In 2002 I purchased my 1989 GMC Sierra from a buddy of mine, the first thing I did was getting rid of the Tonto cover and factory rims and replace them with American Racing wheels and BF Goodrich mud and removed the factory bench seat and got a matching leather seat.
Because the truck was the most dependable vehicle I’ve ever had I refused to get rid of it, and because I like older vehicles and always regretted selling my 72 GTO I decided that when it was time I would restore this truck into something really cool.
In November of 2016 on my way up to the forest after a snowstorm holding my my 27′ 1973 Yellowstone camper I got hit buy a crosswind on a bridge which jackknifed the truck and the corner of the camper caved in my passenger side rear quarter on the box.
At this point I decided it was time to do the restoration as I knew there was rust coming through and the cab corners were pretty well shot. It was a two-year project restoring the truck replacing front fenders, Grill and blinkers, Factory rear quarter, rocker panels and cab corners, and all the accessories such as a visor, bug shield, fender flares, mirrors, LED tail lights, pillar and gauges, headliner and visors, replaced the silver aluminum American Racing Wheels with black American Racing wheels. Also installed a new Trail Ready front bumper and a iron cross rear bumper and added Rough Country backup lights, driving lights and light bar as well as Squadron fog lights, the winch is a 15,500 pound Smittybilt Winch. The front bumper lights and winch alone we’re close to $4,000
Not only did I put bed liner in the back of the box but also sprayed the rocker panels from the front fenders all the way to the rear fenders and the inner door jambs as well as lifting the box all the way up to the ceiling and sprayed the entire underbody of the box with bedliner, also stripped the frame and applied multiple coats of por15 to the frame and everywhere else rust was beginning to form then Sealing the POR 15 with 3m rubberized sealer. Also there was very little Bondo on this truck as I filled everything with lead and only used Bondo to fill the imperfections.
I repainted the truck with the factory colors partially because someone made a compliment which went a long ways when he said ” wow you just don’t see these colors anymore” the compliment went a long ways and I’m glad I didn’t change the color.
What’s the amount of money that went into this truck I could have bought a new low mileage used four wheel drive truck with an LS4 with what I’ve got invested into this truck but I still would have had a plain ordinary truck just with a lot of power and I did not want an airbag truck.
I like old vehicles, they have much more character then the new vehicles today and I don’t regret at all restoring this truck.
With that said I need to thank LMC for all the hard to find parts that I couldn’t get from the dealership and didn’t want to replace with parts out of a junkyard, there’s no way this truck what have been finished without the parts from LMC.
Thank you LMC for working with me and helping me finish this project.