Thread: Tree Crushed 2500HD Silverado Crew Repair

As has been said, great work, and it's all labor intensive and matriculas work takes time.

Originally Posted by Grumpa

Rojo's Chevrolet Assembly Plant!! Built better than the factory!! After all of this work I would be afraid to drive it out of the shop. It's going to look better than new!

The winter before the tornado hit I replaced everything under the hood except the Short Block. Pulled the heads worked them, replaced the lifters (big problem with the early 6.0 engines), the transmission lines, engine mounts, entire HVAC, radiator, power steering pump and lines including the Hydro-Boost, injectors, all sensors & switches, master cylinder, throttle body, accelerator cable, etc, everything. $5K in all OEM GM parts. When at a stop light, in gear, with your foot on the brake, you could not feel the engine running it was so smooth. I had already replaced the timing chain and gears as well as the oil pump so I did not replace them again.

Originally Posted by Rojo

The winter before the tornado hit I replaced everything under the hood except the Short Block. Pulled the heads worked them, replaced the lifters (big problem with the early 6.0 engines), the transmission lines, engine mounts, entire HVAC, radiator, power steering pump and lines including the Hydro-Boost, injectors, all sensors & switches, master cylinder, throttle body, accelerator cable, etc, everything. $5K in all OEM GM parts. When at a stop light, in gear, with your foot on the brake, you could not feel the engine running it was so smooth. I had already replaced the timing chain and gears as well as the oil pump so I did not replace them again.

$5K in all OEM GM parts. Wow, would never do that in one of the newer cars/trucks. That older stuff is just so much better that it makes sense to put that kinda money into it to keep it around.

I bought this truck new in 2001. First production run of 2500HD's. I've taken good care of it since new. No AFM or DFM, no variable valve timing, no fancy transmission, just a 6.0 Gas - 4L80E Tranny - 4:11 AAM 10.5 Axle, it's a tank. It costs less than $30 for a tag and next year it will be 25 years old so I only have to buy a Antique tag and that's good forever. Insurance is cheap too.
Falling trees are a problem though.

Originally Posted by Rojo

I bought this truck new in 2001. First production run of 2500HD's. I've taken good care of it since new. No AFM or DFM, no variable valve timing, no fancy transmission, just a 6.0 Gas - 4L80E Tranny - 4:11 AAM 10.5 Axle, it's a tank. It costs less than $30 for a tag and next year it will be 25 years old so I only have to buy a Antique tag and that's good forever. Insurance is cheap too.
Falling trees are a problem though.

Yep, falling trees are always a problem. Take care of the good stuff and the good stuff will pay off over the long haul. Problem is, ain't no good new stuff! It's all old good stuff. My stupid XJ jeeps ran old technology through 2001. Good stuff. I got four of them, all different, and I should really get rid of at least one, but heck, it's good old stuff. I just want to hang on to them till I have to sell them. Problem is, takes up space.

Got right on the job first thing this morning. Lots of cutting and fitting.



First thing was to fireproof everything and protect the interior from getting all funky.



I cut a 1in strip off the top and bottom outside shell for access to the superstructure.










So it took quite a bit of time cutting and fitting to get as close to a perfect fit as I could. I overlapped the bottom inside seam for strength since it is totally covered up by plastic. The metal is so thin I would make a stitch then watch the puddle cool just to the right color allowing it to burn off the contaminants in front of my next stitch, walking the weld all the way across. Slow to say the least but I don't see any crystalline metal so that's important. If I burn the metal up it's really useless.








I used the previous spot weld to help position the next piece in the C pillar carefully trimming till I had a good fit before welding. If you go up 2 pictures I'm using a sharpie to give me registration on how much I'm trimming each time I trim. I got it close enough for government work.






Studying the task in front of me I realized I needed to skim the welds in the door jam before applying Weld Thru Primer and welding in the outer skin. I wouldn't be able to properly prepare the door jam if the outer skin was in place so being 5pm I decided to apply the Weld Thru Primer and open a bottle of Blueberry Wine.



I also prepped the outer skin for welding so after a night's rest I can carefully stitch the skin on in the morning.

Originally Posted by Slab

Yep, falling trees are always a problem. Take care of the good stuff and the good stuff will pay off over the long haul. Problem is, ain't no good new stuff! It's all old good stuff. My stupid XJ jeeps ran old technology through 2001. Good stuff. I got four of them, all different, and I should really get rid of at least one, but heck, it's good old stuff. I just want to hang on to them till I have to sell them. Problem is, takes up space.

We decided to buy a new Ford 3/4 ton but I wanted to sleep on it. The Ford dealer in Meridian tried to pull a fast one on us telling me the truck I was going to buy was sold the day before. Well when I got up I decided I didn't want to pay $50K for a 3/4 ton work truck with black interior. This truck I'm fixing has a lot of nicer truck features. It was special ordered by someone who couldn't get financing when it came in and the Chevrolet dealer didn't know what they had so they dumped it out to me. Nothing made today is reliable, all junk.