GrumpyGhost Rusty 1999 GMC Sierra Z71 Ongoing build!

GrumpyGhost · June 20, 2017

Truck is finally inside. First pic looks as though frame is painted, but actually it's just wet because a storm had just blown through not 10 mins earlier.

It's a tight fit now, but I got everything inside. I just used ratchet straps to hold gas tank on as it's coming right back off tomorrow.

Last pic is showing how much of a rake the truck has now with the new leaf springs and rough country spacers. It's kinda hard to tell with bed off, but I don't sit flat in my seat, can tell I'm leaning forward a bit. I took it for a test ride after bleeding the brakes of course!! (I would never dream of doing a burnout with the rear calipers not having any pressure : )

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GrumpyGhost · June 20, 2017

That’s coming along nicely. Have you kept a running total for parts?

It is also a good idea to keep track of the hours you’ve invested in the project. Though it is difficult to quantify such – unless you’re a professional mechanic or auto-body man – doing so can give you a better idea of the ‘cost’ of the project

I have all of the receipts, I'll get around to adding up the total soon. As for the price of what I'm doing compared to paying someone to do it.

I doubt I could find someone or a body shop that would do everything to the extent that I'm doing it. I would guess I would have to go to someone who does full restorations.

The hotrod restoration/body shop I did an internship at quoted me $1400 for cab corners and rockers, and another $1200 for wheel wells on bed. This is also the "friend price." Also they would not have touched the frame or any other part of the bed, just fix the "major" areas and be done.

I'm probably about $2000 or so in parts right now. I haven't bought the base paint or clear yet which will be about $200 to $250 depending on how many quarts I decide I need.

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GrumpyGhost · June 20, 2017

I have all of the receipts, I'll get around to adding up the total soon. As for the price of what I'm doing compared to paying someone to do it.

I doubt I could find someone or a body shop that would do everything to the extent that I'm doing it. I would guess I would have to go to someone who does full restorations.

The hotrod restoration/body shop I did an internship at quoted me $1400 for cab corners and rockers, and another $1200 for wheel wells on bed. This is also the "friend price." Also they would not have touched the frame or any other part of the bed, just fix the "major" areas and be done.

I'm probably about $2000 or so in parts right now. I haven't bought the base paint or clear yet which will be about $200 to $250 depending on how many quarts I decide I need.

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I forgot to say that $2000 also includes the $450 I payed for the "New Bed", now that im thinking it over more, I think I'm at $2180 as of yesterday with fuel lines.

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GrumpyGhost · June 23, 2017

Got the fenders off and front wheels off so I can start frame/suspension work/painting. Still haven't messed with rear cross member. Driver side fender has a little rust where the fuse box mounts. No biggie, just clean and por15!

The fenders are a real pain to take off! Especially the driver side, I should have probably YouTubed how to remove them, but I don't think it would have really saved much time. Noticed one outer tierod is shot, thanks Moog! Jkjk, it's been a few years since I did them.

Overall front half of frame is in crazy good condition compared to the back half. I'm considering changing the ball joints while I'm doing all this since I have them, but then again I've got my hands full already! Time will tell!

I think I'm going to take doors off, and cut out the old rockers and stuff before I paint the frame. This will give me more access to clean and paint the frame.

I'm almost out of por15 and really don't want to buy another quart, so I'm hoping if I do all of the por15 painting at once, I can stretch it vs wasting a bit when I paint stuff separately.

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GrumpyGhost · June 24, 2017

Gotta go rent a ball joint clamp. I got the old key out using a regular c clamp. Lol

I attached a video of how easy the front shocks compress by hand using Tapatalk. Also posted photo of compressed shock compared to normal.

Spent most of evening getting the torsion bars unsiezed and old keys off. Actually easier than I thought they would be.http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/594dd94db2d5c/Snapchat-290552082.mp4

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GrumpyGhost · June 26, 2017

I tightened down the front shocks, also got the torsion keys installed. Went and rented a ball joint press/C-clamp. I asked AutoZone guy when they closed, and he said in an hour and a half. So I said to myself challenge accepted and told him I'd be back to return the press before they closed and he said good luck.

Pshhh, got the whole job done in 30 mins. Went back to AutoZone and the guy was like, did you give up? I was like yeah, I used the torque gun instead of a socket wrench! Of course I didn't tell the guy that I wasn't using the press for ball joints. But still I chuckled a bit inside.

I forgot to get a pic of the truck leveled, I also decided to actually read the directions that came with the leveling kit. Apparently the lift blocks for the leaf springs have a certain direction they are supposed to go. Now I gotta check them. They looked square to me when I put them on but whatever. My fault for not checking and reading directions.

I also cut out the cab corner of the driver side off. I'm not looking forward to the 7 million spot welds!!!!

I also cut the junk off the cross member so I can fix them. I have some extra 16 guage metal left over from the wheel well. So I decided to make pieces out of it. I'd say they look dang good for me just using my hands and a body panel hammer.

I also picked up some rubberized undercoating to spray inside the cross members. I guess it "dries" wet! Hopefully it'll slow down the rust. I didn't feel like paying for more weld thru primer for inside of the pieces I made for cross member, so I'm just gunna throw some undercoating on it and call it a day.

I also have been dealing with my rotors hitting the new dust shields I installed. The dust shields hits the rotors just on the inside of the hat for the ebrake pads. So I had to take the rear calipers back off and grind down the brand new friggin dust shields. I didn't bother painting the parts I grinded, I feel it was a mistake buying the things in the first place. Hopefully they rust off faster then the first ones!

I also only worked on this for about 4 hours today. Maybe 5 hours if you include running to AutoZone. I got 3 weeks to get this bad boy finished. And about 2 months of work left lol jkjk. But it is a bit much to do in 3 weeks and only having my spare time to work on it. If I didn't have be an adult and have a real job. I'd say I could have it ready for paint by Friday.

Wish me luck.

Also I'm not replacing my door hinges now. I can do them later, I did some more special magic to the driver door to make it close nicely again for a minute hopefully. I may replace the hinge pins on passenger door though, it likes to squeal when opening and closing even with lithium grease.

Lastly sorry for the essay of a post!

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GrumpyGhost · June 29, 2017

It's ugly, but I had some time to weld on the cross member. I wasn't able to seal weld the bottom of the pieces I made, but I got 2inch beads on each side of the bottom of the new pieces along with the top sections which you can see in pics.

It'll eventually rot out again, but I think I'll search for a good cross member in junkyards and replace it as a whole piece in the future. For now it is structurally sound again.

Gunna por15 the frame tomorrow and hopefully remove the doors and get driver side rockers off.

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GrumpyGhost · June 30, 2017

Got most of the dent out of the driver side. Screw a dent puller, I used a much more expensive borrowed porta power! (10 ton one at that, most are only 4 ton!)

Need to do a bit more with it, but I'm not that committed to working on it, just wanted to make sure it was gunna work and not dent the inside panels as I popped out the outside.

Also test fitted the new panel and it lines up about perfect considering.

I took off my step bars and never removed the brackets because I took one off and found the body mount bolt was a new one that came with the bars. It was about 1/2 inch too long to tighten back down. So I put it off till now.

Low and behold I went to the "spare parts bin" to find some washers to fill the gap as I didn't want to mess with buying new bolts that had to be the perfect length. I figured I threw the old bolts away but as I was searching for washers, I happened upon the original bolts! Lucky me!

I lost my heavy lifting helper for the weekend as they are on vacation and don't want to risk door removal alone. I could probably handle it, but I just don't see the need to risk it.

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Daryl Z71 · June 30, 2017

Looking good, reminds me of working on mine a few years ago.

GrumpyGhost · July 1, 2017

Only did rear half of frame, freaking taking forever!

Once again I did one coat of por15 then top coated with engine paint, except I got the gloss black this time, didn't mean to buy the flat black that is on the bottom of the bed.

Anyhow I think I'll have just enough por15 to finish the rest of the frame or close to it. My original plan to paint all at once didn't take into account how hard rust is to paint with a foam brush! Probably should have bought a large acid brush but whatever, foam brush is 30¢

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GrumpyGhost · July 1, 2017

Only did rear half of frame, freaking taking forever!

Once again I did one coat of por15 then top coated with engine paint, except I got the gloss black this time, didn't mean to buy the flat black that is on the bottom of the bed.

Anyhow I think I'll have just enough por15 to finish the rest of the frame or close to it. My original plan to paint all at once didn't take into account how hard rust is to paint with a foam brush! Probably should have bought a large acid brush but whatever, foam brush is 30¢

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Oh yeah forgot to mention that my rear diff is leaking, first photo you can see a small pool of oil under the diff! Grrrr! I probably should have put some gasket maker stuff on the felpro gasket! I'm afraid to tighten the bolts much more without breaking them off in the diff!

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Daryl Z71 · July 1, 2017

Paper gasket?

GrumpyGhost · July 1, 2017

Paper gasket?

Not like a true paper gasket, but yes it was a paper gasket, I have a rubber one that came with the new diff cover, I just gotta buy or clean out a bucket to drain the brand new diff fluid in, cause that friggin diff fluid ain't cheap. I figured the felpro one would work fine, but I also wonder if I filled it too high with fluid and it's coming from the pinion shaft seal. Haven't finished my investigation yet.

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GrumpyGhost · July 6, 2017

Been busy with work and holidays, finally got a night off to do some work on truck. Spent about 3 hours cutting out old outer rocker. Inner rocker is where the real fun begins, like srsly 60ish spot welds to drill out!

I Test fit the new rocker, looks good in photo from afar, but reality is it fits like crap. I planned to overlap the edges a bit, but that may not be possible and reason for the rocker not lining up very well.

Regardless anything is possible with a welder as they say! Ill be spending a full day on the truck tomorrow. Hopefully get the driverside metalwork finished so this weekend I can do the passenger side which should go much quicker! I won't hold my breath though!

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GrumpyGhost · July 7, 2017

Umm yeah, gotta remove the interior backseat panel to remove the inner rocker corner. I'm srsly considering just cutting the inner cab corner off and not putting the new one in.

Been a real pain to remove the inner rocker as well. Didn't work all day as planned and didn't get far at all. Hopefully this is the hard side to do and the passenger side will go like a cool breeze. Ha-ha fingers crossed!

I've decided that I might as well replace the last of the original brake lines since I have easy access to them. They look real bad.

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