Tow Rig Rebuild (06 Silverado)

[zipper]

My yearly inspection was due in Feb., but the truck needed a few things replaced in order for it to pass. Not having a heated shop, 3 bay garage/storage full, I needed to wait for warmer temps. to do the work in the arena. Let me say that the winters are tough on cars and trucks up here with the snow and ice and all of the salt and brine the State and Towns put on the roads to keep them clear. It does not take long for rust to set into fenders, rockers, cab corners and truck beds. Any holes in any of these parts will fail your vehicles inspection. My truck had some rust holes growing. Instead of trading her in, only 150,000 miles on a Duramax, I decided to rebuild the bed, body and any suspension parts required to keep her for a while longer. The truck money went towards buying a Beneteau First 35s5 sailboat to add to the Yamaha. Ya, I was given the choise and I chose the Bene. I am pretty much done now, she drives and looks much better now, even though she is three colors, not painted yet. So here are some pics. along the way.
Before

Some new metal
Started by removing the rotted bed.

And the rusted rockers

Then started fitting the new body metal

Then welded into place and used a little Bondo to smooth things out.

Painted/undercoated and started work on the bed.

I really like the aluminum beds but not the price at $3k plus. So having a few oak logs and a sawmill, I decided to make one. I know, but it still is a farm truck and if a board rots, I can make a new one. I just need it for towing the boat and stock trailers as well as 12,000# hay wagons up Hardscrabble Hill.
Still working on the bed, adding a tailgate and ladder rack. Other parts changed out included fuel pump sending unit and fuel filter housing, cross member for transmission mount (rotted), changed upper/lower ball joints, inner/ outer tie rod ends, front brake calipers and other stuff I will remember later. Got to go get the new tires put on now, so I have to go.

 

[zipper]

This cross member, transmission mount, rotted allowing the tail of the transmission to drop a couple inches where it sat on another cross member.

And the new one.

 

[Scottintexas]

great work,
I can't figure out which I'm more perplexed by,
1. the truck rusted that bad in 12 years
2. the state will fail you for a rusted truck

What's the theory behind not allowing rust holes?
is there an age limit where it doesn't matter, in TX after 20yrs?? you don't have to pass emissions any longer

 

[PEARCE]

Impressive work @zipper ! I'd pick a boat over getting another truck too.

 

[zipper]

great work,
I can't figure out which I'm more perplexed by,
1. the truck rusted that bad in 12 years
2. the state will fail you for a rusted truck

What's the theory behind not allowing rust holes?
is there an age limit where it doesn't matter, in TX after 20yrs?? you don't have to pass emissions any longer

Ya, good questions. I am still scratching my head on the states DMV regs. Rust is ok, but rust thru holes are not allowed any more. The root of it is a few cases of carbon monoxide poisoning. A couple of teens have died while idling their cars during the winter months. Their cars had rust holes that allowed exhaust gasses into the car, where they succumbed to the poisonous gasses. So no holes in the body. Even repairs are regulated. No sharp edges, meaning you cannot simply pop rivet a patch panel over the hole. It must be faired out with filler so that if the inspector runs his hand across the qtr. panel, he does not cut himself. I did that kind of patching a few years ago with fiberglass and Al. flashing but it was falling apart. So if I was going to keep driving the truck I was needing to do more permanent repairs. So I decided to take it off the road and do a proper "barnyard" repair. It should get me a couple more years out of it. Want to break 200k miles with it.

Vermont has a huge tourism industry. In winter months, a lot of "out of staters" come here to ski driving their cars with summer tires on and they crash a lot. To keep them coming the state stopped using rock salt and started using a brine mixture which gets every where under the vehicle. Great for the tourists, bad for the locals whose cars are frozen for months and not washed regularly. Great for new car sales and repair shops. Bad for us DIY ers who like to keep their vehicles for more than 4-5 years.

And lastly, these model years GM trucks are known to rust out prematurly, especially the inner wheel liners on the box. They rot out first and allow crap into the area between inner and outer box.

 

[Adrian @ JB Solutions]

Good stuff. I have a buddy with a 04/05 Silverado 1500. He wants a new car, but lacks the credit or massive cash fund. I told him just restore his truck and I would help him do it. A few thousand could make it pretty darn good.

 

[zipper]

@Scottintexas I forgot to mention...in Vermont there are no emission tests or reading fault codes via OBD II for 3/4 ton + trucks required.

 

[veedubtek]

Outstanding work sir, as always.

 

[zipper]

Outstanding work sir, as always.

Thank you sir...its been a while, 30 yrs., since I have done this scale of rust repair. In my early 20s I would buy Rabbits and Jettas needing repair, fix them and flip em. I knew my way around those VWs, but those were simple compared to some of the stuff I've seen from you. Now that I am climbing back on the horse, so to say, I think I will start the repairs to my modified 83 GTI I wrecked ,Rt Fnt, in an oversteer under braking accident in 89. I won't be in a hurry to get it done like I was with the truck, funny, it's taken me 29 years to get to it. Good part is absolutely no rust.

 

[2kwik4u]

They started using that stupid salt brine crap down here awhile back as well. Not that we get much winter, but the local government PANICS when they even suggest snow, so the roads get treated. Then it rains and all that crap is all over the bottom of our cars. Back in the mid 90's UPS had just moved their world hub to Louisville and we got a "freak" snow storm of about 24in or so overnight. City was caught without the right equipment or preparation on the roads, and shut the city down for a few days. UPS was NOT pleased and threatened to pull the entire operation if it ever happened again. That has carried the full panic mode for "it might snow tomorrow" into "Treat the roads heavily 2 daysi n advance and 2 days afterwards just to be sure".

To fight the problem I wait only long enough for a day above freezing, and there is a nice little gas station car wash a few miles from the house that has an "underbody spray" when you drive in. It's not on a timer. So I'll pay my $8 and drive about as slowly as I can into the bay and let the undercarriage get a good soaking of fresh water to clean all that brine out of there.

 

[zipper]

Success! Got the new Cooper tires put on and received this new inspection sticker. Now I can trailer the Yamaha to the water and put her at her summer slip.


Good to go for another year. And if I need repairs next year they will happen in June (warm weather) after we put the Yamaha at her slip, and not in Feb. (Too Cold).

 

[AboveTheBest]

Success! Got the new Cooper tires put on and received this new inspection sticker.

I’m from Indiana and not used to inspection stickers. I lived in the middle of nowhere (Glover) for the first 7-years I was in Vermont, and I kept the same sticker on my truck long enough that the color came back around and was “good” again...

 

[zipper]

I’m from Indiana and not used to inspection stickers. I in the middle of nowhere (Glover) for the first 7-years I was in Vermont, and I kept the same sticker on my truck long enough that the color came back around and was “good” again...

Glover? Wow that is near the middle of nowhere. Way up in the North East Kingdom, BFE as my Florida friends would say. About a 1 1/2 hour drive from me. I used to drive to Craftsbury/Albany, every Wednesday to pick up sheep milk from a farmer there.
The Bread and Puppet circus used to be there. I never went. I do miss the Craftsbury Fiddlers Contest, but things like that shut down when drunk people pass out under parked cars and get run over later.

30 years ago, when I lived in Florida, I found there were no inspections. It was freeing, but as I looked around at what was on the road, I thought maybe they should. A lot of tires with belts showing thru. And broken ball joints in accidents when they hydroplane on the slick roads with bald tires.

Vermont uses 4 colors, red, blue, green and yellow so you were lucky to go 4+ years and have the color come back around without getting stopped. But not a lot of police in the Kingdom to patrol all the back roads.

 

[Jgorm]

And i thought California had crazy rules! I failed smog because i had a pcv catch can. They don't care about rust, but nothing is rusted.

 

[AboveTheBest]

The Kingdom was a great place to live if you didn’t mind putting up with all the Bread and Puppet types (I accidentally went there once, big mistake).

Believe it or not, if you tell me the Farmer’s name from Craftsbury I will probably know who you’re talking about.

Was it the Jones farm?

 

[zipper]

Neil Eurie, on the N. Craftsbury rd. Just over the line in Albany

 

[AboveTheBest]

I knew the Eurie’s. The Kingdom is a small world.