Bigbore500r
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- Apr 28, 2014
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I either love paying the state of CA sales tax, or im just a glutton for punishment - I bought another truck (chevy of course) and have been wrenching away making it mine.
RDP Member @Deja_Vu sold me a great truck in December of last year, a 2004 2500HD crew cab short bed.
Lightly used with 160k well-cared for miles, and a folder thicker than a phone book with receipts. 6.0 with a fresh 4L80 picked right from the General's parts catalog 30k ago.
After speaking with Dennis I bought it sight unseen, and drove to Havasu to pick it up. The truck was everything he said it was, and It's been to the river 6 times already!
I just recently got around to working on it, and here's what we did over the past 2 weeks.
Picture "Overhaulin" with a budget of $750
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Day I picked it up from Dennis, at Havasu airport. Dennis shed no tears but I could tell he was gonna miss it......
MOD #1 . . . DETAILING !
Gave it a good scrubbing and started the detail process. Painted the exposed frame and cleaned up the fenderwells, general clean-up and a few gallons of "black magic" to revive the plastics.......
Up Next...... New Headlights and LED bulb conversions
Some of Wuhans finest.....
New lights installed.....
Next up.....remove the side steps.
*Note - ive already torn the crotch out of 1 pair of shorts now that these bars are missing*
But....it looks so cool without them
After the side steps were removed, it was time to level it out. Broke out the tape measure and put a few cranks on the front torsion bars, bringing the front end up 2 1/2". That is all you can get before you get too close to the bump stops and lose sufficient droop travel. You also need to get longer shocks or shock extensions, I will be ordering a set of Bilstiens +1" for this truck. Can't beat the ride of the silver Bilstiens.
Here it is after the step delete and front lift -
Up Next . . . Moulding and badge removal.
A adhesive removal wheel makes relatively quick work of the mess these leave behind.
Now we're talking.......mouldings and badges gone
Now that its lifted, the 265 / 70 tires were looking a bit on the small side. I thought about looking for some aftermarket rims and tires, but i've always liked the look of the stock "alcoa" style aluminum HD wheels that chevy ran in these years. Plus - keeping the stock offset is your friend when working with a small lift, it keeps the tires from contacting the front bumper and wheel wells. Chevy Ball joints aren't big fans of positive offset wheels, and Dennis had just had the front end of this truck freshened up, so I wanted to keep it that way. So....
I took a page out of the ole @2FORCEFULL playbook, and upsized the tires to some beefier 285/75/16's. They look a little funky as they are tall but relatively skinny, but that helps the MPG from being murdered, and the mellow tread pattern is super quiet and rides nice with all that sidewall. For $550OTD, what do ya want? 50k rated Wuhan Warrior AT's.....
The front end lift and new tires warranted getting the alignment re-done, so on the rack it goes......
BAM ! ! !
That's it for now.
Next up . . . tint the front driver and passenger windows, billet grille, LED bed cargo lighting, LED puddle lights under the mirrors, and then it's time to tackle the sound system.......
RDP Member @Deja_Vu sold me a great truck in December of last year, a 2004 2500HD crew cab short bed.
Lightly used with 160k well-cared for miles, and a folder thicker than a phone book with receipts. 6.0 with a fresh 4L80 picked right from the General's parts catalog 30k ago.
After speaking with Dennis I bought it sight unseen, and drove to Havasu to pick it up. The truck was everything he said it was, and It's been to the river 6 times already!
I just recently got around to working on it, and here's what we did over the past 2 weeks.
Picture "Overhaulin" with a budget of $750
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Day I picked it up from Dennis, at Havasu airport. Dennis shed no tears but I could tell he was gonna miss it......
MOD #1 . . . DETAILING !
Gave it a good scrubbing and started the detail process. Painted the exposed frame and cleaned up the fenderwells, general clean-up and a few gallons of "black magic" to revive the plastics.......
Up Next...... New Headlights and LED bulb conversions
Some of Wuhans finest.....
New lights installed.....
Next up.....remove the side steps.
*Note - ive already torn the crotch out of 1 pair of shorts now that these bars are missing*
But....it looks so cool without them
After the side steps were removed, it was time to level it out. Broke out the tape measure and put a few cranks on the front torsion bars, bringing the front end up 2 1/2". That is all you can get before you get too close to the bump stops and lose sufficient droop travel. You also need to get longer shocks or shock extensions, I will be ordering a set of Bilstiens +1" for this truck. Can't beat the ride of the silver Bilstiens.
Here it is after the step delete and front lift -
Up Next . . . Moulding and badge removal.
A adhesive removal wheel makes relatively quick work of the mess these leave behind.
Now we're talking.......mouldings and badges gone
Now that its lifted, the 265 / 70 tires were looking a bit on the small side. I thought about looking for some aftermarket rims and tires, but i've always liked the look of the stock "alcoa" style aluminum HD wheels that chevy ran in these years. Plus - keeping the stock offset is your friend when working with a small lift, it keeps the tires from contacting the front bumper and wheel wells. Chevy Ball joints aren't big fans of positive offset wheels, and Dennis had just had the front end of this truck freshened up, so I wanted to keep it that way. So....
I took a page out of the ole @2FORCEFULL playbook, and upsized the tires to some beefier 285/75/16's. They look a little funky as they are tall but relatively skinny, but that helps the MPG from being murdered, and the mellow tread pattern is super quiet and rides nice with all that sidewall. For $550OTD, what do ya want? 50k rated Wuhan Warrior AT's.....
The front end lift and new tires warranted getting the alignment re-done, so on the rack it goes......
BAM ! ! !
That's it for now.
Next up . . . tint the front driver and passenger windows, billet grille, LED bed cargo lighting, LED puddle lights under the mirrors, and then it's time to tackle the sound system.......
. I was wondering what you were gonna do with his truck.
