2006 Silverado SS Intimidator resurrection

[someotherguy]

01-22-2019 VIPMOTOZ brand LED CHMSL got water in it. Dunno how and they weren't interested in discussing it so I chucked it and got a new OEM lens and dug my old socket base out from storage.





08-26-2019 Today's little project, repairing a door handle on the SS from theft attempt a couple weeks ago. The handle with chrome grab bar is an Escalade piece and discontinued by GM, only aftermarket junk still available. Found one original for $100; nah I'll just cut the swivel rivet out of the old black original and transplant the chrome grab bar then repair the break in the back with a metal splint. About an hour's work and $100 saved. Not perfect but looks way better and the door works again..





Richard

 

[ORVietVet]

Very jealous of the shop space and the drive on 4 post lift. I can dream.

I was talking to my girl the other day and she said she would be ok with living on same level or above a shop and having a drive on 4 post lift. She hates to see me work outside when it is chilly. I have a big canopy for rain but I at least wait till is 45* plus before I work outside. I have shop coveralls that I wear over my clothes and shop gloves. Not too bad but at 72 years old, on 12/24/24, I can feel it in my bones at times. I could use the room for my Snap On 3 bay and my cart:

 

[someotherguy]

Very jealous of the shop space and the drive on 4 post lift. I can dream.

I was talking to my girl the other day and she said she would be ok with living on same level or above a shop and having a drive on 4 post lift. She hates to see me work outside when it is chilly. I have a big canopy for rain but I at least wait till is 45* plus before I work outside. I have shop coveralls that I wear over my clothes and shop gloves. Not too bad but at 72 years old, on 12/24/24, I can feel it in my bones at times. I could use the room for my Snap On 3 bay and my cart:

View attachment 1128View attachment 1129View attachment 1130

Man, I only wish that 4 post lift was in my place. Those pics are at the muffler shop. I'm currently working out of a "2 car" garage that might be big enough for 2 older Hondas, IF I didn't have any toolboxes, parts, supplies, shelves, work tables, lawn equipment, or anything else in here but the cars. I guess that's what the vision for suburbanite life was supposed to be for some. So, instead I've got just about enough room for 1 vehicle in here, and sometimes working can get really cramped!

I'd love to have a place with actual shop space again; the problem around here is finding space that has a comfortably livable area and that is a freestanding building not attached to shared space with others (like an office/warehouse complex.) The place I had my GMT400 salvage yard back in the day was perfect other than it was kinda run-down (I didn't really mind but my now-wife might not like it much) and the overhead would be too much to just live there; I'd need to run a business out of a place like that.

More back story to come on the Intimidator; I just took a break last night trying to integrate pictures I'd posted on FB with ones I had hosted on my old site, before godaddy screwed me over with my hosting.

Richard

 

[someotherguy]

11-22-2019 driver front wheel bearing going out, ordered an AC Delco replacement and swapped it. Had been driving my 300 in the meantime. Easy job; takes longer to set up and clean up than actually swap it. New AC Delco bearing made in Korea.





03-17-2020 "Day off"

rotors, pads, and the other bearing/hub for the black SS





Richard

 

[someotherguy]

04-15-2020 Tires are toast, belts coming apart so they're all lumpy in the tread. New ones waiting down at tha Discount..





Crispy like McDonalds Sprite flavor pop tarts

Toyo Proxes ST3



04-27-2020 Passenger side catalytic converter had blown out a while back and just sounded sick; was tired of listening to it so I had it replaced with a Magnaflow universal fit piece. Got a great price at Ace's and they did it quickly; about half of what the other shop wanted for the exact same part. You can just barely see my truck up on the lift, behind that freaking SHARP K5 Blazer parked out front.







Richard

 

[someotherguy]

08-06-2020 Blower motor resistor failed, and the fan is running full speed even with the key off! Had to pull the fan cover down and disconnect the fan. "Lifetime warranty" replacement (recommended; these seem to go bad frequently) from BWD purchased through Advance.. came without the new harness it's supposed to include. A trip back to the store got it swapped out for another...which got the blower fan up and running correctly again.



07-07-2021 Airbag warning came on, but without a scanner that can read body codes, couldn't tell what the problem was - so I ordered a scanner that was kind of low cost (Launch CRP123) but should come in handy for other tasks, too. Determined it was code B0104, "discard electronic front end sensor 2" - to be sure, I swapped the sensors side to side and the code did follow.







DO NOT TAUNT HAPPY FUN BALL

Ordered and installed a new sensor and cleared the code, no more issues.

Richard

 

[someotherguy]

08-18-2021 Truck wouldn't start, sounded like low battery. It's got a whole bunch of fairly recent good quality parts in the starting/charging system, so it's kind of a bummer it won't start. Throw the battery charger on it, says it's fine. Tried the 60A jump start mode, still no dice.

Assumed (key word) the 3.5 year old was-new/not rebuilt/(but made in China because everything is) AC Delco starter had gone bad. Order a new Remy starter and pay extra for it to get here on time for next nights off. Go to throw it on the truck and, yeah.. it's the f'ing battery!



4.5 year old $220 (now $260) Odyssey "Performance" AGM battery crapped out. Acts OK at a simple measurement but must have a weak/shorted cell or whatever.



OK, so out with that and in with the new Champion Premium from Pep Boys,which btw, is not looking all that great these days. They've turned into a "service only" center, no more parts. Great service - it only took the dude 15 minutes to NOT find my online order, until another dude walked up and found it within about 15 seconds. Anyway, truck starts great now. New battery, new starter. Spare good starter on the shelf which is never a bad thing. Lesson learned? I need more tools - a battery load tester!



10-10-2021 Marking the occasion of getting the truck back from the transmission shop, 144K miles 4L65E crapped out and got rebuilt by my buddy Joe at Premier.



11-05-2021 Wrapping up 2021 from what I can tell.. had the Ravelco guys come out and do installs of their anti-theft system on both our trucks. This is in addition to several other means of anti-theft we have, since both trucks have had theft attempts while we've owned them.



Richard

 

[ORVietVet]

Lovin' that old Blazer.

 

[someotherguy]

Figured with the extreme inactivity here I posted this over on GMT400.com in the "other vehicles" section, and have continued the rest of the story on to the present day.

2006 Silverado SS Intimidator resurrection

"I started this thread over on Chevytalk and the Silverado SS forums (which have now all but gone to sleep..) so let's wake up GMT800 forums with some historical, and current posts, about my 2006 Intimidator? Why not.. I may try to squeeze in some pics/details I left out of the original posts...

www.gmt400.com

Richard

 

[ORVietVet]

It appears I have wasted my Supporting Member money on this forum.

Now I have to try and fight to get some money back and it would be on auto pay too.

 

[ORVietVet]

I have messaged @Griffin about shutting down my auto pay for the Supporting Member fees.

 

[ORVietVet]

Well, I have decided to stay and keep at this. There is a Silverado/Sierra Forum, that I joined, nice/big forum but covers all Silverados and Sierras, no matter what year. They don't separate the groups by GMT or NBS or NNBS or whatever. A lot of the info is beyond me because I am not tuned in to the newer trucks.

I did reach out to members at the GMT400 Forum, that have/own GMT800 trucks and SUV's and asked them to join here. 2 more have joined today.

 

[Cadillacmak]

Anymore updates on this truck? I have never seen one like it, very cool.

 

[someotherguy]

Anymore updates on this truck? I have never seen one like it, very cool.

I actually finished the whole post over on GMT400 in the "Other Vehicle Builds" section, up to current day. The truck is for sale at the moment, too. (edit - SOLD, 1/15/2025!)

Maybe next downtime I've got I'll get this thread current as well.

Richard

 

[someotherguy]

So being "snowed in" I guess counts as downtime! So let's finish out this project thread

05-16-2022 Spark plugs and wires for the Redneckinator. 8 wires. 7 plugs. Guess at least one Amazon worker knew how to count when packing loose items that day.





The two-day tune-up completed, thanks to 8th plug showing up a day late



08-17-2022 New lesson learned: just because a tool maker says their tool fits your truck, doesn't make them correct. Or possibly, I may just be a dummy and using the tool wrong. I may need to use it "backwards"..

Lower ball joints on the Redneckinator. Jeezus H effin Christ on 3 crutches. You can't get the knuckle out of the lower ball joint without the upper being loose, too. Massive beating with hammers and fork to get it loose. Lower joint attaches under control arm, can't really use spring tension to pop it. Lesson learned: do uppers and lowers together, which I will on Amy's truck next.





Richard

 

[someotherguy]

Knocked the grease fitting and the dimpled ridges around the old joint off with a chisel, got the thing to break loose



Trusty old ball peen to the rescue



FML the other side refuses to let go



Wrapping it up. New joints installed and greased, and throwing a front/rear tire rotation in while I'm at it. I'm beat



Richard

 

[someotherguy]

08-31-2022 Little job for today, replace the seat bottom leather on the Redneckinator SS. Wasn't too bad but I learned a few lessons, so I get to re-do it again in the near future. Foam felt OK but once I got the old cover off, I could see it's starting to crumble at the edge. Heating element has burnt spots so it needs to be replaced. Truck is my daily driver so I went ahead and put the new leather on and will have to order more goodies to do it "right" the second time around. About 1.5 hrs from door open to door closed, including a little vacuuming. Oh, and some fighting with the cover to get the middle stitch lined up with the top part of the seat, still getting it wrong, then realizing the factory did a crummy job, too.











Richard

 

[someotherguy]

10-11-2022 F M L



12-15-2022 After an extended stay at the transmission doctor, the Redneckinator is back in action. We'll see. 155K for the record and 3rd transmission. Next time it just may get a swap.. or sold first!



01-04-2023 Today's fun: after getting the bluetooth receiver/aux input gizmo working in the 300 again, attention turned to the Redneckinator. Tried repairing the cluster dimmer switch one more time before replacing it, and also hope cleaning the contacts on the radio faceplate helps the display not conk out randomly.

Then.. dealing with this crap I've just been sick about. While the truck was at the transmission shop, the body tape let go at the front of the door molding and the guys chipped the paint. Required me pulling the fasteners at the bottom bracket, break the rest of the tape loose, clean all the old tape and residue off, prep spray everything, and apply new tape then reinstall the molding. All is well now, except that glaring chip in the paint







Richard

 

[someotherguy]

Richard

 

[ORVietVet]

When I was in the shops and the trucks were older, changing ball joints was easier, IMO, because that was back when I was younger and c*o*c*k strong and designs were different. Now days, it is the complete arm replacement.