have to find the time to get the cab home and start prepping it for paint since it is GOLD and the truck will be dark metallic blue.

-Izzy

[izzy_Britton]

Alright, so now i gotta get the old cab off and dispose of it, the new cab being the wrong color needs to be stripped completely of every part that can be unbolted so that i can scuff every square inch of it and blast it blue.

after a couple hard days this past weekend while my wife was out of town i go the old cab off and the new cab up on a redneck 5 post lift. many hours on the creeper later and the underside of the cab is ready for paint, the firewall is 98% ready for paint, i just need to prep one small surface rust spot where the once diesel battery leaked down the firewall and made a spot on the pinch weld. the urethane that was used to hold in the front and rear glass has been removed and i am hoping to get the inside of the cab scuffed up and MAYBE blue by sunday evening.

never mind the mess, yes i know my shop is a huge f'ing disaster, but its what i got for now.



Four of the 54 inch farm jacks with 1 1/4 scd 40 pipe thru the cab side to side for lift points, then i am using 1 1/4 scd 40 pipe diagonals and 1 1/2 scd 40 pipe welded to 2 inch sch 40 pipe and bolted all together to make it more stable side to side and it also acts as a safety measure so that the cab cannot drop on its own. with everything done like this it is pretty stable, not that i am willing to find out how stable it is with me in the cab, but it remains completely height adjustable. the only downside is that the lowest of the two crossbars is only about an inch off the cab floor making it difficult to scuff the cab floor and i see potential issues with painting the cab floor. cross that bridge when i get there i guess.

-Izzy

[izzy_Britton]

Last update for tonight.

once i was able to get the bed and rear bumper off the truck, as well as having already removed the front sheetmetal and doors, i wanted to take the truck down to the car wash and use the pressure washer to get some of the caked on mud off. I called a buddy that owns a tow truck and made arrangement o do exactly this one saturday morning.

along comes saturday, i sat on a milk crate in the cab with no doors, interior other than dash board, no front sheet metal, and no bed or bumpers, I had tow truck buddy meet me on the street outside the shop complex because the land lords just had the parking lot resealed and were painting the parking lines that day.

I start the truck and drive it out to the street. truck sounds good, except the slight tick of a lifter. no biggie. so i order up all the parts i think i will need to change out the lifters. i think of the old days when changing lifters was pretty cake. this is still cake but a lot more involved. to change the lifters you have to change out a lot of crap that you really dont think about until your hands are greasy and you need to order another part. so here is my list of parts and things to do in relation to changing out the lifter set.

LIFTERS - pretty self explanatory

to get to the lifters you gotta remove the heads, to remove the heads you gotta remove the intake manifold, the exhaust manifold, the valve covers and even tho not necessary your there so yank off the valley cover. whilst removing the valley cover you might as well replace the knock sensors and the knock sensor gaskets. sure... while your that close, save you the pain of doing in when you really dont want to, replace the cam position sensor and the oil pressure sender. here is those parts listed.

intake manifold gaskets
valve cover gaskets
valley cover gasket
knock sensor seals
knock sensor
cam position sensor
oil pressure sensor
coolant crossover tube gaskets
exhaust manifold gaskets (manifold to head gasket)
exhaust flange gasket (manifold to exhaust pipe gasket)
HEAD GASKETS (because no one in their right mind would use the old ones)
throttle body to intake manifold gasket

HEAD BOLTS

did i forget anything?

oh yeah! since the truck hasnt had a tune up in ages, you gotta do spark plugs and plug wires because the wires are melted to the plugs and i broke 3 outta 4 plug wire ends...

there is also the issue of the 2 broken exhaust manifold bolts. so make up a few new cuss words while figuring out for to extract the busted bolts and then buy a new manifold bolt kit.

i am sure there is more in there that i am forgetting but it is late and i am tired.

I will say this tho as i head off to dream land:

this truck for my wife seemed like a good idea. she wants a 4x4 and so i promised her i would get the jeep wrangler done for her. but the price was right on this truck and i think for a daily driver this would be much more comfortable in the winter time. I bought the truck on the cheap because it needed a little love. I have now jumped off the cliff of no return head first. the only part of the body that will be retained at this point is the TAILGATE! my plans to give this truck to her for anniversary gift couldnt happen because of the cab being FUBAR. so the new plan is to give the truck to her for christmas. thats exactly 6 weeks from tomorrow. I have a TON of work to do in a short time. the good news is that i now have all the parts in stock so to speak to completely assemble the truck once the cab is painted.

In the end i think (hope) she will be happy with the truck. it will be an almost new truck. the body will be fresh and bright, the engine will be maintenanced and dependable, new wheels and tires will keep her rolling good thru the winter.

All of this work to get out from under a $400 month car payment for a fairly decent 2010 Kia Soul! we like the car but the payment is crap and we still owe almost exactly what we bought it for 3 years ago. she better like this damn truck!

-Izzy

[izzy_Britton]

OH YEAH! forgot to mention this little tid bit:

Originally Posted by izzy_Britton

she wants a 4x4 and so i promised her i would get the jeep wrangler done for her.

I bough the jeep 5 years ago for her, its a total pile but its been her dream car so we kept a hold of it and planned to get it on the road dependable the way she pictures it in her head.

tonight i get a call from her while on my way home from work...

SOMEONE STOLE THE JEEP ! ! !

WTF? talk about a bad day for her. to top that all off, police are reluctant to even file a police report because it was not up to date with registration.

-Izzy