synyster_SS Posted January 12, 2013 Report Share Posted January 12, 2013 (edited) Hey all, my name is Evan. Figured I'd finally bite the bullet and register here! I tend not to post a whole lot on forums, I just like to read all of the useful/useless info! I'm a 27 year old second year AST apprentice at one of the biggest GM dealerships in Calgary, I have a healthy love for (most) things GM. To start off, this was my first truck: 2006 Sierra Z71 w/ the 5.3L LM7. I was the second owner, the truck had 75,000kms on the odo when I bought it in early 2008. In the above picture, it was lowered 2/4 by the previous owner with Belltech components, I lowered it to 4/6 once I started working at the dealership and learned how to wrench on my own shit; I added purple torsion keys, an aftermarket camber eccentric kit, and McGoofy's front leaf spring mounts, as well as a set of front and rear Hotchkis sways. Also had 20" NNBS Silverado LTZ wheels, GMPP intake, single 3" Corsa Sport exhaust, Pioneer touchscreen DVD w/ Orion mids/tweets/subs/amp. I put on color-matched Denali door & tailgate handles as soon as I got the truck, and I had the windows tinted 15% on the sides and back soon after I bought it. This truck was my baby.. unfortunately she met a nasty demise this past summer with just short of 150,000kms on the odo. Was driving 30kph in rush hour traffic on my way home from work one night, looked in the rear view mirror for a split sec, and didn't notice that traffic had came to a dead stop. Plowed into the back of an Isuzu Rodeo w/ a spare tire on the back of it. Luckily, one of my front end SIR sensors was on the fritz and I was too lazy/cheap to fix it.. no air bag deployment. My friends and I opened the hood at work to see how bad the damage was, no kinked cooler lines or rad hoses or anything, but the hood wouldn't close afterwards. So, we took the hood off, and I drove it for a month with a wrecked front end and no hood. Lol The body shop I took it to estimated 11,000$ to fix the front end, and the insurance company valued the truck at 12,000$.. sooo, they wrote it off. I think the body shop intentionally did the estimate high to try and score this little gem.. but little did they know, I had full intentions of buying the truck back. Now, having a branded truck is something I am not cool with. So, with the help of my good friends at work, we stripped mostly everything from it, as seen here. This picture was taken just before we sold the frame and cab for scrap. I really miss this truck, it never gave me a second of trouble. I have always wanted a Silverado SS, even before I owned my little Sierra. It just so happened that a good friend of mine at work snatched up a Silverado SS that came through the used department at work about 6 months before my Sierra was totalled. So, having crashed my Sierra and knowing that I needed another vehicle, I told my buddy that he should sell me the SS, which was his gf's daily driver. He basically laughingly told me to pound sand.. but later that day, he came back telling me that they had their eye on an '04 Duramax, and if it all checked out, the SS was mine. The next day, I came into work, and the first thing that my buddy said to me was, 'go to the bank and get me some money.. the SS is yours'. So, here is my '05 SS. It's a US-spec truck, was basically bone stock with 128,000kms on the odo when I bought it. Added another Corsa Sport to the SS soon after I bought it.. I will never buy any other brand of exhaust! I swapped my tinted windows and GMPP intake from my old truck onto the SS, and pitched the K&N intake that it came with. I swapped the larger Z71 front rotors and calipers onto the SS from my old Sierra as they were brand new OEM rotors and pads with 20,000kms on them, and I replaced the rear brakes with OEM rotors and pads as well. I flushed every single fluid I could, and fixed what minor leaks the truck had. Added 6000k HID lows & highs, with a diode between the relays so my lows stay on when I turn on the high beams. The light output is insane.. and I even aimed them down after installing the HID's! The truck has amber DRL bulbs, with white LED bulbs in the interior and reverse/puddle/license/cargo lights. Since it was a US truck, it has 4 holes in the front bumper cover.. drives me slightly mental. I'm planning on installing an '06 grille and HD hood this year, and fixing the front bumper cover issues. She needs a little bit of TLC here and there.. all in due time! Currently, she has 143,000kms and is faaar different looking from the above picture. I was in second year of school from September til October of last year.. longest 2 months of my life! My plan was to lower the SS 3/4 with all of the components from my old truck as soon as I got out of school. I did just that for a birthday present to myself in November, and I added a set of Air Lift helper bags as well.. this truck rides like a dream and looks just killer, I am so happy with the stance it has. I have to say though, I would never pay to have a truck lowered, I'm glad I have access to a lift and air tools to do the job myself. The labor involved with dropping a truck 3/4 in just 5 hours with the help of 2 friends was crazy! Currently, the weather in Alberta is shit.. updated pictures of my truck will be in order once the weather clears up! I have my 20" LTZ's swapped onto the truck for now.. working at a GM dealer, I have seen how easily factory GM chrome truck wheels pit from road salt. The factory chrome 20's from the SS are mint.. I can't wait til spring to put them back on. I also have an '05 Tahoe lower valance to install in the spring. We had 10" of snow dropped on us the other day.. the SS is essentially a snow plow haha. I am just about to pull the trigger on ARH long tubes and a Black Bear 91 tune.. I can't wait to wake this thing up a little! Anyways, I hope I didn't bore the shit out of you with my essay lol. Glad to be on the forums! Edited January 12, 2013 by synyster_SS (see edit history) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muggs Posted January 12, 2013 Report Share Posted January 12, 2013 Welcome to the site man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdavid0412 Posted January 12, 2013 Report Share Posted January 12, 2013 Nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canadianVRss Posted January 12, 2013 Report Share Posted January 12, 2013 Welcome, also from Alberta here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatTallCanadian Posted January 12, 2013 Report Share Posted January 12, 2013 (edited) welcome. i'm an edmonton guy, looks like youre doing pretty good with the truck! totally agree on the corsa is king. I'm about to try out a borla xr-1 though. corsa isn't low friendly Edited January 12, 2013 by ThatTallCanadian (see edit history) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Downeast Johnny Posted January 12, 2013 Report Share Posted January 12, 2013 Welcome Evan. For someone who doesn't post much on forums you know how to get it done when you do. I look forward to updated pic's of your truck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1BAD2K Posted January 12, 2013 Report Share Posted January 12, 2013 Good lookin SS, and the sierra was really nice as well. I agree on the corsa. I just bought one for my single cab which make for the fourth corsa (and only brand of catback) ive bought in the last six years lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LilEz02 Posted January 12, 2013 Report Share Posted January 12, 2013 welcome to the site! thats a very nice ss and the sierra was sweet too. a lot to read here and alot of good people Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawnss Posted January 12, 2013 Report Share Posted January 12, 2013 Welcome. its a sharp looking truck. I really like black all cleaned up. black sure it sexy. nice job so far. keep up the good work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JC03SS Posted January 12, 2013 Report Share Posted January 12, 2013 Welcome nice looking truck bro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueAKSSS Posted January 12, 2013 Report Share Posted January 12, 2013 Welcome to the site! That SS looks great, and the sierra was nice too. Looking forward to updated pics of the SS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssfast Posted January 12, 2013 Report Share Posted January 12, 2013 Hey Evan! Its Andy I sent you a pm can't wait to get an update on your truck! School is just around the corner too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synyster_SS Posted January 13, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2013 Thanks for the comments and warm welcome, fellas! Hey Andy! Well, the weather warmed up a little bit today. Close to the end of my shift at work this afternoon, I pulled my truck in behind my bay and gave it a quick rinse to get the salt off of it. Perfect photo-op! Except for the cell phone camera and terrible lighting in the shop. Lol The height of the front end in that last pic looks a little funky, but I assure you, the truck has an even rake all of the way around. The last time I had it on the alignment rack, I measured from the fender to the hoist at each wheel. Both front fenders sat at 31.75", and both rear fenders sat at 32.5" with a half tank of gas and 15psi in the helper bags. No typical Chevy lean here! I might bring the front end up another 1/4", the best camber I could get out of both sides was -1.5 degrees, even with the aftermarket MOOG eccentrics! Makes for awesome cornering, but the insides of my front tires aren't too happy. Not really too concerned about the tire wear though, I haven't paid a dime for my last three sets of 275's. One of the positives of a shop that does so many sets of tires, is that customers often discard half-decent rubber! I just keep an eye out for OEM Eagle LS2s or Dueler Alenzas.. it's not uncommon to find a set with 7-8/32 of tread depth waiting to be thrown out haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmJake Posted January 13, 2013 Report Share Posted January 13, 2013 Rich bastard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diggerdan11 Posted January 13, 2013 Report Share Posted January 13, 2013 Very nice truck. Welcome to the site Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.