1998 ECSB Big Red

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I've been a long time lurker of threads on this site short time member. I grew up with these trucks in my family and to this day they are my preferred vehicles. I recently bought a 1998 CCLB from a GMT400 member and after reading all that he had done to the truck on here I realized I should post some threads as well. I've owned 7 of these trucks and have kept 3 so far. I'm starting with my 1998 ECSB aka Big Red.
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I bought this truck for 3500$ in 2013. It was a one owner truck and the origanal owner only put 145xxx miles on it.

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I gave the truck a full tune up after i bought it and removed the lower trim. I decided red and black would look better so I purchased a gallon of rustoleum bedliner and painted over all the silver. That's all I really wanted done at the time and I drove it this way for over a year.

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A little over a year goes by and I take a 90 degree turn on a back road only to meet up with a ram 3500 on the other end. My seat belt did not lock and my head slammed into the wheel. I don't remember what happened after that. The fact of the matter was I had liability insurance and the other driver left the scene. After months of dealing with the insurance company and the sheriff's department I finally got some money together and began fixing it.

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With the help of family and friends I scrounged up everything I needed and put it together. New Core support, radiator, A/C condenser, A/C condenser supply lines, power steering pump, steering gear box, drivers side fender and inner fender, brake booster, master cylinder, hood, bumper, and of course the wrong grille. I needed to be somewhere the day I took this picture so I cut the grille with a grinder to fit with the headlights.

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Several weeks later a coworker put me in touch with a body shop that painted my fading blue replacement hood and fender. I purchased a black grille and poorly matching turn signal housings from a junkyard. It wasn't perfect but it looked a hell of a lot better.
 
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Early into 2015 with no issues I had the bright idea to put a lift kit and bigger tires on the truck thus deeming it Big Red. Hindsight is 20/20 and rough country 2-3" lift is a 1/10 on the scale of quality. It rode fine for about 8 months until my work horse began transforming into more of a sheep. The front end would begin to fall apart. I cant explain it other than literally falling apart. It was not long until Every ball joint, tie rod, and CV axle met their end. I will say Rough country was more than willing to replace their parts when they broke. I did some research on here and discovered that lifting the truck through the torisson keys was very stupid. Not having money for a new lift didn't leave me with many options. I replaced all damaged parts and took a substantial amount of tension off the torisson keys lowering the front end. All was well and good until later in the year I had a rough country upper ball joint do a clean break while driving 70mph on the highway. The truck immediately took a dive off the road damaging the front bumper.


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After the ball joint broke I refused to use the rough country upper control arms anymore. I replaced them with my stock control arms and new ball joints. There were some adjustments to be made but overall it rode much better than it did with the rough country control arms. I also came across a heavy duty bumper on a facebook shop and swap page for 200$. The truck currently sits in my driveway and Im in the process of gathering more parts. I currently have a tuned 411 PCM, longtube headers, a NBS master cylinder, new power steering pump, diesel bumper, cab corners, rockers, and all new coolant lines and water pump. I haven't driven it after my roomate borrowed it a few months ago and decided it would be a bright idea to rev it to 6000 rpms and hold it. Needless to say it came back to the house draining coolant in various places. Hoping to start building it back up in the next week.
 

BowtieBrody

Jesus Murphy!
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Damn shame about the wreck, no after affects of hitting your head?
Glad to see it got rebuilt though! Following this thread as well as Zues'!

Welcome to the forum!
 
Joined
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Leavenworth KS
Damn shame about the wreck, no after affects of hitting your head?
Glad to see it got rebuilt though! Following this thread as well as Zues'!

Welcome to the forum!

Thanks for following. That whole wreck was a crap day. Only long term affects from the head injury is disruptive sleep patterns but I've gotten used to it. Pretty much end up sleeping every other night. Kinda funny how a car wreck will do that.
 
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