WELCOME TO RIVER DAVES PLACE

Bigbore's latest project - 2004 Silverado 2500HD

Bigbore500r

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I either love paying the state of CA sales tax, or im just a glutton for punishment - I bought another truck (chevy of course) and have been wrenching away making it mine.

RDP Member @Deja_Vu sold me a great truck in December of last year, a 2004 2500HD crew cab short bed.

Lightly used with 160k well-cared for miles, and a folder thicker than a phone book with receipts. 6.0 with a fresh 4L80 picked right from the General's parts catalog 30k ago.

After speaking with Dennis I bought it sight unseen, and drove to Havasu to pick it up. The truck was everything he said it was, and It's been to the river 6 times already!

I just recently got around to working on it, and here's what we did over the past 2 weeks.

Picture "Overhaulin" with a budget of $750 :D

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Day I picked it up from Dennis, at Havasu airport. Dennis shed no tears but I could tell he was gonna miss it......

1589334992863.png


1589335087005.png



MOD #1 . . . DETAILING !

Gave it a good scrubbing and started the detail process. Painted the exposed frame and cleaned up the fenderwells, general clean-up and a few gallons of "black magic" to revive the plastics.......


1589335184642.png


1589335278884.png




Up Next...... New Headlights and LED bulb conversions


1589335331314.png


1589335455546.png



Some of Wuhans finest.....

1589335485683.png


New lights installed.....

1589335404898.png



Next up.....remove the side steps.
*Note - ive already torn the crotch out of 1 pair of shorts now that these bars are missing*
But....it looks so cool without them :cool::cool::cool:

1589335720686.png



After the side steps were removed, it was time to level it out. Broke out the tape measure and put a few cranks on the front torsion bars, bringing the front end up 2 1/2". That is all you can get before you get too close to the bump stops and lose sufficient droop travel. You also need to get longer shocks or shock extensions, I will be ordering a set of Bilstiens +1" for this truck. Can't beat the ride of the silver Bilstiens.

Here it is after the step delete and front lift -

1589335913406.png



Up Next . . . Moulding and badge removal.
A adhesive removal wheel makes relatively quick work of the mess these leave behind.

1589335992013.png


1589336005658.png



Now we're talking.......mouldings and badges gone


1589336074864.png


1589336122469.png



Now that its lifted, the 265 / 70 tires were looking a bit on the small side. I thought about looking for some aftermarket rims and tires, but i've always liked the look of the stock "alcoa" style aluminum HD wheels that chevy ran in these years. Plus - keeping the stock offset is your friend when working with a small lift, it keeps the tires from contacting the front bumper and wheel wells. Chevy Ball joints aren't big fans of positive offset wheels, and Dennis had just had the front end of this truck freshened up, so I wanted to keep it that way. So....



1589336386896.png



I took a page out of the ole @2FORCEFULL playbook, and upsized the tires to some beefier 285/75/16's. They look a little funky as they are tall but relatively skinny, but that helps the MPG from being murdered, and the mellow tread pattern is super quiet and rides nice with all that sidewall. For $550OTD, what do ya want? 50k rated Wuhan Warrior AT's.....
The front end lift and new tires warranted getting the alignment re-done, so on the rack it goes......


1589336514936.png



BAM ! ! !


1589336852404.png


1589337050233.png


That's it for now.
Next up . . . tint the front driver and passenger windows, billet grille, LED bed cargo lighting, LED puddle lights under the mirrors, and then it's time to tackle the sound system.......
 

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Ziggy

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I've known Dennis since we were young teens and he has always cared for his stuff with great analism😎. I was wondering what you were gonna do with his truck.
Nicely done.
 

Bigbore500r

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I've known Dennis since we were young teens and he has always cared for his stuff with great analism😎. I was wondering what you were gonna do with his truck.
Nicely done.
He did keep it nice, hopefully he approves of the mods!
 

Big B Hova

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Next mods.....(if you wanna stay up with the truck crowd here in cali

SS cladding kit
Gibson dual side exit exhaust before rear wheel
Gut the cats
Long tubes
Add a dyno tune that wont idle from a local shop
3800 stall for no reason
bigger amazon injectors
Chinese 92mm throttle body
 

Meaney77

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I either love paying the state of CA sales tax, or im just a glutton for punishment - I bought another truck (chevy of course) and have been wrenching away making it mine.

RDP Member @Deja_Vu sold me a great truck in December of last year, a 2004 2500HD crew cab short bed.

Lightly used with 160k well-cared for miles, and a folder thicker than a phone book with receipts. 6.0 with a fresh 4L80 picked right from the General's parts catalog 30k ago.

After speaking with Dennis I bought it sight unseen, and drove to Havasu to pick it up. The truck was everything he said it was, and It's been to the river 6 times already!

I just recently got around to working on it, and here's what we did over the past 2 weeks.

Picture "Overhaulin" with a budget of $750 :D

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Day I picked it up from Dennis, at Havasu airport. Dennis shed no tears but I could tell he was gonna miss it......

View attachment 876123

View attachment 876124


MOD #1 . . . DETAILING !

Gave it a good scrubbing and started the detail process. Painted the exposed frame and cleaned up the fenderwells, general clean-up and a few gallons of "black magic" to revive the plastics.......


View attachment 876125

View attachment 876126



Up Next...... New Headlights and LED bulb conversions


View attachment 876127

View attachment 876129


Some of Wuhans finest.....

View attachment 876131

New lights installed.....

View attachment 876128


Next up.....remove the side steps.
*Note - ive already torn the crotch out of 1 pair of shorts now that these bars are missing*
But....it looks so cool without them :cool::cool::cool:

View attachment 876134


After the side steps were removed, it was time to level it out. Broke out the tape measure and put a few cranks on the front torsion bars, bringing the front end up 2 1/2". That is all you can get before you get too close to the bump stops and lose sufficient droop travel. You also need to get longer shocks or shock extensions, I will be ordering a set of Bilstiens +1" for this truck. Can't beat the ride of the silver Bilstiens.

Here it is after the step delete and front lift -

View attachment 876135


Up Next . . . Moulding and badge removal.
A adhesive removal wheel makes relatively quick work of the mess these leave behind.

View attachment 876136

View attachment 876137


Now we're talking.......mouldings and badges gone


View attachment 876139

View attachment 876140


Now that its lifted, the 265 / 70 tires were looking a bit on the small side. I thought about looking for some aftermarket rims and tires, but i've always liked the look of the stock "alcoa" style aluminum HD wheels that chevy ran in these years. Plus - keeping the stock offset is your friend when working with a small lift, it keeps the tires from contacting the front bumper and wheel wells. Chevy Ball joints aren't big fans of positive offset wheels, and Dennis had just had the front end of this truck freshened up, so I wanted to keep it that way. So....



View attachment 876143


I took a page out of the ole @2FORCEFULL playbook, and upsized the tires to some beefier 285/75/16's. They look a little funky as they are tall but relatively skinny, but that helps the MPG from being murdered, and the mellow tread pattern is super quiet and rides nice with all that sidewall. For $550OTD, what do ya want? 50k rated Wuhan Warrior AT's.....
The front end lift and new tires warranted getting the alignment re-done, so on the rack it goes......


View attachment 876146


BAM ! ! !


View attachment 876147

View attachment 876148

That's it for now.
Next up . . . tint the front driver and passenger windows, billet grille, LED bed cargo lighting, LED puddle lights under the mirrors, and then it's time to tackle the sound system.......
Looks really good..... for a Chevy :)
 

rush1

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I either love paying the state of CA sales tax, or im just a glutton for punishment - I bought another truck (chevy of course) and have been wrenching away making it mine.

RDP Member @Deja_Vu sold me a great truck in December of last year, a 2004 2500HD crew cab short bed.

Lightly used with 160k well-cared for miles, and a folder thicker than a phone book with receipts. 6.0 with a fresh 4L80 picked right from the General's parts catalog 30k ago.

After speaking with Dennis I bought it sight unseen, and drove to Havasu to pick it up. The truck was everything he said it was, and It's been to the river 6 times already!

I just recently got around to working on it, and here's what we did over the past 2 weeks.

Picture "Overhaulin" with a budget of $750 :D

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Day I picked it up from Dennis, at Havasu airport. Dennis shed no tears but I could tell he was gonna miss it......

View attachment 876123

View attachment 876124


MOD #1 . . . DETAILING !

Gave it a good scrubbing and started the detail process. Painted the exposed frame and cleaned up the fenderwells, general clean-up and a few gallons of "black magic" to revive the plastics.......


View attachment 876125

View attachment 876126



Up Next...... New Headlights and LED bulb conversions


View attachment 876127

View attachment 876129


Some of Wuhans finest.....

View attachment 876131

New lights installed.....

View attachment 876128


Next up.....remove the side steps.
*Note - ive already torn the crotch out of 1 pair of shorts now that these bars are missing*
But....it looks so cool without them :cool::cool::cool:

View attachment 876134


After the side steps were removed, it was time to level it out. Broke out the tape measure and put a few cranks on the front torsion bars, bringing the front end up 2 1/2". That is all you can get before you get too close to the bump stops and lose sufficient droop travel. You also need to get longer shocks or shock extensions, I will be ordering a set of Bilstiens +1" for this truck. Can't beat the ride of the silver Bilstiens.

Here it is after the step delete and front lift -

View attachment 876135


Up Next . . . Moulding and badge removal.
A adhesive removal wheel makes relatively quick work of the mess these leave behind.

View attachment 876136

View attachment 876137


Now we're talking.......mouldings and badges gone


View attachment 876139

View attachment 876140


Now that its lifted, the 265 / 70 tires were looking a bit on the small side. I thought about looking for some aftermarket rims and tires, but i've always liked the look of the stock "alcoa" style aluminum HD wheels that chevy ran in these years. Plus - keeping the stock offset is your friend when working with a small lift, it keeps the tires from contacting the front bumper and wheel wells. Chevy Ball joints aren't big fans of positive offset wheels, and Dennis had just had the front end of this truck freshened up, so I wanted to keep it that way. So....



View attachment 876143


I took a page out of the ole @2FORCEFULL playbook, and upsized the tires to some beefier 285/75/16's. They look a little funky as they are tall but relatively skinny, but that helps the MPG from being murdered, and the mellow tread pattern is super quiet and rides nice with all that sidewall. For $550OTD, what do ya want? 50k rated Wuhan Warrior AT's.....
The front end lift and new tires warranted getting the alignment re-done, so on the rack it goes......


View attachment 876146


BAM ! ! !


View attachment 876147

View attachment 876148

That's it for now.
Next up . . . tint the front driver and passenger windows, billet grille, LED bed cargo lighting, LED puddle lights under the mirrors, and then it's time to tackle the sound system.......
Killer truck right there,exactly what I'm looking for
 

Bigbore500r

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Next mods.....(if you wanna stay up with the truck crowd here in cali

SS cladding kit
Gibson dual side exit exhaust before rear wheel
Gut the cats
Long tubes
Add a dyno tune that wont idle from a local shop
3800 stall for no reason
bigger amazon injectors
Chinese 92mm throttle body

HMU for dat street toon LMK
 

Halvecto

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I've always liked the understated look of mostly stock with a few practical adjustments. Smart money. You just took about 75k miles off that truck.......nice.
 

cofooter

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I either love paying the state of CA sales tax, or im just a glutton for punishment - I bought another truck (chevy of course) and have been wrenching away making it mine.

RDP Member @Deja_Vu sold me a great truck in December of last year, a 2004 2500HD crew cab short bed.

Lightly used with 160k well-cared for miles, and a folder thicker than a phone book with receipts. 6.0 with a fresh 4L80 picked right from the General's parts catalog 30k ago.

After speaking with Dennis I bought it sight unseen, and drove to Havasu to pick it up. The truck was everything he said it was, and It's been to the river 6 times already!

I just recently got around to working on it, and here's what we did over the past 2 weeks.

Picture "Overhaulin" with a budget of $750 :D

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Day I picked it up from Dennis, at Havasu airport. Dennis shed no tears but I could tell he was gonna miss it......

View attachment 876123

View attachment 876124


MOD #1 . . . DETAILING !

Gave it a good scrubbing and started the detail process. Painted the exposed frame and cleaned up the fenderwells, general clean-up and a few gallons of "black magic" to revive the plastics.......


View attachment 876125

View attachment 876126



Up Next...... New Headlights and LED bulb conversions


View attachment 876127

View attachment 876129


Some of Wuhans finest.....

View attachment 876131

New lights installed.....

View attachment 876128


Next up.....remove the side steps.
*Note - ive already torn the crotch out of 1 pair of shorts now that these bars are missing*
But....it looks so cool without them :cool::cool::cool:

View attachment 876134


After the side steps were removed, it was time to level it out. Broke out the tape measure and put a few cranks on the front torsion bars, bringing the front end up 2 1/2". That is all you can get before you get too close to the bump stops and lose sufficient droop travel. You also need to get longer shocks or shock extensions, I will be ordering a set of Bilstiens +1" for this truck. Can't beat the ride of the silver Bilstiens.

Here it is after the step delete and front lift -

View attachment 876135


Up Next . . . Moulding and badge removal.
A adhesive removal wheel makes relatively quick work of the mess these leave behind.

View attachment 876136

View attachment 876137


Now we're talking.......mouldings and badges gone


View attachment 876139

View attachment 876140


Now that its lifted, the 265 / 70 tires were looking a bit on the small side. I thought about looking for some aftermarket rims and tires, but i've always liked the look of the stock "alcoa" style aluminum HD wheels that chevy ran in these years. Plus - keeping the stock offset is your friend when working with a small lift, it keeps the tires from contacting the front bumper and wheel wells. Chevy Ball joints aren't big fans of positive offset wheels, and Dennis had just had the front end of this truck freshened up, so I wanted to keep it that way. So....



View attachment 876143


I took a page out of the ole @2FORCEFULL playbook, and upsized the tires to some beefier 285/75/16's. They look a little funky as they are tall but relatively skinny, but that helps the MPG from being murdered, and the mellow tread pattern is super quiet and rides nice with all that sidewall. For $550OTD, what do ya want? 50k rated Wuhan Warrior AT's.....
The front end lift and new tires warranted getting the alignment re-done, so on the rack it goes......


View attachment 876146


BAM ! ! !


View attachment 876147

View attachment 876148

That's it for now.
Next up . . . tint the front driver and passenger windows, billet grille, LED bed cargo lighting, LED puddle lights under the mirrors, and then it's time to tackle the sound system.......
LOOKS GREAT1
 

HitIt

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Awesome. I am still driving my 03. They are great trucks. Solid. Simple. Easy and cheap to fix since they are what the gardeners roll in.

First thing I did when I got mine was de-badging and taking the moulding off. Makes the truck look 1000x better.

You can keep that truck for the next 10 years and you will probably only need to put 2k into it for random shit unless you tow more than you should, faster than you should. The 6.0 and that trans like to be slowly abused. 4k RPM up the grapevine all day long.

Is the fuel pump singing?
 

rickym20

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How do you like the LED headlight upgrade? In process of picking away at my Dads ride(05 2500) he had before passing. I got the wuhan headlight covers too since originals were beyond repair. Kept the original bulbs but it throws off a uneven pattern. Trying to talk myself into getting the GM covers but if the LED works that might be better.
 

sintax

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so random question, when you pulled the badges, did you have any ghosting? I wanted to pull my 2500s from the door, but i'm worried i'll see it still...
 

Bigbore500r

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Awesome. I am still driving my 03. They are great trucks. Solid. Simple. Easy and cheap to fix since they are what the gardeners roll in.

First thing I did when I got mine was de-badging and taking the moulding off. Makes the truck look 1000x better.

You can keep that truck for the next 10 years and you will probably only need to put 2k into it for random shit unless you tow more than you should, faster than you should. The 6.0 and that trans like to be slowly abused. 4k RPM up the grapevine all day long.

Is the fuel pump singing?

Fuel pump is quiet. Needs exhaust manifold gaskets, hopefully not the notorious broken manifold bolt
 

Bigbore500r

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so random question, when you pulled the badges, did you have any ghosting? I wanted to pull my 2500s from the door, but i'm worried i'll see it still...

Not really on the badges. Looks like slight ghosting at top of mouldings but there is a body line there so you really can’t tell. I haven’t even waxed it yet, I think some light compound and a coat of carnuba will take care of it
 

Bigbore500r

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How do you like the LED headlight upgrade? In process of picking away at my Dads ride(05 2500) he had before passing. I got the wuhan headlight covers too since originals were beyond repair. Kept the original bulbs but it throws off a uneven pattern. Trying to talk myself into getting the GM covers but if the LED works that might be better.
The LED throws a ton of light, I went with a pretty high output bulb. I can see where the reflector pattern isn’t perfect, but there is so much light I’m good with it.
 

Dbroncos

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I have the same truck except mine has the Duramax. my lights look just like your old ones. was the light upgrade easy to do?
 

Bigbore500r

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Good luck ! With that many miles , count on a few broken bolts .
I aint skeered! If I pull the head to fix that, i'll drop some newer design "LS7" lifters in it and fresh trays while i'm in there. Then it's so tempting to port the heads. and slide a little towing grind in there.......lol. The rabbit hole gets deep
 

Bigbore500r

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I have the same truck except mine has the Duramax. my lights look just like your old ones. was the light upgrade easy to do?
Yea super easy. 30 minutes with nothing more than a pair of pliers and a flat head screwdriver. If you go LED on the turn signals, dont forget to order resistors to keep them flashing at the factory rate.
 

Bigbore500r

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I was just going to say something like that!! All that work and it's still say's Chevy on it. Back in the 70's- 80's the only good thing about a Chevy was when the body fell apart you could still put the BB in your 18' jet boat!! :D :D

Post up your high mileage bad ass Ford! In it's own thread of course 👋
 

Bigbore500r

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Does anyone know of a good front license plate bracket that mounts the plate correctly and looks clean? The factory stopped short of giving a shit apparently. CA problems....
 

Tank

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I might have to have you come over and feed you a bunch of beers and BBQ while you do the headlight swap on mine ;) 😁 👍
 

Bigbore500r

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I might have to have you come over and feed you a bunch of beers and BBQ while you do the headlight swap on mine ;) 😁 👍
Make it tito's and ill do Brett's too! Headlight swap party, have everyone looking factory fresh
 

HOOTER SLED-

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Wanna trade for my old one? I’m basically recreating it lol
Lol...I'm good.....you can come do my headlights too...lol. Been wanting to order new ones myself. I'm due for tires....thinking I wanna bump up to 35s...should be good on the gearing right? You remember what I have?
 

Livewire Fabworks

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Where did you source your bulbs from? Have been looking into doing the same thing with my 07.
 

Bigbore500r

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Lol...I'm good.....you can come do my headlights too...lol. Been wanting to order new ones myself. I'm due for tires....thinking I wanna bump up to 35s...should be good on the gearing right? You remember what I have?
You have 4:10, moving up to 35’s will probably make you notice a drop in power and MPG. I’d leave that combo alone and stick with the current size, it gets damn good mpg for some reason.
 

HOOTER SLED-

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You have 4:10, moving up to 35’s will probably make you notice a drop in power and MPG. I’d leave that combo alone and stick with the current size, it gets damn good mpg for some reason.
Yea....I'd figure I would feel it with the 35s......but shit, you call that good mileage as is? Lol....
I think if I go with the new Wildpeaks....it should look a lil more bulkier anyways.....that's what I put on my Colorado, and I like the look. Would actually be the same exact size....just different wheels.
 

Bigbore500r

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Yea....I'd figure I would feel it with the 35s......but shit, you call that good mileage as is? Lol....
I think if I go with the new Wildpeaks....it should look a lil more bulkier anyways.....that's what I put on my Colorado, and I like the look. Would actually be the same exact size....just different wheels.
When I had your truck, I was getting 15.5 - 16 MPG Fron the SFV to River, verified by hand calc math. That was running cruise at 72, without traffic. That's good for a 3/4 ton gasser on 33" AT's ! For our year trucks, anyways. If they had steeper OD ratio that would help mileage a ton, the 4L80 has nowhere near the OD the 4l60, or newer 6-10 speeds have available.

The new truck only pulls 14.5 doing the same thing (just came to river last night). But, its 100% stock. no intake, no exhaust, no tune. The tune helps alot
 

Deja_Vu

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Looks great Jerry! Definitely looks like a new truck. I waxed that thing every year trying to keep the paint nice.
 

Bigbore500r

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On to the next phase......dent removal!
The truck was kept in great shape, but it had the usual dents and dings that come with 15 years of use.

Lee, owner of "Dent Ding King" came to my house this morning on a recommendation, and did a great job!
There were a few minor dings that I knew would be easy, but there was a dent / crease in the bedside that i thought may not come out, and a good sized "palm print" from a forcefull tailgate slam. Lee got 'em all out!

Check out the before and after...

BEFORE :( 👎
1590094055431.png


AFTER :cool: 👍
1590094116461.png

1590094144908.png

1590094269451.png


If anyone needs a good paintless dent guy in So-Cal / San Fernando Valley / Nearby Ventura County areas..... Lee is a great choice.

1590094316465.png


Next Phase......Tint and Stereo

To be continued
 
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