98 GMC Sierra ECSB "Ruby"

[hawgfanman]

Here is my newly acquired 98 Sierra SLE extended cab short bed truck with a 305 engine that I have named Ruby. I'm the 3rd owner and she only has 115k miles on her. Mechanically she's in pretty good shape but I don't think she's ever been parked in a garage or under a carport. The paint on the hood and roof are shot. Other than a few "whiskey dents" and scratches here and there, the rest of the paint is in pretty decent shape. The dashboard is falling apart along with the headliner and sunvisors. The leather is in decent shape but I'll probably eventually replace it.

This is the first time that I've ever bought a truck with the intention of it being a project so please bare with me as I attempt to do things that I've never done before. Unfortunately, I've already had to replace the radiator after it sprung a leak after 2 weeks of ownership! New door hinge pins and bushings are being installed tomorrow. Then it's on to the interior. I'll be installing a new window regulator and motor on the drivers window this weekend. Next on the list, I have suede headliner material ordered along with sound deadening materials. Finding a replacement dash is high on the list but I probably won't tackle the installation of that until my new house is finished and I'm able to get settled in there (around May).

Future plans are to repaint from the hood up, I'm thinking that I may two-tone it at that point with a silver or platinum type color. Rebuild of the front suspension along with either a 3/5 or 4/6 drop will come after that. I'm sure that I'll be adding lots of other little projects along the way as I drive her and figure out more things to replace!

[hawgfanman]

The window regulator is done now and it was quite the chore. It had been replaced before and that along with a sketchy remote door lock install tied to an alarm gave me a lot of grief. Thank goodness for YouTube tutorials! I had a body shop replace the hinge pins and bushings along with the roller pins and springs and the doors are working great now.

[hawgfanman]

I was having problems with it not starting whenever the humidity was over about 85%. After doing some research, I thought that I would try replacing the distributor cap and rotor. I did that yesterday and it seems to have done the trick. It started easily this morning with 90% plus humidity. Really enjoying driving it and can't wait until I get moved in to the new house so that I can tackle more projects.

[Pro Performance]

Nice! Looks like a clean truck.

[DZL1]

Keep progress pics coming.

DZL1.

[hawgfanman]

I've been hitting the junkyards lately and scored an Escalade console for $85 (seemed like a good deal to me). It was missing the back panel but I grabbed one from another yard for just a few bucks. It's just sitting in there now, I still have to clean it and dye it and I'm working on buying those supplies now. I also picked up some suburban sun visors, overhead console and dome light along with a compass/temp rear view mirror for $54! I've got to recover the visors and overhead console but I don't figure that will be too hard.

I also took the time yesterday to install my new headlights and parking lights. I wasn't able to swap out the corner lamps though because the goober that owned the truck before me saw fit to glue them in place... I was tired of messing with and just put it back together to deal with another day. I also had already installed my new tail lights and LED 3rd brake light.

Here's some bad pics from the driveway yesterday.