Vanilla: 2005 Chevy Silverado 1500 build.

Jimmeh

Think'n with me dipstick!
Prior to putting on your rims/tires in the first photo with them, did you lift/raise your truck in any way or is that stock hieght witht he 33's? Also, if you don't mind me asking, where did you get and how much were your towing mirrors.
All around great truck!. It's nice how small things can make a large improvement.
-Seth

That was stock ride height with the 33/12.50's. They rubbed backing up and turning to the right, but that was about it. My 285's actually rubbed more then the 33's did. I got the tow mirrors off of eBay for roughly $175 shipped IIRC.

Thanks for the kind words!

I like your truck. Its coming along good. I like the location of your antenna vs. the traditional dual whips like all the yuppies I see around my area. Makes your truck unique, and you centerconsole is neato too!

It's funny because a friend of mine was considering the idea of getting dual whips, but after he saw my setup he has been bugging me about where I got the mount. I like the location as well, but plan on changing it to the top of the cab when I eventually get a roof top basket.

Nice truck. I am someone who prefers the lower ride height so I'm curious why you're choosing to do a lift?

I installed a 1.5 inch body lift to allow more clearance for a larger tire, which in turn gives me more ground clearance. I also prefer a lower stance for two reasons: 1) I'm short and don't want to have to jump into the truck and 2) Lower center of gravity. I have considered the idea of doing another 2 inch suspension lift just to be able to stuff a 35 inch tire under the truck, but I think that will be quite a ways down the road. If it were a dedicated expedition truck and not my daily driver, it probably would be lifted just a little bit more.

Great build! I have the exact same truck but mines an 02. Same color-same package- white leer topper with yakima rack. I run black wheels and 285/75-16 A/T's. I put herculiner on my rockers and flares a couple of years ago- i love the way it looks.

Do you happen to have any pictures? I just got my can of Durabak bed liner on the front porch today and am wondering how it will look. Did you have to do anything special for the liner to adhere to the plastic fender flares?

Thanks everybody for the kind words! We finished the body lift install this past weekend and so far so good! The 4 hour process turned into a 7.5 hour job due to a few difficulties and fuddled minds thanks to my friends brother in law bringing us some adult beverages, but the job was complete! I still need to do a couple of things, but anyway, here are just a few pictures:

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And one of it parked to my dads stock 2000 half ton with a 21 foot boat attached to the rear:

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As you can see, we were able to re-use the brackets for the front brush guard. We are now sitting at 40 inches from the ground to the top of the wheel well in all 4 corners. I'll be removing the front mud flaps to install my fender flares hopefully next weekend (painting them this weekend with the bed liner and hopefully doing the rest of the truck next weekend [weather permitting]!).
 

Seabass

Idiot
I used a scotch pad to give some rough surface for the herculiner to stick- and wiped it down with acetone. Taped my lines off and applied two coats. I did the same on the flares. It has been good. Ive used others-herculiner seems to last the best. I did my dually about 8 years ago- still good as new. All i have is an iphone- cant figgure out how to post a pic- but ill post one as soon as i figgure out how.
 

Jimmeh

Think'n with me dipstick!
Decided to do another solo run today and run one of the shorter powerline trails. Ended up being a lot shorter than I expected due to a locked gate, so I check out another one that had yet another locked gate! Anyway, here's just a couple of pics:

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Now I got the wheeling bug bad! Unfortunately, I can't do my favorite trail at the moment because there's too much snow, and I am going on a trip to Washington state here in a couple of weeks to visit family so I have to not break anything until after that!
 

Sethro4x4Chevy

New member
Looks real good. I have an 06 ext cab, much like yours and I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the towing mirrors, love them, but I'm sitting stock height with 265's, would look better if I was sitting higher. What did you do for your body lift? Or is there a way to just lift front end for mine to sit more level? Also, did you do any shaving of anything to allow tires to fit without rubbing?
Thanks, Seth.
 

Jimmeh

Think'n with me dipstick!
The body lift didn't require much modification other than grinding off the stock front bumper mounts on the bumper itself for the new mounts. It's pretty straight forward but will take some time if you've never done one before or are doing it on your own. You can lift the front end more by getting a leveling kit or cranking your torsion bars, which I would suggest the first option. Stock ride height (prior to leveling kit and body lift) I was running 33X12.50/17's with minimal rubbing on road, and quite a bit off road. After the leveling kit it helped on road a lot, but still a bit off road. I didn't trim or shave anything though, and I'm sure a guy could and be fine at stock ride height, but I just didn't want to do that. Where it will rub will be the plastic inner fender on the front end for the most part, and a guy could just remove or trim that, though I don't recommend removing it since then a lot more road debris could get into the engine compartment.

I have a feeling that I could probably stuff 35's under the truck if it was only an on road rig with minimal rubbing, but I'd rather keep the 285's for now and maybe do 35's when I do more of a lift later on in the future. Keep in mind that depending on what gears you have, running the larger tires might bog the engine down as well. I'm not sure what gears I have in mine stock, but I know that even with the engine cammed and tuned it's a little more sluggish than it was with the 265's.
 
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Jimmeh

Think'n with me dipstick!
So today was a clean the crap out of the truck kinda day, and while working on the interior I noticed that I had quite a bit of clutter going on. I just recently got a Garmin nuvi 50LM GPS unit and have been using it in my truck and my work truck. My biggest pet peeve is having a lot of loose stuff roaming around the interior of my truck, and this is how I had it set up in it:

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It was pretty annoying to say the least, so it was time to do something different. So I tore apart my dash looking for openings that I could run my charging wire through and up to my dash. I originally wanted to keep it where it was under the rear view mirror, but I just did not have a long enough cable, nor did I feel like taking the dash completely out! I then decided to move my windshield mount to the drivers side above the vent, ran the wire underneath the gauge cluster, and up behind the a-pillar. I kinda wish I would have taken some pictures of the routing but here's a couple to give you an idea:

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And a picture of the clean look:

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The next thing will be to get my iPod in the glove box. I have to talk to my electronics shop and see what they say about which wire to use as I have no idea. I looked at the back of the head unit hoping there was just a USB port, but of course not.

Another item that needs fixed:

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Just need to go and get a needle and some thread, sow it up, and then put my seat covers back on.
 

Jimmeh

Think'n with me dipstick!
For the last couple of days, I have been lurking a lot more trying to find interesting ideas for my truck. A lot of build threads got me really focused on decking out the truck with some much needed safety gear. I realized that while I am building the truck to be able to take a bit of abuse exploring my back yard, I was completely forgetting about being prepared for the abuse to me and my passengers. I have a fairly basic first aid kit as well as some basic tools and survival gear for myself, but nothing that I could use in a situation with others involved. It also got me thinking of making the truck itself a bit safer. For instance, and I am ashamed to admit that my custom center console that I built isn't even fastened to the truck! Luckily, without even thinking, I left the center seat mounts in the truck so a couple of bolts in the stock location will remedy that. And while I am doing that, I also figured I might as well wire in a subwoofer as that has been the plan for quite a while now. I haven't done either of these yet, but I plan on making a few changes to the console when I do in fact start.

One thing I do not slack on with the truck is maintenance. It's the newest vehicle I have owned, and at 93,000 miles, I feel that it is still mostly like new as far as running condition (though there are a few cosmetic things that I have slacked on). However, I have ran into something that has me kind of scratching my head. A few weeks ago, I took my truck into my tire shop to have them take a look at my front end of the truck due to a noticeable amount of uneven wear on the inside tread of my front tires. They said everything looked and felt tight, and that it could have been because I forgot to install the hub mounting rings (not completely necessary, but I did notice a bit of a steering wheel wobble as well). So, the next day I had them rotate the tires and install the rings. Now, I am noticing yet more uneven wear on the inside of my tires. The truck had been aligned by the same shop who has always done a great job working on the truck, so I plan on taking it down again just to see if something has changed. I did notice that I have a leaking CV axle on my passenger side, which from experience with the oh-so wonderful CV's in Subaru's will cause a noticeable steering wheel wobble on acceleration (not to mention terrible tire wear). Considering next week I am leaving on a 1200 mile road trip, the last thing I need to do is ruin a basically brand new set of tires (about 3500 miles on them now). I also have a bad slip yoke, and will be changing that out this weekend myself (and the somewhat helpful hands of my mechanically inclined father).

Along with some maintenance items, I plan on also moving forward on my DIY bed lining project. I probably will not do the rockers this weekend just because I plan on fishing a little bit, but will hopefully get the flares done at least. The flares are OEM replacements that I bought off of eBay, so they aren't anything special, but I feel they will add a nice touch to the truck. Eventually, I will also be bed lining a set of sliders, custom rear bumper and possibly my brush guard and front bumper caps. We will see on the latter 3 items, though.
 

Sethro4x4Chevy

New member
Do you have a leveling kit and a body lift or just a body lift? Thankyou for the insite on the tires. I was looking towards 285's, but was concerned about rubbing. Was thinking about cranking torsion bars but ride would be rougher? A friend told me about Rough Country leveling kit for $200, includes four shocks, torsion keys, and blocks for rear. Thinking that route, but have never done such a task, so might have a shop do it? On another note, I like your console, seems much more useful than the standard one, however main focus as of right now is exterior. Ex: tonnue cover or topper? On the fence. Rims, tint, possibly brush guard or bull bar, still on the fence. Along with lift/level.
-Seth
 

Jimmeh

Think'n with me dipstick!
I have both a Pro Comp 2" torsion key leveling kit and a Zone Off Road 1.5" body lift. I disagree on cranking the torsion bars makes the ride rougher, but that's just my opinion. I personally had my tire shop install the leveling kit purely because I did not have a torsion bar unloading tool, and it was only another $50 more for them to do it versus me doing it (plus I believe that's the cost of the tool, and you can't do the leveling kit without it [safely anyway]). I wasn't aware either that Rough Country had that leveling kit. I definitely spent more than that leveling my truck, but I also got a set of bilstein 5100's for the front and HD's for the back, which greatly improved the ride quality! As stated earlier in my thread, I am not a fan of hugely lifted GM's and would advise not lifting more than necessary to clear the size of tire you want (though I wouldn't advise lifting more than a 6" total just because I hate the way a truck looks over that).

I also like the design of my console, but plan on changing it as always. So far I have built 3 for it, and each one has gotten progressively better. Although, I have been debating just getting a factory center console/seat found in the LS trims with the manual shift t-case (would love to have a full length, but would have to switch to the push button, and I don't trust those).

I went and talked to my tire shop today, and the tech there who I don't normally deal with told me that it's probably tire wear from before (though they didn't seem to be wearing while they were on the rear of the truck like they are now). I am going to go ahead and have them do an alignment just to be certain that everything there was clear, but he also said that they will check that CV for me to make sure it's nothing major. Then of course this weekend is just packing the truck with equipment for my road trip.
 

Jimmeh

Think'n with me dipstick!
And I got bored a little while ago after getting off work early, so I finally wired up my overhead console.

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And I ordered up some LED bulbs for the map lights, and they will be here in the first part of June!
 

Sethro4x4Chevy

New member
I highly agree, I like them simple lifted with leveling kits, and with or without body lifts, much like yours. Wow, on $50, seems cheap, I guess I haven't looked around much for shops to do it, thinking it would be quite expensive, but I don't want the hassle of doing it myself. Did you install your overhead console? Looks like the ones on older years.. I think you'll like the LEDs in the map lights. I put them in there, center dome, and doors. Working on taking apart dash and replacing all interior lights (cluster, windows, locks, a/c, ect) with blue. but agian, nice build!
 

Jimmeh

Think'n with me dipstick!
Yeah, I installed the OHC myself. Was very intimidating cutting the head liner, and I cut in a couple of spots I regret, but you can't see them so I'm happy with it. I do need to get the right fastener for the front part though (the part that the screw actually screws into). Right now I am using a small piece of plywood ;)
 

Jimmeh

Think'n with me dipstick!
No new modifications to report, but I went and played around up in the mountains yesterday before my alignment appointment:

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On the alignment: The tire shop reported that both my upper ball joints were bad. I just had the right passenger side replaced at 86,000 miles (now currently at 93,000) back in December of '11, and when I asked the tire shop why they thought it would have gone out in 7,000 miles, the guy working the office at the time couldn't tell me. So, tomorrow after work I plan on talking to the guy I normally refer to on my visits and see what he will do for me. They want to charge me $604 to do both sides, but after just having the whole front end gone through last month with everything being tight (or so the tech said), I am not happy.
 

redthies

Renaissance Redneck
I would talk to the shop who did your balljoint in Dec about a warranty repair. Six months and 7,000 miles is rediculous. I like the rig. Have fun in Washington.
 

Jimmeh

Think'n with me dipstick!
They are going to fix the one I already had done for free and then fix the other one for the same price they did the other one originally. They are also going to lower the front end a little bit since apparently leveling keys are most likely the cause to the fast wearing ball joints.
 

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