LAB Tested and approved.

[324matt]

Well, here you go. I don't know where I'm going, but this is where I have been. I bought this truck to just have a truck, and, so it goes I decided to do some maintenance. Got carried away. let me know what you think. The truck came with 9x16.5 STA tires, but I went to the local wreckin yard and got a set of stock wheels and tires.

[324matt]

Put a 2.5" SkyJacker Soft ride set of springs in the front. ORD Front Shackles with all new Poly Bushings. Piece of cake.

[324matt]

off with the bed. need to address RUST

[324matt]

Grinding disks take too long. Sand blast it is.

[324matt]

new custom 56" springs with ORD 1" add a leaf on bottom and +2" extra arch fabricated into them. St Louis Spring in St Louis MO does great work at Great Prices. New Shackles too.

[324matt]

got ahead of myself. primed, sanded, primed, sanded, painted sanded painted sanded painted sanded UNDERCOATED the frame. All Rivets that were removed were drilled out to 7/16 and replaced with 1" 7/16 Flange Bolts torqued to 77ft/lbs with red locktite

[Jaysonb]

Nice work!!

[Corts60]

Nice! Way to rip into it!

I love those welded thrush mufflers. They have a great classic sound for 1/4 the cost of flow masters.

[LSX408]

Nice work!

[brakenit]

Nice truck, looks like it will be a lot nicer when you're done. I'm looking forward to seeing what the stance looks like once you have it back on the ground. I'm also curious if you'd mind sharing what you paid for the rear springs?

[324matt]

I paid $40 for the set of ORD 1" add a leafs, and $365 for the springs made up with the ORD leafs. Plus $60 for U bolts so $465 to put in new 56" springs

[brakenit]

$365 for the springs sounds pretty reasonable. I'll have to keep them in mind if I can't find a local spring shop to make springs for my K30, I'm only a couple hours away.

[crashz]

Nice truck! And for the rust belt, its in great shape.

Nice to see the care and attention to detail with you maintenance! If you want to maintain my trucks, please do!

[77K10Silverado]

Heck yeah! Keep it up and take a look at my thread. I'm sure well be taking tips from one another! Subscribed!

[324matt]

since I work shift work, today and tomorrow is my weekend. I don't like rusty stuff. So I Glass Beaded the drums and painted them, primer too.

ill start using my camera. cell phone pix stink!

[324matt]

next on my agenda today is to learn how to temporarily fix rust. I will needle gun the rust spots, and then angle grinder sand the metal,

then I will watch about 10 youtube videos and take advise and apply it to this afternoon.

a quick trip to wally world for some bondo and accessories.

stop by napa to get some paint in a can.

post more on this project...

[324matt]

I got the new tanks installed. and put back on the rock shields. New rubber fuel lines. re installed the heat shields after a blast and paint.

[324matt]

I also installed new fuel filler neck pipes and rubber tank hoses.

trying to decide on what wheels to use?

[brakenit]

That's a tough decision on the wheels, they would both look pretty good to me but I'm partial to the steel wheels and hub caps.

[walkerb]

My vote is for the stockers

[77K10Silverado]

Yeah I'm a stock guy too. Any updates?

[324matt]

yes I like the stock wheels also. But the aluminum wheels have so much less unsprung weight. I glass beaded the wheels and had them powder coated white. this is how they look now. I paid $175 at the local shop.

[324matt]

And on to my next battle. Realistic tires for driving, or tires for looks. I had a set of Nitto Trail Grapplers size 295/75/18 on my 2012 GMC Sierra. They were great until I just had, had enough of the road noise. So I then put on my all time go to tire Michelin LTX M+S. They are my personal favorite tire. Actually Michelins are my favorite tires. Any vehicle I buy immediately has Michelins installed and the old, (or new not Michelin) tires are sold on CL. Anyways, I wanted to put tall skinny 255/85/16 on this truck. I looked and searched and debuted. I finally settled on Toyo open country MT in 255/85/16 (33.5"). best price I found was $1064 shipped to the house from treaddepot. Then I said well, the Nitto Trail Grapplers in 285/75/16 are 33.3" and I got discounttiredirect beat down to $888 for a set shipped to the house. So I was going to buy those. Then I received my annual Costco AMEX Refund check in the mail last week, so I got on their websight and they had, wait, wait for it, MICHELINS for $70 off a set of 4 instant rebate. Well, that was all she wrote. I ordered myself a new set of Michelin AT2's size 285/75/16 (32.8"). I got all 4 tires shipped to my local Costco's for less than the price of 1 of the other tires I listed, sans nice refund from AMEX. I guess I can live with the .7" inch difference for that kind of $$$. Im going to use the stick on the inside wheel weights from ebay rather than have the old skool on the outside the rim wheel weights.

[324matt]

I also had a few friends come over and help me install the bed last week. it was a piece of cake. I wired up the tail lights and unbutchered the mess the po had installed. I used shrink tube and heat sealable wire connectors (kind of overkill). the wiring is stout. I then cut to length the new Gates fuel neck filler hoses and installed them. I tried to use the old rotten vent hoses because I figured they were vent hoses. Welp, I got mad because I can not find pre bent vent hoses for less than $20 each (LMC). LMC's stuff is so so, And I wasn't impressed with the last crap I bought from them. I ended up ordering them for $40 each from classicparts. Darn it. For a set of vent hoses. I paid $25 a piece for the new gates filler neck hoses from NAPA. But whatever it is what it is.
back to the height of the truck. There is still a slight rake with the new springs. it measures 1/2" higher in the rear wheel well than in the front. So ive already decided that if I get the new wheels installed and its still a smidge lower in the front, I going to order a set of fitted add a leafs for the brand new skyjacker front springs and that should be that.

[324matt]

Mudflaps. I refuse to pay a rolling big price for vintage or nostalgic or heavy duty mud flaps. My wife wanted the grandpa running boards put back on so she could get up and into the truck easier. They were bound for CL so I said why not. I looked online and found some really, really, really nice mud flaps for squares. But not $300 for the flaps and brackets nice. I went to Farm and home and bought (2) semi truck mud flaps for $11 each and made a template out of cardboard and went to town. I decided to install the front first. I will make and install the back ones after I get the new tires mounted and installed. I am going to use 1x1 angle iron and 5/16 hardware to install the rear flaps. I will weld up a removable bracket to bolt to the frame and hang the mud flaps once I see what proper clearance is for the rear tires