Huck's daily - 2005 Z71 crewcab

I figured I'd start a thread for this truck since this is basically going to be a full build as well. As most of you know, I sold my '17 Ram earlier this year to get back in an NBS. The Ram was great, it was powerful, comfortable and very capable. But it was also finicky, a maintenance hog being a Daimler (German) designed product and starting to show some rust signs from it's early life up north. I started looking around and knew exactly what I wanted - Chevy or GMC didn't matter, either white or red, CC, Z71, dark interior with buckets/console/steering wheel controls/Bose. Sunroof if I was lucky. There weren't a whole lot to choose from in a reasonable distance and in my price range.

So it's early July when I sell the ram and I managed to find this about an hour from my house. It's been a NE Ga truck all it's life. I'm the 3rd owner, guy I bought it from was in his 70s and had bought it from a friend of his/the original owner. He bought it in 2013 with ~90k on it, I bought it from him with 175k. It was BONE STOCK other than some weird helper springs and an underbed 5th wheel hitch (that almost scared me off but he said he'd had it installed to tow his goofy little 16ft aluminum camper with and showed me pictures, so the truck was never overworked). No piston slap, no lifter tick, nothing. The most silent and smooth LS engine I've ever had the pleasure to drive and also had a fresh trans in it. The interior was super clean, it had clearly been taken care of. This makes my 8th NBS truck and now that I've tried something newer, I don't see myself every being without an NBS again. They're simply the best GM product they ever made, modern enough to be comfortable/capable/have nice amenities but still simple enough to be worked on my the shade tree guy.

The only negative of the truck was that he didn't have a garage, so naturally the Victory Red paint had failed. He'd had it resprayed locally in 2018 and they used a single stage. The truck was badly faded and scratched (he used it as a hunting truck as well) but I could tell it was laid on fairly thick, so I decided to take a chance on it that I could buff it out. The truck drove so nicely, even if I had to paint it in a few years it wouldn't be the end of the world. Everything else in the 12-15k range had way more miles or was far more modded/molested.

2005 Chevy Silverado Z71
Crewcab, 5.7' bed (CCSSB)
LM7 5.3
4L65E
3.42 gears with a G80 out back
Charcoal cloth interior with buckets/console/steering wheel controls/Bose

These 2 pictures are what sold me on going to look at it, especially the interior shot. It still even had the ashtray! I let him keep that ugly ass UGA tag tho

Nice. The CatEye's are my favorite of the NBS trucks!

It was overcast when I bought it so I didn't get to see it in the sun for a few days. Obviously the trim is all faded out but you can see the paint has good depth to it. It was just hazy from hard water, swirled and scratched from branches on his hunting property. It looks ok here, but it's kinda pink-ish, the pin-stripe HAS to go (who puts a silver pinstripe on a red and black truck??) and a good buff/polish/repaint all the black plastic is in order. I also realized they just taped everything up to repaint it, the trim, badges, windows, everything. So to debadge/demold it like I normally do with these, the lower doors and tailgate will have to be resprayed. Phooey.





So after about a week, I got a pretty good to-do list made up:

-Cut and buff the paint to within an inch of it's life
-Repaint the black plastics
-New headlight/corner/fog light housings
-6000k HIDs in the lows/fogs
-Window tint
-Tonneau cover
-New seat bottom foam for the driver's side
-Double din headunit
-Sub/speakers/sound deadening eventually
-LCAs/aftermarket UCAs for BJ angle/CVs/all new steering components so I can level it (everything is still original)
-Level keys, maybe 3" blocks if it'll get high enough
-Bilstein 5100s all around
-Some kinda 20" wheel (I usually go OE or OE replica 20s) with a 33 or 35" tire
-Have roof/door bottoms and tailgate resprayed
-Put it on the lift to really clean/wire wheel underneath and paint/bed line underneath
-Regear to 4.56 or 4.88
-Retrofit the headlights with a TRS kit for a low/high projector and probably put LED cubes in the high beams
-Pull the 5.3 for a reseal/cam/trunnion upgrade
-Custom tune
-Leave the factory manifolds/catted y-pipe
-Corsa universal muffler with some nice tips out the back
-Color matched flares, Escalade handles, front upper bumper pad, '06/07 grille and hood
-Maybe a Ranch Hand brush guard
-2020+ front brake upgrade
-Atomic Fabrication coilover kit for the front
-1.5" body lift
-AMP power steps
-Whatever else I come up with

-Long term, I'd like to build up a lazy/torquey 408/416 stroker out of a 6.0. Or if I end up with an aluminum 6.0 for the square, I'll throw that hotter LH6 5.3 in this truck and just put a less rowdy cam in it

First up was lights. It had these god awful all clear/chrome housings in it. No bueno on a red truck



Got some black surround housings with clear reflectors. Accidently ordered smoked fogs and they were way too dark, so I reordered some clear ones



6000K HIDs in the lows/fogs and some good Silvania halogen high bulbs I had laying around. Also put in some LED 3157 turn signals and peanut corner bulbs in with 50ohm resistors

Next was getting rid of the stupid mud flaps. They're universal and didn't fit well at all, the rears were even crooked.




So one thing that got discussed MULTIPLE times while I was looking at the truck were the "helper bags". I saw the plates on the side of the frame rails and assumed they were helper bags, until he told me about the 5th wheel hitch. But he confirmed 3 or 4 times that it had helper "BAGS". So I get down to look and see how those mud flaps were attached and what do I see? Helper SPRINGS lol. In his defense, I should've crawled under the truck more, all I did was look under toward the back to make sure the hitch/rear bumper/rear of the frame wasn't rusty from launching boats. My main focus was under the cab looking at the rockers and cab corners to make sure they were solid. I never looked at the rear axle. Oh well.



That explains why it has so much rake. So I get the flaps off and take some measurements first before removing the springs



35 3/8" up front


37 7/8" in the back

Jacked it up by the hitch to let them droop and zipped them off. They were only held on with 1 really small exhaust clamp








After measurement


Much better. Now instead of 2.5" of rake, we have the factory 1.5

Haven’t seen those little helper coils in a coons age. I put a set of those on my ‘90 GMC back in the day. They were a great economical option at the time. Really liked them.
Of course unnecessary for a daily driver with nothing in the bed.

Grit dog said:

Haven’t seen those little helper coils in a coons age. I put a set of those on my ‘90 GMC back in the day. They were a great economical option at the time. Really liked them.
Of course unnecessary for a daily driver with nothing in the bed.

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Yeah I'm sure they worked well for what he was doing but they made the truck ride funny unloaded. Once I pulled them out, the truck was really springy so the rear shocks were also dead. That may have had more to do with it than the springs

donnieray said:

Nice. The CatEye's are my favorite of the NBS trucks!

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Cat-eye's and the '03-07 classic GMC's are tied as my favorites. This was my all time favorite vehicle (period, not just NBS) that I've owned, my '06 Sierra that was a factory 4.10 truck. Bought it with 74k miles and only sold it cuz I'd gotten married and needed out of the payment. This is what I'm basically shooting to make a red Chevy clone of. This was a level kit, 1.5" bodylift with 20x9s, 305/55/20 Trail Grapplers and 1.5" spacers. Perfect daily other than the 12mpgs lol

Next up was an oil change and some rear Bilstein 5100s since the original shocks were completely shot






So then I decided it was time to take off the steering wheel cover and order a double din. I'd been worried about the condition of the wheel underneath



But it was mostly fine. The leather is not worn through, just worn from the cover.



Started wiring up the HU. I went with an Atoto double din at the recommendation of a couple friends. Also made the mistake of ordering the Bose/steering wheel adapter harnesses off Amazon...

Coming along nicely. I agree the NBS is a great generation for the truck, and although I put 249k on my '01 Silverado, I would still take my '15 over it. However my daughter is now in the market for a truck (she's 14, and I won't let her daily Daisy) so we're looking for an OBS or a NBS.

Keep the nice work going!

I have the A6 in the dually. It works good but has connection issues randomly with my android. I started keeping a paperclip in the console so I can reset it without turning off the truck. At the moment I don't have anything crazy on it just stock speakers but it does a decent job.

When I get to the interior revamp on it I'll do better speakers, a sub an the backup camera.

Not to self, don't buy harnesses on Amazon. I should've known, the first one had nothing but French writing all over it and was not Bose. Didn't even have the secondary plug



Second harness was for an '07-13 truck even though it was listed as '03-07. Finally I learned my lesson and bought one off Crutchfield



It was around this time I was helping clean out my grandparent's house after my granddad passed. The 3.42s suckkkkk but with tow/haul and keeping it in 3rd, it did alright with the small trailer in tow and ~3000lbs between the trailer/in the bed/back seat.



That is, until tow/haul quit working. We'd stopped for lunch on our way home and I couldn't get it to activate with any kind of wiggling of the shifter. Thankfully there was a Home Depot across the street, so an hour and $30 worth of tools later, it's fixed. DNW to fry this 60E

It's pretty common, the wires rub until they get cut. It's a simple fix, just pull the dash bezel off, a couple small screws in the lower panel and it pulls out, gently pry the column halves apart, a small torx bolt holds the shifter in and one clip on the wire. Couple heat shrink butt connectors later, we're back in business

bluex said:

I have the A6 in the dually. It works good but has connection issues randomly with my android. I started keeping a paperclip in the console so I can reset it without turning off the truck. At the moment I don't have anything crazy on it just stock speakers but it does a decent job.

When I get to the interior revamp on it I'll do better speakers, a sub an the backup camera.

Click to expand...

I think that's what this one was. I junked it in favor of a Pioneer. Same thing, I just have the stock Bose setup for now but I ended up hating that Atoto

I guess this puts us right about the second week of August. My bday, the gf's bday and our anniversary all land in August, so we'd booked a condo on Tybee Island for a few days. This had been a rough year, we needed a getaway. I wanted to take this truck to see what kinda mileage it would get on a long trip so I ordered the cheapest, soft roll-up tonneau Amazon had has well as a proper tailgate spoiler.

The PO had put a GMC style cover on the tailgate cuz he had a camper shell on it for a while, it was loose, didn't cover all the way and I just like the spoiler better.







Amazon strikes again :facepalm: It's 3/4 scale