Jayrich243
Newbie
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2015
- Messages
- 3
- Reaction score
- 3
It all starts with a little back story. 21 years ago my father bought the first and only new truck he has ever purchased, a brand new Chevy k1500 Silverado extended cab short bed. Working in the oilfield and being gone for months at a time, it collected many years sitting in the driveway or front yard. Over the years when extra money presented itself he added a match TBI intake and cam from Edelbrock as well as headers and a few other minor performance modifications. This is the way it had stayed until just this past year. My parents bought me a truck but with no 4x4 and my outdoor lifestyle it didn't take very long before I was looking for a 4x4 truck. And here is where the build starts. After looking at numerous older square body trucks my parents gave me the truck. In its poor dilapidated state it was not worth much, but we had known everything that had ever been an issue with it, which was practically nothing. It did however need alot of just general fixing up. The paint had faded away, there was rust on everything, and it just was begging for help.
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After 3 years of working hard and selling anything I could get my hands on I had finally gained enough money to start the build. It first started by removing the bed to replace a bad sending unit and to paint the frame.
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This is where everything started to become real for me, and where the addiction started and the Chevysaurus was born. Soon after the frame was painted and back on it was put up in the air where the rest of the frame was painted and the engine and transmission was pulled.
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The transmission was in need of a new main bearing, and the engine was getting new Vortec heads that I had taken off a 99 1 ton I bought from a buddy for parts. The heads were sent to the machine shop to get freshened up while the motor was cleaned, regasketed, and painted. My Uncle, a former mechanic helped me with the transmission bearing replacement and much of the engine work. The heads were ported and polished and replaced. I went in the engine bay and cleaned everything, painted the frame rails, and installed new motor mounts. After everything was clean and ready to go everything was reinstalled.
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After a little tinkering the old TBI setup was gone and a Edelbrock 600 carb was fitted. Then she was fired off I was happy beyond belief. The power was a night and day difference from what it was. After several weeks of driving and admiring my work she went off to paint. Fact-o-bake did a great job and she came out beautiful!
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After paint she had a new windshield installed. The one that was in it was factory and had been cracked so bad, for so long it had started to de-laminate. After a few more weeks of driving I ordered a lift kit, rebuilt the 14 bolt full float axle from my parts truck, and ordered all of the bushings, balljoints, and tie rods to make the entire suspension new, as many of the factory bushings were deteriorating or were completely gone. This was a much bigger job than was expected. Going to school 3 hours away from home didn't matter more than the build. For 4 weeks I drove down every weekend to get my play toy finished. And of course as luck would have it, it poured raining for 3 of the 4 weekends, but work went on as best as I could make it.
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. On the fourth weekend my entire family gathered together to help me finish her off.
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It was wonderful having my entire family help make my dream truck something that actually worked like a truck again. While lifting the rear, the stock 10 bolt differential was swapped for the 14 bolt full floater out of the parts truck and everything was put together. A set of conversion spacers converted the front 6 lug to 8 lug so I dont have to carry 2 spares. And after a quick alignment, and a new front plate to go with the new look, and she was rolling again.
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Words can not describe the feeling of driving it for the first time. Three long years of working, broken tools, broken bones, alot of blood, time, and ALOT of money I finally had a truck that was capable of doing anything I could make it do. Just a few things left to do on the exterior before the interior gets the same revamp treatment that the rest got. More will come as soon as I build up some more funding.
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