Rocket Man's 2008 Bagged CC Silverado Build AKA "THE MACHINE"

[Rocket Man]

I want your truck soooo bad



I have the same rear floor mats... came with my truck too

I bought those from a guy on GMFS. They were like brand new. The ones that came with the truck were messed up and the front passenger side was missing. And NO you can't have my truck lol. Sorry Nathan...

 

[PG01]

Give it up...nows

 

[Rocket Man]

Lol.

 

[Rocket Man]

More pics. I cut, ground and peeled away the metal I was discarding from the tubs, test fit them, and ground away the primer and paint. Removed the inner structure from the new fenders too.

 

[Rocket Man]

Then I tried my hand at welding for the first time and didn't even burn any holes through the sheet metal. Maybe not perfect but it will do. Next thing I need to is drill out the spot welds on the lips so I can roll them easier; right now it's 2 layers where the inner structure was spot welded around the lip where I cut with the angle grinder to remove the inner fender. 1 layer will roll easier.

 

[Rocket Man]

Test fit on the driver side. It's gonna work.

 

[Rocket Man]

I bought a spot weld drill so I can remove the second layer of metal on the fender lips that was left over when I cut the inner structure out. I figure when I roll those lips, a second layer would f things up and keep the metal from stretching and forming like I need it to. The fender roller will be here Wednesday and I need the fenders mounted and ready by then, they have to be on the truck to roll them.

 

[05Single]

Just caught up. Lots of action in this thread. Love it.

 

[Rocket Man]

Just splurged for a set of 255/30/26 Lexani's instead of the 295/30/26's that I had the PO install before I drove it up from Cali. The 295's have too much sidewall for the 26 x 9 rims which makes the tires bulge a bit and they need to do the opposite. The truck originally had 255's and now I see why. I hadn't thought about that and I don't know why. The 255's will stretch which will give me more clearance at the fenders. It's the tires that are close at the fender lips. I do NOT want to replace fenders again. I'll just have to be careful to avoid potholes. Still waiting on the other part of the Eastwood fender roller. They sent the roller itself but the adapter for my wheels was shipped separate. I really want to see how that goes. I hate waiting.

 

[Rocket Man]

Well so much for the Eastwood fender roller. I got the adapter a few days ago and it was a PIA to make it work; the caliper was in the way. I used some spacers to gain clearance and then some of the threads were stripped so I had to re-tap those. On top of all that, my fenders did not cooperate. These particular style, with the dual layers consisting of the inner and outer fender and then me removing the inner portion, makes for a weak structure for rolling the lips. Plus the shape isn't conducive with the largely flat area at the top combined with the sharp radius corners. I was attempting to roll the passenger side radius at the rear and the fender popped in on the face in that area. I had a helluva time getting the lip bent back to where the face sheet metal would stay popped out with some resistance to pushing it in. Now if I push it in it pops back out like it should. Whew. I did NOT want to start over on that fender. After that, I decided to remove them and just hand-form the flat sections at the top, and at the rest I just used pliers and bent up half the lip so it's smooth where it would meet the tire if I **** up and turn the wheel too far again, which I'm sure I will. Plus it gives me a bit more room. That, combined with the 255 tires, gives me much more room. Speaking of which, those tires look wicked mounted on my rims. From the side it looks like the rim is almost touching the road but if you look directly from the side you can see they're not much different from the 285's. They're just stretched on the rim so you don't see any sidewall. The rears are like that too. I'm scheduled for paint next Monday. Can't wait to get this thing back together.