Greetings from WI

[OldskoolGP]

Hello all! I just bought my first truck, and I'm pretty excited. It's a 2000 Silverado Extended Cab 3-door, 4.8, automatic, with a mechanical transfer case. I would have liked a 5.3 and a 4-door but I coudn't turn the truck down for the price. It's got 187K on the clock but mechanically it feels great. It was pretty much all highway miles, the previous owners drove it long distance to work everyday. I'm not sure why you would do that, but hey, to each his own. Body wise it's also very good with hardly any rust, even on the rocker panels. Just a bit on the box where the paint is chipped on the side rails.

It needs need a couple things right away. The fuel level sensor is on the fritz and I don't get an accurate tank reading, the grille is slightly broken (new one on the way), the 3rd door handle on the striker side is broken, and some previous owner removed the nice plastic edge guard from the tailgate so I'll have to fet a new one of those. It doesn't look very nice with the 4 holes exposed. It's got a receiver and big 7-pin towing connector on it so it's ready to tow, the most I'll probably ever tow with it is a car.

I'm not sure how far I'll go with modifications yet. I guess it depends on how good the fuel economy is. I was hoping for 19-20 MPG on the highway. I've been driving it very carefully and don't stray more than a couple miles over the speed limit so we'll see what happens. It seems to pull to the right consistently so I'll probably replace all the front end bits in the near future and have it aligned. I'm pretty mechanically incliled so I'm not afraid to tear into the truck that much. I've even considered building a 5.3 geared toward fuel economy since they're cheap enough. It would be good experience since next summer I'm probably going to get a GTO.

So just wanted to inrtoduce myself and see if you guys had any up front advice or had knowledge of any caveats I should know about. I'm all about sharing info and try to be as helpful as I can. Let me know what you think!

[99'HEARTBEAT]

To the site...This is a Really Good Site,W/Alot of Good infor and Great member's that will help with anything you may Need.Went you get some pics of your Ride Post them up.....

[GMPartsClub]

Welcome to the site!

Chevy Parts

[retired2001]

Welcome to the site!

[1ATony]

Welcome to the site.

[Shorty 71]

Welcome to the forum!

[Eddie Z71]

Welcome to the site!

[canislupis69]

Welcome to the site!

[TRPLXL2]

Welcome to the site!

I think what you want for mileage is reasonable, that little 4.8 should be able to eek that out unless you are heavy footed like me!

[OldskoolGP]

Thanks for the intros, guys. SUre a lot more people saying hi that on other car forums I've gone too. I went through the LMC catalog last night and found a bunch of part numbers I need. I also discovered what was causing my rattles in the cab. Apparently both the tweeter speakers in the doors had broken off their plastic mountings and were just hanging from the doors. I've never seen anything like that before. I guess that explains why the stereo sounded so weird. Anyway, fixed that easily enough. I'll be sure to take some before an after pictures too. It's really in great shape for the mileage. The one queston I could ask you guys right away, can anyone recommend anything to protect the rocker panels? The rsut is just starting to form on mine, but I figured if I could cover them up with something to protect them and hold them togheter they'll be alright.