someotherguy

Danger, Will Robinson Richard

Coming along nicely; I've got a few update pics in my thread over in the build section. Richard

Cool to see pics, woulda bought them from you but after nearly 3 months of asking I had to just get them elsewhere as truck was going to the body shop. Good price for sure, anybody doubts it try shopping around for these. GLWS Richard

Coulda been worse! Richard

List is $300 and change. Craziness Richard

I tried clicking the thumbnails to see if the part # was on that box but they won't load for some reason. Anyway yeah, you should say if it's door or tailgate. Door script part # is 88980874 Tailgate script part # is 88980875 Either way decent price; that's a few bucks less than the cheapest price you'll find pretty much anywhere. Richard

Is your driveshaft at an angle, or is it straightened out from the lowering? When it's straightened out, that's when you'll get vibration, and you'll kill the u-joints quickly. I don't know what parts DJM includes in that kit, never cared for their flip kit, but if it's their "adjustable pinion angle" design then good luck with it. Here's one old illustration from the net showing desired driveline angle Since you have a one piece shaft it's not like you can space the carrier bearing, so you can adjust at the rear to bring the pinion yoke down and increase the angle. You can also shim the trans mount if needed. Richard

Thanks...and the rework *might* be due to a misunderstanding on part #'s. When I look up the driver's front door handle for the Escalade, and order that part #, what shows up looks like possibly a rear door handle? (Don't know since I don't have a 4 door to compare parts to.) The mounting stud towards the rear of the handle is 1/2" or so lower, so it doesn't meet the tab on the door skin. It also has a different crank on the back where the handle linkage goes down to the latch; it's way longer. So, the crank gets swapped over from the old handle, and the body man moved the tab down for the stud. I went with this particular handle for three reasons. One it's OEM, two it has the chrome grab which I think looks nice on the black bezel, and three - no keyhole. Before I picked Escalade handles I had searched for the plain smooth handle with no keyhole (and no chrome grab) but as far as I can tell, GM has discontinued it, and I didn't want an aftermarket. That is the correct part # for a black painted tailgate handle bezel, even including when looked up using an SS VIN, but AFAIK the factory bezel is textured (so is the handle.) Richard

A copy-paste from my update over on Chevytalk...Updates from the body man! Old bedside and taillight housing area chopped out New bedside in place (detail of new taillight housing area) Driver door handle opening minor re-work for Escalade handle All dents repaired and worked areas primed (Nice shot of the whole new bedside!) This guy gets down...I only dropped the truck off just over a week ago! Richard

Finally loaded her up and took to the body shop today! Getting the full deal. All damage to be repaired, complete paint job, all new emblems, etc. Guy does top notch work, just recently painted my little brother's '70 Chevelle, and a '69 Z/28 for a super picky friend of his. The big box in the back is the new GM bedside. I went OEM for everything I possibly could; about the only thing not GM is the smooth tailgate handle bezel (not available OEM afaik.) Richard

They're so close to Ballers that I would bet they are made by the same company, just with the KMC logo added to the mold. The rest of the features are practically identical, though I'd wonder how they added that chrome line to them. Looking at it a little closer it's not chrome...it's just raw where they either sanded/polished off the coating or masked it somehow prior to coating. Richard

I'm diggin' it. I'd use the blue though, for VVT Richard

That's pretty much the going rate for 'em too. Just be thankful you don't have to buy Intimidator scripts to go with 'em, you'll be over $700 before you're through. Richard

The emblems are ridiculous, yes. As far as the cheapie copy decals go, there are two levels of "quality" - the ones that are literally just vinyl decals and don't look anything like the originals, and then the ones that are some kind of domed vinyl that at least attempts to reasonably copy the originals. Problem is, neither of those sets take into consideration that the tailgate script is 1" narrower than the door script. It doesn't sound like a lot, but when you start trying to cram the script and SS emblem back there it starts getting awful close to the center of the tailgate. I still can't believe what I spent on emblems for this damn thing. I'm hoping when all the paint/body is done and shiny, that it'll help me forget. Richard

It even looks like some panels are different "shades" (levels of wear/fade) of black, like it was boneyarded together and not painted. Richard

Interesting piece. I quit smoking so long ago I didn't even really notice when they quit putting ashtrays in newer vehicles as standard equipment. Would be a nice piece to have though for any smoker, cut down on all those cig burns at the edge of the headliner. Crazy thing is my '06 Mopars have ashtrays. Little ones, but they're there...never even get opened as there's another power outlet inside the console that I use for the phone charger. Richard

It seems strange that only the headrests would be gone, though. Figured they'd go for the dash cluster minimum, and the wing...though the tailgate might be off another truck and the wing a repro, explaining the cheapie decal emblems instead of the real thing. I think the price is high as well, but it's a low mile truck that should be rust-free if it's lived in Cali all its life. Then again prices like that make me feel better about what I'm sinking into my salvage-title Intimidator... Richard

Do everything you can to tell everyone who will listen that the brake lines are bad. You don't want them depending on the brakes and smashing your new truck up while trying to load/unload it. RIchard

I'd wonder if it's a real Intimidator. Notice it has the regular SS headrests, and the close-up of the emblems on the tailgate makes them appear to be the simple decals that are available cheaply on eBay. It's got the Intimidator wing, dash insert, and the signature on the dash cluster - but ya know what? You can get that dash overlay brand new. Fully loaded including sunroof, lowish miles for the year, appears to already be lowered a bit, and needs a little TLC. Not a terrible deal all around. But if you're concerned about whether it's a real Intimidator, check the RPO label for SSI which is the Intimidator package. Without that, it's a fake. Also know if you're going to paint it and want original emblems you'll spend over $700 on them (about $240 for all three SS emblems, and about $475 for all three Intimidator scripts, assuming you can even find the slightly narrower tailgate script in stock.) Richard

There are 145 amp alternators that replace the original that will not have the DR44G stamped in the case. Typical of aftermarket units. I'd say give your battery a full slow charge with an external charger then see how it behaves. Low battery can cause weirdness. Richard

From the eBay ad: "Brake line rusted through. Air bag light on. Scratch and tear on rear bumper. 6 foot long scratch on drivers side." Sounds like he just wanted to price it for a quick sale. Someone already hit the buy-it-now of $7,000 so the truck is sold, pending that they pay for it of course. If the brake lines are rusted through, which I do understand happens fairly easily on GMT800's when they're in rust areas...there's probably other rust issues creeping up as well. Still, sounds like it was a pretty good deal for the right person. Richard

LOL...yeah I saw the tan leather comment but ignored it, totally overlooked how in the sidebar it was shown as 4WD. That would make it the rarest of the rare Intimidators. Richard

If you reverse-search the pics they're from 2040-cars and the truck is shown as being in New Hampshire, not Rhode Island. Same pics, and almost the same price. My money would be on, the one in Rhode Island is waiting for someone dumb enough to show up with cash so they can rob them. Richard

The hoses is where I would have started, but after the brakes got that hot from forcing it home, probably best you tend to all of it anyway. I don't know how common it is on GMT800 trucks, but this happens frequently on GMT400's (1988-1998) once those hoses get old. Richard

That's the thing though; it's not 10 years old. It's already a replacement glass - the GenTex brand as indicated by the part # printed at the bottom in tiny letters. I'm thinking either it's going bad or the brand just sucks. Richard