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