Huck's new daily - Victory Red '05 CCSSB

[Huck]

Long time no see I had jumped off the GM bandwagon for a little while, bought a '17 Ram Sport CC last year cuz I wanted something "newer that I didn't have to work on all the time". That blew up in my face, I worked on that stupid Ram more than I did my C10 all of last year. Between that and issues with my finance company, I said F it and dumped the Ram. Picked this thing up this past weekend. 2005 Silverado CCSSB Z71, LM7/4L60/3.42/G80. BONE. STOCK. Victory Red, charcoal cloth with buckets, console, Bose and steering wheel controls.

2 owner truck, been local to me it's whole life, 175k miles. The engine is SILENT, no piston slap or lifter tick AT ALL and great oil pressure. It got a new trans a couple years back that still has like 73k miles on the warranty. The truck cruises down the road like a new one. It has some stock size Cooper AT3s. It does have an underbed 5th wheel cuz he towed this goofy little ~16ft 5th wheel camper around with his wife (they're probably early 70s). It even has the stock exhaust still lol. He'd owned it 11 years and kept up any maintenance. The only bad part is that it was painted around 2018 and the roof needs to be done again, not surprising since he didn't have a garage. They also taped off around everything instead of stripping it, so when I pull the emblems and moldings, it'll have to be redone there too. Not a huge deal though. Overall it's a very nice truck. The rest of the truck will just need a good buff, underhood cleaning and underneath cleaning. There's several dirt roads around him and he told me he'd take it to his deer lease as well. But there's absolutely zero rust or damage underneath. Couple little dents and dings, that's it.

 

[Huck]

So in talking to him, I saw the plates on the sides of the frame and said "I see it's got helper bags". He went "Yeah, it does!" and proceeded to tell me about the 5th wheel. The bags got brought up a couple more times throughout the conversation. I never really looked underneath the back much, just enough to make sure the hitch and bumper weren't rusty. I concentrated my underneath inspection on the cab.

So yesterday, I start off by taking off the mud flaps. They're universal ones that look like crap and don't fit well at all. Plus I'm not 70yrs old lol. You can kinda see they're crooked as hell in the back




I got down low to take a pic of exactly how crooked they are and went "WTF, those aren't bags"



F'in old rednecks I tell ya




Anyway, I get all the mudflaps off first. The rears weight like 8lbs a piece cuz they were slap full of red clay




Much better

 

[Huck]

So I knew it needed shocks by the way it rode but it also bugged me how high the rear was. I figured it still had air in the "bags", but now I knew that was not the case. The truck was sitting on these springs. So they had to go. Thankfully it was just a couple 1/2" nuts on an exhaust clamp holding those on there. BUT FIRST! Measurements.

35 3/8" front



37 7/8" rear



Here's a better look at those helper "bags"



Jacked it up by the hitch, zip zip with the 3/8" impact and pulled them out. Now I just need to order some new bump stops to go back in the factory location

 

[Huck]

Cute little things aren't they? Lol





Dropped the ass back down and bounced on the tailgate to get it to settle. 36 3/4", much better. Now we only have ~1.5" of rake.




So until it gets regeared, I'm going to stick with the wheel and tire setup it has and keep it low. Not sure if I wanna crank the bars up to level or pull the rear block. Kinda leaning toward pulling the block just for something different. Plus that'll make painting the roof easier. I will obviously have to decrank just a touch if I do that. But that's where we sit for now while I gather parts (and hope the heat goes away)

 

[Huck]

So plans for this thing are to ultimately make it a clean, nice daily like my OG crewcab was, just a red Chevy version.

Fairly soon plans are:

• Pull side moldings and tailgate emblems off, repaint below the bodyline, whole tailgate, roof and blend into tops of doors
• Get a smooth upper front bumper pad, '06/07 grille and hood, smooth door handles, smooth flares and a fresh set of upper rear bumper pads all to be colormatched at the same time
• Correct '03-07 tailgate spoiler (staying black)
• New headlights/markers, foglights, taglights, pigtails for DRL delete/4 turn signals, all LED bulbs (Ordered)
• 7" indash, Bose/wheel control harness/dash kit (Ordered)
• New key fobs (Ordered)
• New driver's seat foam (Ordered)
• DL3s and paint match the caps
• New dash top (this one has a couple small cracks), new seat side piece
• Either crank the bars a tad to level it off or remove rear blocks
• 4.56 or 4.88 gear swap with Yukon Duragrip out back
• Custom tune from my buddy Walker Performance Tuning
• Corsa universal muffler, haven't decided on under bed dump, Corsa tip or just traditional duals out the corners
• Window tint
• Tonneau cover or toolbox

Long term plans:

• Atomic Fab coilovers (debating doing an RC lift set at 4" as well as the coilovers but on the fence). A leveled truck or a level with 1.5" bodylift is the perfect setup for a daily IMO. And I already have the 1.5" bodylift that's been sitting on a shelf for years lol
• 20s and either 33s or 35s. Idk what wheels, I usually go with OE or OE reps in chrome or polished. Wouldn't be opposed to a nice aftermarket black/machined wheel
• AMP steps
• Pull motor for a freshening, add something like a BTR stage 2 truck cam, CHE trunnion upgrade (would LOVE to do a 408 stroker but that's not realistic any time soon)
• Maybe a trailblazer converter
• TBSS intake
• Full sound system and sound deadening
• 2014+ tow mirrors with colormatched caps
• 2019+ brake upgrade for the front

 

[gmc00z]

nice progress - like the plans. I would however keep the current tailgate cap.
nice clean 20x10 with some 33's kinda like what Zero had on his black NNBS. Gotta go polished/chrome on victory red though IMO

 

[Huck]

I forgot about that truck, that did look good. Too bad you can't get 20x10 Method Standards anymore. I was going back and forth on full colormatch or leaving the flares black. I think I'll probably go full match though, with either full painted handles or Eskys. I'll still have the black bed caps, tailgate spoiler and lower valence to break it up a little. Might do the big window mod like Tony's truck too. Found this RCSB pic the other day and it really swung me over to painting the flares.



Don't wanna do 100% colormatch though, it's a little much. I like the OEM+ look

 

[gmc00z]

100% agree - theres a threshold that you don't cross with CMing.

 

[DirtyBlackHoe]

100% agree - theres a threshold that you don't cross with CMing.

100% agree

 

[Huck]

Saw a 100% white cateye stepside this morning, even the OE 17s were white

 

[Huck]

Took a half hour after work last Thursday to try to buff the roof and tops of the doors out. It's still gonna have to be painted at some point but I wanted to see if I could at least get the red back out of it. It actually cleaned up really well, I can definitely live with that until it gets painted.

All I did was use a medium cut hex pad from CG with their VSS. It's all I had in my box at work. I could hit it again and get more gloss out of it but it's kinda pointless since you can't really see up there anyway.

 

[Huck]

Then Friday night I threw in the new lights I'd ordered. The PO had installed lights not long ago but they were the all chrome ones, no bueno on a red truck. But then I goofed and bought smoked fogs (which were MUCH darker than I thought they'd be), so I've got some clear ones coming. Did 6000K Sealight LED high/lows/fogs but forgot that the big fan on the back doesn't really clear on the headlight support on these trucks, so now I've got some HIDs coming. Also did LED 3157s in the turn signal and little peanut side bulbs and added 50ohm resisters to ward off the hyperflash. Waiting for my other bulbs and pig tails to come in to do away with the DRLs and have 4 LED turn signals.

 

[Huck]

And then promptly put it to work this weekend helping clean out my grandparents house. Needed the 4wd to get down to and back up from the shed in the backyard without tearing up the grass.



Then ended up having to bring a whole truckload 1.5hrs back home Sunday to take to my local dump Monday morning. There was enough in the bed to level out the truck and now I'm really considering pulling the rear blocks for the time being until I buy the Atomic Fab level kit for up front :hmm:

 

[gmc00z]

nice progress so far. Definitely pull the block.

 

[Huck]

Got tired of the stock radio so I ordered up a Metra harness on Amazon and an Atoto headunit at the recommendation of @Oktain . Should've known better than to get a harness of Amazon. First one showed up with nothing but French writing on the box and was non-Bose even though it was advertised as being Bose. Second one was for a '07-13 truck. Finally just went to Crutchfield and got the right one :nono:

After living with this for the past month or so, I hate it. The screen has fantastic resolution and is very responsive and the unit sounds good overall. But the screen will not dim (have the dimmer wire hooked up, doesn't work and there's no separate option in the menu to set a brightness level), the EQ has too many adjustments and most don't do what you typically expect of that Hz range, the lowest volume setting is still too loud to have conversations in the cab comfortably so you either have awkward silence or have to raise you voice, when a call comes in it literally will deafen you no matter how many times I turn the ringer volume down, the clock won't keep time nor will it keep the date and the buttons along the bottom are super chunky/hard to push if you get it from the wrong angle. I'm going back to a Pioneer, sorry Pat.





Also threw some 5100s in the rear cuz the original shocks were SHOT



And changed the oil and threw in some clear fogs to replace the smoked ones

 

[Huck]

So I sold the Ram and bought this truck in the middle of dealing with cleaning out my grandparent's house and moving my grandma into an assisted living facility after my grandpa passed away in May. I made the very last cleanout trip before closing with this truck and my coworker's 6x12 trailer. It wasn't a super heavy load, but between the trailer, the bed and back seat there was probably ~2500-3000lbs. Enough that I wanted tow/haul. Well, tow/haul had been finnicky since day one but I managed to get it to activate for this last leg...




Until we stopped for lunch. Got in the truck and no amount of wiggling the shifter would get it to go in. I didn't wanna fry this 60E so we stopped at Home Depot across the street. Found a shady spot, got out my tools and pulled it apart. Sure enough, the wires had broken. It's really not a bad repair, the column trim pries apart (carefully!) and it's a torx that holds the shifter handle in. One little clip on the wire and then pull everything out. It's a little frustrating getting the shift boot to play nice when putting it all back together but all told it was only about an hour to fix even going inside to buy some strippers and crimpers.

 

[Huck]

So the next thing on the list was the tailgate spoiler. The old man I got the truck from had put on this crappy aftermarket GMC style one so his camper shell would seal (I did not want the camper shell when I bought the truck even though he offered it). Ordered a new one off Amazon. Remember the last time I got something from Amazon...








The one from Amazon ended up being like 3/4 scale So I'll have to keep an eye out for an OE one





I'd also shopped for a tonneau cover on that last Amazon order, mainly because we were going on vacation in a couple weeks. I've always had cheap tri-folds in the past but it's pretty annoying having to take them all the way off to access the front 1/3 of the bed. So I ordered the cheapest roll up I could find, a Tyger. I liked this one cuz the rails sit ON TOP of the bed rails, not inside like most. I can't tell you how many of those inside rails I've knocked off of friend's trucks. I'm actually super impressed with this one, it fit nice and was tight and perfectly adjusted right out of the box. Not bad for $200.

 

[Huck]

So 3 days before we leave for vacation, I decide we can't be seen with all this faded plastic, so I tape everything up and do a test run on the front bumper with some stuff at work





It was fucking gloss I didn't look at the can cuz I'd told them to order satin. Dammit



So now 2 days before we're leaving, I stay late to redo that and do the rest of the plastics. The only thing I didn't do was the tailgate handle, bed caps and rear bumper just cuz I ran out of time











Little elbow grease and some Krylon Fusion satin black makes a world of difference

 

[Huck]

So then the day before we're supposed to leave I decide to do the brakes. It's had this drum brake "moan" the whole time so I knew it needed rear shoes, so I got those and some new rotors/pads for the front. Front took 20min/side before work. LR drum slid off no problem, RR drum was STUCK. It wouldn't budge. Turns out, someone had run the adjuster ALL THE WAY out, cramming the shoes into the drum and the parking brake cable had come loose (explaining why the e-brake barely held). The leading shoe was seized to the drum, trying to come with it. I finally just had to manhandle the thing off. That drum was also blue inside, so I had to go back to the part store for 2 drums. Wanted to leave a little early that day, ended up staying till 10pm. Fak







But we made it! My bday, her bday and our anniversary are all in August so we booked a room on Tybee Island for a few nights. Spent time there and in Savannah, it was a much needed break after the year we've had. The truck did great, no issues down or back. Got 19.5mpg down and 17.5 on the way home.



Took it around the old Hutchinson Island road course, shame to see it in such bad shape.

 

[Oktain]

Truck's coming along great! Sorry the Atoto didn't work out for you. What's odd is I don't have any issues that you're describing with the on in my 06 Caddy, so maybe it's something with the specific model you ended up with.