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Silverado SS

Backlash

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Good evening folks! I finally took a break from work and other projects to start a thread on this truck. My wife and I picked this up several weeks ago from a member and have enjoyed it since the day we drove it home. The previous owner took really good care of this vehicle and it shows. I doubt you could find a cleaner vehicle that has been driven and enjoyed by its owner.

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Backlash

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When we bought this truck, we also received a thick stack of documentation from the date of original purchase to the date of its last service. It truly has been well cared for and has been serviced by reputable shops.

Doing a little crude math, I figured this truck was driven on average about 61 miles per month for the last three years. ๐Ÿ˜Ž

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After a trip to my local smog shop and local AAA office, everything was paid for and brought up to date.

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Backlash

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I sold my Home Depot and dump-run truck last year and had a stack of "Things" that needed to be disposed of. So, the first weekend after purchasing this truck, I did the unthinkable. ๐Ÿ˜

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I know I know!! Sacrilege! ๐Ÿ˜
 

Backlash

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Dont worry, it was immediately taken to the wash and the bed was as clean as the day we bought it. My wife was happy too since we unloaded a bunch of drywall scraps and some old unused furniture. It helped to "Sell her" on the truck since we were using it like a truck (Cough cough). LMAO!

The previous owner added a four-piece folding bed cover that rides on top of the bed rails. It works, but isn't quite the look I would like for this truck.

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The black rails on the sides of the bed cover are secured to the bed in a manner that makes the entire assembly easily removable.

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When installed and latched, the bed cover closes but isn't as secure as I would like. The entire cover slides forward and to the rear slightly with normal driving. The latches that secure the bed cover in place when closed are plastic and are adjustable. They work, but only marginally well.
 

Backlash

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So, I've decided to remove this black bed cover and begin working on a bed cover that I think this truck needs. It will be a flush-mount fiberglass cover that rests on rails inside the bed. It will be a little project that may take some time to finish up, so I'll give some updates along the way. Moving on for now....

The exterior of this truck is really clean with very few smudges, marks or scratches. It truly looks as though it's been stored in a warehouse for the last several years. Well, to be honest, it was. ๐Ÿ˜Ž

I had some spare time today, so I thought I'd do a little spring cleaning.

Before....

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After....

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Backlash

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As you can tell, this truck is REALLY clean and I am beyond thrilled with it! I told the previous owner when we purchased it that I would do my absolute best to take care of it. That is what I aim to do.

๐Ÿ˜Ž

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Backlash

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Here is a picture that shows one of the reasons why I want to change the bed cover. This is a picture I took of the top edge of the tailgate. You can see the slight scratches in the paint from the bed cover sliding forward and back. By removing this current bed cover, I'll be able to prevent unnecessary wear and scratches on the tops of the bed rails and the top of the tailgate.

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The marks are slight and I should be able to polish them out. All finished for today! Stay safe and thank you for following along!
 
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Backlash

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Yours looks fantastic too Sir! ๐Ÿ‘ As of right now, I'm trying NOT to do much to it. There are a few things I'd like to upgrade, but they are mostly cosmetic items. Window tint, anti-theft, bed cover, tires in a few months and whatever else I come across. I need to funnel money towards some other projects, so for right now, I'm hoping not to have any significant issues with this truck. ๐Ÿ˜‰

What about yours? Stock or not? I see the tips poking out in front of the rear wheel..... ๐Ÿ˜Ž
 

SoCalZero

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Yours looks fantastic too Sir! [emoji106] As of right now, I'm trying NOT to do much to it. There are a few things I'd like to upgrade, but they are mostly cosmetic items. Window tint, anti-theft, bed cover, tires in a few months and whatever else I come across. I need to funnel money towards some other projects, so for right now, I'm hoping not to have any significant issues with this truck. [emoji6]

What about yours? Stock or not? I see the tips poking out in front of the rear wheel..... [emoji41]

Thanks. If you can find one(discontinued), a Gemtop GT Classic are nice bed covers. They sit pretty flush to the bed. My truck is not stock. I have full 3โ€ exhaust, cat delete, long tube headers, cold air intake, custom tune, 85 shot of nitrous, bed cover and lowered with wheels obviously. The things that are major problems that I have had with this truck are the transmission going out a few times (I drive this thing pretty hard) and the limited slip took a shit around 100k. Other than that everything is pretty solid. If you decide to mod it I recommend cold air intake, exhaust and handheld tuner. It will wake up the truck. Let me know if you have any questions Iโ€™ll be glad to help.
 

Backlash

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Thanks. If you can find one(discontinued), a Gemtop GT Classic are nice bed covers. They sit pretty flush to the bed. My truck is not stock. I have full 3โ€ exhaust, cat delete, long tube headers, cold air intake, custom tune, 85 shot of nitrous, bed cover and lowered with wheels obviously. The things that are major problems that I have had with this truck are the transmission going out a few times (I drive this thing pretty hard) and the limited slip took a shit around 100k. Other than that everything is pretty solid. If you decide to mod it I recommend cold air intake, exhaust and handheld tuner. It will wake up the truck. Let me know if you have any questions Iโ€™ll be glad to help.

Right on thank you!! ๐Ÿ‘ The goal is to enjoy it for now and keep it as clean as possible with only a few tasteful mods. I need to take it easy on this one because I've got some work I need to do on other projects. You know how that goes! ๐Ÿ˜
 

SoCalZero

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Nice truck! What size tires and rims are you running? Is that a 3/5 drop?

Thanks. I am running 22x10 Raceline wheels with 305/40-22 tires. Itโ€™s about a 3/5 drop. I did DJM drop spindles and turned down torsion bars in front and shackles and hangers in the rear.
 

Bowtiepower00

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Great thread, and beautiful truck. Eyeballed the classified ad way too much. Nice score. And good to see it being treated right. Have a soft spot for Victory Red.
 

Backlash

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Thank you for the compliments Sir! We went to "Look" at the truck and when I pulled up next to it, I knew we were in trouble. The truck was immaculate with very few flaws. It has been really well cared for and the more I walked around and looked at it, the more excited I got. When my wife said "We should buy it," that was it! ๐Ÿ˜ I've really enjoyed it for the short time we've had it!

We went out to dinner tonight and as we were heading home, I followed a Dodge with a Cummins. For about a second, I missed my old Dodge truck. I thought about this SS and immediately thought "What Dodge?" LMAO!! ๐Ÿ˜
 

Backlash

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I spent a few minutes on the truck today. We live in a pretty safe area in SoCal and this truck is usually parked safely, whether at work or at home. But I've been the victim of thefts before which may or may not have been preventable. Tailgates. For whatever reason, thieves like truck tailgates. And if you're familiar with these Silverados, it takes about 20 seconds to remove an unsecured tailgate. And there goes about a grand.

I've been searching online for hinge locks and tailgate handle locks and have seen mixed reviews of both. I've been happy with McGuard products for wheel locks and figured they would have something for this year truck. Nope. No such luck. Well, I'm pretty ignorant and figured they had to have something that would work.

So I ran down to the local cheapo-deluxe auto parts store to see if maybe they had something in stock. They did, but it clearly states on the packaging that it's for 2007-2020 Silverados only. That HAS to be a typo. ๐Ÿ˜

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Backlash

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No, it wasn't a typo. This sucker doesnt fit whatsoever. Let's see what we can do with this mess. Essentially, it's a hose clamp with a fancy little plastic locking mechanism. I like that it's a little bit more than "Just a hose clamp," but it is nothing to really write home about. So I started cutting and trimming and grinding on this little McGuard lock.

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After removing the tailgate about 5-8 times and cutting a little bit of this plastic lock off at a time, I finally got it to work. I trimmed most of the plastic away and cut off quite a bit of the metal band. I installed it upside down with the tiny McGuard "Key" facing down towards the ground. I dont plan on taking this tailgate off, but if I do, I'll just have to do it from underneath the truck. No big deal.

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As you can see, there isn't much left from the original piece. But it works and fits in between the bed and the tailgate. You can see a tiny bit of the black plastic locking mechanism from underneath the tailgate, but I can live with that.

This isn't a guaranteed "Lock" per se, but it does prevent someone from walking up and simply lifting the gate off of the back of the truck. And you cant simply unscrew it like you can a hose clamp. So for $20, and some time with a grinder, I'm happy with the outcome.

McGuard Lock # 76029 DOES NOT fit these trucks right out of the package. But it can with some creativity. ๐Ÿ˜Ž
 

Backlash

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Good evening!

It's been awhile since I've updated this thread, but I've absolutely thoroughly enjoyed owning and driving this truck. It sounds good, runs good and I continually get a "Thumbs up" from people on the streets.

Last week, I had a guy flag me down and he asked me to pull over. I didn't feel threatened, so I did and we chatted for a bit. He asked me if the truck was for sale and I kinda laughed. I said "No, not really." He said he was interested in the truck and asked me to name a price. Well, I threw out a somewhat ridiculous dollar amount and he said "I'll take it." Then he pulled up his sleeve and showed me a tattoo on his left arm. He had a cat eye Silverado tattoo! He wasn't joking, he really wanted to buy this thing. I took down his number and we went our separate ways. As I drove away, foot on the skinny pedal, I thought "Nahhhhhh, I'm not selling this thing!" ๐Ÿ˜

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I typically take pride in washing my trucks and taking my time to enjoy the process. I felt I needed to be spoiled today, so I let some other dudes do the heavy lifting.

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This Silverado still looks as good today as it did the day we bought it. I love this truck!
 

Backlash

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When driving around, I rarely have the radio off. There is usually something "Heavy" playing, which oftentimes drowns out any noises. I did pick up a slight humming noise from the driver's side front end, so I assumed the wheel bearings are starting to go. After the wash, I ran over to the parts store and grabbed a few goodies. I headed back home and got to work.

The plan was to knock out a quick oil and filter change and a simple air cleaner swap. I grabbed my tool roll and dove down underneath this sucker to pop the drain plug and pull the filter. And then I realized just how low this truck is! I could barely squeeze underneath, and I'm no Dave Johnson! ๐Ÿ˜

I pulled myself back out from underneath the truck and went to grab a floor jack and some jackstands. This bitch be low! ๐Ÿ˜

Once I gained about six inches of clearance, I crawled back underneath to do those two simple things. The drain plug was easy peezy and a no brainer. The filter, not so much. Remember, this truck is AWD, so there is an axle running underneath the pan in front of the trans crossmember. There isn't a ton of room up under there. Once I grabbed ahold of that filter, I couldn't budge it....at all. Zilch. Nada. Nothing. OK, no big deal. I'll crawl back out again, and go grab a filter wrench. Back to the garage I went.

I looked through every single drawer in my big box, checked everywhere on my workbench and shelves, and couldn't find it anywhere! WTF!!! ๐Ÿ˜

Well, it's time to move on to the next option! A bigger hammer!

I slammed a screwdriver through the side of the filter which started pouring out on my arm. No big deal, it's just black sludge. LMAO! I quickly spun that sucker off and replaced it with a new K&N filter.

I know people have different opinions about which filter is "The best" and many will say you should use this filter or that filter. Thank you, I appreciate the recommendations but I'll stick with what I've been using for the last 25 years. The biggest reason I like these is they offer the ability to put a socket on the bottom of the K&N filters when the time comes to remove them. On this truck, oil changes will be a lot easier in the future due to this simple feature.

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I popped out the paper air filter that was in the truck and replaced it with a K&N drop in filter. I like the fact this truck is mostly original, so this filter was a no brainer.

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I topped off the Mobil1 and wiped everything down. I fired up the truck and I could immediately hear a difference. I could hear the air sucking into the intake more so now than I could with the paper filter. It's hard to explain, but it sounded as though the truck was breathing easier. This is a good thing!

Overall it was a productive day and I'm happy with completing this simple process. Being underneath the truck allowed me to take a look around, and see that a few other minor things need to be addressed. I'll work on gathering those parts and I'll update this thread with any other progress. As always, thank you for following along! Stay safe! ๐Ÿค“
 

Backlash

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Good morning! I was out running some errands this morning and stopped by the window tint shop to see if they were open. As I was pulling in, the owner came out and greeted me. He said they had time to do the front windows, and moved me to the front of the line. I didnt want anything dark, and simply tried to match the front tint to the rear window tint.

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The guys did a pretty good job and it turned out nice. We chose a Solar Guard film over 3M as the owner said this film was giving them good results. It also came with a lifetime replacement, so I can't complain about that. When all was said and done, I paid the man and went to leave. The truck wouldn't start.

๐Ÿคฃ

After about a minute on the battery charger, it fired up and I was off to the Interstate Battery store.

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This current battery is dated 2014. I think it's safe to say we got some mileage out of that sucker! ๐Ÿคฃ They pulled this battery and tossed it aside. I asked them to replace it with an Interstate AGM battery like what's in my other truck, and the service technician laughed. He said "We don't have any, and don't know when we'll be getting any more." I asked about an Optima battery and he said they were out of all of those too! LMAO! I ended up getting an Interstate MTP - 78 and called it a day. This battery dropped right in and comes with a 3 year free replacement warranty, so it should last a little while.

I left the house this morning expecting to spend about $200 today.... Well, needless to say, I doubled that. All in a days work! ๐Ÿ˜
 
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Backlash

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Thank you Sir! ๐Ÿ‘ I can't take credit for it, I'm just the temporary custodian. ๐Ÿ˜Ž
 

Backlash

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Good evening! Just bumping this thread back to the top.

My wife and her best friend took her daughters to the Taylor Swift concert tonight. That left me with a few hours to spend unsupervised. ๐Ÿคฃ

I picked up some products at a local detail supply house and went to work. The finish is pretty good on this truck, but it needed a little love. I cleaned things up and did a minor polish job followed up with a ceramic wax and a second layer of wax in case I missed a spot. The end result speaks for itself. I still need to finish a few other panels, but I think it looks pretty damn good!

Below, you can see the "Start" at the bottom of the picture. The middle of the picture is after the polish and the top of the picture is after wax.

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Getting there!
 

Backlash

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I finished about half the truck before I ran out of daylight. So far so good!!

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Cooter01

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Clean ride! Look forward to the progress. I will say have a trans builder do a transgo shift kit, will keep the trans alive for a lot longer without harsh shifts.
 

Backlash

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Good evening!

I made some time today to replace some worn out steering components. I picked these inner and outer tie rods up some time ago, but hadn't made the time to swap them out. I figured I was putting this off long enough. I scheduled an alignment for tomorrow morning, so that forced me to knock these out today.

One thing I noticed when removing the old parts, was the nut on the bottom of the outer tie rods. It seemed to be a standard nut with no provision for a cotter pin. I can't remember if GM uses a cotter pin on the outer tie rods from the factory, but it still seemed odd that it didn't have one. One of the nuts was somewhat "Easy" to remove which I didn't like. Anyhow, here are the old and the new replacements.

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A short time later, I was all done! I didn't post a picture when I finished the passenger side, but it looks almost as good as the driver's side. Hahaha!!

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While I had her jacked up, I also did a quick oil change. Why not, I'm already there.

One thing I don't like about this truck is the way the frame looks. It looks dingy and dirty to me. Everything else on this truck is pretty clean....so this stands out as an eyesore to me. I need to replace the bushings on the upper and lower A-arms, the upper and lower ball joints and I need new shocks too. So that may be the time where I put this baby up on stands and figure out a solution to the frame. For now, I'll just keep enjoying it "As is." ๐Ÿ˜‰

Today was a fun day! As always, thank you for following along! Stay safe! ๐Ÿ‘
 
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eand28

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My duramax just had nuts on the tierods with no cotter pins. Upper and lower balljoints were the same way until I replaced them. New ones came with cotter pins and castle nuts
 

Backlash

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My duramax just had nuts on the tierods with no cotter pins. Upper and lower balljoints were the same way until I replaced them. New ones came with cotter pins and castle nuts
Thank you I appreciate the input Sir! ๐Ÿ‘
 
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