Hello everyone.

Please allow me to give a quick back story on this truck & post. Towards the end of 1996, my dad and I walked into our local Chevy dealer and sat down with a salesperson to order this 1997 Silverado Ext. Cab 5.7L pickup. Dad began to layout everything he wanted on this truck and after a couple hours, he placed the order. 3-4 months later, I went with dad to pick it up and wow it was a sharp truck! Dad took it home, drained the oil, put in AMSOIL and never deviated from that til the day he passed. Today, the truck has over 400,000 miles, does not smoke, does not use oil, and does not leak oil.

In 2017, dad passed away suddenly without warning and the truck sat until my mother let my nephew have it. She didn’t want me to have it for some unknown to me reason knowing how much I loved the truck but that’s for another day/time. Since 2018ish, my nephew has been driving it and 2 weeks ago, a guy ran a redlight and plowed him in the driver’s front wheel and front wheel forward. It pushed the entire front clip to the passenger side. So, he gave me the truck and I am going to restore it back the best I can. I have removed all the damaged sheet metal and consulted with a local frame repair shop who told me these trucks are very difficult to pull back straight and especially from the firewall forward. I was hoping to get it pulled back but now I’m not sure that is going to be an option.

· Have any of you ever had a truck of this year’s model that needed the frame straightened and if so, was it as problematic as I am being told?

My other option is I have found a clean frame locally that I can get for $80 to do a frame swap. I have been a mechanic my entire life so there is no problem with me doing frame swaps as I have done other vehicles previously. However, I have never done one this year, make and model truck. Are there any pitfalls or issues I should know about before diving into this?

· As far as sheet metal, what all year models should be looking at for junkyard replacement parts? I know these trucks run from 88-98 but I have seen some differences under the hood. The firewall and door jams so not appear to be damaged. I am not seeing any cracked paint and both doors still open and close fine.

I know there are who some will read this and conclude the truck is not worth scrap prices, but it must be understood, this is my dad’s truck, it is PRICELESS to me, and I will spend as much money and as long as it takes to get it back into the condition it was when dad had it. I have more memories of my dad that involved this truck than I can count.

Thanks

 

I have no experience in this area, but I understand where you are coming from here and agree that the frame swap is probably the way to go. Having been in wrecks that totaled at least 3 cars over the years, and having tried to straighten metal myself, I agree that it would be very hard to properly straighten a frame damaged in this way.

You would have to strip things down anyway to have any hope of straightening the frame, so why not just do the swap? If you can weld, I suppose one option would be to cut the frame back under the cab area and weld in the undamaged part from the donor frame. Either way, you will need to retitle the truck as being salvaged I think.

I have a 1996 C1500 Cheyenne step side that I am planning to restore. It's got 203,800 on it, and is an extra truck to my 2006. I plan to restore it mostly as they don't make true step-side short beds like that anymore. And I've owned it for 28+ years.

One piece of advice I have is this. My 1996 was hit in the passenger door many years ago, just caving in the outer shell - interior panels were still usable. I went to a salvage yard to get a new door, and they sold me one from a 1994 C1500. While it *LOOKED* the same, and I mounted it to the hinge pins that were welded to my truck, it turns out that there was a 1/2 inch difference in height of the hinge mounts between the 1994 and 1996 year models. The top of that 1994 door ended up 1/2 inch above the top of the cab, and the latches and everything were off by a 1/2 inch. I had to take it back, and they found me a door that worked. Not sure if it was from a 1996, or 95/97. So - be careful when you replace the drivers door, and check where the hinges are vertically. It can have the same outer skin, but be misaligned up/down is what I learned.

Good luck restoring your dad's truck!

 

Another question to ask - is the firewall itself damaged or pushed in? That would also be a hard thing to fix...

 

Thanks for your input. I have looked best I can and I am not able to find any evidence the firewall has moved. I have searched for cracked/broken paint chips, etc. and cannot see anything like that.

Also, does anyone know if the engines in these trucks are factory installed off center towards the pass side? I know some of the older Ford trucks the driveline was offset to allow for more room for the steering box. I am seeing about a 3/4"-1" offset on this truck but not sure if that was intentional or a result of the accident as shown below.

 

I will snap a picture under the front of my 1996 shortly and post, so you can see if the main pulley is off center from the frame.

 

Perfect, thank you sir!

 

Does anyone have a frame measurement drawing to share? I picked up a frame yesterday and I would like to check it to make sure it is good before moving it on to blast and paint. Thanks

 

Glad you bumped this thread. I never sent that picture. Here's what I see on my 1996 C1500. It appears that the crankshaft pully is off center from the frame about 2 inches. I see this too looking at the bow-tie logo on the front grill - the fan that is mounted on the water pump pulley as well as the crank shaft pulley appear about 2 inches to left of center of the bow-tie Chevy logo on the grill and what I presume to be the center line of the truck. I centered the lens of my iPhone with the center of the bumper and the Chevy logo on the grill for this picture.




I've got some nice oil seepage on the engine there! But... it's got 203,800 miles on it and has had no major engine work done beyond replacing the intake manifold gasket twice over the years.

Unfortunately I do not have any frame measurements for you. I've got a lot going on this week, and was under the other truck (2006) on my lunch hour to make measurements of modifying my receiver hitch to fit after installing a Tommy Gate.

 

No worries, this is big help in knowing the offset was indeed intentional. I picked up a good rolling frame so I will be building everything up new and painted from here forward. Thanks again

 

Well, finally got a frame, had it blasted and epoxy coated. Now going to paint it black and start building everything ground up new. A lot of work but will be worth it in the long run.