Here's How Much It COST To Rebuild The PERFECT Work Truck

On today's episode of Watch Jericho, we are back with the internet's favorite work truck, the 2006 GMC Sierra. Eric and I just put a transmission in and now it's his work truck. What is going on guys? I'm Watch Jericho and like I said, we're back with the 06 GMC Sierra WT, the cheapest truck you could buy in 2006. And we didn't pay a lot of money for it. And today we're going to talk about just how much money it took to get this thing all straightened out and back on the road and really in pretty good shape. It looks kind of impressive now when you see it. So a lot's been done since the transmission went in. We're going to talk about that today. We're going to fix one little thing, the last problem that Eric is having with the truck. And no, it's not a radio. I know many of you guys were wanting me to go ahead and put an Android head unit in it. We might at some point, but that's not what we're going to do today. Today, we're going to sort out some simple things and talk about how much this thing cost. So we bought this truck for just $1,500. And it doesn't look incredible, obviously. It's got a bunch of miles on it, 200,000 miles and change. Obviously I was able to drive this thing home. We went and washed it that night, cleaned it up, but it would only drive in first and second gear. And if you went into third, it would start slipping, like super hard slipping. So you could only do about 40 mile an hour in second, and maybe you get it going and it might hook for just a second if you didn't put any force in third. But if you added just a little bit of throttle, you could feel the clutches let go and it would start slipping like crazy. So first and second gear were all that worked. And they were obviously well on their way to going as well. Once you lose three and four, the rest of it, it's just a matter of time. But we bought this truck to part out. We were not planning on saving it. We were just going to pull the engine out of it, you know, sell the transmission as a core and sell off all the rest of the parts. Cause it's still got tons and tons of good parts on it. But the deciding factor on this was five threes aren't worth a lot of money right now. They're kind of down and that's probably going to come back. I'm sure five threes will end up going back up towards the moon cause people do need cheap LS swaps. But right now it is our go recyclers work truck and Eric's work truck too. And it's absolutely amazing. So $1,500 for the truck, $650 on a converter for the transmission. So that's about $2,300 all in for a transmission converter, fluids. And then of course there was some other miscellaneous money. What gaskets cost for this thing? Another hundred and hundred. Yeah. Yeah. So we're at 2,800 total. We haven't gotten to all those parts yet. I'm still talking about it. We're at 2,800 total. That is the number we were about 2,500 into this thing. Once we had everything refreshed, obviously. So let's look under the hood and check that out. Here is that beautiful five three. Now that everything has been cleaned up. I don't know if you guys even got to see how great the valve covers look now, but they're all cleaned up. Obviously no more leaks, new valve cover gaskets, new rear main seal, new oil pan gasket. Everything on this truck is completely cleaned up and ready to rock and roll. And I'm sure it will be more than happy to go another a hundred thousand plus miles with no maintenance other than oil changes. Obviously it's about the cheapest engine to maintain the old five three LS. Anyway, totally resealed. So that put us at about $2,500. Then Eric bought the fender flares, which clean up all the little problems these things have. We've talked about this many times, but every single one of these, eventually it's just kind of the way they're built. There's a lip inside the fender. And as you drive dirt and salt and grime, it all collects on that lip. And then it stays wet, of course, because the water sits in all that grime and it rusts them out from the inside. So that's how the fenders on these things are always toast. Well, Eric bought these fender flares and what those costs? 70 bucks. The front of this truck has no rust and the back just has a little bit of bubbling right in the center. It's really not that bad. Just some small bubbles. You guys have seen that. It wasn't a big deal, but with the fender flares on, well, you can't see the bubbles at all and it looks nice. Super nice. And then there was one more major issue with this truck and that is the bumper. So Eric got this bumper for just a hundred dollars and it's a brand new chrome bumper, which makes the entire truck look brand new. Did you already run into something? It looks like you might've found a pole. Maybe it's just stretching in the plastic. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's a hundred dollar bumper. Yeah. I mean, if you did, it's no big deal. Who cares? It's a hundred dollar bumper. So a couple nights ago, we laid down underneath this thing, threw it back on. It only took a few minutes to rebuild the entire bumper assembly. And of course, all that's left now is putting the receiver hitch on. So it even came with new lights, new wiring harnesses for the tag lights. All of that went on there and we cleaned all that up and there's just one problem left with this truck. And that's the taillights are very problematic. Eric threw his toolbox in here, which is one of those giant work boxes. This honestly works out really well because you can drag the entire toolbox out easier than a drop-in toolbox in a truck. And it's bolted down. So that keeps people from messing with it. And those drop-in ones usually aren't bolted down. They just kind of clamp. So huge bed. He can still fit a full sheet of plywood if you use it as a spoiler. How many miles you put on this? About a thousand already. A thousand miles. So the transmission's holding up. That's where we're going. Eric also said this thing's getting like 17 miles a gallon, which is crazy. It's so good. So we just went to O'Reilly's, picked up a bunch of bulbs so we can solve the taillight problem. You don't want to be running around with burnout. One of the stop lamps is burnout. That's the one you don't want to be running around with. So we're going to replace all of these with 3157s. Every single bulb in this truck is somehow a 3157. The turn, the stop, the backup, 3157s. So we bought a bunch of these. We're going to pull the taillights out, replace those. And that should be about all we have to do to finish up this truck. This was another $30. So we're at $2,830 total. Obviously these are great to work on. Spider on the tailgate there. But you just flip the tailgate down, pull two screws out of the lights, pull them backwards, and you're ready to rock and roll with the bulb replacements there. That side totally works, but we're just going to replace them all because why wouldn't you? Tough to beat. One of the easiest trucks to work on on the road here. That's one thing you have to give it. Two screws and work on the taillights. Most cars now, you got to pull four 10s out after you get one or two interior panels out of the back. Even on the trucks, it's getting pretty complicated. So this thing is the, it's old. Wow, these look rough. I think we're going to put the LEDs in the reverse so you have super bright reverse. Or do you want super bright stop? It's your call. Somebody did not put amber bulbs in the ambers. Full Sylvania, we got the Zivos. I love these because they are super bright. I like to put them in reverse, but they're just, it's a lot of money. So that's why we didn't buy enough of them to do reverse and stop. Being honest here, they're like $30 a set. So one quick run to O'Reilly's and we were good to go. Uh-oh, the ambers don't fit. The book said they were all 3157s. 3157, what am I doing wrong? It's the right bulb. I'm very confused, guys. These are both 3157s and these are keyed differently. Oh, you grabbed the wrong package. That's my bad. Or I should have caught it, 3757. Oh, that's why it's not working out. Now we know. All right, well, I'll put the expensive ones in. Lifetime warranty on these bad boys. Okay, we're trying again here. So we've got our stop lamp, I mean our reverse lamp and LED. So it should be ultra bright and our stops will be normal 3157 long lives. These ones were in good shape. Well, you can never just do anything, guys. It looks like we're headed back to O'Reilly's. Eric's over here swapping out his side. Here's reverse. Which one's it? The bottom one's reverse. It's literally 859. I called ahead and Carter being the superhero that he is. Sorry, bud, can't do it. Got a receipt and everything? Let's double check, I don't trust him. We're gonna zoom in. All right, let's get out of here. Have a good night, guys, thank you. Thanks. Wow, we couldn't have cut that any closer. 859 in 59 seconds right there. They're trying to go home. All right, we're back with the right bulbs. Just took the fastest O'Reilly's run we've ever made in our lives. Also, look at the old one here. If it'll focus, it is like super carbon black inside. Anyway, this thing was flickering on and off sometimes. Every once in a while, it would quit and once in a while, she'd start working again. Does it fit this time? I sure hope so. Yeah, all right, let's put these things back together. If there's one thing I'll give this truck, it's the taillights are amazing and easy to use. All the lights are swapped out. Take a look at that. It looks way better. It looks like a new truck with some LEDs and the reverse lights. So hopefully, you can see behind you. Stop again. Oh yeah, you got full stop. You're set up. No getting pulled over in this bad boy now. All right, that was the last problem we needed to solve. Obviously, it didn't cost any more money to exchange the bulbs there and shout out to O'Reilly's again for getting that done in the fastest, most timeliest manner of all time. So really, all that's left is Eric keeps looking for seats because he wants to replace this one with the giant foam hole right there and yeah, but you keep looking. I think the seats are fine, but at the same time, it's nice to have better looking seats. I left the lights on. I was gonna put newer wheels and tires on. Oh yeah, you gotta get 26s. 26s? I forgot. I tried to buy some blades, some three blades, and dude, they had Michelin Pilot Sports on them and on the outside of the rim, the tire says, inside, inside, inside. I said, you guys mounted these backwards. He goes, no I didn't because you know how the Michelin has the checkered flags on the outside? They're on the inside. Yeah, I mean, they're inside-outside tires. So I was like, no worries, I'll just put the wheel on the other way. So I have like 10 inches of wheels sticking out. That's right, that's right. You gotta mount it backwards. I didn't mount them. He was like, I'll sell them to you for, the tires have to be worth like, how much are those? 500 a piece. He told me to sell me the whole set for 400 bucks. Pilot Sports are usually 500 each. So this is with a terrible set of black wheels. They're like 22s maybe, but it's like 400 bucks and you can have it. I feel like you don't need those tires on this. No, no, but I kinda just want the tires. I need to, I should probably go look at the date on the tires. You should look at the date. You should definitely look at the date. Because maybe, no matter what, you never know. So one of the last things we need to do on this is go grab a piece of white vinyl and wrap the roof white. I have a full roll of vinyl at my house. So we're just gonna use that to fix the roof. That'll pretty much take care of all the other imperfections this thing has. And for $2,830 we have what may be the most reliable work truck ever. And if anything breaks, it sure is dirt cheap to work on it. And quick. Obviously it didn't take us long at all to do the transmission. And the best part about the 4L60 is everybody will work on it. So that is a follow up on this thing and obviously an update on how much we spent to make it right. There is Bluetooth in it now. I did put Bluetooth in it for Eric solving all the problems. I know you guys, I said I wasn't doing a head unit, but I put Bluetooth in it. Some car we bought for the channel a long time ago came with that Scosche adapter right there. That's Bluetooth to RF. So it's got an RF modulator in it. And you can use it to take phone calls. You can adjust the volume, the track. It's actually really cool. So that thing works pretty well. And at least you don't have to listen to commercials on the radio. Pop the hood. Just pop the hood. Pop the hood. Not a bad way to spend $10,000. Did you show them that? That's the most impressive part about this whole truck. Oh, the new Brake Master? Look at the brake fluid. Oh, the brake fluid looks great too. It's the last time you bought a quarter million mile truck that had brand new brake fluid in it. That's right. Well, we bought it with, this is already done. So that was already, I mean, we bought it from... A fleet. Yeah, the guy's mechanic is the one we bought it from. The battery is new. Battery's new. This is new. The windshield wipers. Oh yeah, you got some beam wipers. Yeah, they're new. You know, I sold that Ford, which had blend door actuator problems or something. Yep. Oh no, it was a hole in the heater core box. Oh yeah. We taped it up. Yeah. And it was gonna keep failing. The AC on this works... Perfectly. Too good. It always does. I was good at AC. Yeah, so I mean, and then it's got E-fans, which is the only option I think this truck has. Man, E-fans. Which is still weird. It's the best thing ever. Manual locks, manual windows. E-fans. Yep, it's good spec. Yeah, so the only thing they did on this that you can tell is it sat with the hood open for too long. Oh, it got filthy. Well, I think that's what ate away some of this, because some of that's custom. You know, I feel like it just sat there with the hood open. We can tape it all back up if you're worried about it. I am not. Okay, okay. I don't actually want to do anything else to it. But... No, this is a driver now. This is the most impressive. It's just like, the brakes are perfect. Yeah. Honestly, but I don't think we've ever bought a vehicle where we weren't like, boy, we should trash all that brake fluid. Oh yeah, brake fluid's bad. And redo it and bleed them. And then we get this one, and it's like, hold on a minute. This brake fluid looks brand new. Yeah, it's crazy. It had no bumper on it. Yep. And we already had people trying to buy it from us. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. How much? How many wants this? I think 5,000 is like, that one guy, I was at like Lowe's, and he's like, I'll give you 5,000 for that truck right now. If it's a 5.3 truck. And I said, it is a 5.3 truck, because a lot of these are not, or they're the V6 trucks, because it's so basic. We had this truck, 06 or 08, right in that ballpark. This bad boy right here, long bed. You know, I hate long beds, but work truck, V6, exactly the same, right? And the V6 would get the truck around. It worked. Automatic. And one time, dad sent me off to go get a pallet from a warehouse, right? All the way across town. And I go get it. They fork this pallet into the back of this thing, and it just like crushes the back end, all the way down to the bump stops. And I was like, all right, I mean, it's fine. I didn't know. This is how you learn. This was a very good learning experience. This is how you learn how much to load in the bed of your truck. Anyway, they load this thing up, and I go around the first corner, and I try to steer, and I feel the front end do that thing, where all of a sudden, I didn't have any steering as I accelerated. So that whole trip home, I had to like perfectly balance the brake and the gas. And every time you'd hit a bump, it would like lift the front end off the ground, and then set it back down. You have to set it back down with the brakes. At least this guy has a little bit more weight in the front, and maybe with a huge pallet in the back. It was like a full pallet of salt. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and it just weighed so much that- You just don't want the four three-year-old. Yeah, you- They still put them in the full-size trucks. Crazy. People are like, how much will this tow? Not a lot. Could have the monster turbo four-cylinder. Yeah, the- Turbo max? Two seven or two five, whatever it is. Absolutely. I mean, the four eights, I would take the four eight all day. Yeah. The four eight is not, it's not about, it's the engine that will never break the four hill 60. I had a four eight that was perfect. Yeah. The silver one that I traded you work for. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a four eight. Yep. And it had two, that truck had 200 and- I forgot that you were driving it after. It had 260 or 270 on it. Factory transmission. Original trans, original motor. Yep. And it probably never would have broke, because it just doesn't make enough, how much, is it like 40 less horsepower than this one? Yeah. 40 less torque. It's not a drastic number. Just enough to never break the transmission. Yeah. But that, I was actually going to buy that one back after it got totaled, but that guy jostled around so much, the rear main was dumping, the heater core was on its way out. There's just- Yep. The amount of money I needed, the amount of money they wanted me to buy it back for didn't happen. Yeah, they wanted like 1500 after it got destroyed. Yeah. So, anyway, the work truck's back on the road, $2,830. Works out really well. Eric's driving it. Tons of storage for tools. Room for whatever wood you want. It is good to go. So, that is it for today, guys. Thank you so much for watching. Don't forget to head on over to shopwatchdero.com for cool shirts not like this. And please, like, share, subscribe, do whatever you want to do. And I will talk to you next time. It's obviously got a new water pump on it. Yeah, you got a new water pump. The metals don't match. Absolutely. I just think it's impressive it has the amp clamp. The amp clamp's my favorite thing. It's always good when the ECU knows how much amperage the charging system's pulling, or the truck's pulling. I mean, that mechanic guy we went and picked it up from, he's the one that did all the work to it. He was like, man, I can put a transmission in for 500 bucks. That's labor, labor. Yeah, yeah, like, to, or, yeah, but he was saying you can get on Marketplace, and you can get on Marketplace and find someone that will, the cheapest one I saw was 350 bucks. To do the transmission? To do the trans. Yeah. And I think the good rebuild kit is, like, right at 350 bucks, right? Right. The Borg Warner kit. Right. Like, with the filter. Yep. So, if someone's selling you their rebuild number 350, you're probably getting the steels ground. Oh, yeah. And put back, and you don't want that. Sure don't. So, we went with the one stage above the 350. We went, the next stage is 650. Well, we got a runner. It's working great. We got the old Red Dog tag from Alaska. Ready to rock. Even if I drive it for a day, I just put that tag on. Get that tag on, yeah. That's fully street legal right there. Well, I have my Eat Beef tag on my... On the Ford. On the Ford, but as soon as Rachel buys whatever she buys, she'll probably take the Eat Beef tag from me. You gotta have the Kansas Farmers Association one, or what? Yeah, we actually... That's what it is. I know, you buy it from them. And, yeah, it's like a donation or whatever. Yeah, yeah. You can get them on eBay and stuff like that, or knock-offs, but... It's only like 25 bucks, too. 32, I think is what we paid for it. But we actually bought it from them, and then they send it to you, and it was like $32, so... Yep. If you want a real one, you just gotta buy a real one. Supporting the farmers. Yes, sir. All right. Work truck. Ready to rock. We fixed everything.