I bought a super nice wrecked 04 silverado regular cab short bed to drive.

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2004 chevy swb 2wd reg cab. 5.3 4l60e, has factory 3.73 locking disc brake rear end. i am going to have to put another frame under it. and i am going with drum brakes and 3.23 gears for better fuel mileage. truck is 817K burgandy in color. with dark gray cloth.

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has dealer installed 20 inch wheels

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pulling the frame out of this 2007 classic. it was a theft recovery. the sherrifs dept. found it in the woods been sitting since 2007 it has 3k miles on it. i will use the entire rolling frame with the drum brake rear axle and 3.23 gears.

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the rolling frame out of the 3k mile truck.

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and a super nice front clip.

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one more of the front.

[hopped up]

nice finds!! youre gonna have a very nice low mileage truck very soon. youre working super fast already
Posted via Mobile Device

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Originally Posted by hopped up

nice finds!! youre gonna have a very nice low mileage truck very soon. youre working super fast already
Posted via Mobile Device

thanks. i am working on it while i am off for 3 days.

[silvereagle07]

Nice find. Should be a real nice driver.

[LEEVON]

This is awesome, can't wait to see the results. Just a thought but the 3.23 gears could yield worse gas mileage than the 3.73's. It's the in-town driving that kills them. Even on the highway 3.73 would be right in the sweet spot.

EDIT because I rambled.

BTW I need to come down and see you sometime, looks like you always have some choice stuff!

[Low Elco]

Thats what I was just thinking- I wanna be this guy!

[71swb4x4]

That is a super nice truck. You will have a great driver! I agree with Leevon, you might want to think hard about the rearend switch, with the overdrive transmissions you can hurt mileage going to with too high (numerically lower) of a gear.

[Special-Ed]

why switch to drum brakes... thats going backwards.... then how are you going to address the anti lock brakes for the rear?

keep the rear end with anti locks and disc.... dont go drum..... to many issues

[LEEVON]

Actually these trucks disc brakes had lots of issues, namely the parking brake always failed, pretty much without exception and it's an expensive fix. Drum brakes work great.

[hugger6933]

That's right if that is going backwards the General went backwards himself in best I can tell midyear 05 from the wreaks I've had.To the best of my recollection the early 05 I had I thought had disc brakes and the mid year was a drum and everything afterwards was a drum brake. On the 1/2 ton. Jim

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I am 100 percent that you are wrong on this one. i have had several of these trucks and my best mileage so far was with the 3.23 gears. i think that why people have bad mileage in town with them is they drive like a kid and take off to fast. i just drive around easy. if i want to go fast i have another one of these trucks with 3.73 gears and a few bolt ons. also i have a 69 nova that runs 6.90 in the eighth. just looking for a nice daily driver that gets decent mileage.

Originally Posted by LEEVON

This is awesome, can't wait to see the results. Just a thought but the 3.23 gears could yield worse gas mileage than the 3.73's. It's the in-town driving that kills them. Even on the highway 3.73 would be right in the sweet spot.

I'm currently driving an '06 short bed with 4.8L and 3.23's bone stock and it gets right at 15mpg. She's getting 3.90's soon, I'm expecting a 2mpg improvement.

I had an '02 short bed with 5.3L / 3.73's and it averaged 17-18.

I had an '08 extended cab with 4.8L / 3.23's and it averaged 15.

I had an '08 crew cab with 5.3L / 3.42's and it averaged 17-18. Got 20mpg over 1000 miles once trying real hard.

I'm meticulous about tracking my mileage too. Alot of guys will tell you they got 20 mpg but they're highlighting one highway trip.

BTW I need to come down and see you sometime, looks like you always have some choice stuff!

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Originally Posted by 71swb4x4

That is a super nice truck. You will have a great driver! I agree with Leevon, you might want to think hard about the rearend switch, with the overdrive transmissions you can hurt mileage going to with too high (numerically lower) of a gear.

lower rpm deliver better mileage. IF you drive it correctly and dont drive like a kid. driving habbits have more to with fuel milage than gear ratio.

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Originally Posted by LEEVON

Actually these trucks disc brakes had lots of issues, namely the parking brake always failed, pretty much without exception and it's an expensive fix. Drum brakes work great.

you sir are correct. gm had tons of problems out of there rear disc brakes. i will stick to drums for my build. gm went back to drums in 2005-2013. they had tons of lawsuits and even deaths because of rear disc brake failures.

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Originally Posted by hugger6933

That's right if that is going backwards the General went backwards himself in best I can tell midyear 05 from the wreaks I've had.To the best of my recollection the early 05 I had I thought had disc brakes and the mid year was a drum and everything afterwards was a drum brake. On the 1/2 ton. Jim

gm went back to drum brakes in 2005-2013 because of thousands of lawsuits and even deaths on the rear disc brakes. so on this truck i am doing a rear drum brake upgrade. gm is going back to disc on there all new 2014 model. lets see how they do in the real world.

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Originally Posted by Special-Ed

why switch to drum brakes... thats going backwards.... then how are you going to address the anti lock brakes for the rear?

keep the rear end with anti locks and disc.... dont go drum..... to many issues

no problems going back to drums. that is a HUGE UPGRADE on these trucks!!! lots of problems out of the disc on these trucks!! abs will work fine!!. gm went back to drums 2005-2013 for a reason.

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I just sold this truck. 5.3 lm7 4l60e factory 3.73 gears it got average 13.6 miles per gallon. i hope that the burgandy truck gets better than that.

[LEEVON]

I didn't mean to be preachy...you probably hit the nail on the head in regards to driving habits, cause I drive 'em hard.

That's crazy the 2007 has been hiding in the woods all that time. I'd never get anything done if I had a run of the yard like yours LOL.

Still can't wait to see it done!

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i just got out the air bag module from under the drivers seat. i am sending it off to have it reset so that the air bag light will go out when i replace the drivers side air bag.

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I found a nice set of factory 817k sport red metalic door handles off a 2005 chevy tahoe. i will be installing them as well as factory painted mirrors and factory painted upper front bumper pad. i think that i will delete the black textured side mouldings.

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i got the frame changed yesterday. it took me and one other guy 6 hours and 15 minutes to change the frame. with the cab off the engine comes off in one entire package. using a twin post lift is the only way to change a frame. drug it in with the fork lift and backed the truck outside 6 hours later. i am sending it to local body shop to get the right door repaired and the front cap painted and blend the paint on the doors. it started right up and ran fine.