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My 2003 Avalanche is on death's doorstep.

Having been in a similar situation with my Moms Buick LeSabre T-type, though with less rust, I can feel your indecision. I ended up selling the car to a person who was at the time a family friend who was able to restore it back to its glory. I had the skills, and actually did quite a bit of the work on it to get it going, I just didn’t have the space. We spent way more than the car would ever be worth, but neither of us cared, it was sentimental.

That being said, you need to consider a few things here. First and foremost is your attachment to the truck, which seems to not be in question as you pulled it out of a junk yard. So commitment to the truck… CHECK. Now the biggest questions are space and skills. You seems to have a nice large garage, which definitely makes life easy in this situation. Do you have the skills to fix it correctly? That much rust on the frame means death to the frame, but good news, the Suburban and Avalanche share a common frame, and there are tons of suburbans out there for cheap… hopefully not rusty. The next bit is the body work. I NEVER approve the foam and bondo approach, but then again I’m a former auto body tech and know how to do it right. The body will need to be cut up to get the rust out and to also restore the corrosion prevention you would be best to have no corrosion remaining. Yes this can be done successfully, I have done it many times, but it’s time consuming and tedious to get it right.

in the end this will cost you many many times more than a clean truck would cost, so the decision is up to you on how you proceed.
 
No idea what your miles might be. Mine had 315K on her when I sold it, not sure what she has now.
 
That would be a good option. Unfortunately there isn't anywhere around here to go offroading and I don't own a big piece of land.


I ordered and received some parts for the Avy recently; Intake gaskets and an oil pressure sensor from rockauto. Hopefully I can get an alternator and a couple other small things from a junkyard this week and then I should have everything needed to get the engine back together. I still haven't decided if I'll keep it or not but I want to at least get the engine running so that I can move it around my shop. I also figure that if it turns out the engine has a major issue or the tranny is junk then that might be the determining factor here.

I did manage to boost the battery the other day and was able to get the odometer reading. Anyone care to take a guess as to how many miles are on it?

217,398 miles
 
Having been in a similar situation with my Moms Buick LeSabre T-type, though with less rust, I can feel your indecision. I ended up selling the car to a person who was at the time a family friend who was able to restore it back to its glory. I had the skills, and actually did quite a bit of the work on it to get it going, I just didn’t have the space. We spent way more than the car would ever be worth, but neither of us cared, it was sentimental.

That being said, you need to consider a few things here. First and foremost is your attachment to the truck, which seems to not be in question as you pulled it out of a junk yard. So commitment to the truck… CHECK. Now the biggest questions are space and skills. You seems to have a nice large garage, which definitely makes life easy in this situation. Do you have the skills to fix it correctly? That much rust on the frame means death to the frame, but good news, the Suburban and Avalanche share a common frame, and there are tons of suburbans out there for cheap… hopefully not rusty. The next bit is the body work. I NEVER approve the foam and bondo approach, but then again I’m a former auto body tech and know how to do it right. The body will need to be cut up to get the rust out and to also restore the corrosion prevention you would be best to have no corrosion remaining. Yes this can be done successfully, I have done it many times, but it’s time consuming and tedious to get it right.

in the end this will cost you many many times more than a clean truck would cost, so the decision is up to you on how you proceed.


Thanks for the input. I've done a bit of body work before under the direction of someone experienced in bodywork so I know the basics and some of the techniques. One weakness is welding. I can manage some welds on heavy metal with a stick machine but I've never done sheet metal with a MIG machine. So this is something I would need to learn or hire that part out. I've been thinking that if I do decide to restore it the best option would be to find a used Avalanche/suburban frame and swap my Avy onto it. That way I could have the donor frame cleaned up and treated with something to last a long time.

What do you mean by cutting the body up to remove corrosion? Are you talking cutting the welds and removing them to clean out and rust in the seams?
 
It's been a while since I've been on here but I've made some progress on the Avy.

Got the intake manifold off and everything cleaned up. Replaced the oil pressure sensor that they were trying to do before and put everything back together.

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The gaskets and the oil pressure sensor are the only new parts I've ordered so far. I also picked up an alternator, transfer case switch, and fuel injector electrical connector from a junkyard. Here it is, finally back together.

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I'm not sure how to upload video so this pic will have to do. But it runs!

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It definitely took some coaxing to get it to start. I had to hook up booster cables with the tractor because the battery is completely shot. Then it didn't want to turn over. I thought it was the starter, but strangely you could almost hear it trying to turn the engine but it couldn't. It also lugged the tractor down noticeably when I tried to start the truck. It was at that point that I got a very bad feeling and thought "oh s*** the engine is locked up". I crawled under the truck and put a bar on the crankshaft pulley to see if it would turn over. I swear it felt like it was stuck for a moment but then it turned. I tried to start it again and it turned over and eventually fired up.

Once it was running and got fresh gas to the engine it ran normally. I had it up on Jack stands so I tried putting it in drive and reverse and they both work so I'm gonna say the transmission works. Although the brakes are dragging something fierce.

I discovered that I have a pretty good fuel leak though. I think it's one of the return lines as the truck was running fine despite the leak. Of course the leak is right behind the rusty fuel filter so that will be fun.

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So now that I know the mechanicals don't have any major issues I'm leaning towards keeping the truck. I'm thinking it will get completely torn down to the bare frame, and then maybe reinstall everything on a donor frame. This way I can make sure all the rust is removed and everything is protected. Should last a long time that way, especially if it won't be my DD and so it won't see salty roads.

It was mentioned before about getting another used Avy and putting some of the parts from my dad's Avy onto it. That's not a bad idea but anything used up here will also be rusty.
 
Stage 4 cancer. Salt kills.

If you keep looking you'll probably find that everything is rotted away. Electrical connectors, sensors, etc, etc, etc... A huge money pit. Put the beast out of it's misery and part it out.
 
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