🔧 BUILD Polishing a turd v. Clapped out GMT800 Yukon.

[Outlaw]

I don’t expect this to be super entertaining for most, but I’m bored and I think some will like this.

So, those that frequent my ongoing vehicle thread know about this truck. I’ve owned it just about a year. Purchased it from a Ritchie Bros auction for $1,100 with 281,000 miles. Ended up finding some paperwork in it, figured out the company that owned it and by chance had a friend that is a foreman over there. Found out it was originally the owner of the companies truck, purchased new in ‘05. He put most of the miles on it from ‘05-‘15 when he got a new one, and it was given to the office staff for running to go get permits filed with the city, DMV, coffee runs, etc.

When I got it it ran/drove. Had a CEL, flat tire, wheel bearing noise and was dusty as hell from sitting in the auction yard.

It had 281,000 miles on it when I got it, currently just shy of 306,000. I did a fair amount of work to it right when I got it.

Truck- $1,100
RockAuto generic wheel bearing- $56 x2
Plugs/wires- $38
Upstream o2’s (CEL)- $110
Front pads, rear pads/rotors, new caliper bracket, caliper pins and boots- $166
Front window tint- $100

Everything except the wheel bearings and plug wires was AC Delco.

$1,626 invested so far.

Then I decided to put a plow setup on it. Already owned the Western plow, wiring harnesses and controller. Got a used set of truck side mounts for $200 and a conversion bracket from the newer mounts to older plow for $150.



Plowed all last winter without a hiccup, all word of mouth and FB posts. Made like $6,400 lmao.

Only other thing I’ve done to it recently was the braided brake line off the master that decided to blow, that was $33 on Amazon next day for an OE line.

So I have $2,009 dollars into this truck. It runs great, makes great oil pressure and does 85 down the highway without a shake, shimmy or pull. My only gripe (moreso my GF and parents) is that it’s starting to look kinda ratty. The hood, rockers and drivers side wheel arch are starting to rust.

The plan is to track down some Tahoe fender flares, a new hood in the same color (maybe HD hood??) and cut out the rockers, treat them with POR, cavity wax the dried POR and put plastic covers over them. Maybe track down some NBS 20’s for the summer? It’s going to need manifolds done next spring. Just had an adjacent bolt brake next to an already broken one, so it sounds a little scrap truck like when it’s cold. Shuts up after 45-60 seconds.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. What would y’all do with it? I plan on running it and working the shit out of it as long as possible for as cheap as possible. Think of it as a budget GMT-800 torture test.

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[IDAFC21]

I'd say its done you well for what you have into it

 

[SpeedSpeak2me]

If you're comfortable doing the body work I'd say go for it. You've definitely gotten your money's worth out of it, and mechanically it is still going strong, and that is what counts.

Plus, having the practice on doing the rockers will come in handy when I come begging and pleading with a wad of cash hoping you'll be willing to tackle what is left of mine ?

 

[Outlaw]

I'd say its done you well for what you have into it

That’s kinda the point of this thread, it’s treated me so well I feel like it’s time to give it some love. I wanted to give the back story for those that haven’t been following along lol.

If you're comfortable doing the body work I'd say go for it. You've definitely gotten your money's worth out of it, and mechanically it is still going strong, and that is what counts.

Plus, having the practice on doing the rockers will come in handy when I come begging and pleading with a wad of cash hoping you'll be willing to tackle what is left of mine ?

Well, that’s the thing. What I planned on doing were these plastic rocker covers that just get riveted in. The inners are completely solid still as well as the lips on the outer. Plan was to cut everything out how I would if I were to do metal replacement panels. POR-15 it and then put the plastic covers on. I’m not super confident with metal work. But by doing that I would preserve what’s still there, and if I decided to try and tackle it I would have a good starting platform.

I should also mention that I never intended for this to be a truck I drove. Originally the GF was going to get it, she didn’t want the gas mileage. At that point I decided to just plow with it. And then once I got it sorted out mechanically I started driving it around town instead of the diesel which turned into all the time.

 

[Outlaw]

These are what the flares will look like, but I’ll have them painted body color.

I miss that Tahoe. Pretty much the inspiration for this Yukon.

 

[PANDA]

Good buy Frank.

Just keep it going for the pennies it will cost you. Thats what I am doing with mine at 295K. I wish I could do body work.

 

[Outlaw]

I don’t plan on getting rid of it until the frame breaks like my last one.

 

[SpeedSpeak2me]

I don’t plan on getting rid of it until the frame breaks like my last one.

Same here. And at this rate might not take too long with it and the body mounts being exposed.

mechanically it’ll keep rocking while everything around it rusts and rots away.

 

[Outlaw]

Same here. And at this rate might not take too long with it and the body mounts being exposed.

mechanically it’ll keep rocking while everything around it rusts and rots away.

The 900’s seem to have far more structurally compromising rust issues just from my personal auction inspection experience. 800’s it really takes a lot for inner rockers and floors to rot (read: salty work boots from a plow truck) but I’ve seen enough 900’s with rotted floors that I’ve started checking each one. My ‘13 Silverado has some rocker rust starting but thankfully cab corners are still solid.

 

[Outlaw]

Mechanically the 900’s are great except for some stupid wiring issues I’ve encountered. I avoid the 5.3‘s because of the DOD issues, but my ‘13 has 286,000 miles on its 6.0/ 6L90 without any major issues. Had an 08 1500 with the 4.3 V6 with 320k. Buddy has a ‘12 2500HD with 307k. All of them have been awesome after some very minimal sorting like an o2 sensor, brake caliper, or something else you’d expect on an ex fleet vehicle of any mileage.

I should note all of the aforementioned 900’s came from the same fleet that takes excellent care of their vehicles because they see a lot of miles in comparison to other companies. They have 2015 Silverados hitting the auctions with 330k+ on them.

 

[v6buicks]

I hope to see some posts about the plastic rocker caps and how well they hold up. They seem like a genius idea.

 

[Outlaw]

Have them on a few of the plow trucks and they’ve been great. All GMT-800 pickups. Even being abused, hitting snow banks stacking piles and whatnot they’ve never cracked. These will have it easy with the running boards for protection.

 

[Outlaw]

I will say I’m on the fence about the plastic covers for two reasons with this truck. They are expensive, like $300 all said and done for good ones and it’s still a band aid. Also, they’re going to require a good amount of work to make right. Running boards are going to have to come off, a lot of prep, etc. realistically the only difference between doing them and metal replacements is trimming to fit and welding. And the metal ones can be had for like $65/side.

So I’m torn. A recent thought has been to give the metal ones a try but to use body adhesive to secure them instead of welding. I could treat both surfaces and not burn off anything preventing corrosion in the process.

 

[Outlaw]

This is what I’m dealing with rust wise. It really hasn’t gotten much worse since I’ve had the truck. I fluid filmed inside of the rockers, bottoms of doors, pulled the taillights and shit before last winter.

 

[Outlaw]

Update.

Truck started having a low oil pressure issue on cold start. Currently have the truck idling in the driveway with 6qt of ATF in it trying to clean out the gunk and bring it back around. If that doesn't change things, I'll be dropping the pan to replace the pickup tube o-ring.

Before pic for reference. On super cold days it would actually stay low enough for the warning alarm to go off.

 

[smug]

I’m interested to see what the outcome of the atf will be

 

[Outlaw]

Update:

From what I can see so far, it worked great. As soon as I fired it up with the ATF the pressure shot up to 45ish. Hung out at 40 the entire time, and rose with RPM as I putted it around.

Dropped the ATF, let it drip out and replaced with 10w-30 Rotella diesel oil. Pressure is 40 at hot idle now and 60 at 1800 RPM.

True test will be tomorrow AM cold starting it, as that’s where the issues were in the first place. I’ll update again when I do that.

 

[Outlaw]

Cold start: Success.

Pic was taken about 20 seconds after I fired it up. Sat about 12 hours, currently 21 degrees.

I wouldn’t have usually done something like this... but in a 300,000 mile engine I could replace for under a grand if it went to shit, it worked pretty darn well.

 

[Euro]

Wow that worked pretty well it seems. How did the ATF look when drained?

 

[Outlaw]

Wow that worked pretty well it seems. How did the ATF look when drained?

Dark, dark red. Not as black as I would have assumed, but there was for sure a lot of gunk suspended in it. No real chunks or large debris, some metal flake which I assume was just trapped in the sludge that was freed up.

Overall I'm super happy with the result.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

Shit should have probably done that to my 03. Did you just run straight ATF?

 

[SpeedSpeak2me]

How long did you let the ATF cycle through before shutting it down (stopped driving)?

 

[cap42]

I would drive the shit out of this thing. Always loved the GMT800's.

Those rockers would be super easy to replace with new metal rocker panels. It's the rear fender that would take a decent amount of metal work as you would have to splice it in to the body. The metal work is the easy part, getting the panels blended so it didn't look like a repair is the time and labor consuming part.

 

[cap42]

that hood is salvageable from that pic you posted. Sand it down, treat the rust, epoxy, a little filler, prime, and topcoat and it will last another 15+ years

 

[Outlaw]

that hood is salvageable from that pic you posted. Sand it down, treat the rust, epoxy, a little filler, prime, and topcoat and it will last another 15+ years

There’s a dime sized hole now. Lol