Chevy and GMC Duramax Diesel Forum banner

Fixing up my 2005 GMC Sierra 2500 HD

39K views 116 replies 31 participants last post by  bonecrrusher 
#1 ·
I picked up this truck 6 months ago - its a 2005 GMC Sierra 2500 HD - LLY Duramax/Allison

I picked up the truck with 192k miles on it - and its been a project ever since I drove it home.

First pics of the truck at the Stealership:




As soon as I got the truck home - I started ordering parts.

First - was a steering wheel swap - the original owner had trashed the steering wheel by driving one handed on top of the wheel - he ripped a whole through the leather wrap!

I found a new wheel on ebay for $70 bucks - and since I had to take off the steering wheel controls anyways - I replaced them with all new dorman units.

I bought a steering wheel puller from O'Riely's - the rental units from Autozone didn't have the correct hooks on it.

I tore down my OEM wheel and swapped everything over to the new one.

Pics:




 
See less See more
6
  • Like
Reactions: dmaxuser
#2 ·
Another project that I've added to the truck is a factory overhead console with Homelink installed. My GMC did not come with the option - you had to order a sunroof in the 2500 to get that option.

I looked on Ebay and found a seller that had a tan interior overhead console for a Suburban/Tahoe with Homelink on it. The seller had it listed for $40 - I offered $30 shipped and they took it.

Now the Suburban/Tahoe overhead console have a rear hvac controller for the middle seats - and well my Sierra doesn't have that option - so a bit of surgery is required.

I drilled out the plastic spot welds holding the hvac controller in - and did the same to the cubby hole in my console - I swapped them over and used small screws to attach cubby hole into the console. I tied into the ground harness for the Homelink, and ran 2 wires for the Homelink switched power, and the other for the lights to glow at night when I have the headlights on.

Now I have factory installed Homelink - all for $30 bucks.


 
#3 ·
When I bought my truck the heated door switch was broke - I ended up finding one on Amazon - ordered and installed that.

My father in law has these tie down hooks in his 2010 GMC 1500 - and really liked them. So I cross shopped them and found out they will fit in the stake holes in the bed of my '05 - so found the best deal online and ordered them - not bad for 50 bucks.

 
#4 ·
I got one of those Meguiars Heavy Duty Headlight polishing kits for Christmas - I finally had the time to use it.

The kit comes with a buffing wheel, Plastix polishing compound, and a UV protectant sealant - and 2 sanding disks - 1000 grit and 3000 grit.

Since I had 7 lights to do on my truck - I quickly blew through the 1000 grit sanding disk - luckily I had a sheet of 1000 grit sand paper in my shop - and ended up using that for the rest of the lights.

I think its a decent kit - just wish it had more sanding disks with it.

The best part I noticed that it helped was on the fog lights - the headlights had some hazing and yellowing - and it took care of that as well.

Now for teh pics:








That brings me up to date on the truck - I still have some things that I want to fix up including:
- replacing the passenger side lower seat foam/leather cover
- replacing the lower dashboard HVAC door actuator - got to love it when its summer out and your AC starts blowing HOT air!
- ordering the GM trunk storage box that goes under the extended cab seat
- upgrading the factory radio to something else
- installing a Onstar VCIM out of Trailblazer and get OEM bluetooth to work
- removing the top dashboard cover - pressure washing it - and repainting it as its peeling up in spots


Forgot a few other things that I fixed - when I bought my car the drivers side power seat switch was missing its cover for the seat back adjuster.

I slipped and fell into my truck and broke the damn switch! So ordered a new one and put that in.

I also ordered the plastic liners that go along the frame inside the door channel - they are already scuffed up - but want to prevent any further damage to the rocker panel.

 
#5 ·
Looking good!
 
#7 ·
I used the Meguiars Heavy Duty kit - I got it as a gift.

Its a lot cheaper then a new headlight - but as you can see the DRL/turn signals are fogged from the inside - can't really do anything about those.
 
#9 ·
Nice looking project you have going there! Keep us posted on your progress. Do you have any plans performance wise for this truck?
 
#12 ·
Honestly man - just google it.

I don't have the links saved.

Attach the ground to ground - power to power - and I ran 2 wires one for the indicator lights that are on during night time - and the other I put a tap a fuse into the fuse box that is live.

Otherwise the BCM kills the power supply to the overhead console and you will have to have the truck on to use it.

It shouldn't lose memory - but that sucks to have to have the key turned for the damn thing to work.
 
#15 ·
So I have been stupid busy working on my truck over the last month or so.

First I really wanted an OEM bluetooth to work - I have it in my SS and I love that feature.

So I found a VCIM out of a Trailblazer - put it in - and it works with the steering wheel controls.

Pic of it showing up on the radio:



Second - I also had ordered a replacement HVAC door actuator to replace the one that has been acting up on my truck - well the one I ordered has only 3 pins in - and all of the actuator doors on my truck are 5 pins - and verified this by pulling the dash apart enough to get to all of them. I couldn't return the one that I had ordered as it was opened, and I had ordered it more then 30 days ago.

Third - since I had the dashboard out - and the paint was chipping up - I asked my neighbor to borrow his power washer. I used his power washer to blow all of the paint off the dash. It did a great job at removing the paint.

So I had to find some paint to match the interior - after taking a gamble I had ordered the SEM paint code that matched the Very Dark Grey Pewter interior - but when I brought in my fuse panel cover - it didnt match at all.

Turns out that I have the Medium Dark Grey Pewter Interior.

So I ordered SEM 17163 from my local O'reillys. They where able to get it next day.

I used SEM's cleaining and prep system steps.

So I ordered there SEM Soap, SEM plastic and leather prep spray, and finally there SEM Adhesion Promoter.

The paint went easily - and I am pretty impressed with the final product.






Fourth - since I had everything torn apart - I decided to improve the factory radio - looking on Ebay - the price for the upgraded Bose amp and the factory touch screen navigation has fallen a bunch - I got both the amp and the Nav radio for less then $300 - and they are factory pieces not to this truck but within the GM Truck/SUV family.

So after repinning the Bose harness - I got everything put back together and finally finished up my interior mods/upgrades!




 
  • Like
Reactions: dmaxuser
#17 ·
Hill Country - I need to replace the vane position sensor on the turbo - and find out why the Allison is still running a bit warm.

Also replace the wheel bearing on the drivers front - and look at the front brakes.
 
#26 ·
If you are going to replace one wheel bearing do both! The first one is a learning process and the next one takes 15 minutes. lol
 
#20 ·
Hill Country - the damn thing overheated a few months ago - so I drained out all of the ATF, blew compressed air through the trans cooler lines, and upgraded to the deeper Allison pan and new filters - also put in all new TranSynd ATF.

Yesterday it was in the 90's and it was riding at about 175-200 driving to and from work.

Its all interstate - not much traffic and not hauling anything except my fat a##.

Also - I could be reading the gauge wrong - but its 100 ' ' ' 200 ' ' ' 300 ' '.

I would assume the 3 ticks are in increments of 25* - so thats why I'm guessing 175-200*.

Also I got the truck back in the fall so I haven't had when it was warm out - and to be honest I never looked at that gauge until it overheated - now I watch it like a hawk.
 
#25 ·
Honestly I don't remember exactly how much went in. It was however, overfull. So I drained enough out so it read full on the dip stick (warm, in nutral and on flat ground.) then I drained about 1 more qt out and the trans has ran cooler and shifted better then it ever did when it was "full"
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top