Swan 2000 K3500 Build Thread

[Swans.2000.3500]

Hey guys I live in Western New York and It is one of the worst places in the US for rust (average 250 inches of snow, get heavily salted from November to March, and I have to deal with acid rain from the Detroit factories) Anyways I bought the truck, a 2000 K3500 5.7L, in November of 2010 for $1500 (a steal for a 1 ton with a 14b ff) and this is what she looked like...

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You guys would agree it was rough!! I restored it back up over the winter with a new radiator, fan clutch, battery, ball joints, bumper and fluids! I also threw in bazooka tube to help with the sound. Then I started driving it in the spring.





I got some new tires: Goodyear Duratrac 285/75/16

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Heres some pics of the DeeZee bed rails and black toolbox

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Scrap Metal:

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Black Bowtie and Off road lights in grille

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Next were some tailights: (yes, thats (65) 2x4x16's and (9) 2x6x16's)

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Thats (65) 2x4x16's and (9) 2x6x16's

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After a year of driving one of the spider-gear bolts snapped in two and blew up the rear-end. Luckily I worked all summer and had some money saved up to fix it... All-in-all $1500 later I had a rebuilt 14bolt full-floating rearend with Yukon 4.10 gears and an Eaton Posi differential. So I figured I'd test out the new posi

So I burnt off my old tires:

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Then It came time to put in a new sound system. The stock speakers sucked and the bazooka tube wasn't doing justice for my teenage ways It was time to upgrade!
I built my own custom box for 2 12's

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It was a little tricky with it only being a regular cab but I took a lot of measurments

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Finished product: 2 audiobahn 12's

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And the 1700rms amp= 3400 WATTS MAX!

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Needless to say it bumped! Especially with 2 12's in a regular cab with quite a bit of power.





I soon got sick of the yellowing headlights and replaced them with some new ones:

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On the 4th of July lol I rigged up a pretty legit flag pole to mount into my receiver hitch

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I took a little break on mods to save up but that didn't last too long. I bought some 4' whips and dug an old CB radio out of my grandpas garage. I mounted it below the dash and ran power to it through the cigarette lighter. Usually I don't like things like this but it makes it easy to take out if I need the space when we cram me and 3 or 4 of my buddies in the cab

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Surprisingly enough the my subs were too loud. By this I mean that they were drowning out the mids and highs so all you heard was bass. (That grew old quick) I then invested in two 1" dome tweeters by Polk as well as two Polk coaxial speakers and an amp to drive them. (mounted under driver seat) The final result was a pretty good quality system.

My custom built speaker boxes:

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Some of the wiring that was done:

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In the end:

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Tweeter mounted on dash

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Lastly, I mounted up some off-road/ reverse lights under the bumper. I put them on a rocker switch which makes it handy when backing out of driveways at night, when off roading, or the occasional flick of the switch to tell the jerk behind you to stop tailgating

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I'm sure I've missed something, but that is it as of now. I'm now going to college and don't have my truck at school with me but am still looking up parts and upgrades on my down time. My next to do is a complete exhaust overhaul. Right now I have cracked manifolds , a huge exhaust leak, a section of pipe zip-screwed together, all ran into one restrictive muffler and dumped right behind the cab! The drone, cab noise, exhaust fumes, and ticking sounds are horrible! Can't wait til schools out to redo everything.

 

[Darkrider]

Great start on rehabbing an old workhorse!

Sent from a 6.5 Detroit Diesel powered smartphone

 

[Vortec Lover]

NICE TRUCK!! Eats tires like a boss, haha

I really like what you've done with it so far, keep it up! I need to mount some rear-facing offroad lights like that- for tailgator's and those idiots who have their brights on at night when they're only a car length behind you

 

[dowsewashere]

Love the truck

 

[ChrisAU]

Good start! Considered removing the rest of the pinstriping?

 

[Swans.2000.3500]

Good start! Considered removing the rest of the pinstriping?

Yeah I plan on fixing the rockers and cab corners as well as some other body work, so once I'm done with that it'll get sanded and sprayed!

 

[Swans.2000.3500]

NICE TRUCK!! Eats tires like a boss, haha

I really like what you've done with it so far, keep it up! I need to mount some rear-facing offroad lights like that- for tailgator's and those idiots who have their brights on at night when they're only a car length behind you

You gotta love it when it's a little car doing that too haha Those lights have come in handy many of times!

 

[Half Assed]

how did you mount those lights behind the grille?

 

[Vortec Lover]

how did you mount those lights behind the grille?

i was kind of wondering that too- more pics? what size lamps are they?

 

[Swans.2000.3500]

how did you mount those lights behind the grille?

The lights had mounting retainers on them that only require only one hole to mount to, so i pulled the grille off and drilled a hole through the top of the grille and bolted them up. It has a clean look from the outside and when you pop the hood you only see two nuts, a nice clean look IMO