survivor

[floating doc]

Wrecked my 88 c2500. Sorry for the F150; kid tried to "go fast" across three lanes of traffic. The other two lanes were stopped, and he never considered the lane I was in. I was the "T" in the "T-bone". :lame:

I'm not sure how to post photos, but it would be good to see. I'll leave it at this: the F150 had an oil leak on the opposite side of the engine from where I hit him. His horn blew for 10 minutes, and the headlights were flashing like a cop car (alternating from side to side). Both airbags were deployed and the right front wheel was nearly torn off. The entire right side of the cab was smashed. It doesn't help that there's no B pillar (2001 extended cab). I don't doubt that it's totalled.

My truck? My headlights weren't even broken. In fact, they don't even need to be aimed. The only broken light is one of the corner markers.

I could probably not even bother replacing the grill, except I want to keep it looking good. Took the entire hit straight on the front end, and although the core support is pushed back, the engine still runs. In fact the driver from the impoundment yard drove it off the truck when he brought it home today!

So, it takes more than age to call a vehicle a survivor in my book. Two years ago this truck was the only one of the owner's three cars to survive a house fire.

Of course, the other driver was 18 years old, and not authorized to be driving their truck, so no insurance settlement for me. Timing's terrible; I closed my veterinary practice last month and am about to go bankrupt. Still, I'm going to fix this truck and keep it going. :nana:

[Chuck Bunyon]

Upload to photobucket.com and paste the img link to your post.

[floating doc]

Here's a photo. http://i1193.photobucket.com/albums/aa341/floatingdoc1/P1080961.jpg

[floating doc]

http://i1193.photobucket.com/albums/aa341/floatingdoc1/P1080974.jpg

[CodyZ71]

Sorry to hear this, not alot of mint trucks that old left, but it could of been worse and you can fix that in a day... Locally the parts are easily available for our style trucks.. What part of FL you in?

[floating doc]

I'm in Volusia county (Deland), about an hour east of you on the other side of the forest.

I've wrenched on some cars, and done head swaps and complete engines. The only thing that I've ever done with body work is replacing doors and hood/trunk lids.

I am hoping that I won't have too much trouble getting it going again. It's a good candidate to save, since it came from west Texas and eastern California. It doesn't even have any rust on the frame. I hope this means that I can get the bolts loose without air tools.

There are three you-pull junkyards within 15 miles, two of them 5 minutes from my house. I'm hoping that the parts will be easy to get. If I want any new parts, I've found a new bumper on line for around $120.

The biggest issue is coming up with any money at all for the parts. I closed my business on August 1st and filed for bankruptcy yesterday. I'm getting a bit of work as an independent contractor, but just the bare minimum.

Thanks for the reply. It's just nice to know that someone cares.

[tcb]

It doesn't look half bad, I would drive it and worry about fixing it when you have extra money.

[Wolley]

Thats really a shame, that thing looked cherry. That mangled bumper might be a little work to get off with hand tools. The fenders are really easy to replace and should be readily available at pick and pulls. I've been buying them up here in good shape for 25 bucks. Keep in mind that new aftermarket are like 80 bucks when you go to the junkyard. Sucks about the paint though, its going to be hard to replicate that pumpkin gold/chocolate brown two tone.

[floating doc]

Oh yeah, this thing is really clean. All of 350,000 miles on the original 350 and 700R4. It blows a bit of smoke on start up from the worn valve guides, but otherwise it's great.

I bought it from the family of the original owner. The grandfather bought it new and maintained it like an airplane. His grandson inherited it and was collecting parts to restore it. He lost all of the parts in a house fire, and then when the coast guard transferred him the truck ended up sitting. Due to my financial troubles they offered it to me so we could get out of one of our car payments.

I paid a dollar for it last November, but the deal is that when I'm done with it, it goes back to their family. Before I brought it home, I spent a thousand on brakes, ignition module, AC recharge (r12; lasted until about half way through the summer), oil/filter, coolant/thermostat and some other minor service items.

Since then I've changed the oil twice, replaced the oil pressure sending unit and windshield washer pump. It's got the original wiper motor, which has worked almost all the time; I haven't bothered to replace or re-solder it. Last month the tailshaft started to leak, and it now has a new seal.

I can't drive it as is, the fan shroud is sitting on the engine, the belt is flipped around inside out, and the right tire is hard against the bumper. Engine still runs, so I guess the radiator is going to be ok; we'll see when I get the hood open.

As for the paint, I do know a good body guy that works out of his garage. He ran the body dept for one of the Chevy dealers that GM shut down, and he works cheap. If it can be matched, he's got a good chance of pulling it off. Otherwise, I may go for a full repaint. Then the question is what color. I favor light colors here in the South, especially with no AC. I would consider keeping the original colors (the interior is tan).

[Darty03]

First thing I would do is pull the bumper and take measurements of the frame. No need to start buying and swapping panels yet if the frame is out of shape. Its probably fine but worth taking the extra time to check on.

[floating doc]

First thing I would do is pull the bumper and take measurements of the frame. No need to start buying and swapping panels yet if the frame is out of shape. Its probably fine but worth taking the extra time to check on.

Good advice, although I wonder something. Where do I take the measurements, and what do I compare them to?

[Darty03]

This should help you out. I'm pretty sure this is what you need since in 2000 2500s were still sold as an obs. Someone else will hopefully confirm that these are the correct measurements. This doesnt show you all of the measurements past the front cross member, which is where the damage will probably be. Its all I could find with a quick search though.

Here's where I got the picture from.
http://www.gmupfitter.com/publicat/1999_BB/LDPDF/CK.PDF


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15387533/Random/frameck.jpg

[floating doc]

Wow, thanks for the referral to the frame specs. That's great!

[CodyZ71]

havent been on this forum since last post, any updates? I was gonna say you could have passenger fender I got laying around but I sanded it down and its got rot so probably not worth ur hassel of paying someone to fix it.

www.car-part.com is a good site to track down parts in junk yards

[floating doc]

Hi, thanks for the followup. I'm waiting until some other issues get resolved, one of which is coming up with the money.

I don't figure parts will be tough to get, they did sell a few of these.
Still, thanks for the link. When I get started I might get some photos to post, and I'll post here if the frame is tweaked.

[floating doc]

Long time since the last post. I've had to get through a bankruptcy and now I finally have some financial stability. Not much to spend, but I can finally fix the truck.

I drove the truck a bit over the last year, but mostly it sat. I made sure to run it regularly and drive a bit, but not much.

Yesterday morning we made a junkyard run. I got a core support, hood right fender, headlights/buckets, and bumper filler. I got the bumper last week. Oh yeah, got a AC condenser too. It's the newer OBS style (mid 90 and up), so I don't know if I'll be able to use it. The lines hook up differently.

Tomorrow or saturday the truck's going to my body wizard for some of his special magic. This guy works out of his garage, but he's got about 40+ years of experience.

He was the body shop manager for one of the local Chevy dealers that closed back when GM was on the rocks. He painted the middle of a panel on one of our cars after it was keyed. When I picked it up, he was complaining that it didn't come out right, and I couldn't even see where the edges were.

[floating doc]

And....you got it! The frame is bent!

I haven't seen it yet, but my paint/body guy says that the right horn is tweaked bad enough that he can't get the new core support on.

He wants to put some heat and a comealong on it. I'm thinking of taking it to the body shop and have them put it on the frame machine. I got a quote for $250, which would include one pull. She said if it needed more, they would call. I don't think that sounds too bad. I just hope we can still drive it there. I don't know if the radiator is still in it.