2005 GMC 1500- Is it worth fixing up??

[brad6]

So my father-in law has bought a new truck and I was throwing the idea of fixing up his 05 Gmc 1500 extended cab for my son. The truck has high km's (300,000). He bought the truck new and used it mostly around the city for his small electrical company before he retired. Body is ok shape i think, i haven't had a real close look at it yet. FIL basically said we can have it for nothing if we want it. I was thinking of throwing a salvage engine from a wrecker in it, and fix whatever else to make it reliable and any body work if needed. I would like to tackle this work on my own. I have some time to do the build, since my boy is just turning 14 in May. Figured it might be a good project to work on together and both learn a few things along the way. I would say I have a decent mechanical abilities, but never done an engine swap on a vehicle. Just tying to figure out if its worth while to fix, or if I'm just throwing time and money into the fire at the end of the day?

 

[Frosty19]

Right now used trucks are through the roof in price. Maybe look around to see what similar ones are going for around you and what an engine costs and go from there on what it will cost in parts and see where you end up.
I would say if you're doing the work yourself as a father son project that should be considered as a credit more than a cost but just my cents.
The biggest will be the shape of the body IMO. If you don't know how to fix that kind of stuff it won't be worth doing. And probably safe to say when I was 16 I wouldn't have wantes to pay for the gas prices in a truck now, another thing to consider

 

[ABMax24]

It's not worth bringing back to new condition.

But for a young kid it definitely worth considering making it mechanically sound and driving it.

There's piles of those trucks around, and parts are usually easy to come by, and compared to modern vehicles they are easy to work on.

The price is right, I'd go for it.

 

[Trukker]

What wrong with the motor ? 5.3 or 4.8

 

[brad6]

It's got a 5.3. Smokes blue most of the time. Burns oil, father in law says it clatters somtimes if you get on the pedal too hard.

 

[JayT]

I think you can get a 5.3 for a pretty reasonable price from an auto wreckers. Those things are a dime a dozen

 

[Zrock]

before you do anything look at the frame under the driver and passenger floor. Their is a boxed section that rots out and if its gone just scrap the truck... 5.3 engines are easy to find and cheap even a long block from the dealer is not a bad price... If your going to do the engine take the trans and have it rebuilt while you are at it for the extra money it will be worth it. Also while yo u have all that out order the stainless steel brake lines and replace them while the engine and trans are out as those will rust through at some point and its only a couple hundred for those.. If it were me i would go through and por 15 the frame.

If it were me i would figure out the cost with a new engine and not go higher than 10g. You can always get your money back out of it at that price if you were to sell it with a new engine..
If going with a used engine i would probably cap things at about 6g as you can never trust what someone tells you for KM on a used engine...

Just purchased a newer truck and i seen thr 05's selling for 10-15g and people are getting that price right now. but if its a father, father, son project than its priceless

 

[Outdoors]

before you do anything look at the frame under the driver and passenger floor. Their is a boxed section that rots out and if its gone just scrap the truck... 5.3 engines are easy to find and cheap even a long block from the dealer is not a bad price... If your going to do the engine take the trans and have it rebuilt while you are at it for the extra money it will be worth it. Also while yo u have all that out order the stainless steel brake lines and replace them while the engine and trans are out as those will rust through at some point and its only a couple hundred for those.. If it were me i would go through and por 15 the frame.

If it were me i would figure out the cost with a new engine and not go higher than 10g. You can always get your money back out of it at that price if you were to sell it with a new engine..
If going with a used engine i would probably cap things at about 6g as you can never trust what someone tells you for KM on a used engine...

Just purchased a newer truck and i seen thr 05's selling for 10-15g and people are getting that price right now. but if its a father, father, son project than its priceless

You’ve seen a box frame rot out that quickly? That’s some bad salt in Edmonton.

 

[brad6]

So far the going rate for a wrecker 5.3 engine is $900-1500, when I checked locally. Need to have a better look at the truck this weekend and go from there.

 

[Zrock]

make sure you do some research and know what 5.3 to stay away from with the bad heads... i can't remember if it extended up into the 05's or not

 

[Rjjtcross8]

The nice thing with those years of trucks is that parts are easy to find and they are straight forward to work on.

 

[kenvb]

my 99 5.3 a had 750,000 kms on original 5.3 ...company i got it from went to Fort Mc urray twice a week from Whitecourt..wife bought it in 2011 with about 700,000 had every maintainance reciept... they used 5-30 Dino oil w jug of Lucas oil stabilier every change...i did the same for next 50,000 kms,body was nice too..washed all the time..so sold it for body parts amd fellow said was too good to scrap..has over 800,000 now. try some LUCAS in it before you scrap it..it slowed down oil burning on my old 86 Ford 300 six too,..at 650,000 when i gave it to friend to haul hay bales..

 

[brad6]

Funny you mention Lucas, watched a few YouTube videos I figured I’d give it a try. Also did the valve cover mod on the drivers side, and now the smoke at start up has disappeared. Might have to giver a new nickname FIL used to call it “old smokie”. Still have a few things on list to fix, but I got the new cab corners and rockers installed and did colour matched raptor liner on the bottom in silver birch. Looks way better then before. It’s amazing how shitty that rust is once you start cutting things apart and poking around..My son is pretty excited! Going to take it up to the lake in week or two and park it in garage for the winter.

 

[flatspeed]

Funny you mention Lucas, watched a few YouTube videos I figured I’d give it a try. Also did the valve cover mod on the drivers side, and now the smoke at start up has disappeared. Might have to giver a new nickname FIL used to call it “old smokie”. Still have a few things on list to fix, but I got the new cab corners and rockers installed and did colour matched raptor liner on the bottom in silver birch. Looks way better then before. It’s amazing how shitty that rust is once you start cutting things apart and poking around..My son is pretty excited! Going to take it up to the lake in week or two and park it in garage for the winter.

That looks great! Is that silver birch a custom color or is there a premade colour that matches silver birch? (My truck could use some too)

Also how much did you need to coat all that?

 

[ABMax24]

Funny you mention Lucas, watched a few YouTube videos I figured I’d give it a try. Also did the valve cover mod on the drivers side, and now the smoke at start up has disappeared. Might have to giver a new nickname FIL used to call it “old smokie”. Still have a few things on list to fix, but I got the new cab corners and rockers installed and did colour matched raptor liner on the bottom in silver birch. Looks way better then before. It’s amazing how shitty that rust is once you start cutting things apart and poking around..My son is pretty excited! Going to take it up to the lake in week or two and park it in garage for the winter.

Looks great! So was it worth it? Judging by that photo I'd say it was.

 

[brad6]

I'd say it was worth it! ₩Did all the body work my self. Probably about $500-600 for the replacement corners and slip on rockers. Zip cut out the rust areas and welded in new pieces, epoxy primered then did the raptor. Raptor supplied silver birch to mix in. Colour match raptor liner was around $250 maybe? Ended up buying an air hole punch for doing the spot welds. Happy with way it turned out, raptor liner hides any minor sins in the body work. Tried to colour match blue on the tailgate but it way off. Ended up topcoating with colour matched rattle cans from a body shops supply place.

 

[Bnorth]

Turned out great! Real nice pickup for his first driver