'00 Silverado AKA Lil' Rusty

[Colorado_Outback]

Picked up this little truck from a friend for 500 bucks a couple months ago. It needed a lot of work, brake lines rusted out at the caliper on the front, running really rough, trans hard shifting when hot, lots of cosmetics. But it was all there, and 500 bucks!
It spent the first decade of its life in IL, hence the rust.

20150807_154909 by colorado_baja, on Flickr

Started working thru the tune up trying to get rid of the random cyl misfire on 4, all new ignition, still misfiring on 4, new spider injector and intake mani reseal.. still misfiring. Time for a compression test..

20150922_095401 by colorado_baja, on Flickr

Bummer. 100 psi low on 4.

Now is when a $500 truck becomes not such a good deal.. haha

I knew I was going to do something with it weather that was fix it back to stock or swap it. So while I pondered my options I cleaned it up a little bit cosmetically and found an awesome deal on some 17" wheels and tires on CL.

20150907_170151 by colorado_baja, on Flickr

20150907_170210 by colorado_baja, on Flickr

Found an older Delta with the key for 100 bucks!

20150919_183957 by colorado_baja, on Flickr

Cue junk box #2.. :sombrero:

Found this 99 GMC Jimmy SLT for cheap on craigslist, it has a rebuilt long block with about 10K on it with receipts and over all was pretty clean. 4x4 wasn't working and had a hand full of what I thought were small electrical issues.
Oh and a perfect heated leather interior.

20151203_171719 by colorado_baja, on Flickr

20151203_171743 by colorado_baja, on Flickr

After driving it around for a week and trying to trouble shoot the push button 4x4 system I decided to pull the drive train out of the blazer and stick it in Lil' Rusty. For a while there I was really hoping that I could fix the blazer, it had a lot going for it. But the complexity of the "auto 4x4" system in there is crazy, and expensive to fix(Read:wires everywhere, clutches in the tcase etc).

I got the motor pulled the other day and I'm in the process of cleaning and swapping everything on the motors.

20151218_132021 by colorado_baja, on Flickr

 

[Colorado_Outback]

Its going to be hard to call this a build thread as its duty will mostly be running around town with my kid and doing normal truck stuff..

I will be building a custom aluminum bed rack for kayaks and other junk along with some reliability mods like a manual actuator for the front axle.

 

[Colorado_Outback]

New motor looks a lot better inside then the old one..
20151219_114419 by colorado_baja, on Flickr

20151219_114407 by colorado_baja, on Flickr

Got the oil pan, valve covers, exhaust manifolds, power steering and a couple other little things swapped.
20151221_150517 by colorado_baja, on Flickr

What I forgot to swap was the flex plate, went to put the converter bolts in and the holes didn't line up. Rookie mistake..

Lost about 4 hours today pulling it back out and swapping the flex plates. Converter bolt pattern and offset were different. Hoping to have it started by Christmas.

 

[chilliwak]

Nice looking machine for $500 Mr Colarado. The new motor also looks a lot better than the old one. I am looking forward to seeing you get this machine ready for some fun. Cheers, Chilli...

 

[Colorado_Outback]

Managed to get it together and it fired right up after I primed the fuel. No check engine lights or weird noises.
20151226_164000 by colorado_baja, on Flickr

Drove it 30 miles home and it never missed a beat
20151226_173721 by colorado_baja, on Flickr

Next ill be addressing some of the rust issues on this truck.

 

[chilliwak]

Sweet! I am glad to hear that Mr Colorado. Now lets see some wheeling pics!:Wow1:

 

[Colorado_Outback]

Sweet! I am glad to hear that Mr Colorado. Now lets see some wheeling pics!:Wow1:

Thanks Chilli! Unfortunately most of my favorite spots are around 10Kft and pretty snowy right now. Thats ok, more time to tinker with the truck before work gets really busy again first part of the year.

The frame is solid despite how it looks, the rockers and rear fender arches not so much..

20151227_091637 by colorado_baja, on Flickr


20151227_091652 by colorado_baja, on Flickr

Whats left of a bolt on trailer hitch.. This truck spent the first 10 years in IL and it got a spray on rubber underliner that did nothing but trap salt and water against the frame.

20151227_091712 by colorado_baja, on Flickr

Going to start poking around and see how bad the rockers really are, some LMC patch panels might be in its future..

 

[Bushcoat]

The earlier GMT800 trucks had brittle frame material that was prone to cracking and rust through. The trailer hitch looks pretty horrible but examination of the remainder of the frame is important. The last half ton GMT800 I had (a 99 extended cab short bed) had only a small amount of surface rust on the body, rockers were super solid but I had to replace cab corners. The frame got to be where it had a dozen cracks, some rusted through cross members and it wasn't safe to drive anymore. I had bought the truck knowing that the frame was patchd at the rear drivers side cab mount and was aware of a few cracks rearwards of the leaf spring mounts and eventually ended up rebuilding the rear 6' or so section of frame.

 

[Colorado_Outback]

Thanks for the advice bushcoat. Ill defiantly check those areas carefully.

 

[ZMagic97]

Looking good so far! Glad to hear the motor swap went well. That's a big accomplishment out of the way right there.

 

[Bushcoat]

Thanks for the advice bushcoat. Ill defiantly check those areas carefully.

The areas Ive found of problem are
-torsion bar crossmember crack on frame
-crack on frame at rear cab mount
-front gas tank crossmember (deterioration of plate welded to frame beside gas tank where crossmember is welded through)
-cracking in front of rear axle behind front spring mount (where frame goes from box to open)
-cracking at bumpstops
-deterioration of tube cross members at rear
-crack at trailer hitch mount holes
-crack at rear leafspring hanger.

Not to whore over lil rusty's thread, heres a few pics.

 

[Colorado_Outback]

The areas Ive found of problem are
-torsion bar crossmember crack on frame
-crack on frame at rear cab mount
-front gas tank crossmember (deterioration of plate welded to frame beside gas tank where crossmember is welded through)
-cracking in front of rear axle behind front spring mount (where frame goes from box to open)
-cracking at bumpstops
-deterioration of tube cross members at rear
-crack at trailer hitch mount holes
-crack at rear leafspring hanger.

Not to whore over lil rusty's thread, heres a few pics.

Thanks for the pics and additional info, I'm a visual person so that helps a lot. I have a dime sized hole in the boxed section near the trans x member on the driver side. And I think I have some structural rust on the boxed section back by the gas tank on the driver side but its hard to see up in there with everything in the way. Might have to pull the bed to really see what I need to see. Did a bunch of tapping around with a 24oz ballpeen and have only found that one soft spot so far.

Ill back half it like you did if I have to but trying to avoid that.

 

[Colorado_Outback]

What size tire and lift are you running on the $500 silverado?

Its got stock suspension all the way around, the wheels/tires are 265/70/17 Coopers I got on Craigslist. They work out to 31.6x10.4" vs the stock 245/75/16's that came on this truck, they are 30.5x9.7" so not a huge difference over all but they do fill out the wheel wells nicely.

 

[chilliwak]

Come on Bushcoat, who ever called you a whore.....:Wow1:

 

[Bushcoat]

That's what she said......