6 Attachment(s)
Tree Crushed 2500HD Silverado Crew Repair
Attachment 487014
We all know how we got here, this thread is about the repair. Getting this thread up now will make adding the updates later easier for me.
Attachment 487015
I'm a Port-A-Power short and the Camper is still around (new Dometic AC Blew all refrigerant out of the Condenser, at warranty service center. Dometic is replacing no charge and covering labor) so I have to wait till I get the camper back on The Rez to start taking this truck apart. Notice the body lines between Cab and Bed do not line up, I think it is the cab mount crushed or bent, no worries. Harbor Freight has their best Port-A-Power on sale to Inside Track Members this month. Needless to say next rainy day I will be loading one in the trunk of the Mercedes. This will be a continuous 2 Port-A-Power job to walk the cab back to where all doors close and are in proper alignment. That means all the gaps are perfect. This must be done perfectly the first time or I will be doing a Bubba job and have to fight the restoration the rest of the way.
Attachment 487016
Parts are starting to show up. I have to strip this door first (after using to align cab) then do a color change before re-assembling with my interior parts. Also will need to transfer the outer trim. Buying a used door gives me all the little parts as well as a glass. I got the whole door cheaper than the glass.
Attachment 487017Attachment 487018Attachment 487019
GM wants $720 just for the skin in the middle between the doors. I needed all the pillars too plus the inside roof reinforcement the skin sits on. Inside & out parts are needed on this job. Easiest way for me to fix is cut the roof off and weld this one on. I will update this thread when I start the disassembly.
On a different note this truck came with 4.10 rear axle gears. Pulling my camper 60mph the engine stays right below the cruising power-band of the engine. It lugs at 2000rpm. I have the Recycler looking for another AAM 10.5 Limited Slip rear end complete. I plugged in the numbers on several online calculators and if I drop down to 4.56 gears the engine will be turning 2200rpm @ 60mph which would be perfect. When I start the rear end it will be posted on this thread too since I will be doing the exchange while the truck bed is off. They are much easier to remove and install when hanging off the forks of my Bobcat.
15 Attachment(s)
Finally Started on the 2500HD Repair
Today was a very good day. I have been productive everyday but the majority of the work was to get to this point. I have taken meticulous care of this truck since buying it new in 2001. I just took the engine down to the short block, replaced everything under the hood except the heads & Vortec engine cover. All GM OEM parts, everything was replaced, $5K in parts alone to have a tree fall on it a few months later.
Today I pulled the Cap. To start the first thing is pulling the Tailgate. A easy task, un-clip the support cables, open it about 1/2 way, and lift it off the hinges.
Attachment 496738
Now to remove the Back Glass on the Cap. It has a surrounding trim on the inside holding it in that has numerous screws that has to be removed but first to make sure no accidents happen I duct tape the glass in place.
Attachment 496739Attachment 496740Attachment 496741
Now the inside trim was removed.
Attachment 496742Attachment 496743
When I thought I had it loose because it would move in the middle I discovered after removing the duct tape the frame had 4 rivets holding it to the fiberglass. What a surprise. I had to drill out the 4 rivets while holding the glass open and in place.
Attachment 496744
After a little work I got the frame loose and laid the Back Glass on a old Quilt.
Attachment 496745
Now I had to space the forks up on the Bobcat so they would not catch the back lip before engaging all the weight of the Cap itself. I left a 4in gap at the rear of the forks for the lip to clear the forks completely.
Attachment 496746
6 1/4-20 Thru Bolts held the Cap in place on the Bed, I never trusted the Clamp system they sell with these Bed Caps.
Attachment 496747
Nice and easy I lift the Cap off the Bed with little effort.
Attachment 496748
You can see the damage to the roof now, also the rear passenger door is toast.
Attachment 496749Attachment 496750
This back view shows how the cap is pushed over to the left. It will be a challenge to get everything lined back up perfectly.
Attachment 496751Attachment 496752
Good thing I worked in body shops growing up and can do fiberglass work. The Cap is cracked all the way across, this will have to be fixed. I would buy a new truck but a decent truck has not been built since 2016 in my opinion. I would rather have my old Tank.
The gameplan is to fix & paint the Cap first. Then fix and paint the Bed. Once done I will put the truck bed on a trailer then the Cap on the Bed before pushing up under the covered parking I just completed for storage.
14 Attachment(s)
Finished the Gutting Today
I still have the door seals and other rubber products to remove but the rest is safe from the MIG gun.
Attachment 496927Attachment 496928Attachment 496929Attachment 496930Attachment 496940Attachment 496931Attachment 496932
Beginning with the doors on the other side I removed them and attacked the seats. By removing the back seat cushions first I was able to remove the rest of the seat too by myself. It was way to big for me to get out the door without damaging something if left intact. Moving to the plastic interior trim I popped some off cleanly, some not so cleanly - clips remained in the metal slots, some pieces got cracked and I will have to plastic weld from the backside. Then moving to the carpet, I vigorously vacuumed first getting up the rest of the glass then removed by folding it up and placing on the seats. I had to take a picture of how the wiring was run over the Jute before removing it too. The Air Bag sensor under the seat remains, that's it.
Attachment 496933Attachment 496934Attachment 496935
Not much room for clean storage of the seats so I pushed the boat up a bit, spread a old quilt on the floor, piled up the seats, covered them in another quilt, then topped with the carpet & Jute. I will be installing new carpet when the time comes.
Attachment 496936Attachment 496937Attachment 496938
The pile of plastic just got bigger as the day marched on. All obsolete now, some of the cracked pieces I would like to replace. Sourcing the parts for that will take time if even possible.
Attachment 496939
As a Sub-Section was delt with the fasteners and small parts for each was individually bagged & labeled. I called our local Chevrolet Dealer where I buy parts and turns out the Cab Body Parts are obsolete too. This is going to make the task to repair more of a challenge.
16 Attachment(s)
Cab Repairs Started Today
When you are planning to straighten bent up trucks you have to reverse the order things got bent up in. You can't just pull stuff straight. You stretch the body parts you have to shrink them back before it will be right. In this post I'm just going to load the pictures and you can see the progress. This is 3 hours of work. What can be done in 3 weeks? It takes patience and I only have to fix one right. The block of wood with the hole drilled in it is so it clears the seat studs before I rest the Port-a-Power on top.
Attachment 497009Attachment 497010Attachment 497011Attachment 497012Attachment 497013Attachment 497014Attachment 497015Attachment 497016Attachment 497017Attachment 497018Attachment 497019Attachment 497020Attachment 497021Attachment 497022Attachment 497023Attachment 497024
The passenger side C-Pillar really needs skinning out to fix right but the skin is one of the obsolete parts. Looks like I will be calling the Recyclers soon. I have stress areas I can't relieve because I can't get to it with the skins on. I have to round up what parts I can before I start cutting. I'm down to welding tabs on the outside and pulling with either a slide hammer or something more serious.
3 Attachment(s)
Houston We Have a Problem..........
What the Astronauts said still has the same meaning. Catastrophe is near. After studying the damage for a repair plan I realized all the inner rollover reinforcements in the Cab Corners needs replacing along with the inner door liner (where the door striker is mounted), outer skins, and Cab center panel between the two corners.
Attachment 498085Attachment 498086Attachment 498087
Enter a Rear Cab Section. I went and picked it up yesterday. I end up gaining a back glass (this one is nicer than mine) along with a lot of body parts I can't buy from Chevrolet anymore. More to come when I start skinning this section out.
It has some dings, good thing I will be able to hammer them out from the backside.
13 Attachment(s)
Finally Getting Back to Work on the 2500HD Silverado
I had the whole post done then lost it.
Anyway spent the day in the shop reorganizing everything that was out in the work space before starting back on the truck.
Attachment 503987
The parts have been piled up at the back of the truck for months.
Attachment 503988Attachment 503989Attachment 503990Attachment 503991
First a trip to Harbor Freight & Lowes for Casters, 2x4's, saw horses, scrapers, etc.
Attachment 503992Attachment 503993Attachment 503994Attachment 503995
Some screws & glue was used to put the Dolly frame together. I need this Dolly for moving the Roof Section in & out of the shop for painting. Another set of 2x4's will be installed for the Bobcat Forks to lock into to ease in transportation. The plan is to completely paint this Roof Section inside & out before beginning to install it. That way I only have to repair the paint where the welding took place.
Attachment 503996Attachment 503997
Some Buds stopped by after work to help flip the Roof Section onto the Dolly without damaging it. I have to pull the headliner and recover it as the other one was broken by the tree.
Attachment 503998Attachment 503999
We also setup the Back Cab section on the Saw Horses out of the way so I can skin it out for parts. I had this flimsy folding cart so we put the Doors on it. I need to fix it up a little but it moves the doors around easy enough for now.
12 Attachment(s)
I Need the Windshield GONE!
Tried to remove the windshield today without breaking it. That lasted less than 5 minutes.
Attachment 505563
Well I have everything removed necessary for removing the windshield and I will have to have the replacement installed here so in the morning I'm driving down to the Glass Shop to set up for them to come remove.
Attachment 505564
So there was a mess around my truck. Doors everywhere blocking where the windshield guys will need to work. I decided to build a dolly out of the scrap wood from the pallet the roof arrived on.
Attachment 505565
This is big enough to hold 5 doors plus the Tailgate.
Attachment 505566Attachment 505567
You can't hardly walk down the side in the first picture and in the second as soon as I went to pickup the first door both slid off the dolly onto my foot. Ouch!
Attachment 505568Attachment 505569Attachment 505570Attachment 505571
I keep old pillows just for stuff like this. Now I can roll the doors out of the way.
Attachment 505572
Look at the difference this made in working room.
Attachment 505573
While we are on the subject I pulled the Headliner out of the replacement roof. Mice had built a nest between the Headliner and the Roof making a mess. It didn't happen here must have happened at the junkyard.
Attachment 505574
I have the insides all cleaned up and ready to prep for painting. I am painting this roof bottom & top so I only have to touch up where the work was done. In no way am I looking for absolute perfection, I will have to keep telling myself that if this job is ever going to get completed.
15 Attachment(s)
Careful Measuring & Marking Before CUTTING!
Today was a long time coming. Numerous projects, tasks, honey do's, etc to get here.
I spend the better part of the morning making patterns and marking up the Truck Roof before removal. I think tomorrow it will be gone. Anyway lots of "Puckering" double checking the measurements against existing body marks to be as close as I can get on my final cuts so the replacement roof mates as perfect as possible.
Attachment 505823Attachment 505824
So the point of these two pattern is to provide as close a marking point as possible. I flipped the same patterns for the opposite side for mirror image markings. The B-Pillar is the Center Post, the body lines curve so a positive angle on the front edge and a negative angle on the back towards the rear door so I needed two perfect fitting patterns. One hiccup is the passenger rear opening will not allow the pattern to lay flat like the other openings so I kinda used "The Force" to guess-timate where to cut.
Attachment 505825Attachment 505826Attachment 505827
I marked the B-Pillar here as square as possible.
Attachment 505828
The truck B-Pillars are marked all the way around adding 1/4in using the Fine-Line tape to add what I think I need.
Attachment 505829Attachment 505830Attachment 505831
Now I have to nail this cut on each side. The B-Pillars can be trimmed so the roof is true to the rear door openings but I need this front to be absolutely perfect. Wee will see if that happens. This cut down square and a new sharpie was used for the layout. It took a while to do all 4-Pillars but I had to get it right.
Attachment 505832Attachment 505833Attachment 505834Attachment 505835
All the lines are falling exactly where existing body reference marking exist so I feel pretty good about the layout.
Attachment 505836Attachment 505837
Fine-Line 1/4in tape was used again to give me a 1/4in away from the plastic inserts for the windshield trip. That way I'm not welding up a hole I would have to turn around and fix. The Bobcat is sitting facing the passenger side of the truck as I write this with the Forks ready to lift off the old roof. A rough cut to remove the roof will give me a idea of what to expect of the saw blades.
3 Attachment(s)
I went to the Paint Store Yesterday
I use PPG Refinish products with all Automotive related painting projects. I can't say they are the best, once your using a system you don't just switch but I can say PPG Refinish products never let me down.
Attachment 505932Attachment 505933
Not too much to see in the front. I have been doing business with the PPG Refinish distributor for a very long time. The entire crew here are great guys.
Attachment 505934
This is a picture of the Mixing Room. I'm picking up a quart single-stage and activator for the interior and a gallon to start on the exterior. Since opening & closing the paint contaminates it I had the gallon packaged into quarts as I will need a sprayable quart to quart and a half at one time. All in supplies this trip was $707 and I'm expecting a total refinish cost of $1500 or less. Quotes to fix this truck were all over $20K I'm $2100 all in right now. That's a replacement door complete, replacement roof complete, replacement back cab section complete, and this trip to the paint store. I have a ways to go. I'm installing new carpet and a new headliner cover not sure what else. Also plan to rebuild the Rearend while the Bed is off.
