Well, in June I’ll be turing 21 & since I was 16 I’ve owned 10 cars. Long story short, I’m a little burnt out with cars & wanna move on to something else. So the original plan was to find a 2nd gen cummins but that plan went away simply due to not wanting to spend 7-9 grand on a second vehicle. So after some long thought & talking to some buddies, I realized a 1/2 ton truck would be the way to go. After searching around for a bit this is what I found.
It’s a 97 GMC Sierra 1500 z71. Ext cab, 4wd, leather interior, 140k on the 5.0 v8 stuffed in the frame rails. Truck has a lot of personal value to me, my grandfather bought a 95 Sierra 1500 when it was brand new & had it for most of my childhood so this kinda brings back some good memories for me. My plans for this thing are pretty simple, nothing crazy.
-Find a stock chrome front bumper
-Eventually have the truck repainted the stock color
-Minor lift
-Exhaust, maybe headers
-Intake
-Tint the front windows to match the rears
-Badgeless grill
-New headlights, either chrome or smoked (undecided)
-Find some camo fabric to do a camo headliner :excited
-Some more off road worthy tires on the stock z71 wheels
-New stereo, the JVC from the 90s just isn’t cool anymore lol
I really only plan to use this to tow my father’s compact tractor around or use to pick up new project cars & drive when the weather’s crappy to keep my mk5 out of harms way. Pretty excited to have a truck. Nice change of pace. Quick pic for now. Not going to be the most exciting build thread but oh well.
whats hiding under the black paint? Not a factory 2 tone and it seems like somebody did some rust repair and it was easier to paint it black than blend it in white.
It appears the cab corners were done & like you said rather than have someone paint it, someone shot it with black paint. There’s no rust bubbles on the truck anywhere. Other than the clear coat being kinda rough in some spots, body is very clean.
Over all those are very good trucks. The only thing you may find is the 305 is a little lacking in the power department when it comes time to tow something. Just swap in a mechanically injected 5.9 come apart
& so the modding starts. Just ordered a billet grill & clear headlights. Looking around for a clean chrome front bumper. Anyone know someone with 1 they’d like to get rid of?
Been gathering/waiting on parts to start cleaning up this rig. I spent my days off cleaning up the apperance of the truck. I started with cutting the side exit pipe off, never like the look of them so I made a simple turn down for it. Then I looked at the dinky chrome fender flares & decided they would look better in the trash than on the truck. To replace them I ordered a set of OE smooth black fender flares. Picked up a clean chrome front bumper for 15 bucks off craigslist, used the truck to transport my TDI’s wheels & tires to the shop to get those mounted & balanced. My billet grill insert & new headlights came in the mail today. Now just have to wait for my day off to do front end facelift & hopefully my fender flares show up around that time too.
wow man, where did you find that thing? and do you mind saying what you paid? I want the same truck. Right now i have a 94 1500 regular cab but really want the extended cab. I love the OBS chassis GMs
Also have the same 305. Its a little underpowered. I towed a 2-place enclosed snowmobile trailer to northern NH and back with it this winter. a little over 600 miles round trip. Averaged just under 9mpg.
Does it have the 4l60e trans?
Get some 265/75-16s or bigger for it. Thats whats on mine.
It was just traded in at Mohawk Honda a few weeks ago & the guy across the street by Raindancer carwash bought it from them. I’m looking to clean this up & sell it around summer time so if you’re interested let me know.
Got a lot done on the truck today. Ripped the whole front end off, headlights, grill shell, front bumper & replaced it all. Fender flares didn’t come in until late & sadly the only bay of our garage the truck can fit in has my brother’s Grand Marquis sitting in it. Few pics of today’s work. Tomorrow will be fitting the fender flares, removing the side mouldings & either touching up the black paint or redoing it white.
