Well I found all the parts I need. Found a box with tailgate and front fender like 20 mins away from me for $1000. Found the hood and other fender for $450 about 40 mins away. Then I found a complete cab with interior just no seats for $3000, but I still have the seats from my truck. So total comes to 4450, now I figure its going to take us about a couple weekends to get it back to normal. But I am up for it, and its a good way for me to learn even more about body work.

There are a few things I have to get yet, such as a motor mount, tail lights, possibly some other front end pieces but majority of the inner fenders seem to be good. Well it should be fun, now just have to pick myself up a book so I know where all the electrical connection are going into and out of the cab. And some other things as well.

But I am still deciding on whether or not to keep it, or just sell it and get what I can for the truck.

question, which truck are you rebuilding?

The truck I had for sale for in the market place for over 4 months, got tired of people wanting the truck for free or next to it, and people saying oh ya I want it and then never actually going through with deals.

I would just piece it out and get new... much easier and you wont have to worry about all the problems that come with trying to get it all done, it will take you more then a couple of weekends..... I did a truck before and lets just say its a lot of work and can be frustrating at times. Then after your all done youll sell it... JMO

Look in my garage, I built mine, will do it again. But working in the garage is what I do, not a football fan, don't hunt, sleds, bikes, cars and trucks are prretty much how I spend my spare time. Hell the reason I wanted a Dmax was to pull my big sled trailer, chasing snow.

Just keep in mind the differences in the electrical architecure of the pre 03 models and post 03 models.

My drivers door is from an 02, had to swap out the wiring harness, from the 03 door. The window regulator, lock actuator, and speaker was plug and play. Difference was where the harness connected to the truck.

Well everything I got was from an 03 truck, so I am hoping everything will be the same locations. I am pretty excited as well to get this going, I have spent many hours working on cars with my father, we are restoring 2 69 Camaros right now.

The reason why I don't want to go all new is because half the time you buy new parts you have to make them fit. We have bought countless fenders for vehicles and had to make them fit. So why not just get them already done and painted and bolt them in. Simple.

Well got the fenders off, the seats out, all the wiring harnesses out, and found out that the cab we got was a 02, so you were right the wiring harnesses are different. I might have to pluck your brain if we don't figure it out. The remainder of the cab is coming off tonight, then we are going to be undercoating the whole frame, and hopefully by Sunday we will have the new cab on, and can starting running the wires and reconnecting everything. Then its box time, that should be like 10 mins to get that done. Once that is done, we are going to pick up the front fenders and hood, and hopefully next week I will have the remainder of the parts and from there its just putting on the finishing touches. Fixing scratches, dings, putting seats back in.

I will take some pictures of the process, and keep you guys up to date.

i hope u got a title with that cab u bought or your gonna be up shits creek without a paddle since the vin plate in your old cab goes to ur title and u can not use your title for the new cab since it has differnt vin number and is considerd a differnt truck, usally the only way to make that work is to take both titles down to the reg office and get a title with both vins on it .

Why couldn't we just swap the vins, and saw we painted the truck a different color? I am waiting on the guys reposnse if he finds the title. Otherwise I wonder if we can file for a lost title....

943783Z71- how did you title your truck after you rebuilt yours??

Pictures to come tomorrow sometime, coming along really good, have everything underneath sanded and undercoated, frame is done, along with the bed and cab. We are hoping by this weekend to have the cab and bed on.

Heres some pictures of what we have done so far.

Looks good, hard part is just keeping at it. Some days, after getting home from work, you just don't feel like going in the garage. Once you overcome that, its all down hill. Hope my PM helped with the title questions, good luck.

Yeah well it has been hard, I work all day then have to drive 30 mins to the shop to work til 10 then drive back another 30 mins just to wake up in less than 7 hours. But its coming along very well I think. As soon as we get that cab in, and the box stuff will start to fly.

what are you doing? im soo lost

nvm i see the pictures now let alone picture :)

good luck on your project!

Thanks man! Just wish it would stop f-ing raining so I can work on it. Went and picked up the hood and 2 front fenders today. Hopefully we get the cab on tomorrow, get the wiring all run, then I can throw the box on while my father works on the cab portion, then on with the fenders and hood. I am hoping we will be done by the end of Oct.

i thought you were in oconomowoc, did you move?

i was going to offer a hand since i work in oconomowoc , but east troy is a little bit of a haul

Live in East Troy, work in Delavan, school in Whitewater, but the shop is in Oconomowoc. So thats where we are working on it. Right now we don't really need help, we are still finishing up some undercoating and some body work on the cab. But as soon as thats done we sure could use some help with the cab getting on. If anyone knows anyone in SE WI area with a crane or has a boom truck that would lend us a hand on getting this cab on the frame that would be great. Kinda hard getting this heavy thing on a truck with 12 inches of lift on 37's. But we may take the tires off and put the truck on "skates" to ease the lifting of the cab. But we will see tonight, going out there tonight after work to work on it somemore. Hopefully we get the cab body work done so maybe paint tomorrow. We are only fixing 2 dents for now, and depending how well lthey turn out we may take the other 2 little door dings out as well.

where is the shop, there is only a handful of shops out there but i don't remember seeing your truck at any of them, the shop that i was doing my work out of is a old burial vault factory next to the middle school, now there is not much for wrenching going on there but the work truck i drive is still kept there

if you don't have the box on, it would only take about 6 guys to lift the cab on by hand, its not that bad to do, we just took off the cab from my 94 and that had 13" lift but had stock tires on it to get it into the garage

Well we got it on last night. Was actually easier that I thought, just used a cherry picker for the rear and had come lifts from the shop and raise the front and we just rolled the truck right under and lined up the holes and put the body bolts in. We also got the box on as well last night.

Our "shop" is actually a 3 car garage that is detached with 9ft doors and a lift and pretty much everything we need. My old man used to own a few Meinekes but now sold them all so we still have all the remaining equipment.

As for later this week we will be finishing the body work on it, running the wires, putting on the 2 front fenders, hopefully finding the right hood. The j/a at Jantz Auto Yard gave me a hood for a 01-02 HD, I was not there to pick it up so I didnt see it til they brought it to the shop. But the funny thing is the vin on it says its a 05. I have no idea how that is, but I will be getting the correct hood for it.

I will post some more pictures later this week.

did you flip the white one?

Yeah rolled it about 5 months ago.

ouch how?

About 6 deer were cover the road decided to take the ditch, didn't see the huge inbankment and the rest I really don't remember.

uh wow thats a bummer cough req getting a ranchhand replacemnt next time and run over all of them :eek:<deer you >:D

There were 4 atleast 100 pund 6-12 point bucks, and it was my natural instict. Yeah too bad I didnt have a plow on, or a ranchhand..

i feel ya but me id prob hit them if there was not other way. even tho i know i sound be but you know

For future reference. Cheap cabs&beds stripped but new. Sorry, I didn't see this earlier.
http://www.grubbsautoparts.com/autoparts.html

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2002-Chevrolet-crewcab-duramax-truck-lifted-parts_W0QQitemZ320307144525QQihZ011QQcategoryZ6783 QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

check this out also dude thought you might like it

For future reference. Cheap cabs&beds stripped but new. Sorry, I didn't see this earlier.
http://www.grubbsautoparts.com/autoparts.html

Damn, with I had seen that last year, when I started mine. I spent alot of time fixing a bed that had no business being fixed. All the ones I could find that were decent, were $2,500.00 or more.
]
That place, is right by my mother-in-law.

Yeah I saw both of those. Found a cab and bed locally otherwise I was going to go with Grubbs. And I know I am trying to talk my old man into another project when we are done with this one.

Good to see you saving and rebuilding your duramax

Yeah thanks man. I will post some more pictures tomorrow, got the cab, box, and front fender on so its coming along pretty well.

Any updates?

Cole, if you running into problems, call Merchant and ask him how he handled it. He rebuilt his new shop truck from the ground up like you're doing.

One electrical part that you might not think of is the wiper motor. Might want to swap the 03 one over...

I havent really had time lately to work on it. But so far we got all the old electrical out and starting to re-wire the cab with my 04 wiring. Ran into a few problems with the doors being different, but I think we are swapping out the mirrors so hopefully that will correct it. The truck has regular mirrors on it and my 04 had the towing mirrors. So hopefully when we switch to the signal, turning, power mirrors the wiring will hook up. What else, hmm, the whole engine compartment is nearly finished, had to get a new fuse box and cover for it. So next I have to put the headlight plastics on, then the headlights, then the grille which I finally found a 06 grille for 100 bucks. After that is done the entire front clip will be done. And then just finish up the wiring put the whole dash in with steering column, throw the seats in and start her up again! After that going to finish up the body, just filled in some spots where some dents were and minor scratches and primed it. Probabaly do a few more coats and sanding and then shoot the green on and go from there. I am hoping to be done by middle of November, like I said hoping. I will try to get more pictures up for ya as well, was out there last weekend working on the sled and took the camera but the damn thing was dead. So stay tuned!

more pictures for you guys. Should be done in a week or two.

shes coming along greatly!!!...great job on saving your duramax from the dooms of a junkyard!!...btw dig the color you gonna keep it that color?

Yeah we are keeping that color. I just need to find some little parts and it should be running and ready for an allignment next week.

love the color man. lookin' good !

Thanks! Yeah the green really is growing on me.

Well the truck is done, well almost. Just waiting on one part and then its off to get an alignment and back to the road it goes. Finished up the rest of the body and paint last night, no more dings or scrapes on it whatsoever! I am hoping to get it in this week but that may be a long shot cause my part it coming from Cali. As soon as we get a good day to take some pictures I will get it out of the garage and snap a few more for you guys.

Congrats, Cole. Looking forward to the pics.

me too

Are you going with a different wheel/tire combo this time?

I will be maybe, which is a big maybe. We will see what Santa brings me...HAHA

Good job on the rebuild!! Ya got any completed pictures??

I am going to get some this week for you guys, it actually looks pretty bad ass with the green, not going to lie. But I will snap a few for ya and get it really cleaned up and take more.

still no pics???

No havent had time recently. Been working a lot, went riding a lot, and now since we have no snow and I found out that there is a broken wire in my wiring harness and its going to cost me 1000 bucks for a new one, looks like the truck should be done fairly soon. I am waiting on one guy to call me back cause he may have a wiring harness for a lot cheaper, but if he doesnt call me back I am just going to bite the bullet and buy a new one. Stay tuned though, all I need is this wiring harness and one or two more days and it should be done.

find the wire !No havent had time recently. Been working a lot, went riding a lot, and now since we have no snow and I found out that there is a broken wire in my wiring harness and its going to cost me 1000 bucks for a new one, looks like the truck should be done fairly soon. I am waiting on one guy to call me back cause he may have a wiring harness for a lot cheaper, but if he doesnt call me back I am just going to bite the bullet and buy a new one. Stay tuned though, all I need is this wiring harness and one or two more days and it should be done.

ya it's been more than 1 or 2 days lol

Truck goes into the dealer tomorrow for the BCM to be programmed and its done!!!!!

As soon as I get a chance I will shine it up and snap more pictures.

Good deal!

All done boys!!!

more...

It's too tall when you need that yellow stepladder to wash it man, hehe. How big a cognito lift is that anyhow?, looks a little tall for the tire. Looks awsome.

Looks real good buddy. Took a lot of work I'm sure to get to that point huh? Frame and suspension looks real good. Great work!

MAN SHES A BEAUTY!!! sorry for the caps but she does look great...that green really sets it off looks better then the white!!...great job on the rebuild coles!...my father and i are wondering what was the cost on the rebuild??

It does need some good long traction bars though.

Cost was about 6 grand.

Lift is a 12" Cognito, and I use to have traction bars but one broke on me and just havent had the time to fab another one up but in time we will.

you got the 02 center console still in it :)
looks great dude

Yeah I liked that better than the fold down seat center console. But I am sure glad its done now, man it took forever to get everything how I wanted it. To be honest it looks better now than it did 4 years ago when I bought it.

put the pics in your garage dude

I will in time.

Looks awesome! Nice to see it finally finished. I bet you'll try a little harder to keep it right side up this time. lol :p:

Looks awesome! Nice to see it finally finished. I bet you'll try a little harder to keep it right side up this time. lol :p:
Please make sure you keep insurance on it this time Cole.

Haha yes there is insurance on it, so no more trouble there.

Nice job on the rebuild, the truck looks awesome, but after going through all this work what would make you want to sell it?

http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/cto/1261591516.html

Need the money, just bought a house and starting a family so no need for this anymore.

Good luck with that asking price on a rebuilt truck..

What should I be asking if you don't mind? Figure there was no frame damage, no damage to lift, all it was was cosmetic damage. So please tell me what I should be asking, I would like to know.

Oh and by the way, it has a clear title.

Oh how I miss this truck