Truck Build Thread

[Riley P]

So, I don't have an old Corvette so the closest I can do is share my experience with building my replacement truck while I collect parts to work on my old truck. The project was to quickly do the "new" truck so I had something for winter while I took my time to work on my old truck that I originally started on. However, the "new" truck build was started in September of 2014 and I finished it just in time for the snow to be gone this Spring. Also I should state that although I did about 95% of the work, I have a friend that knows these trucks inside and out and helped me when I got stuck or had questions.
This build was supposed to be pretty quick. It is a theft recovery so it involved replacing the smashed side window glad on both the passenger door and extended cab, put new hub bearings on the front, replace the steering column, and fix the transmission leak.
Here is the truck and how it sat for a year and a half out in the weather with the drivers window down and the passenger windows smashed out from when it was stolen :

Lots of tape residue to remove. That stuff sucked and was glued on! WD-40 seemed to work best.

The truck was used to pull out a 3/4 ton pulling a bobcat. It got it out, but the bumper bent a little.

The truck was also used to deliver papers and two cans of garbage later, I finally saw it had carpet in the extended cab. What a soggy mess.

These trucks are way too easy to steal....

 

[Riley P]

Started by replacing the hood (not shown..... just shown without the old hood.

New box, however the rail needed help.

Cut the rail off the old bed and bolted it to the new one.

Undercoated the bed to help me think it will rust more slowly.

Replace the hub bearings and put on new brakes

 

[Riley P]

Wire brushed the frame and gave it a good painting:

And since the box was off, a new fuel pump was installed...

Upside down picture of the tape on the body that was horrible to remove...

 

[Riley P]

Started to mess around with the bodywork and painting a couple items. Painted the back of the cab and frame.

Box undercoated and ready to put on.

Threw the box on and started the transmission service.

Taking more parts out to service this tranny.....

Out of order, but pulled the driveshaft and realized the steady bearing needed to be replaced.

You can see the rubber coming apart

What a PITA to service this transmission. To get the pan off, I had to remove the exhaust, inspection cover, transmission mount, and front driveshaft because I pulled stuff off in the wrong order (trying to keep the exhaust on). Having now service the transmission 3 times, I now know to just pull the exhaust and I can get the pan off.

Now back to the drive shaft, since it was out, I replaced the pinion seal.....

And since the pinion seal was getting done, I pulled the open diff and installed a posi out of a 2000-ish junk yard Blazer. That fluid was gross.

 

[Riley P]

Started to sand the roll bar to put some fun lights on this truck. I sanded the chrome until the rust was off, then cleared it as I liked the sanded look. The left is before, the right is after.

Showing the corrosion.

All nice and sanded and cleared.

Part way through the body lift.

Getting the paint over with. $60 of Satin spray bomb goes a long way!

And almost lastly, a new windshield to top it off.

First day with the "new" truck! It worked for about two month before the transmission took a hike. I serviced the tranny again to no improvement and this month just finished replacing it with a new one. It now drives like a dream!

Found out the 4wd wasn't working. The front actuator diaphragm was torn. I pulled the old one off my old, old truck, went out and tested it. Needless to say, it works....now. Bring on the snow!....in December!

Future plans include lifting the front 2.5" to level it out a bit, bigger tires, front bumper with a hitch mount for the winch, a little bigger tire, and then it'll be perfect!...right? Hahaha. So happy to have a truck again.

 

[nascar03]

Riley.. a nice budget-build.
This will be a perfect winter vehicle.
$60 of Satin spray bomb goes a long way!
looks fine!..

graham

 

[Black 03 Z06]

Nice job Riley. Keep them running.

 

[Riley P]

Thanks guys! Very glad to have a vehicle for winter...... And playing in the snow. I never had a truck the last two years so quite oddly I'm sort of looking forward to some snow this year.

 

[Bearly Flying]

Your Weird......


We should Ban You from the Forum for talking such nonsense.

Vettes don't do all that well in the snow.

 

[CCO]

Awesome job Riley....I'm proud of ya ...... I won't tell anyone this is your dream:

 

[Riley P]

Hahahaha. You know, people talk about how much Vettes wouldn't work in the winter but outside of ground clearance, the C5 has better weight distribution than any BMW, Mercedes, Mustang, Charger, etc out there. With ABS, Active Handling and winter tires, I bet the corvette would do ok.....but not in the snow....as you said.
However, it grosses me out just thinking about it.

 

[Riley P]

Big Foot 5 would be awesome!.....except it's a Ford. Did you know the newest Big Foot is a Chevy? Bob Chandler finally came to his senses.

 

[CCO]

Big Foot 5 would be awesome!.....except it's a Ford. Did you know the newest Big Foot is a Chevy? Bob Chandler finally came to his senses.

Don't say that too loud, she might here you.

 

[CCO]

dang -- I didn't know that........I googled and found your new dream:

Here's the story along with it. Interesting. Sounds like Ford gave up on BigFoot so Chandler gave up on Ford ........ but not altogether...

BTW -- Seems this news is about 5 years old -- I wonder what the latest is.

http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2010/0...k-steps-in-new-direction-with-chevy-body.html

 

[Riley P]

Hahaha! True enough Colin! I more mean't the Ford comment as tongue in cheek.
In the latest news, I think Ford got Bigfoot back but can't really find anything to confirm it.

 

[Riley P]

Sooo, I'm thinking when I pulled the rear end apart and put in the new posi center section, the bearings had too much preload and ended up eating themselves. When driving around, I kept getting louder and louder gear noise. It always had more gear noise than I liked but one time it was noticeably louder and after coming off the highway, I got a shutter with a LOT of noise.
Well, I limped the truck home and while I waiting to get it in the garage, if I had to take it out, I kept it under 60 km/hr as it seemed to do ok at slower speeds.
Finally, I got my truck in to my friends garage and I wish I took video! I took the rear cap off and the oil looked like liquid metal there were so many shavings in the fluid! Normally, gear oil is black, but this was definitely silver. Gerald started to pry at the center section to check the teeth and as he pried on the ring gear, it would move up and down 1/4" to 3/8"! It also moved side to side a bit. I've never seen anything like this. We took the end caps off and you could see the bearings were toast, in fact, one end fell apart as we had it on a bench.
So, long story short. I cleaned out the housing and put new bearings on the carrier and installed it with much less preload. All the teeth check out and look ok. There would be maybe 1000 to 2000 km on the misaligned gears I am suspecting. As I didn't change the pinion gear or ring gear, I'm just hoping they didn't wear funny and weren't damaged and will function fine now that they are aligned again. Time will tell!

Anyway, here is a picture of one of the races and tapered bearings that fell out.

 

[Riley P]

Rear end let go again. Lots of gear noise and growling upon deceleration coming off the highway. Time to pull an entire rear from a wreckers and swap rear ends.
I think the preload definitely has something to do with eating the bearings, however, and let this be some advise for anyone replacing a pinion seal, mark the location of the pinion nut before you remove it. Then when installing it, tighten it until it goes to the exact same point and torque it on at 10 lbft. Or another way to do it properly is to measure the torque to spin the pinion prior to removing the nut (should be about 25 inlb). Then when reinstalling, torque until you obtain this value again to ensure correct preload on the pinion bearings. I think when I torqued it on, as I lost my reference, I torqued the crap out of it, crushed the crush sleeve further and pulled the ring and pinion out of alignment. Long story short, I now need a new rear end. Learn from me, don't be like me.

 

[Nik]

Get this next Riley:

 

[NW-99SS]

Great build! Love the factory wheels - adds to the cool factor!

 

[theboss]

I need one for fishing trip in remote area. Don't need a boat anymore, it float.