2008 Silverado Build - “Brola”

[counterpart7]

Figured I should finally make a thread about this thing. I bought the truck in 2014 already “built”. Im currently in the middle of caging and linking it but we’ll get to that after a few years of “history”.

Short list of what it was when I bought it.

- Front: Mazzulla “Mid Travel” kit w/ 2.5” Kings
- Rear: MZ bedcage, 16” King smooth bodies, F87s
- Hannemann glass all the way around
- MZ bumpers
- Misc other shit nobody cares about
- Super sick ass salvage title!

As for the name “Brola”, at one point friends and I decided to name it “Lola” and it eventually progressed into Brola over the years for obvious reasons…

Here’s a few random pics from around the time I bought it.

 

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I’ll try to make all of this little stuff throughout the years quick, but still document it.

Truck needed a lot of love when I bought it. Nothing really bad, but it was obvious it had only ever really been used as a “show truck”.

Rear shocks needed a rebuild so I gave it a shot, not knowing much about them at the time.




Then I saved up some money to get a set of MZ shackle/hangers and the new at the time Deaver U182 leafs. Cleaned up and painted everything and added a small tube truss over the top of the rear axle. Also had a TruTrac installed to replace the Detroit locker that was in it before.






That combo worked great and was a huge improvement over the F87s and drop shackles that it had. Then I spent a few years beating the crap out if it and daily driving it.

 

[counterpart7]

About 2 years later, after bending and breaking a few too many front end parts, it was time to upgrade the front end. A buddy of mine got me in contact with Nate at Blitz as he was prototyping a new race kit for the 07-13 GM trucks. Price was too good to beat so I sold my old front kit and went for it.



Nate’s plan was to fit a 2.5” coilover and up to a 4” bypass. Me being poor, I opted for just 2.5” coilovers and 2.0 bumpstops for now(more on that later). After a few months I was able to pick up the parts and mock it all up.




Made some bumpstop mounts that just barely tuck between the c/o and bypass location. Bumping off the upper would be a PITA the way this kit is designed and I’ve actually grown fond of bumps off the lower arm(without a bypass). This was my first real “fab” project so be nice… or don’t, I really don’t care



Got everything powdercoated and got it re-installed!







To say the upgrade was worth it is an understatement. I was able to push the truck quite a bit harder. Sadly around this same time life started to happen. Long work hours and bills to pay took chunks out of how often she saw the dirt. I still tried to take her out to local spots a few times a month, not a lot of documentation on that. Lots of daily driver miles too.

Then my girlfriend(now wife) and I bought a house and moved to AZ. This truck and her car were our only vehicles at the time so ole’ Brola got a ton of DD miles. I let her drive the truck most of the time because her commute was shorter.



Got tired of replacing hubs every year so I bought a set of MZ hubs. And a fresh wrap, switching it up from the Satin Pearl White that it was to just a Gloss White(trying to combat the AZ sun a little).

The truck was like that for a few years. Then we bought a new house thats in the middle of the desert. So the truck started getting used a lot more(few miles every day as part of my commute). Turns out the factory 4L60(190k miles) didn’t love that and finally decided it didn’t want to keep tailshaft seals alive anymore. Never really figured that out, but decided its 4L80 time…. So I parked it…. And then that snowballed into cutting the truck in half lol.

 

[counterpart7]

That all brings us basically to about a year ago. I originally planned on just doing a short course rear setup. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that by the time I plate and notch the frame, try to get everything to clear the bed and all of that… I might as well just backhalf it. Then… if you’re backhalfing it you better cage it at the same time… so the small snowball started to roll and grow some.

The plan/parts:
- Complete 3.5” Camburg housing, 40 spline axles, spool, 5.13s
- MZ “Spec” frame rails and trailing arms
- Jaz 32gal Jeepspeed cell
- Izzy Fab OEM fuel pump deal and a few of his other parts(motor mounts, trans member, ect)
- Cab cage done by yours truly
- Trailer Products 6” glass cut down to 5.5’
- King 2.5 x 18” coilovers ONLY(bypasses are for nerds)
- King 2.5 x 4” fancy bolt on bump stop dealios
- and some other things I’ll fill in later when I remember




Heres a rough drawing of my “plan” for the cage/backhalf. No downtubes from the cab into the bed and I plan on keeping the tailgate!



Parked the truck and cut it in half. Sold the whole back of my truck to someone local that plans on building her whole truck soon. Welded a towbar to the front of it so she could tow it home





Started mocking up the frame kicks. I took a ton of time dialing in my outside corner welds to make sure I was ready to knock out a few hundred feet of welds between the kicks and trailing arms.





They turned out decent for me not being a professional welder




Trailing arms too

 

[counterpart7]

Mocking up the frame kicks and trailing arms





And just like that it’s linked.. easy peasy!

Had to mock up the bedsides to make sure my axle width will work while keeping the tailgate. It’s going to be extremely tight, but I think it’ll work. Wide ass bitch!




Bought a bender and built a stand for it. Stripped the cab and started trying to finger out how to build a cage…




Prepped the cab and started mocking up tubes. Only ever bent a few tubes in my life so it was nice not fucking these up too bad. Trying to keep it about as tucked at I can.

 

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Got lucky and both main tubes matched almost perfectly. Started lacing out the roof. Then I pulled the whole thing out the back window for welding(thanks @Gtscustoms for the tip on that one).






Weldzzz ️️





Added some weird looking gussets… any guesses why for?



Then I killed the roof



Then painted to top of the cage with this Seymour Blast. Tired of paying Steel-It prices and this should be pretty similar




And thats where we are at today. Need to get the cage back in the truck and start working on the a-pillar to frame tubes and back wall. I’ll also stub out into the engine bay for a future engine cage. Once the cab cage is far enough along I can start working my way towards the backhalf. Stay tuned!

 

[Brett_408]

Looks great. Welds are very sanitary.

 

[counterpart7]

Looks great. Welds are very sanitary.

Thank you sir. Figured if I prep everything as well as I can it leaves less margin for error!

 

[LoganB]

Looking good Chris! Gonna be a clean truck with some stellar mig squirts!