S-10CREWCAB.NET

I figured I might just start this thread here, its been an interesting topic on the other car forum I am on and I thought maybe it could work here too. What did you do to your Crew cab today? Feel free to post pictures of any mods completed, new wheels, additions or just show off your ride after giving it a good bath. Seems to be a good way for members to share photos and ideas of what they have done or what they plan on doing. Anyhow, have at it!

Yesterday I changed my front brakes out. New lines, calipers, brackets, rotors, and plenty of fluid later I now have great looking, and great working, front brakes! I did my rears last year so now the fronts finally match.





I also spent some time power washing the insides of my wheels to get all the axle gook out from when the front CV joints went. With that, I cleaned the fronts well and got them nice and shiny. My only issue is how can I get the brushed aluminum edges and centers clean again? I have seen pictures where people do this but I cant seem to find the magic touch. I guess I need some polish?

I changed out my hvac knobs 4 the bravada style.

The CC is at 53K. To prepare for it's toughest job yet, I had to do some preventative maintenance. It's hitting the road, this coming Saturday, and will easily cover 3,000 miles over the next 6-8 weeks.

Replaced

Plugs, NGK spark plugs with the recommended Autolite Iridium XP plugs ASP XP605
distributor cap and rotor, Accel, still brass!
Fluids in tranny, differentials and transfer case.
3" exhaust from muffler back. This will be done in the AM. Brule warned me of this possibility when I made my decision to go 3" cat back. My climate was taken into consideration. Eight years is not to shabby.

Discovered

Transfer case front output shaft seal is leaking. Seal ordered.
Under hood vacuum lines deteriorating. No leaks yet but, hit them with some silicone spray in hopes of delaying the replacement job.

Removed

Window tinting. My better half didn't like it and she is going to be driving it for 6-8 weeks in Houston, TX.
Cargo basket w/lights, Hi-Lift Jack, shovel and spare tire.
Lap top mount. Smaller units are much better nowadays for navigation.
MSD 6AL. Has been unplugged for a couple years. Never realized any benefit, when it worked. Removal wasn't pretty but, it was in my way to access the distributor.
A portion of the oem trailer hitch. Removal allowed me to fit my 33 inch spare in the stock location.
Aluminum engine and transfer case shields. Will be replaced with the hitch, basket and hitch after the Houston trip.

Before



After

Streamlined and ready for service, sir!

So whats wrong with a 3 inch cat back? Inquiring minds would like to know lol. Also the truck looks good either way. I like your bumper setup, I want to do something similar but without the brush guard. I am feeling though that all black is not going to look right on the Champlain colored truck. Need to keep some chrome in there for me. I wish there was a chrome front bumper for these that had more than a 1/2 inch of it visible.

ApproachMedium wrote:So whats wrong with a 3 inch cat back? ............

Absolutely nothing was/is wrong with it. I was warned about short drives to work (I'm under 5 miles) in cold weather and my climate. Replacing oem stainless steel with aluminumized has it's drawbacks, i.e.......rust. Quite happy with the route that I took. I'm guessing my local exhaust guru won't charge me over $30 and it's well worth it for me.

ApproachMedium wrote:So whats wrong with a 3 inch cat back? Inquiring minds would like to know ...

3" is the sweet spot for these, IMO. However for the system to live it needs to heat up enough to burn out the condensation. Climates with higher humidity lead to more water. Short trips don't get the system hot enough. A big pipe like this can rot out quickly. In those cases a smaller pipe may be a better choice. Stainless would be ideal, but expensive.

I wish there was a chrome front bumper for these that had more than a 1/2 inch of it visible.

Check out the front of Jim's truck. He liked the chrome too and opened his up.

Reed! The underside looks really good! I'm impressed. Almost as good as looking under your hood

That should be a trusty steed with which to entrust your beloved

HenryJ wrote:................Reed! The underside looks really good! I'm impressed. Almost as good as looking under your hood .............

Sorry to disappoint but, that was an older photo that I took to show how the exhaust was routed versus the oem setup.

A tad more accurate.

OK so the larger pipe, heat condensation etc all makes sense. I do a lot of highway driving with my crew but recently I moved and now I make a 10 min drive home to train station every day for work. I assume this could be bad for the larger system. My stock pipes still look good at 254k but now my muffler is starting to pfft pfft away and showing signs that its nearing that time. Im thinking maybe just swap with a better less restrictive muffler and keeping what I have pipe wise? Is the increase in performance really that much different?

ApproachMedium wrote: Is the increase in performance really that much different?

It was for me Best bang for the buck to be sure.

standard hvac knobs


bravada hvac knobs

i changed out the stock window switch bezels to the bravada style.

Pulled the brush/grill guard with the KC dayliters and the rear tail light guards. Planned on pulling the custom rock sliders to save additional weight but, they were pretty Dewalt grinder resistant. All needs repainting anyway. No photos so, you can believe it never happened.

That brush/grill guard would look good on my truck!!!!

Jongo88 wrote:That brush/grill guard would look good on my truck!!!!

I think so too!




The tail light guards are laying on the brush guard. Much rust on them. I'm not much of a fan of powder coating, any more, especially if, you wheel any. I'm going to have plenty of time, in the next couple of months, to take a flapper wheel to everything and hit it with rattle can. I should have pulled the front aluminum shield and replaced it with stock plastic deflector. I would have then shined up the aluminum one and coated it with SHARKHIDE. I want to pull the corner armor, my belly armor and my gas tank skid on the Rubicon to coat it with the stuff. Reviews are excellent and our weather can take a toll on aluminum.

So you plan on putting all the goodies back on when the road trip is over?

Also today drove mine to my model railroad club to do some housecleaning. I have 4 old B&W CCTV monitors in the back now and a few pounds of copper coax cable that needs to go. Trying to find someone who I can offload it on so they can sell it.

ApproachMedium wrote:So you plan on putting all the goodies back on when the road trip is over?..................................

Yep, that's the plan. The CC may even have a paint job in it's future. The clear coat is starting to pick up speed in it deterioration.

Sorry to hear about your clear coat. My cab is going to get redone after I give it a nose job and get a new right rear door. After I replaced the bed and had it fresh painted I realized how much 250k+ miles have put a toll on the paint job. Was yours a Linden built truck?

ApproachMedium wrote:.............Was yours a Linden built truck?

Yes. Isn't that the only location that they were built at?

F9K9 wrote:

ApproachMedium wrote:.............Was yours a Linden built truck?

Yes. Isn't that the only location that they were built at?

Maybe? I know mine says Linden, it gets driven past the old plant site every day.

I'm pretty sure there were two other plants, including one in Ohio.

Louisana and Brazil are the only other two places that made second gen S10s according to the web. I dont have my books in front of me, but I believe the crews were only made at the plant Linden plant which only built second gen blazers and various frames for S10 vehicles up until the crew was made. No pick up trucks were built at this plant other than the crew cab. Most likely the reason the crew was made there was the various amounts of similar parts they shared with the blazer.

F9K9, whered you get your tail light gaurds? ive looked everywhere but cant find any

paintballrocker wrote:F9K9, whered you get your tail light gaurds? ive looked everywhere but cant find any

I purchased from "Doc" he was a member here. He deployed shortly after I purchased them. They are the "Rhino" brand.

BTW. are you getting my PMs?

Washed it, then tried to add LED bulbs to my gauge cluster to see how they would look. Im not liking that they cant go as dim as I would like them. Being someone who does a lot of night driving my boating/railroading instincts want everything below my horizon to be as dim as possible. I am thinking I may need to try it out with all 6 LEDs in the cluster and not just the 3 test models that i have.

Full brightness


Dimmed as far as the LEDs would go, the bulbs would go a tiny bit farther.


Oh, and clean

Changed the oil and cleaned my MAF. Checked my air filter out while I had it all apart, it was filthy. My air box is destroyed though and will need to be replaced. Time to look at cold air intakes maybe.

hey guys my names kyle im new to the forum thought id post a pic

Nice truck! Welcome to the group. I debated having mine repainted the same black pearl metallic to match my GTI, I love black on these things, I just would be washing it twice a week then lol.

kpietrowski wrote:hey guys my names kyle im new to the forum thought id post a pic

20120924_131256.jpg

Good looking truck Be sure to post in the readers rides thread and tell us a little about it.

F9K9 wrote:

paintballrocker wrote:F9K9, whered you get your tail light gaurds? ive looked everywhere but cant find any

I purchased from "Doc" he was a member here. He deployed shortly after I purchased them. They are the "Rhino" brand.

BTW. are you getting my PMs?

roger that. I emailed your personal email a few days ago. take care man

Reed, I have a couple of questions...

F9K9 wrote:

In the picture of the rear axle, what is the clamp just to the left of the shock for?

And

What is your rear suspension setup? Do I see the Boise spring works kit, or something else? Stock shackle?

I'll bet with more reading I could find that out myself

SUSPENSION

HeLlwig EZ550 AALs
Bilstein heavy duty shocks
SuperLift Steering Stabilizer
Daystar Greaseless Shackles
Energy Front Sway Bar "POLY" kit

_STUCKY wrote:I'll bet with more reading I could find that out myself ..........

Yep, looks like you found it. I apologize for not seeing your questions earlier. BTW......if, I had a "do over", I would have done the Boise Spring Works rather than the shackles and AAL.

Could you get me a picture of the leaf setup, please? I want to see the shackle angle, with the longer shackle. And how much difference in height do you have between the front and rear? As in the "rake" of the truck.

_STUCKY wrote:Could you get me a picture of the leaf setup, please? I want to see the shackle angle, with the longer shackle. And how much difference in height do you have between the front and rear? As in the "rake" of the truck.

That's going to have to wait awhile. My CC is in Houston and some 1,100 miles away. Remind me around the first of next month.

Spent a couple of hours on the Rhino tail light guards removing the flaking powder coat and prepping them for painting. I used a Dewalt grinder with a 80 grit flapper wheel, a wire wheel on a drill and a Dremel barrel sander and hit it with a couple coats of primer. I'm unsure on what to use as the final coat or even if, I want to reinstall them. I have had good luck with the rattle can bed liner on the brush guard but, I have become fond of the Rustoleum "hammered" paints.

F9K9 wrote:Spent a couple of hours on the Rhino tail light guards removing the flaking powder coat and prepping them for painting. I used a Dewalt grinder with a 80 grit flapper wheel, a wire wheel on a drill and a Dremel barrel sander and hit it with a couple coats of primer. I'm unsure on what to use as the final coat or even if, I want to reinstall them. I have had good luck with the rattle can bed liner on the brush guard but, I have become fond of the Rustoleum "hammered" paints.

I'm finely getting a brush guard... Do you have a BL??? If you do what did you do to get the brush guard to fit???
I hope to get it tomorrow...

Jongo88 wrote:.............I'm finely getting a brush guard... Do you have a BL??? If you do what did you do to get the brush guard to fit???
I hope to get it tomorrow...

I have a PA 2" BL. I had to lose my 2nd gen. tow hooks. I picked up some 1st gen tow hooks and had the brush guard modded by a shop to work with them. The mounting had to be modded anyway because I purchased the guard used, from a ZR2 member and the front frame horns differ.

I know this isn't much help for you but, refrain from using any type of spacers to make the guard work. If, you use spaced tow hooks, as a recovery point, you will more than likely tweak your frame horns. If, yours is just a "mall crawler" then use your own judgement.

I moved the tow hooks to the bottom just for looks.... I would never use them...

Jongo88 wrote:I moved the tow hooks to the bottom just for looks.... I would never use them...

You should be golden then. You might want to tell the future buyer (after the deal is sealed) about the possible drawbacks of using the hooks as a recovery point if, you end up using spacers.

I think it would be better to just lose the hooks if they are not functional. That way there is no temptation whatsoever. A better option would be to make them functional. Every vehicle needs tow points front and rear. That being said, the only one of my vehicles that has them front and rear is the s10, not the jeeps, not the k5s, but the s10 that doesn't need them.

When I get the brush guard I will make them functional... I have the hitch in the back. I know my limits and been lucky so far.

What exactly is the proper use and function of the tow hooks on the front?

In other news I drove my crew to a model train show today to sell some lionels. I ended up loosing the plastic lid someplace on RT80 to my bin of over 2 grand worth of trains. I almost pooped my pants but everything was there intact. Thats what I get for trying to protect my leather!

ApproachMedium wrote:What exactly is the proper use and function of the tow hooks on the front?

For when you can't make a climb and the tailgate is resting against a tree....

But sometimes it doesn't work and you need to get something slightly bigger and pull from the side...



That was a long day. I'm pretty sure I scratched the paint a little...
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Okay, so basically something me driving it in the snow, as far as my "off roading" goes, and down railroad ROW its nothing that is of concern to me. I really hope my tailgate isnt resting smashed up against a tree at any point I will be pretty pissed. That new bed I have wasnt cheap!

Began Stage 1 of project new life for my Crew today. I took it to my friends body shop and began removing the bumper, right fender liner, right fender and some other junk so the frame can get straightened. I was going to take some photos of that but I got too messy and dinner was ready so we went home. The right side frame rail will be straightened out which will eliminate my alignment issues finally. Motor mounts will get changed to the Energy Suspension models which will be in preparation of the new engine which I hope to have installed over the winter.

In the meantime, my front bumper, right fender, right fender liner and battery tray are all destroyed and will need to be replaced. The parts were holding themselves together fine but once the frame is properly aligned they will all need to be replaced because they will no longer bolt back on. The fender liner would have been okay but the battery tray rotted out so bad, it rotted the fender liner mounting hole for the battery tray out.

ApproachMedium wrote:Began Stage 1 of project new life for my Crew today. ............

This is going to be interesting.

LOL are you afraid? I guess I am taking some risks at doing such work to a vehicle with a quarter of a million miles on it.

ApproachMedium wrote:LOL are you afraid? I guess I am taking some risks at doing such work to a vehicle with a quarter of a million miles on it.

Not afraid of anything but 1,000' plus drop offs......LOL

After I installed the 2" PA body lift I machined some 2" tow hook spacers for the front that were made out of square aluminum stock. I used them for recovery a few times and even managed to pull a Suburban out of a snow covered ravine and a Toyota Camry out of a ditch a few weeks later without causing any damage to my front frame horns. The only reason I used the front hooks is because I hadn't yet added the rear hitch. The point is, if you make good solid spacers and use good judgement you shouldn't have any problems.

Steve

...or add the first gen hooks.

A little grinder dust to prep for new rattle can. Also the 4th POS Optima laid down on my wife in Houston. That's three red tops and one yellow top in 8 years. Never again!!!!! I don't know what the Platinum Diehard cost but, I told her to ignore the sticker shock and never look back!

F9K9 wrote:A little grinder dust to prep for new rattle can. Also the 4th POS Optima laid down on my wife in Houston. That's three red tops and one yellow top in 8 years. Never again!!!!! I don't know what the Platinum Diehard cost but, I told her to ignore the sticker shock and never look back!

Maybe its just the Red Tops? My buddy at work had his red top die after 4 years of extreme use, offroading and many accessories. He just got a yellow top gonna see how long that lasts. My two old yellow tops I bought almost 8 years ago are still cranking on in some old junkers my friends have. The days are numbered for them though at this point

Got the shell on Friday and my tires came in so I got started today since I am working 10 hour days six daysa week. Hopefully thisln will work for all of the picks I took today. No one had the window adheasive in town so I ordered it off Amazon and temp riveted the sheet metal so I can get my tires on this week.
http://s82.photobucket.com/albums/j272/stonew0rrior

Login required to view the album?

Sorry I uploaded from my android tablet. I'm at Target with my wife and didn't realize I had it set to private. Fixed it.

I will try to post some photos later of mine. Heading down to visit it at the body shop and drop off the new right fender, and hopefully the battery tray if that arrives as well. Picked up an all chrome bumper on ebay for dirt brand new. Waiting on that. Cant wait for this to be back together and all fresh!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/200746553042?ss ... 1497.l2649

Also thinking about getting a push bar and a cowl hood or something. I saw a Sonoma hood on an S10 the other day and I like it way better than the S10 hood. The two lines coming back from the headlights I think looks sportier than the single line dividing the hood in the middle. So its a toss up of that or the cowl hood. Not sure what I want to do yet...

In the meantime driving the 9th wonder of the world, dads 250,000mile 98 F150. I forgot how expensive gas was in V8s.

williamcstonejr wrote:Got the shell on Friday and my tires came in so I got started today since I am working 10 hour days six daysa week. Hopefully thisln will work for all of the picks I took today. No one had the window adheasive in town so I ordered it off Amazon and temp riveted the sheet metal so I can get my tires on this week.
http://s82.photobucket.com/albums/j272/stonew0rrior

Looks great!

Spent last night replacing bad ball joints before sending the truck to the shop for tires. Got the tires on today now I need to order the Boise spring kit.

What is left,
Spring kit
shock install
Torsion bar crank
Stops
Final body work and spray on bed liner


It is coming together nicely thus far

Thanks Brule for all the hard work invested and for helping all of us!

My pleasure! Check out the stops thread if you have problems finding them. Also , shop local for the spring kit if you have a shop. They can fix you up if you take them the information from the page.

WELP. Its FINALLY done. The CC now has a 100% as the Linden plant would have certified it, straight frame. Turns out the damage was much less than I originally anticipated 2 years ago when I wanted to scrap it. Hopefully tomorrow I will be at the shop to put it back together finally. All of the parts have been in stock. Here are some photos with it prepped from before it went on the machine, and then after it was mounted.



Donor Fender from a pickup.

Mounted to Metropolian Car-O Liner.

Lets go!


More photos to follow tomorrow or later this week after re-assembly is completed.

Please excuse the crappy cell phone pics. Its back together for the major part, just need bumper and grille. The fender is getting painted today. Installed new headlight harness, found the replacement I bought doesnt have the mystery plug or the temp probe plug on it. So i had to remove them from the old harness. Headlights are working as intended now. Didnt get a chance to check the fogs yet. The routing for the mystery plug and the temp sensor line goes back to the same plug and does not go in to the bottom of the fuse/relay center.

Replaced fender liner, fender, battery tray, and headlight harness. Once it gets home I will attach the new bumper and then its time to decide do I want clear headlights and turn signals or smoked. Im getting a black grille with just the chrome center part. I dont want paint matched. Thoughts?

Today is brake day. I got out of the truck yesterday and as soon as I opened the door, I knew somwthing was wrong. Went around to rhe right side, and the right front brake was smoking. I'll change both front calipers and new pads, and hopefully that will take care of the problem.

rlrnr53 wrote:I'll change both front calipers and new pads, and hopefully that will take care of the problem.

I'd have the rotors turned down and resurfaced. For the price that places charge for it, you might as well while you are in there.

_STUCKY wrote:

rlrnr53 wrote:I'll change both front calipers and new pads, and hopefully that will take care of the problem.

I'd have the rotors turned down and resurfaced. For the price that places charge for it, you might as well while you are in there.

Thats if the rotors he has are even worth turning, or he can find a place that does it. Many of these rotors they sell now at auto parts stores only last as long as a set of pads or two. I have had good luck with the premium ones my NAPA store sells but anything else has been garbage.

Rotors appear to be good, if not, it'll have to wait until the money situation improves. A mild heart attack and some medical problems my wife had in late June have put us way behind.

rlrnr53 wrote:Rotors appear to be good, if not, it'll have to wait until the money situation improves. A mild heart attack and some medical problems my wife had in late June have put us way behind.

I feel for you and hope that she is recovering well.

Thank you Reed, she is doing better, but still not completely healed. As for me, 14 hrs after entering the ER, my stint was in and I was iback in my room, 5 hrs. later they had me out of bed,so I feel blessed.

rlrnr53 wrote:................. I feel blessed.

Hang tough! You guys are in our thoughts.

Thank you Reed, you and yor better half are in ours too.

Stuffed these in to my GTI for it. Felt like I had 4 or 5 people in the car.

Those would be the long stranded set for sale in the classifieds would they?

HenryJ wrote:Those would be the long stranded set for sale in the classifieds would they?

Those have to be. Only two sets made for CC and only one with the stand off rail.

Yes sir you are correct! It just happend to work out that the seller and I were going to be around the same place at the same time.

ApproachMedium wrote:Yes sir you are correct! It just happend to work out that the seller and I were going to be around the same place at the same time.

You did well! My memory is failing but, I think those were originally over $500 new with shipping.