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

[89Suburban]

Nice to see you tinkering again Mark.

 

[Rocket Man]

All done, I’m pretty happy with the results.
Not bad for a $20 repair. About 4 hours total for me. It is by no means perfect but it doesn’t catch my eye like it used to. Plus it won’t rattle. I'm happy.

 

[Rocket Man]

Nice to see you tinkering again Mark.

Thank you. It feels good too.

 

[Rocket Man]

That's a big job. I put a leather dash mat in my '07 to hide the cracks for the day-to-day. But I'll eventually replace the thing.

The dash is over $600 shipped now. When I did the Silverado I bought a new one for $400 shipped.They have to ship freight due to the ginormous box they come in. Dealers don’t stock them, probably take up too much room.

 

[Rocket Man]

I know I can do a better job welding a dash back together. I should have done it different so I could watch the top as the bottom gets the first few staples in it. My helper was supposed to hold the cracks together but he failed to do a good job. He slipped twice and lost his grip. Plus I had it laying upside down so we couldn’t see the top. If I was to position it somehow so both top and bottom were accessible and I was the one holding them together and watching the top side as my helper stuck a few staples in it I think I could make it almost invisible. I was just wondering what a wrecking yard would charge me to pull one that has a couple cracks so I could try. It would just be the labor to pull it since the dash would be worthless to sell. I might try that. I’m procrastinating working on pulling the trans on The Beast because it’s so difficult and I’m having a hard time getting motivated because it’s a bit*h. I need a couple good wins first. Plus I am starting radiation soon and I just found out that will be 5 days a week for 4 weeks, with Monday consisting of one dose of chemo followed by radiation of my bladder, then just radiation Tuesday-Friday. It will be a lot of driving but the appointments are only an hour each. Some of my chemo appointments were 5 hours so maybe it won’t be too bad. Anyway just my brain spinning after a good day.

 

[Rocket Man]

Well looks like the suspension compressor only lasted a couple days after the new Arnotts were installed. I tried clearing the code for exhaust solenoid open or shorted to ground and it’s no longer turning on at startup. It looks original so I’m pretty sure it was on its way out and now that it’s been actually putting pressure into the system instead of sensing nothing and shutting off, it decided it doesn’t want to play. I ordered the Dorman one. It was $165 shipped on Amazon instead of $232 for the Arnott. RA has the Arnott for $253 shipped and the Dorman for $235 shipped. If the Amazon prices were closer between the two I would have bought the Arnott. I have heard good things about the Dorman also so I went with it for the $67 savings.

 

[Rocket Man]

Drove The Machine to the grocery store this morning. I always remote start it so it comes up to ride height and then the compressors come on and refill the tank. Came out, loaded the dog and jumped in. The readout on the AirLift system had a fault - “leak at left rear” it said. Shut the truck off, got out and had a listen. Couldn’t hear any air leaking so I hopped back in, started it up and there was no fault showing. Drove to the store and back and no issues. I guess I need to drive it more. Must have been a leaky valve in the manifold for the system, probably been sitting too much.