Project Craigslist Karma into a family vehicle

[bufmatmuslepants]

Long story but good one.

With moving to a new house I knew I needed a truck but didnt want to break the bank on an expensive truck to just sit like my last Z71. Was searching craigslist and found something Im very familiar with, but normally are priced around $4000-6000 around here running. 1995 Chevy Z71 extended cab short bed with a 350 for sale for $1500, and in the description it said "not running, needs distributor cap". I called the guy, and he said he changed the plugs and wires and it wont start now, and that this buddy the mechanic said he must have bumped or screwed up the cap while he was doing the plugs. We hashed out over the phone $1100 for a non running pickup and I headed out to see it.





I got there and it was about 90 degrees and high humidity and I asked to try to start it, the battery was completely dead so we jumped it to my work escape and turned it over and it wouldnt fire at all, just turn over and over but sounded a little retarded. I looked at the distributor and said "something looks off about that, are you sure the plugs are in the right spots?" and he pulled out a picture Advance had printed for him and we went over it and they looked right, with 1 and 8 at the front of the cap. I traced the wires to the plugs and all looked good. My initial suspicion of the issue was the timing advance being bad since that was what happened on my 88, but I never solved that truck and sold it when I bought the last Z71, but I was determined to solve this one. When I reached for the brown/black connector under the dash I saw there was already a knife slit in the tape showing someone had already unplugged it for some reason at one point. He said that his buddy the mechanic had replaced the intake manifold gasket and I knew he must have pulled it to set the timing upon reinstalling the distributor. When I unplugged it, still no change. I checked the grounds on the thermostat and they were so loose I unscrewed them with my hand, grabbed a piece of sandpaper cleaned them up, tightened them down, no change. Then I grabbed my Fluke and checked all reference grounds, 0.2-0.4 block, battery, and frame, all good. I went to pull the cap and 1 of the cap screws was a sheetmetal screw and was not actually holding the cap down, the other was tight though. The cap and rotor had some corrosion but nothing terrible.

I ran to advance and got a new cap and rotor, replaced it, no change. The new cap still would not let me screw in the second screw, but with 1 tight it was secure enough. Finally I was about to call it quits and leave and pull my new cap when I decided to google plug wire locations, and saw that the distributor back was square with the firewall, instead of cocked to the driver side as stock. This caused all of his plug locations to be 1 spot off. I rotated them and she PURRED TO LIFE! I hadnt signed the title yet and knew he could easily tell me to get lost and re list it for $4000, but after some talking we agreed to up the price to $1200 and it was MINE!

Next challenge, Im about 90 miles away from home in a different state, with no trailer and no buddy to drive it. I call AAA and say "my truck broke down, I need a tow". I throw the front plate from my escape on the truck, and AAA arrives with the flatbed and thanks to my free 100 miles towing with AAA, it was on its way. I got home, threw in a new battery, drove it around and I got myself a nice truck for $1200!

Home in the driveway



After getting enough boxes moved to fit the camaro and bike in the garage, and the truck is in its new parking spot.

[bufmatmuslepants]

When I got to the truck the driver window was down about an inch with the battery dead and he said it had been sitting for 2 weeks, but I think it was longer. The carpet on the driver side was wet. He was also a smoker so the interior smelled pretty bad, and with 214k on the clock, it had seen some dirty times with little cleaning. I grabbed some spot cleaner and soaked the carpet and door panels and then wiped it as best I could with a rag and it took out some of the stains, but the smell lingered. I sprayed a whole bottle of febreeze in there to just get it nice enough to sit it and it still has a lingering stank but its not as bad.

This truck has some things I NEEDED in the new truck, and is missing some that I wish it had. It has 3.73 gears, which my tahoe had but my last Z71 did not, and the tahoe had pulled my dads 5000lb boat a lot easier than the 3.42 equipped Z71, so thats a plus. It does not have the F44 heavy half ton package my last Z71 had, and the tahoe ended up blowing the stock 10 bolt and so it got a 14 bolt sf. When I can source a 3.73 14 sf I will get that installed. Also not having the F44 package it only has 4 leafs instead of 5 in the rear, making it ride nice but not able to handle heavy payloads. I will be installing an add a leaf or finding some 3/4 springs since I will be hauling alot of dirt and stone for some of the honey do projects I have coming up. It has a 6 way power driver seat but a split bench, I wanted a center console. It does not have an overhead console which I like for the sunglasses holder and garage door opener, so Ill be finding one of those to install. It has some custom hill billy dual exhaust on it now that is quiet but has a leak somewhere up front that needs to be fixed. It has a little stumble at idle which I think is either the EGR or the TBI needs rebuilt, I am going to rebuild the TBI first since Im doing that anyways with 214k on the clock, and if that doesnt fix it, next step. The trans shifts firm and consistent, 4x4 works, but I havnt tested the posi really but it seems pretty shot, although I may just put in a 14 bolt before I dig into that. The power steering squeels a little at full lock, so that needs addressed. Other than that and some rust holes starting under the extended cab its a pretty solid truck, and had a bedliner its whole life so the bed is in EXCELLENT shape. The hood is in primer, the grill is dull, the wheels are dull and peeling, and the lights are dull, so all of those will be restored.

The goal of this truck is to be a weekend warrior truck for hauling the boat and home depot runs, and when it is clean enough that my wife lets our (about to be born any day now) daughter to ride in it, a vacation vehicle for christmas and long holidays to haul all of our crap to our family's houses in CT and NY. Ill take more pictures as I go, but wanted to get a thread started. The baby is due any day now, just waiting for that phone call, so that may slow me down, along with all of the other chores I have around the new house.

[bufmatmuslepants]

Vacuumed and scrubbed the interior to try to get it sanitary and smelling clean.
Here is a before of the rear seat.

[bufmatmuslepants]

Before of carpet

[bufmatmuslepants]

Across the interior

[bufmatmuslepants]

Across the interior and of what I used, HOT SHOT and a scrub brush. I used a whole can of the toxic non environmentally friendly version before these pictures were taken and only blotted with a cloth as the instructions said since I couldn't find my brush but knew a brush would do better, so these pics don't show how bad the carpet was. The other stuff stank bad so I got the non toxic stuff this round and scrubbed but it didnt do as much as I hoped. I'm renting a carpet cleaner machine today to try more. It got dark before I could get present pics.

When I bought the truck the battery was shot. I bought a new 700CCA 5 year battery at Walmart and put that in, but when I pulled the dead Duralast gold battery I noticed it had a sticker from 5/12, and knew it was a 3 year battery. Walmart had a $15 core charge but I decided to try to see if Autozone would replace the Duralast and give me a spare. I went to Autozone with the battery and she tested it and asked for the phone number it was under, but knowing that the guy I bought it from bought the truck in 2013 I didn't have it. The Tahoe I used to have was my brothers, and he had a Duralast Gold battery in it when I got it that died under warranty when i had it so I had it replaced for free summer of 2012, which was close to the 5/12 date on the battery, so I gave his phone number. She pulled it up and saw the transaction where I had it replaced, but it had been over 3 years since the first battery was purchased so it was technically out of warranty (even though it was not the same battery or vehicle but she didnt know that). She said she could give me $66.85 off of a new one, but I said I already bought a new one from Walmart when this one failed and left me stranded . She thought for a minute, then hits some buttons, the drawer pops open and she hands me $66.85 cash! So a dead battery got me everything I was about to buy anyways.

I had 9 bulbs out on the truck. All 4 on the 3rd brake light and cargo light were out, I used regular Long Life bulbs on the 3rd light and Silverstar ultra brights on the cargo light, but the ultra brights didnt light up when I tested it, it was about to rain so I had to seal it up before I could pull the bulbs and check the sockets. When I bought the truck there was a rear taillight bulb circuit board in the truck and the left tail light didnt work so I assumed the current board was bad, but found that he just had reverse 3156 bulbs instead of the needed 3057s in all the sockets, which have the metal piece on the right instead of left for running lights and the brakes have 2 lights in 1 bulb. I'm guessing he replaced the bulbs with the wrong ones so bought a new circuit instead of checking the bulbs. Also out was 1 of the 2 front running light bulbs and 1 broken wire, and 1 corner front bulb, and 1 license plate bulb. Took a mothers powerball headlight cleaner to the rear lights and front lights and got them to be clearer but not quite perfect. Also noticed someone cut off the trailer wiring and wire nutted off the wires, ill splice in a spare trailer harness today. Also got a can of seafoam to run through the brake booster vacuum line and a can of some C12 super concentrated super lethal intake valve cleaner that goes in the fuel.

The truck also needs a windshield, this one is very cracked. Anyone ever do a windshield on these trucks and have a writeup on it? Debating doing this myself to save a few dollars.

[bufmatmuslepants]

Chasing the stumble at idle I rebuilt the throttle body with a $15 rebuild kit off eBay and had no change. I pulled the IAC to clean it, got too aggressive and broke the plunger so had to spend $40 to replace that, no change. Did the paper on the exhaust pipe trick and the paper got sucked in, meaning an exhaust valve was not sealing. Fearing my $1200 Craigslist truck was not such a bargain and needed a rebuilt motor, I shopped Craigslist for a new set of heads. Decided to pull a valvecover and found that when the previous owner had his mechanic replace the intake gasket and relash the valves, he tightened the #1 exhaust valve too tight and I could not spin the pushrod with my fingers. Relashed that valve, and the idle stumble is solved, and it runs extremely smooth idling at 600rpm.

With the engine running smooth, I turned to Craigslist for new wheels with no peeling and found 4 wheels from a 99 Tahoe in like new condition wrapped in tires with 40% tread for $50. I installed them and sold 3 of my peeling wheels for $210 and kept the 4th as a spare. Old wheel on top, new on bottom.

[bufmatmuslepants]

Much better. Now with my $160 profit I am looking for a welder to try my hand at replacing the rockers which have rust starting and about a hole the size of a quarter on each side.

[chevyboy73]

looks great!

[bufmatmuslepants]

Decided to fix the tailgate emblem

[bufmatmuslepants]

All I'm going for with this truck is to make it a 5-8 footer and I think I got the 8 on this.

[bufmatmuslepants]

To update this thread, I cleaned the interior a but more, and kept it on Craigslist asking $4000 just to see if I'd get any hits. The truck was running great, was very much enjoying it, but after lifting a baby seat in and out of the extended cab a few times, I realized it just wasn't going to be practical on our 3 big 1000 mile road trips this winter. Someone called about the truck, came to see it and liked it, but sure enough on the test ride, he had the windows down listening to stuff and I was cold, so I reached over to turn on the heat and got nothing. He didnt notice, and after he left to come back the next day with cash, I had to run to advance and get a new blower motor. After that was done, he came back the next day and bought it for $3500. With a purchase price of $1200, $200 for a windshield, $50 for new wheels and tires, -$210 for selling 3 wheels, plus $20 for a blower motor, $20 for tbi rebuild kit, $40 for spare tire carrier, $50 for IAC, I think I did alright on that Craigslist flip. Now I'm shopping for a Tahoe for my next flip with my $2200 profit.