Thought I would slap together a little thread for the work I’ve been doing, and will be doing, on my 04 Tahoe Z71. I got it with 142k miles on it as a daily driver and am wanting to turn it into a light off roader.
I don’t have any pictures of it stock when I first got it, but I had to replace the instrument cluster right off the bat.
First step was taking the running boards off for a little more clearance and a cleaner look. I also turned the torsion keys up just a little to come level. Didn’t need any re-indexed keys. I’ll be wanting to put some sliders on in the future.
Next thing I wanted was a new bumper. I didn’t like any of the commercially available options for these Tahoes, so thankfully I’ve got a brother in law who’s a great fabricator. Went for a hybrid style bumper. It’s essentially done, just need to paint it up. I’ll be painting it with raptor bed liner.
Speaking of raptor bed liner, I started to paint my fender flares with it, but I grossly underestimated how much I would go through and I ran out. HA! Spraying this stuff isn’t too bad now that I’ve done it once, but the inaugural spray was pretty stressful! I’ve ordered some more so I can finish the rest of the fender flares and the bumpers, and the next go will be less stressful.
I also did a couple electrical things. Got Apple car play which is super nice, put in a reverse camera, and did a little DRL and headlight replacement/mod.
Some things on the horizon:
I’ve got a suspension refresher coming soon. Ordered Bilstein 5100s all the way around, new bumps, and new coil springs in the back. Those should be here soon and will update. Also hoping to put some 285/70r17 (33s) Grabber ATx’s on once I get some tax return money haha! I’ll also update when that happens as well. I currently rub the rear wheel well liner at full flex (even with 265s) so I’ve read I may need wheel spacers to avoid that if going with a bigger tire. I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.
This forum has already been super helpful for me with figuring some things out, so I wanted to make this for others to read through if interested and also to continue to get some great advice from you guys!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I don’t have any pictures of it stock when I first got it, but I had to replace the instrument cluster right off the bat.
First step was taking the running boards off for a little more clearance and a cleaner look. I also turned the torsion keys up just a little to come level. Didn’t need any re-indexed keys. I’ll be wanting to put some sliders on in the future.
Next thing I wanted was a new bumper. I didn’t like any of the commercially available options for these Tahoes, so thankfully I’ve got a brother in law who’s a great fabricator. Went for a hybrid style bumper. It’s essentially done, just need to paint it up. I’ll be painting it with raptor bed liner.
Speaking of raptor bed liner, I started to paint my fender flares with it, but I grossly underestimated how much I would go through and I ran out. HA! Spraying this stuff isn’t too bad now that I’ve done it once, but the inaugural spray was pretty stressful! I’ve ordered some more so I can finish the rest of the fender flares and the bumpers, and the next go will be less stressful.
I also did a couple electrical things. Got Apple car play which is super nice, put in a reverse camera, and did a little DRL and headlight replacement/mod.
Some things on the horizon:
I’ve got a suspension refresher coming soon. Ordered Bilstein 5100s all the way around, new bumps, and new coil springs in the back. Those should be here soon and will update. Also hoping to put some 285/70r17 (33s) Grabber ATx’s on once I get some tax return money haha! I’ll also update when that happens as well. I currently rub the rear wheel well liner at full flex (even with 265s) so I’ve read I may need wheel spacers to avoid that if going with a bigger tire. I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.
This forum has already been super helpful for me with figuring some things out, so I wanted to make this for others to read through if interested and also to continue to get some great advice from you guys!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
