Gentlemen;
2000 Silverado owned since 2009. 140,000 miles, mechanically sound just all the normal problems of an older Silverado. Rust/peeling paint/etc...
Not so much a restore as a re-fresh. I need to replace some body panels, (rockers/cab corners/rust over the rear wheel wells) Not a professional, total amateur and do it as a hobby on my own vehicles.
The plan is to repair whats needed, repaint, update the interior (new leather/replace headliner) and get it back on the road for another 20 years. If there's any interest i will post updates. About half way done so far.

metalrain

 

Would love to hear the updates!!

 

Pulled the box off and wire wheeled the frame



Used a rust converter


Blitz black frame paint


Cut off the rusted rockers and installed rocker covers. Structural adhesive on the top, spot weld on the bottom


passenger cab corner installed with adhesive, rockers ready for paint










More to come.

 

Patch panel for 3 door includes cab corner and rest of the rocker



rust removal


glued and screwed. Screw heads will be treated as welds and ground down.
bottom spot welded


didn't use the whole panel, cut off some of the top so body trim will cover
the center of the seam


wheel arch patch panel. all panels get a 1 inch over lay


once cut hoping the wheelhouse was usable. no such luck.


passenger side worse than the other. new wheelshouse's ordered

more to come.

 

Used a spot cutter to remove old wheelhouse's and cleaned up metal. The area received two coats of epoxy primer


Spot welded back in. The fitment was excellent for after market parts.All new metal replacement parts got 2 coats epoxy primer.


patch panels glued and screwed/ I used SEM structural adhesive. The bottom lip was spot welded to the new wheelhouse


Arch patch panels fit well. They are rectangle in shape so i rounded off the ends. makes for a better blend


metal cleaned up


filled and feathered. Brown filler was old body work somebody else did


Panels of course can be welded in...I suck at welding so adhesive was an easy choice.
more to come...

 

Box removed, ready for paint


2 coats epoxy primer...2 coats ppg olympic white...3 coats of clear


roof and back of cab painted...make shift scaffolding to paint roof


tailgate hung and painted. everything painted was color sanded 1000/1500/2000 finish film. buffed out with
wool pad/compound...then foam pad with polish...


orange peel gone...paint super smooth



re-using old tail lights (tight budget)...sanded to 1000 grit


2 coats of clear...like new again


more to come...

 

ok this is well beyond what I consider a "re-fresh"

refresh to me is washing it, and touching up the chips with a paint pen.

What would I be looking at to have this done professionally? ... $10k?

 

Your guess is as good as mine when it comes to getting this done professionally Mountainman. The price of paint seems to have taken a major jump in the last few years. The epoxy/basecoat/clearcoat
and activators for this job was $1000 dollars, 5 years ago it would have been 300. The new patch panels and such seemed to be priced reasonably. When i thought about doing this i figured a 1000 dollars
for a budget, That quickly morphed to 2000 after checking prices. I've painted a lot of vehicles over the years, self taught because i couldn't afford it 30 years ago, but never done any body work. Had to watch
a lot of online videos for the body work. Its not hard work, just labor intense.

I painted the hood a year ago because it was peeling so bad. Plan was to sell it and update to a 2015. Figured 15,000 to 18,000 would get me a newer truck, but anything with less than 100,000 miles
was priced at 20 to 25,000. and the ones i could afford had more miles and in just as bad shape as what i got. I don't need a pickup for everyday use, maybe only drive it 500 miles a year so bring my old one back
up to code seemed reasonable. I didn't want to do the work, but conditions force me into it.

Anyways....here i am at the current stage, oem paint on the truck was so bad it was lifting everywhere, had to take everything down to bare metal.



Hoping to paint by next weekend then i can start putting things back together
More to come .

 

Got a chance to paint this weekend. 2 coats of epoxy primer

Two coats of base, three coats of clear.


Will color sand and buff this week, then start putting it back together.

 

Very cool man. I am in the process of doing something similar, though right now I'm doing interior (changing color, replacing carpet, replacing seat covers/seat belts for color change, replacing headliner, general cleaning) and I've already done a lot of parts replacement in the engine bay. Like you, I considered buying a newer truck, but the prices were offensive for trucks with 200-300k miles.

Thanks for posting pictures, I love to see stuff like this and love seeing guys tackle this kinda thing.