Having seen many older Chevy Silverado pickups on the road over the years, I recently decided to purchase a 20 year old truck for restoration. I ended up with a ’90 model stepside silverado in red. It has a 350 engine, automatic transmission and the typical power windows, door locks and cruise control.
Being a 20 year old truck, it has the wear and tear that would be expected. The interior is worn with door panels and seats that need to be replaced. The clear coat on the paint appears to be holding on ok, but needs a serious polish and wax if it’s going to have a showroom shine.
The engine is really strong to have as many miles on it as it does. It has a good 268,000 miles with a broken odometer. So what that means in reality – is that there is really no way of knowing how many miles are on it. That’s not a good thing – but it’s a testament to the long term durability and reliability of a Chevy truck.
(I’ve bought cars before and with credit problems, buying a car with bad credit is not for the faint of heart. What is much easier though is using the money that would most commonly be used for a down payment, only to buy a vehicle outright for cash. What I ended up driving didn’t have all of the bling-bling that everyone wants, but it has sure saved me from having car payments and having to pay a sky high interest rate.)
So now, I’m going to be slowly getting this old Chevy restored. My intentions are to have the engine overhauled, possibly doing that work myself. I don’t have any experience with rebuilding engines but would like to learn.Here is a good resource on engine rebuilding that I’ve just found.
Once the engine is complete, I plan to have the suspension and brake system thoroughly inspected. Only then will I work on the interior, replacing needed door panels, seats and carpet. (A lot of money can be saved by using automotive trim paint on interior plastic parts). Once the interior is complete I’ll then move on to the final stage of prepping the exterior for automotive paint to be finished at the local Maaco shop. Sanding a vehicle is a really tough job, but will be well worth the extra effort if I do it myself rather than forking out thousands to a body shop.
Once that is complete, it will be time to roll it into the paint booth. All in all, I anticipate having about $4,000.00 in the complete restoration.
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