Shoot every once in a while I have spurs where I want to come on here and update my thread.
Jetta update:
I have had the engine swap between the two done for a while, and even with my driving I am able to maintain 32/33mpg out of it which is amazing for my standards. There for a bit (Sep/October) I was daily driving it to work and it has actually been decent. I had a hiccup where the drivers side cv axle bolts would back out and that left it on the side of the road twice. I lent it out to friends (which was dumb, after that time never again do I want anyone driving my stuff) and had to tow it home. I fixed it, and took it on a trip down to Kalispell and on the way home it did the same thing, leaving me stranded and I had to wait for a coworker to bring me a floor jack so I could doctor it just to get home, and it's been sitting since although I drive it to the shop and house back and forth a lot.
I bought all new bolts to hopefully fix it permanently, but I haven't needed the car or had motivation to mess with it so it's sat since thanksgiving week.
Still on the fence if I should finish swapping body panels and keeping it, or selling it as I no longer drive it although the 30+mpg was amazing. If I still had the white truck honestly I probably would be driving the Jetta a lot more, but my new purchase pushed that away.
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Silverado truck update:
This is something that I actually didn't expect to happen, and due to the result it's cost me a **** ton of money.
My coworker (who keep in mind is 62) had actually wanted my 07 for a while as it was a longbed, 3/4 ton, newer, more power, set up to tow, etc over his 99 Silverado ECSB 5.3/4l60 truck (which he still has but never drives it anymore). Back in September he asked me what I wanted for it and I think at the time I said $5500 because of the new tires and I didn't think he was really serious.
Well sometime between Sep/Oct I decide to drive the truck to work on a Friday since I was dailying the jetta at this time, and I absolutely cream a deer at 70mph this morning. It pushed the bumper back a tiny bit and crunched the drivers fender up a good amount. I still go into town and to the gas station before work, and my coworker (Dan) who wanted the truck was the first person I saw that morning as he actually took the day off to go to Kalispell for doctor appointments or something and I felt bad because his potential future truck I just smashed a deer with.
It didn't phase him and he didn't care about the fender at all, however due to me feeling bad over the thing I told him I'd take $4500 for it.
So over the next three weeks I was constantly searching all around the area for a truck, and my criteria was that it had to be a crew cab and no more extended cab. I carry people around enough that the ex cab was nice for when you needed to in a pinch, but I wanted something more comfortable for everyone. My next criteria was that it had to be an upgrade in some form from the 07 I currently had, so that meant no vortec 6.0s unless I was able to find a gmt900 truck that I liked enough. Next was that if it was a GMT800, it had to be either a 03+ 8.1 truck or a 04.5-07 duramax (I didn't want an LB7). Turns out it's just flat out hard to find 03+ 8.1 trucks, and I could not find one in a close enough radius that was a crew cab, although I was able to find a few 01/02 8.1 trucks. As far as beds go, I preferred a short bed but I was not opposed to another long bed.
I had my eye on a 05 CCLB 2500hd LLY dmax truck with 250k for 12K from a dealer in Idaho and this was actually the top of my list, however I inquired about it multiple times with no response from the dealer, so I decided not to pursue it although I was trying to the entire time during my search. Granted it was clean, and it was white (kinda didn't want another white truck though), but it was also a base model with hand crank windows on all four doors but I was going to be okay with it due to how clean and unmolested the truck looked.
I did more hunting, and actually had a few different trucks lined up, all were LLY/LBZ trucks except for one that was a 2014 CCSB 1500 that had the 6.5" bed which I was highly considering but didn't make it that far.
So on October 26, I came across this blue ming metallic, CCSB 05 LLY duramax truck with 289k on the clock. LT trim, leather interior, all the options minus the sunroof and the truck looked really clean outside of some paint peel and a "whiskey dent" as the seller called it on the drivers door that looks like it was from a small tree that fell on it.
They were a auto dealer, but mainly was a junkyard in Missoula, MT that had a dealers license. I went to look at the truck on the next day (Oct 27) and took a "sick" day from work to do so and I actually got bitched at over it by management over my whole "instant gratification" and "I want it now otherwise I'll change my mind in 3 seconds" (ironically now I have a management position, assistant project manager) but it didn't stop me. I actually came into work for a second to grab the $4500 check from my coworker for the 07 that morning too.
Took the Jetta down with a friend, truck checked out everything seemed really good, all the interior electrics worked, the only thing I was not enjoying was the fact the drivers door made wind noise from that dent and the back door speakers weren't working. But I bought it anyway for $9,000 so at least selling the 07 paid for half of it up front.
I was told when I bought it, it was a trade in at the local ford dealer not running so the junkyard bought it and ditched the stupid cat filter that was on it and changed things like the ficm to get it to run and it seemed solid from there.
Truck already had newer aftermarket 17" raceline wheels, 4" straight pipe, egr delete, boost auto parts mirrors, and crappy HID headlights which absolutely sucked on the trip home, but I enjoyed every second of that exhaust.
Then the problems start. I had only put 1200 miles or so on it and then the dreaded "low coolant" message. Was hoping it was a fluke but did add 1qt to it and over time it would go through that in a period of 200 miles. Prior to this whole ordeal I did tow with it and it did great and never skipped a beat. Talked to a good friend Joe who has a LLY and has had to do a lot to his and then I had a fairly good suspicion of the head gaskets.
Well that's what it was. The radiator was also leaking coolant and I was hopeful it was just this causing my issues but I am 100% positive now that it was the extra pressure in the coolant system that caused the radiator to leak.
I spent a week doing the head gaskets on this truck including getting the cylinder heads milled down when the jetta left me stranded so that was when I was upset with it. My goal was to drive it to Oregon on Thanksgiving day but that was stopped when I lost the fuel filter housing bleeder screw and could not find it at 1am thanksgiving day so I ended up not going on my trip and got my truck running later on thanksgiving day.
On another note, I do get to see my former trucks at work on a daily basis.
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I've fixed a lot of other stupid stuff with the truck and now it's at a point where it's starting to be ironed out, a bad wheel bearing ate my other set of tires really fast so I actually have some new 265/70/17 Kelly Safari TSR tires in the shop I will get mounted to the raceline wheels this week at some point.
My big recent ooof with the truck was on my way home from a friends house on Christmas Eve I was being dumb on ice and slammed into a tree on the way home and crunched the truck bed on the drivers side really bad. So I'm lowkey on the hunt for a bed this color or buying a new flatbed for it (running usually $3000-3500 installed for what I want). I'm over the dent now but I wasn't happy about it for a while. But for the two months I had it I actually was extremely careful about how I loaded the bed trying my best not to dent or scratch it. Now that doesn't matter anymore lol
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So there's the story on the duramax, of course that's just a quick summary. I daily it to work with no issues and I do love the truck so much so that I paid the $320 for permanent registration tags. I think I may just always keep this one around and in the future buy something new as a "nice" vehicle although really I should have just used the same 9k I spent on this truck up front all on a down for something off the lot new.
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Another post following with other side projects and another vehicle purchase in addition to this duramax I should have probably not made (as the duramax wasn't enough of a money punishment as is)
