Restoration Made Easy with LMC

Bikers, hot rodders, off-roaders, diesel truck guys. Deep down we’re all the same, we all get way too invested in our choice of vehicles, like it’s an addiction. We’ll put blood, sweat, tears, and countless hours in the garage turning a perfectly good truck into something different, something more, making it unique to our personality or needs. After a while you’ll kind of develop a weird connection with your truck, one your wife will never understand. Sure she’s still important in your life, but your truck becomes a part of you too, as the miles continue to roll on odometer it gets harder to let go of it and buy something new. After years of the hot sun baking it in the driveway and a couple hundred thousand miles a truck will start to show its age, but is that real reason to buy something new after you’ve spent so much time and money perfecting what you already have? Of course not. Maybe it just means you need to put a little elbow grease into it and replace some of the worn parts and bring a new updated look to your old ride.

Long Motor Company (LMC Truck) of Lenexa, KS has been specializing in original equipment, reproduction and high performance parts for over 30 years. To a few of you, LMC Truck may be a familiar name as they’re very well-known in restoration parts for the old trucks, but what you might not know is that they also offer parts for the newer body style trucks too. With thousands of parts for the 2001-2013 GM, 1999-2012 Ford and 1994-2015 Dodge trucks they’ll have your parts replacement needs covered regardless the make or model.

The original head lights are hazed over, the tail lights have a permanent fade and just don’t shine and glow like they used to. Don’t even get started on the faded and wrinkled plastic chrome on the stock bubble side mirrors. After 160,000 miles and who knows how many hours sitting under the hot sun, there isn’t enough polish and elbow grease to bring these old parts back to life.

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– The GM trucks use just a couple of pins to hold the headlights into place and press tabs are all that keep the corner lenses in place. So removal of the stock pieces is super simple and requires no tools whatsoever.

The rear tail lights are held in with two small screws and some push pins. The haze that has developed over the years is extremely noticeable and just doesn’t look that great on an otherwise clean truck. Rubbing compound and some buffing was starting to clear them up some, but it would’ve taken hours to get them back to new condition. Replacing them with new LMC units seemed much simpler.

The replacement tail lights that were ordered from LMC Truck are actually for a later model year truck, like the 2006-2007 model year. But they fit right into the stock location and the original wiring harnesses and bulbs could be installed into the new style lights. There was a lower marker bulb that couldn’t be plugged in, since this 2002 wasn’t equipped with one originally, but the bulb was just left in the tail light housing to keep the hole plugged and moisture out.

The original mirrors were showing their age and the chrome plating had started to peel and showed quite a bit of fade. It seemed the perfect time to not only upgrade to something new, but replace with a the larger tow style mirrors found on the 2006+ trucks. LMC Truck offers direct replacement mirrors that will plug directly into the older 2001-2005 style harness.

After 160,000 miles and 14-years on the road, this 2002 LB7 Duramax was still in relatively great condition with no major rust showing and fairly shiny black paint. But the summer sun had led to some pretty serious cracks and peeling in the clear coat of the hood and led to some hazy tarnished head and tail light lenses that polishing compound just couldn’t clear up. Wanting to hang on to the truck for a few more years, the owner was willing to invest a little money in replacement parts and turned to LMC Truck for some new headlights, turn signals, grille, mirrors and even a cowl induction hood to bring back that like new quality shine. LMC Truck always ensures OEM like fitment with quality pieces and parts you can be sure will keep your pride and joy looking its best.

A quick run to the local auto body shop to drop off the cowl hood for a scuff, prime, and paint and less than two hours at home in the garage replacing the lights, grille, and mirrors turned a stock appearing 700hp Duramax, that was showing its age, into the clean street stomping hot-rod it deserved to look like. DW

The new tow mirror offers a much larger field of view, along with the addition of a blind spot mirror and their telescoping functionality to help when towing, this style mirror is a no brainer.

The factory hood had some serious spider cracking showing through the clear coat that was going to cost hundreds to repair as a complete strip, sand and repaint was needed. Rather than invest in that old hood, a steel cowl induction hood was ordered up from LMC to go along with the other parts being updated on the front end.

Out of the box, the new cowl hood fit nearly perfect. The steel hood offers great strength and style that will really set the truck apart on the street. Not only does it look good, but it’s completely functional as well as the open ducting underneath will help draw hot engine heat out through the back of the cowl.

After getting a quick scuff, the hood was painted in the matching gloss black paint to match the rest of the truck and couldn’t have turned out any better. With no bondo or body filler needed anywhere on the hood, the quality is almost better than OEM.

New head lights, corner lenses, grille, billet insert, cowl hood and mirrors, along with a MOVE Bumper (previously installed) have really helped take this old body style truck to an all new level. No longer is it just the truck next door, but a very aggressive sinister looking street stomper.

SOURCE:
LMC Truck
LMCtruck.com
800.562.8782

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Pinaki Bhattacharya

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