Skeletal's Build Thread

[Skeletal]

Did some more work to the truck and got a lot of things done. Replaced the intake gasket since it was starting to leak and replaced the heater quick disconnect since that blew. Painted a few things, painted my front fender wells/calipers, and blacked out my 3rd brake light & the orange light covers on the visor, put new interior lights in, went with purple on the floor since I already swapped the cluster with purple LED's a while ago (purple is one of my favorite colors) & put white LED's in the door and map lights since the purple ones didn't fit. Probably going to swap the LED's with red eventually so it matches.

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[Skeletal]

I also tinted the front windows with 20% and compounded/polished&waxed the paint with a new polisher I got, the truck is super smooth/shiny now.

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[Skeletal]

I got a set of 255/55 R18 tires last weekend for the NNBS rims I have, had the tires mounted and balanced today. I got one of those Jet speedometer programmers that should be here early next week as well. I also did some more with the interior lights, put a white LED in the dome light, widened the hole on the door lights so I could fit the purple LED's in there, and finished putting purple LED's in the cluster / A/C controls. Every light that wasn't orange/red in the cluster is now purple. I'll put up pictures tomorrow, the ones of the cluster didn't come out that great, my phone didn't really want to focus on it very well.

 

[Skeletal]

Haven't gotten a nice daytime shot of the truck since I've been busy. I'll try to get one this week, here's the cluster & A/C though.

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[Skeletal]

Got a shot of the truck today on the way back from the junk yard, was looking for a cowl hood and a new steering wheel, didn't find either. I did find another Chevy emblem though, going to sand it down and paint it gloss black.

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[Suburban1500]

The LED's look amazing.

 

[Skeletal]

The LED's look amazing.

Thank you

 

[Skeletal]

Did a few more things to the truck, did an oil change, swapped the plugs, hacked in a AUX cord to the stock stereo and got new shocks. The truck was running rougher recently, I narrowed it down to the plugs, pulled the plugs and they look alright so I threw em back in temporarily. The truck had Bosch double iridium plugs in it, I got a set of the basic ACDelco plugs. After the oil change and plug swap the truck runs a lot better now, for oil I used Pennzoil 5W-30 conventional and an ACDelco filter.

For shocks I got a set of ACDelco 530-20 for a 67 Impala, the truck rides almost like a Cadillac and for 55$ it's a pretty good deal.

With the AUX I spliced it into the wiring for the CD player, it works pretty well. Currently have an AUX cord running out from under my dash till I get a soldering iron and an AUX jack to do a nice mounted jack.

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[Skeletal]

I picked up all 4 pieces of the OEM fender trim a few months ago and put it on the truck today to see how it looks, I like it. The fender trim has water spots that don't come off easily, going to have to sand/polish them out (did a little bit of that before I took the pic) and I think I'm going to put them on the truck once I put the black trim strip on the bed.

A̶l̶s̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶L̶u̶n̶d̶ ̶v̶i̶s̶o̶r̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶t̶r̶u̶c̶k̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶f̶f̶ ̶s̶o̶o̶n̶ ̶(̶h̶o̶p̶e̶f̶u̶l̶l̶y̶)̶,̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶n̶t̶s̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶l̶m̶k.

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[Skeletal]

More work was done to the truck over this past weekend. Last week I was driving the truck and the rear end was shaking when going over 55~ which I never noticed before. A few days later while going somewhere I had to go down some bumpy roads and the front end was clunking over the bumps so I pulled off and looked under the truck. At a glance everything looked fine so I took it easy the rest of the week till the weekend since the truck wasn't a happy camper.

In the rear I thought it was the shocks so I swapped the old ones back it, it still shook. I didn't swap the rims since I knew they were fine, checked all the bolts for the front hangers, rear shackles, and the lug nuts, they were all nice n' tight so I said f*ck it and put it all back to stock.

In the front all 4 ball joints are toast, the boots are either ripped or separated from the ball joint. I also put the stock keys back in to level out the truck. I ordered new upper control arms and new lower ball joints, got the lower ball joints today and the upper control arms will be here Friday so I'll put them in this weekend. I ordered the new upper control arms since I didn't want to go threw the process of removing the upper ball joints.

The rear doesn't shake anymore, don't entirely know why it was in the first place but the truck is driveable now, trying to avoid driving it until I fix the front though. If you have any idea why the rear was shaking lmk.

Lowering a Z71 wasn't my smartest idea but I had to try it anyway, had fun with it and learned more about suspension so it was worth it.

I don't really know what direction I'm going to take the truck in now. I'm torn between keeping it level and adding some stock 16's on 285/75' all terrain or hybrid tires, leveled with a set of 33' hybrids on 18's / 20's, or getting a 4/6 suspension lift on 35' muds or hybrids without a lot of poke, I really hate excessive poke. I don't have the cash for a new set of wheels and tires atm so I have plenty of time to think, any input is welcomed.

Here's a pic of the truck from Saturday when I put it all back together, the front was an inch high. I spent the time on Sunday to level it out.

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