90 Z71 Project

[old chevy man]

Well here is what is going to be a very long build thread of my dad's 1990 RCLB Z71. I figured since we just picked up some panels for it today from the junk yard I would go ahead and start the thread. It has got cancer very bad and is in need of treatment, so I figured it was time. I hate to just see it go to the junk yard. . . . The only good panel on dad's truck is the tailgate, everything else is shot. The interior is in really good shape for how old it is. The driveline is not bad either, it still runs great. I crawled under it the other day and tried checking out the frame and it looked to be ok, I did not see any real BIG problems with it. Plans are to find junk yard panels for it till we get all of them and then paint the truck. It should be fun, I am going to help him fix it up. Tell me what you guys think about it, and maybe give me some pointers about things or whatever.


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Passenger side bottom cab GONE


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Driver side bottom cab GONE


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Junk yard front fenders


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Junk yard passenger door

[old chevy man]

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Really nice bed we picked up tonight. . . found this on craigslist

[loki223]

that's honestly some of the worst rotting in this generation of a truck i've ever seen. I'm guessing y'all use alot of chemicals and de-icer and salt over there? But i'm glad ya'll are gunna fix her up and get her out on the road again. Is she a daily driver? if not i would start stripped the interior to see if there is any hidden rust inside the cab too. I'd hate to do all the work your going to do and than have a floor drop out from under you one day.

[old chevy man]

Ya here in central Illinois they salt the heck out of the roads and on the bridges they use calcium chloride which really makes vehicles rust out. It's not a daily driver anymore. Dad bought her in 97 used, he is the second owner and drove it everyday till about 2006 or 2007 and then started buying gas saver cars. So the old truck has just kind of been sitting around and just gets used when he needs it. And for the cab I believe we are going to try and get a diffrent one. We found one at a junk yard that is completely stripped out, it's just the bare cab, and I put another post on here about that cause that cab at the junk yard is a 1995 cab. But it has absoulutely NO RUST. So I am just kind of cautios about getting it becasue of the diffrent interior in the 95's, I don't know if dad's 90 interior will go in the 95 very well. But other than that it is going to be fun fixing her up I cant wait till it warms up so we can really get to working on it.

[old chevy man]

Just for S&G's, I am sure some of you have seen my avatar but here is dad's truck when he first bought it. . . .
http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_images/4/643/189/39105094002_large.jpg

[Bigswole]

I would hate to have to deal with that much rust. Are you going back with the original color when you paint it?

[old chevy man]

Ya tell me about it, Lol, and not sure about the color, we want it to be a factory GM color and a color that will go with blue interior. Maybe thinking about just a solid color, but I really do like the two tone. . . . . What do you guys think? Got any ideas on factory original GM colors that go with blue interior?

[dixie_fl_angel]

Blue interior is hard to match with anything but white.. i like the two tone :dunno:

[old chevy man]

Ya I like the two tone also, but dad said something about not messing around with a two tone. . . I don't know, I would like it to be two tone but it is dad's truck. I will have to try to talk him into it again.

[TheBigMortboski]

Oh, sounds like a full custom is on the way... If none of the panels are worth saving, and the interior may or may not fit, paint it whatever color you want and do a full custom interior in a color other than blue. Arrival blue is a good one.

[cancritter]

after looking at them door rockers am feelin for ya...you got alota work ahead of you..most everything will have to be replaced.....good start with box and fenders...realy kinda wondering if a full cab swap would be easyer cheaper and quicker...wouldnt rule it out..is gona be a ton of rust issues...on the plus side are lots here that will help ya out with info when you do..gl&paitience is key here...youll probally need front inner fenders as well as the bolts into it will be shot and will more than likely break ..best to take inner and fender of in one piece and youll see what lm getting at

[old chevy man]

Ya I know she is pretty bad, we want to fix her up the right way but we don't have a lot of money, so we are going to have to try and use and save as much as possible as we can though. . . . thats why I said this would be a very long build thread of it. . .I know it looks bad and cause I am sure like you said there is going to be a whole lot more to replace than what we think probably. Just hope we don't run outta money.

[cancritter]

thrifty is key here then...try for inners from 97...look for all your parts from the last year..this will enshure your geting the best parts..probally get those for pocket change if you have the time and paitience to go dig them up
tip...door locks and mechs...look for suburbans..look to rear doors for mechs as thier rarely used and generaly in good shape..pocket change from wreckers..parts for these trucks are cheap from pick a parts becuse you have 10 years xgmc 10 years x chevy trucks so baslicly we have a 20 year supply of parts..no other truck can match that
also all parts from 88-98 are interchangeble so dont be afraid to modernize or update..seats clusters overheads trannys ecus ect ect
lve been working on mine for 5 years now..drove it once for hr...now it just backs in and outa garage as needed...reveal planned for this summer
just be paitient and before ya know it youll be doing your reveal..one step at a time..will be looking forward to it...all the help ya need to do it is here so kick back and enjoy :O)

[old chevy man]

Ya, thanks man

[old chevy man]

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Scored a driver side door at the junk yard today. . . .

[98BlackSierra]

I can't believe that the truck is rusted out that bad, yet the tailgate isn't. The tailgates on both of my trucks have always been the first thing to rust out.

[old chevy man]

Ya, dad and me can't believe it either. I am glad its not though, cause tailgates are the first things to go at the junk yards. They are snatched up before we can ever get to them.

[old chevy man]

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Well, we really wanted to get a diffrent cab, but after long thought and farting around we decided it may be best to try to patch his old one up, so we cut some rockers and cab corners and part of the floors pan out of a truck.


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Then we took the bed off, which was a real chore



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The old frame isn't really that bad considering what the body looked like. We are thinking of using POR15 on it. What do you guys think of POR15? And I think I got dad talked into painting the truck the original color . . . .

[old chevy man]

Its been a few weeks. . . .We borrowed a pressure washer and used one of those pin point turbo swirl tips and blasted the crap outta the frame and the rust went flying off everywhere! And then we blew two holes in the old gas tank, so we called around junk yards looking for a diffrent tank. Cheapest one we could find was $10. And we found one in great shape. . . only thing is they take a cold chisel to the bottom of them and punch holes in them to drain the gas out and we did not know that till we got over there to get it. So it was either pay well over $100 for a new tank or patch this one up. So we bought it and patched it up


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I'm not going to lie, it was a little scary at first welding on a gas tank. . . . .

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Then we rust converted the frame and POR15 the whole thing

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Dad's exhaust rusted off a long time ago, one day while he was going down the interstate it fell off, so we cut some exhaust off of a truck at the junk yard and dad bought a Thrush Welded performance muffler and we welded some exhaust on his truck. . . . Sounds pretty good too.


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[old chevy man]

I have not been getting much done at all lately, I have been pretty busy but dad and me did manage to get the doors and fenders primed.


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[old chevy man]

We got the doors, fenders and tailgate painted, ended up going with dad's factory darker blue and then a diffrent two-tone lighter blue in the middle. Found out how to get bigger pictures to load too. . . .

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[old chevy man]

Dad and me had to fix two of the cab mounts on his frame, they were really bad to where the bushing had more or less fallen through the mount. It was a real pain replacing the mounts especially with the cab still being in the way. You can see the bad ones in the middle and the good ones on the sides.


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I got the tailgate all put back togather and the chevrolet sign on it.

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[malibufreak]

looks like its coming along real nice. it'll look great once its finished.

[dixie_fl_angel]

Lookin good! :thumbup:

[ChrisAU]

So you bought a new Chevrolet sign? Where from?

[old chevy man]

Hey thanks guys I am getting really excited I cant wait till its done, but we have still got a lot to do. That sign I actually got from the junk yard for $5 believe it or not and it's in really good condition. There is no way I could pay new price for one, like out of LMC Truck for $350. The only thing I can say from experience before, if you peel one off that has already been on a tailgate be very careful getting it off. If you bend that sign at all to where it won't lay flat, throw it away because it will never stick back on a tailgate flat. The way I got this one off for dad's truck was I used a long putty knife and a hammer and just very carefully cut through all the tape on the back of the sign to remove it off the tailgate. It took me about 20 minutes to do but I got it off without putting a single bend in it and when I went to tape it on dad's tailgate it laid down real nice and flat.

[ChrisAU]

Well you did a wonderful job! I bought a whole tailgate just because that was in good condition, and painted around it.

[old chevy man]

Finally started getting back to the truck, got the fenders hood and doors off and started cutting up the cab. . . .


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[cancritter]

Finally started getting back to the truck, got the fenders hood and doors off and started cutting up the cab. . . .


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now this brings back memmories of doin my cab...paitience.....nice work lookin good

get some rocker gard and undercoat the crap outa all your doors panels ect..enshure drain spots arent plugged up

[98BlackSierra]

It looks great so far. I really like the new two tone color combination you went with. Keep up the good work!!

[old chevy man]

Thanks guys, it means a lot, and ya were gunna undercoat the crap out of it when were done. . . . Just to say it cause it kinda of suprised me. . . Dad bought this truck in 97 from a dealership used and there was only one owner before him who had it. It had around 120,000 miles on it when dad bought it and he paid a good amount for it. And it was really something, man it was a beautiful truck and dad always keep it clean and everybody loved it. Well I noticed when I took the grille out the core support had an 88 written on it, I didn't really think anything of it. Dad just noticed today since we have the doors off that both driver side door hindges top and bottom have been replaced before. Then I got to thinking. . the driver side front fender was not near as rusted out as the passenger side at all. So i wonder if the truck had been wrecked before dad bought it and they had to replace the core support and front drivers fender, the drivers door and hindges? It just kind of struck me as aw, cause its just something were finding out 15 years later. Dad actually found out who had this truck before him and if he ever sees him dads going to ask him what happened.

[cancritter]

these trucks were parted like mad@painted and sold for 10k a pop by used car dealers back in the day...found this out the hard way with my first 88obs and it was same color and modle as your dads....week after l bought it tranny went....turned out they had stuffed the wrong tranny in there ..after that noticed things like 5th wheel bolt holes in box had masking tape put over them then rockgarded....gotta watch them sneaky bastards....
could be door ect had been replaced due to rust to begin with and front grill may be a result of prievious owner hittin something and parted

[old chevy man]

Got the passenger side welded in . . . . I hope we can get the other side welded in this weekend . . .


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[old chevy man]

Got the other side done. . .


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[98BlackSierra]

Looks good!!

[old chevy man]

Started sanding down the cab and getting it ready for primer, had one of dad's buddies come out and take the windows out for us.

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[old chevy man]

Got the cab painted tonight


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[14GDHPs4ME]

Man, this is EPIC! I can't wait to see it when it's done....absolutely beautiful work!

[LT1/TA]

The truck is looking great,you and your dad are doing some great work.I can't wait to see it back together.

[NHurless93]

Nice work man looks great, any modifications planned or just a clean, original resto?

[old chevy man]

Thanks guys, its just gunna be a clean original restoration.

[RRTEC]

Nice. I will check back in.. SHould be a great build when you are done.

[tylers88]

Thanks guys, its just gunna be a clean original restoration.

Plans sound good, nice to see an original rebuild, progress looks great, really like the paint colors you went with. My only idea would be to get some 5 spoke 17"s from a NBS truck with some nice looking A/Ts.

[old chevy man]

Well we hung doors and put fenders on and got the glass back in. We found a newer style seat with head rest and door panels at the junk yard in a little better shape than dads for only $30 so we put those in and got the interior all done. . . .



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[cancritter]

short of the interior is spittin image of my 88...was a very nice truck when new

[98BlackSierra]

Looks great so far man!! I was going to suggest spraying the hood hinges with some black paint to clean them up a bit. Seemed like a good idea since you've put this much work into it already.

[old chevy man]

Ya, i'll have to do that, I have been doing every little thing I can to make it look just that much better, painting the mirror arms, wiper blade arms, antenna. . . . . Lol

[cancritter]

if you dont tow would put some ss mirrors on it and lose the dumbos

[HuskerChevy]

Looks like you're doing everything the right way man. Can't wait to see how nice it is when you're done with it!

[BoarderDave]

Wow. It looks like its come a long ways already! Very nice work. :D Keep at it! Thanks for sharing the restoration. Always fun to see..

[eskimo4x4]

Great looking project man. I am about to start my build when I get back. Gunna have to find a few yard parts, my truck as an old Forest Service truck. They beat the hell out of it.

[old chevy man]

Ya junk yarding is the way to go. . .thats about all this project is, is junkyard parts.

[14GDHPs4ME]

if you dont tow would put some ss mirrors on it and lose the dumbos

Dumbos FTMFW!! :lol:

[ChrisAU]

Looking good!

[old chevy man]

Started work on the bed. . . .


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[cancritter]

some people have all the fun toys..........

[Tech89]

some people have all the fun toys..........

Agreed.

-Pat


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[old chevy man]

Sorry guys. . I just like it to be as easy and comfortable as possibly Lol I took a pic of my dad's rusted out drivers door for the heck of it. . . .



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[Tech89]

http://carphotos.cardomain.com/images/0015/46/57/15866475_large.jpg

Ouch. That's pretty rusted out.

-Pat



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cancritter]

Sorry guys. . I just like it to be as easy and comfortable as possibly Lol I took a pic of my dad's rusted out drivers door for the heck of it. . . .



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dont mind us...were jealous :O)

[Big2500Red]

Great job!! 95+ mirrors would look great on that.

[Andy H]

Great work! I wish I had my 88 back! Can't wait to see more progress pics

[old chevy man]

Well I guess I didnt tell ya but we are ending up having to put patch panels on the new bed. We thought when we bought it that it was mint, but when we took the wheel arch trim off there was rust bubbles starting behind. So we got to looking on the inside and noticed it was starting to rust, but its not bad, especially not as bad as dad's original bed off of his truck Lol


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And what was hiding behind. . . . Oh ya, rust
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[98BlackSierra]

Good thing you caught it now. That could have been a nasty surprise a few years down the road. Keep up the good work!!

[old chevy man]

Got the patch panels welded in and started puttying

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Got the front end put back togather

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[chevychris]

that looks soooo sharp!

i love what you're doing! this is a great build.

[makattakz71]

Nice Truck. I like the 2 tone paint. Nice to see a thread that's not lifting or bagging.

[old chevy man]

Herculined what we could of the bottom of the bed and then got a can of eastwoods rust proofing and soaked the rest of the inside of the bed down. . . .and got it all primed


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[98BlackSierra]

Looks awesome man. How does the Eastwood rustproofing seem to work?

[old chevy man]

Really good we are impressed with it

[1993-Sierra-Z71]

great job! Wish I could go to the junk yard and find rust free parts! i can barely find OBS's in my local junkyards!!!!

[NHurless93]

Any plans for a roll on or spray on bedliner? Looks like the truck is coming along great, cant wait to see the finished product :thumbup:

[old chevy man]

No, dad got a GM bedliner from the junkyard for $10 in really good shape Lol

[old chevy man]

Got the bed all painted . . . .


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[old chevy man]

What do you guys think!?


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[ChrisAU]

Beautiful!

[bizzo15]

That's quite the restoration, good work!!!

[chevychris]

that looks absolutely AWESOME!!!!!!!

WOW!!! fantastic job!!

[liftit]

Amazing! Looks better than a new truck! Very Nice

[NHurless93]

:10: Love that color scheme, nice to see a clean original restoration

[old chevy man]

Thanks guys, I should get it all finished up and completely done this weekend and then I will post the last of pics. . . .

[old chevy man]

Well fellas I have enjoyed working on this old truck and keeping you guys posted on progress and I hate to say it but she is all done as of today. So here is the last of pics, hope you enjoyed!


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[oldred93]

she looks good, store it in the garage until it's worth the big bucks :D

[chevychris]

that looks absolutely fantastic!!!

and your truck is never really "done" ...there's always something you can do to it!!


:rocking:

[NHurless93]

looks good man, am i going to see this parked in the J.D. lot this fall??? :lol:

[old chevy man]

You know it man, it will be parked there at some point.