PARTS COUNTER: The Old Sierra Tow Rig Gets A Makeover

As always I pray this finds everyone happy, healthy, and enjoying some sort of horsepower. I am happy to announce that our 2013 GMC Sierra has received a much needed makeover. The old girl never gets any attention or credit for hauling Big Red to all of her events throughout the year. Not to mention all of the parts missions and the various farm tasks that she is asked to do. They say “it takes a village to raise a child,” well the same is true for taking on a project and seeing to fruition.

Where do we begin? Well the center caps on my wheels were showing some major aging. Besides losing all of its glossy finish, they were cracked and really taking away from the awesome Havok wheels. Since the wheels are 13 years old, finding the original center caps was a true challenge. Thankfully with the help of my wife and good old Chat, a company called Wheel Center Caps had 4 of my original caps in stock. The old running boards were showing age as well with a lot of rust and no real finish or color left in them. I found a new set from Tyger that fit perfect and they were easy to install. The new running boards really made a difference. The Extang Trifecta Tonneau cover was so old, it was no longer black. Not to mention it had a few tears in it. To save money, I ordered a re-skin top and with the help of my daughter’s boyfriend taking lead on this project, we were able to re-build that cover with a few replacement parts from E-Trailer and make it brand new again.

The final make-over item was perhaps the most important of all as it really made the truck look old and battered. My fender flares lost all of the clear coat and as a result of that, the paint faded terribly. After a quick Google search for Rough Country pocket flares I was excited to find that they were affordable and could come color matched. Numerous sites had them listed and I was even toying with the idea of having them come in black instead of color matched. Well, when the time came to place the order, not one of these companies had any in stock. No problem I will just go with a different manufacturer you might say? Well those old flares have been on the truck since 2013 and they wore the paint off where the top of the flare meets the body. Not to mention I uncovered some rust in spots. With the help of Chat and some AI wizardry, we found out that no other company had the same dimensions as the Rough Country and the paint damage underneath would be visible. Chat did an extensive search to find me those correct flares and only came back with me calling the vendor and a few distributors to see if they had any new/old stock in a warehouse that was not accounted for. So needless to say I made those calls only to be shot down once again.

 By the grace of God our dear friend Justin over at Dave Ure’s Collision Plus offered to paint my old flares and have them back to me in time for us to attend a show with Big Red. Justin sent me over 5 different variants of the color code of my truck. After a little deliberating, we were able to find a really good match for the flares. Justin contacted his rep at O’Reilly and ordered up some PPG Paints and worked his magic making them better than new again. Not only that, he kept his promise on the deadline and showed his true professionalism. My brother Frank gets a shout out for dropping off and picking up those flares for me. Now when you have new flares you need new seals to go around the top edge. I swung for the fences and found a set on Amazon and was pleasantly surprised they actually worked for a 13 year old flare. The final touch to “operation make over” was a decision to keep the 11 large decorative bolts in the flares stainless or paint them black to accent the wheels, running boards, side mirrors, and tonneau cover? After consulting my village, I made the decision to paint them black and was glad that I did. The flares look amazing and really help class the truck up.  

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On the mechanical side, the old girl had a terrible wobble in the front end and was in desperate need of new brakes. After thoroughly checking out all of the front suspension, I made the decision to get the wheels balanced. My friends at Rossi Chevrolet were able to squeeze me in and get those 35’s rolling smooth once again. I contacted my girl Donna over at Advance Auto and she found me some heavy duty trailering brakes for all four corners. After a final inspection, lubing all points, and a good cleaning, Sierra is RE-BORN! I truly appreciate the amazing sponsors and people that partner with us and help keep the mission moving forward. Without you, none of this would be possible.

So the next time you see Big Red at an event, take a moment to give old Sierra some love. The old girl looks great and always gets overlooked by her pretty little sister. The old girl is the silent hero that always delivers and keeps us enjoying what we all love so much. Horsepower!