Skee's 97 K1500 Stepside build thread

[AirmanSkee]

I've owned this truck since March 2012 I was stationed with the Air Force in Anchorage, Alaska. I bought it off an older gentleman who couldn't get in and out of it anymore. It was his pride and joy, his "weekend warrior" as he called it. He had a newer Silverado as his daily, and played in this one. He owned it new from the lot and did all the work his self at his shop. I showed up and there was no truck to be seen, and he tossed me a shovel and pointed to the snow pile at the end of the driveway. It took me about 2 hrs to dig it out and then it wouldnt start. I fell in love with the truck as soon as I saw it and wanted it no matter what. He said he would tow it off to the shop and get it running and call me back. I told him if he got it running I had the cash. Turns out even though he pulled the battery it froze in his garage. I asked him how much he wanted for it, and just smiled. He said "How much you got, young'n?" And of course you dont want to say to much, so I kinda hesitated. He said "Give me 3500 and its yours. You pay the title fees." Alot less than I expected, especially if it ran.

But now lets cut to the chase. Its a 1997 Chevy K1500 with the 5.7 Vortec. It is sitting on a 6" ProComp suspension lift with 35" BFGs. Nothing major done performance wise, but I will work through that as I go. I have alot of plans for this truck, and for now I am deployed to the Middle East and decided to start this thread. It might take me a little bit to get caught up, but bear with me. I don't have all of the pics and am sure I will miss some, but I will update when I get home. Im posting in chunks due to the limit on the posts.


So lets go.

This was the picture he had posted on CraigsList.

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After I got there and dug it out, this is what I found.

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After he towed it off he called and said all they had to do was put in a new battery. I showed up an hour later and fired it up. Drove it away that night.

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I took alot of poser shots with it. I loved the truck to start off.

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Cleaned up:

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[AirmanSkee]

The first means of business was to clean it up some. I tried to scrape off the rust and bad paint from the brushguard up front and then decided to actually just repaint it.

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Prepping for paint:

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Drying after a single coat:

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While that was drying, and since I had bought 4 cans and only used one, I decided to go ahead and clean up the lift and suspension. One of the best decisions Ive made.

Before:

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After:

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The truck also came with a rattle can of Victory Red so I used it on the skid plate.

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After one coat:

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After all the paint:

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[AirmanSkee]

I left the brushguard off cause I was undecided if I wanted to put it on. That weekend I took it to the auto hobby shop and replaced all four ball joints. They were still stock ball joints, and he had been running 35s on this truck since 98. Needless they were a PITA to get off. Had to completely remove the UCA and drill and air hammer the uppers out, and just a BIG ASS HAMMER to get the lowers.

While it was off, and since it was July 4th weekend, I had some extra time on my hands. I decided to spice up the front a little bit. Which spawned this idea.

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The shopping list: LEDs (your color choice... I went with blue cuz Im doing a patriotic theme...), Some epoxy or glue, two 3/8 bolts with nut and about 10-14 washers, some brushes of your choice, paint, clear coat (recommended to weatherproof the paint) and reflective material. I bought both Chrome body trim tape, and a replacement mirror to trial and error. But in the end, its all up to you.

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Then I took it inside and took some high grit sand paper and smoothed it out, and gave it a nice surface for the paint to grip to. Also, take a box knife or simply a pair of vice grips and break off the plastic posts that originally held the bowie in place. Chances are you screwed up them when you took it out anyway, and if you wanna space it out from the grill for LEDS you need a longer bolt.

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Using little bottles of Outdoor acryllic, I just used a sponge brush and painted the whole bowtie white. Its easier to paint blue and red over white than to cover up a dark color with white. Simple 3rd grade art class. While that dried, I sketched up the design I wanted, and cut out a stencil. The acryllic allowed me to use a soft lead pencil to sketch it right onto the bowtie.

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Then, its all up to you to do what you want for the painting. I painted the stripes red, then the blue. I bought cheap scrapbooking stickers and placed the stars, then painted the bowtie half solid blue. After it dried I pulled off the stickers for a clean look and perfect stars.

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After that dries, its time for setup of remounting and the LEDs. First, take the Chrome tape, and cut it to stick inside the back of the bowtie. This will allow as much light from the LEDS to shine out and behind the bowtie. Then, in the same spot as the plastic posts you removed, use the epoxy (recommended for a strong weatherproof hold. Better than glue) glue the 3/8 or close to that size bolt into place.

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Then, after that sets and is nice and dry, its time for the LEDs, I recommend cuttable tape LEDs due to the flexibility and the fact you can cut to fit. I ruined an expensive set that wasnt cuttable. So get on EBAY and buy a few strands of LEDs for like .79 cents a piece. Use the epoxy or 3m tape supplied to glue them to the back of the bowtie, with the wires toward the inside or out of the way. You will see why when you mount it.

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Now, when remounting the bowtie, you will need to either drill a hole behind the center of the bowtie in the grill to run the wires, or a groove in one of the existing holes so you can put the wires through the grill. I recommend drilling a small hole. Now, taking the chrome tape or mirror, cut it to fit the bowtie shape in your grill, with the holes to match up to the bolts and holes in the grill. This will reflect the light back out. So its basically reflecting the light from the LEDs and from the chrome tape on the back of the bowtie. Glue or 3m tape that to the grill. Im sorry, but I didnt take any pictures of this part of the process.

Now, put 5-7 washers on the bolts, depending on how thick the LEDs are you put on, and then slide the wires and bolts through, tightening the nuts on the inside of the grill. Then you can run the wires to a switch or splice into a parking light, whatever your preference.

Here is it mounted.

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With the brushguard back on.

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and then at night.

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Its not bright enough to be a nuisance, but the pictures do glare from my headlights. You can see it alot better in person.

With the extra paint I decided to accent the lift as well.

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[AirmanSkee]

I came across these on CL for 100$ and got them. Then decided I found out they werent wide enough for my tires and resold them for 350.

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This was the moment I had been waiting for. The SSgt I work with let me take the shell off the back and store it at his house. Thats when I found the best part of the whole truck... The flaming skull sticker on the back glass.

Take your top off!

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[AirmanSkee]

At this time I decided to upgrade the sound system. I had already swapped out the still stock head unit and slave CD player with a cheap little Digital Reciever, and some Pioneer speakers all around that someone in my shop had laying around.

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It wasnt enough, so I the same SSgt sold me some Memphis 10s he had in his basement. We were going to build a box for behind the seat, but then decided to just replace my center console with the box, until I could get the right dimensions and air space for the speakers.

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This was also an amazing time to clean it out. It had a $#&% ton of dog hair and dirt older than me in it.

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The box fit PERFECTLY between the two buckets, and powered by a BOSS 1500w amp, it kicked hard.

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[AirmanSkee]

A few more shots of it cleaned up:

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Then I ordered some LEDs for the dash, and swapped them out.

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Then I decided to do something about the shimmy I got when hitting the brakes. The jack stands we had were too small for the truck, so we did it the only way an Ohio boy knows how to.

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And then had some fun pulling stumps:

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Then just a few poser shots by the Knik River on the way home.

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Some more poser shots after cleaning it up on base:

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Then I wanted to do something with the back glass, and since my previous Firebird (hit by a semi and rolled) was a POW*MIA tribute show car, I decided to go that way again. I started drafting up some shots.

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Just a few more shots of the billet interior:

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About this time it started getting cold again in Alaska, and when my hand froze to the billet handle, I decided to sell it. Stripped down the dash and got a stock wrapped shifter.

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Trying to see how much flex I get with the ladder bars and sheisty IFS.

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[AirmanSkee]

At this point I came across an "Under-the-seat" sub box for a NBS Crew Cab... Couldnt pass it up for 50$ with two JVC 10s in it.

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Amp under the passenger seat:

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Picked up some red 15" LED tapes, and put em under my dash.

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And some blue 194s in the footwell lights (in these pics they are on together... they are now wired up where the reds turn off when the door opens and the blues turn on)

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And one of my reds blew in my gauges, so I replaced it with a blue.

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I decided to look for some different wheels, since the AR Gamblers on my truck arent made anymore and I couldnt find a spare. So I put mine up for sale. Sold em to a sick 2 door 'Hoe and the loaned me his wheels til I could get my new set.

My wheels on the 'Hoe

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Loaners on mine

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I couldnt find a set I liked, and winter was coming and the loaner tires were bald as hell, so I settled for a set off a Toyota.

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[AirmanSkee]

I decided to follow through on the back glass POW*MIA, and custom designed one on my computer and put in an order at Buildasign.com.

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Traded the billet dash pieces for some matching diamond plate side bedrails to match the diamond plate on the steps, bumper, mudflaps, and tailgate. They were for a long bed but I just cut and notched them to fit. (With some more poser shots at the river)

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I had went to the junkyard to look for an open oval GMC grill to swap out and found a loaded suburban back in the corner of the yard. Didnt get the grill, but pulled the OH console for 5$.
Mocked up:

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I also have had the plan to go with a black interior with red accents, so I replaced the center console and took the top off. Its just velcro'd on so I popped out the cupholders, cleaned out all the gunk, and sprayed some more black and Victory Red.

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At this point, it the roads froze and some ******** in a Lexus slid into my front drivers side, causing me to remove the brushguard and have some minor repairs. The Lexus was totaled. Tells ya the integrity of these OBS beasts!

After the repairs and cleaned up:

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DECAL CAME IN!!!!

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[AirmanSkee]

Then the upgrading had to stop for a bit, as I flew home to surprise my (now) fiance before I deployed.

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A weekend opened up and I decided to finally get to the OH console.

Since my truck is a Reg cab I didnt have the wires or holes in the roof for the tabs to mount it. So I just broke them off and drilled a few holes and used some Machine screws to hold it up.

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(Looks crappy but you dont even see that part. So it doesnt bother me.)

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Then (since I didnt pay attention and notice the plastic and fabric wrapped part can be seperated) I taped off the plastic and painted the blue fabric with black fabric paint.

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While that was drying I decided to fix my gauges (since one of my red LEDs quit working I put in one of my blues.) Now it is all red again.

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I also pulled my door panel and was going to try out the fabric paint on the panels. The red paint didnt work too well so I resprayed it black so it wouldnt look so bad. This isnt what my original plan was but its going to change. Then I painted the control panel and handle bezel with plastic spray paint. I plan on rewrapping the fabric with some red fleece, and painting the gray black and the bezel black.

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Now I found out I could separate the plastic so I did so and gave it a few coats of the red. I pulled all the little components (buttons, light sockets. etc) and painted them black.

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Then I remounted it back into the truck. Wiring the hot to the dome light and grounding it with one of the mounting screws.

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Now as for the blank AC slot, I need to get my hands on one of the blanks like you guys have in yours. Or I will make my own. But I have this red LED bowtie background that I might put there, if I can get my hands on another bowtie to put ontop of it.

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[94Sierra4x4]

Looking good buddy! Congrats on the engagement!
PS, I actually really liked the look of the blue/red LED cluster. Pretty neat looking.