I bought a 95 in New Hampshire knowing it was rusted out underneath with the intention of running it out to Wyoming and putting its body on a good 96 chassis a friend has. His truck has <100k and had a bad encounter with a ditch back in 2002. Its been sitting in a barn since.
I had to scab a couple patches on just to hold it together for the trip. The passenger side had cracked from the top 2/3 of the way down right where the shock mount attached. The drivers side had cracked from bottom to top where the spare tire crossmember attaches and the shackle mount was punching the frame through the bed. Couple pieces of angle iron, a welder with gas feed issues, and it was holding its own weight again. The crack by the gas tank opened up during the trip.
It's got 266k on it, howling wheel bearings, good back tires, one front is the original 95 spare, the other is a snow I had laying around. I freed up the E brake bellcranks, replaced one leaking brake line, cut off the LSPV link, fixed the sloppy steering rack guide with some washers, replaced the ready to pop out drivers lower ball joint, put a new radiator cap on, filled the fluids and hit the road. It ran hot at first, then settled down. I took state highways to take it slower and paid no tolls. It got 24 mpg average. Now that I'm out in WY and within towing distance I've been a bit harder on the truck. It will still do 100mph passing, and I've slowly crawled it up national forest trails and over a 11,200 pass. The bed has started to dent the back of the cab, so it's time for the cab swap onto the 96.
I had to scab a couple patches on just to hold it together for the trip. The passenger side had cracked from the top 2/3 of the way down right where the shock mount attached. The drivers side had cracked from bottom to top where the spare tire crossmember attaches and the shackle mount was punching the frame through the bed. Couple pieces of angle iron, a welder with gas feed issues, and it was holding its own weight again. The crack by the gas tank opened up during the trip.
It's got 266k on it, howling wheel bearings, good back tires, one front is the original 95 spare, the other is a snow I had laying around. I freed up the E brake bellcranks, replaced one leaking brake line, cut off the LSPV link, fixed the sloppy steering rack guide with some washers, replaced the ready to pop out drivers lower ball joint, put a new radiator cap on, filled the fluids and hit the road. It ran hot at first, then settled down. I took state highways to take it slower and paid no tolls. It got 24 mpg average. Now that I'm out in WY and within towing distance I've been a bit harder on the truck. It will still do 100mph passing, and I've slowly crawled it up national forest trails and over a 11,200 pass. The bed has started to dent the back of the cab, so it's time for the cab swap onto the 96.