The last round of updates before delivery:
New spark plugs
The exterior of the plugs looked quite rusty so I ordered new ones. OE gap is .060”, and the old ones were over .090”. They were so worn out I was surprised the truck ran as good as it did. With that little V6 in that huge engine bay, changing them out was pretty easy.
Front bumper
Had surface rust and a small ding from the inside. Some quick metal work fixed the protrusion, which was followed with sanding to remove the rust then coats of primer and paint brushed on. It looks way better. See pics at bottom for final result on the bumper
Brakes
I was not happy with the pedal travel when braking, so I went about the business of re-bleeding the brakes. I suspected the backs might have air so I started there. Tried a syringe to pull the fluid out but could not get consistent seal of the bleeder to the wheel cylinder. Ended up using the pressure bleeder . After some drama where the original hose blew out and sprayed brake fluid in the engine compartment it worked fine.
However, this did not clear up the problem. I adjusted up the rear shoes again. This helped but was not sure why my last adjustment didn’t work. Drum brakes on GM tighten when you apply brakes while backing up, so I tried some quick stops in reverse to adjust them up further. This helped a bit but eventually subsequent test drives uncovered a pulse in the brakes. It felt like the rear but to be safe I ordered all new pads, rotors, shoes and drums.
Fronts were delivered first. I changed them out and that cleared up the pulse, and improved the pedal feel quite a bit. I was not quite happy with the pad design seems like there is less material especially when the pad is new. With the aluminum wheels couldn’t keep the old ones since they produced a lot of brake dust, and I figured these will only get better over time as the pas surface will expand with wear
I was planning to change out the rear shoes, until I found the new shoes to have considerably less material than the old ones. Replacements are Bendix so I guess they are off the good list for now. Also the old ones were withing 1/16” thickness of the new ones.
With all these changes the brake pedal is good and brakes are good to go.
Scuff marks and overspray
With all this fancy equipment I had from working on the Charger, I went to work cleaning up the paint. This truck had a lot of scuff marks. Perfection was not the goal, just get the easy stuff off so it’ll pass the 20’ test.
When I was painting the frame I covered the hood, and the top and back of the cab. Unfortunately the black paint overspray made it around the paper and stuck to the rear doors. It was a fine mist but made it look like before I washed it the first time. On one side I used the 3” buffer and finishing compound, but for the other side I used lacquer thinner on a rag. I also had to clean up the back of the cab a bit since the sprayer blew the sheet up when I was spraying the bottom of the frame in a couple spots.
New tires and wheels
Last fall I found a set of 18” aluminum wheels used for $150. They are not perfect but way above standard for this truck. Spent just a little time cleaning the beads and these were ready to go. During my junkyard trip I acquired a set of lug nuts to match – it took several vehicles to acquire enough good ones. The TPMS light was on when the tires were full so I bought new sensors as well.
The last item was tires. I know Kurt is not going to have interest in putting snow tires on in the winter, so I went with an all terrain tires. I chose Bridgestone Dueler Ascent tires that were within .1” diameter of the original 17” tire size. These tires also can carry more load than the truck. They are not as good as true snow tires but they are rated for winter use and reviews were pretty good. I learned fairly recently I am eligible for employee discounts as a retiree from Bridgestone. I also learned when she quoted me $42 for road hazard that was per tire. Still trying to get that reversed.
Visually this is by far the biggest transformation for this truck.
Windshield
I had Safelite install it. Their website gave me an estimate of $401 but then after scheduling the appointment the invoice they sent was for $469. Turns out there is a $40 fee to recycle the old glass they didn’t think was necessary to put in the estimate. Great way to turn a positive into a negative. If that was in the original estimate I would have paid it. Instead I told them I would recycle the glass myself. The installed window looks good, though he did not clean up all the window seal bits and other debris from the dash and the floor. If this was an expensive truck I would have been super annoyed with that.
One thing I learned while working on this truck – every possible problem area has a commercially available repair part and they are not too expensive. 15 years old is not an issue – there are so many Silverados and people use them a lot.
Wall-E
Kurt’s business is named Wall Electronics. In every ebay listing photo he includes the item for sale and a little Wall E made from metal. I thought it would be fun to put Wall E on the truck – so I went with the white silhouette decal. It’s subtle and Kurt liked it.
Rocker panel patching
Original plan was to remove rust, paint the rest. Th back section of the rocker panels are still intact so I was going to fill the front section with expanding foam to keep the crap out of what’s left. However, once I was done prepping the metal I realized patching these would be fairly easy since there are very few bends to make. I had some sheet galvanized metal around and so that is what happened. I riveted these pieces on, painted them, and followed that up with some seam sealer. The rocker panels are very hard to see on this truck so the pop rivet look should not be noticed.
There was a small hole in the rocker panel a little ways below the door hinge on the driver side. Unfortunately, there was quite a bit more rust here than expected. Pulling back the door sill I found the floor to be rusted through. Also learned that the insulation under the floor mat was soaking wet. This truck has been sitting inside for over 6 months. I figure that at some point the rubber floor mat was hosed off (work truck has this not carpet) but the thing is not designed to drain so the water found its way under the mat and just never dried. I cut the insulation in order to remove/facilitate drying. After that I cleaned up the remaining metal, made a couple patches, painted and reassembled.
- stainless patch for doorjamb and the template
Inner fender mud flaps
One thing I could see plainly is any moisture coming up off the rear tires had a pretty direct path to the taillight supports – which considering the lack of proper galvanizing of the metal, caused a lot of rust up there. To try to slow this down a bit I made some inner fender extensions out of old Saturn inner fender material.
Spare key
The key was a bit sticky when turning on the ignition. I figured the barrel was worn out, but a video indicated it might be the key. I also learned there are rebuild kits for the barrel, and since Rhonda wanted him to have a spare key, it was a no brainer to start there. The new key works a lot better. There is a chip in the key, but the vehicle automatically learns the new chip – you just have to start the truck with the current key, then put the new key in and run it shortly after removing the old key.
Transmission lines
What started as a single transmission line hose leaking escalated into replacing all the transmission lines. I started by attempting to repair it when it appears that me fussing in there sent the other transmission hose leaking as well. Quick internet search found the new lines to be about $50 each, and another $40 to replace the snap in fittings at the radiator and transmission.
Problem #1 was the replacement fittings for the radiator would not fit into the radiator. This must be the original radiator and the design for the transmission cooler has inverted flare fittings. The replacement fittings were for a different design using NPT thread. I was able to locate the right fittings for this radiator
Problem #2 was when I installed the fittings in the transmission, I damaged one of them. The fittings are aluminum and when the socket was a little crooked it bent the top part that holds the clip.
Problem #3 was when I put the whole thing back together the connections at the radiator leaked. Using the old fittings it also leaked – and a lot worse than it leaked with the original lines. This led me to believe the lines were not formed correctly during assembly. Since the radiator still accepts inverted flare fittings I ended up modifying the new lines to have flare fittings. The bottom line took several attempts to get the flares right
Splash shield
I had to remove this piece to work on the transmission lines. At this point I realized the thing was really cracked up. For $43 a new one was a no brainer
Gate cap
There is a plastic piece at the top of the gate. First time I sat on the gate I realized the thing is not attached inside the gate and that would be a real hassle when unloading things. To remedy I put a fresh piece of two sided tape on the inside edge to attach it to the gate. I also plastic welded the cracks near the bolt holes, and replaced the torx bolts holding it on with some hex head bolts.
E-check
I test drove it for like 40 miles and then took it for the test. Status was “not ready”. No check engine light, but I know there are requirements that have to met while driving to say its been driven enough since battery disconnect. Sadly I got some codes when I turned on the key with the gas tank out so all the driving to get it home was erased.
During this process I learned the readiness statuses are stored in the ECU and I was able to use my scan tool to see them. A couple drives later and all the relevant systems were ready – took it to echeck and it passed easily.
I also found an error code that did not cause check engine light. This turned out to be due to a dirty throttle body. I cleaned it up but needed to recalibrate the ECU. There is supposed to be a way to do it with a sequence of turning the key on and off. This failed, so I then used my scan tool to tell get it to it to relearn the throttle body.
Belt squeak
For 5+ months any time I started this truck it idled so nice and quiet. After the first test drive it developed a squeak. I tried cleaning the belt and that helped but it came back. I put a little more tension on the tensioner and it stopped. I learned this is a common problem as these get older. Anyway a new belt and tensioner and its back to quiet.
Ready for production
I also gave it a final wash and delivered it to Kurt on 4/13.
I was guessing 200 hrs to refurb when it showed up and I ended up just over 300. I told Kurt I want to see it in 1k miles to check up on all the systems.
Turned out great, and was a fun way to spend some retirement time. It will get lots of use for sure.