Initial projects: headlights, fender flares, trim removal

[saif najd]

Wow great work I loved the front with stock lights

Good work keep it up

 

[2drhoeon4s]

looking good man!! stock headlights are always the best IMO.. unless you can do a custom projector retrofit..

 

[Gjovik]

Thanks everybody! I have been working really hard trying to find the time to tackle the to-do list.

Dudeface, I am loving your Tahoe. Yours is the exact look I am going for, no bodyside molding, newer rims, and those same fender flares. I checked out some of your other posts and pics, what a find that that Tahoe was! The shot taken of the underside of the rocker panels makes me sick with envy when I look at my rusted rockers.... And I think the black-painted insets on the rims is just what they needed. Awesome job, man!

 

[dudeface]

Dudeface, I am loving your Tahoe. Yours is the exact look I am going for, no bodyside molding, newer rims, and those same fender flares. I checked out some of your other posts and pics, what a find that that Tahoe was! The shot taken of the underside of the rocker panels makes me sick with envy when I look at my rusted rockers.... And I think the black-painted insets on the rims is just what they needed. Awesome job, man!

thanks man..........i try to keep it clean and simple. never was a big truck/SUV fan until a guy i know that tints windows for a living was selling it pretty much as is. fell in love the first time i drove it. I stole it for 4 grand about 3 years ago..........HIDs....rear LEDs.....lowered 2 inches, no roof rack/nerf bars, new alternater and $ 3,750.00 worth of tranny work done 6 months before i got it!!! all I have had to do was throw a aftermarket full kenwood sound system in it and keep it clean.

peace

 

[Gzes]

Please tell me you didn't get oem style flares. Saw some at the junk yard and looked like shit. Pocket style only for 2drs. My oem flares look good but will do bushwackers soon. And yes they are pita to remove oem flares

 

[Gjovik]

I definitely got the OEM style flares, as I am not getting any wide mud tires on this thing. The crazy-wide flares with "highway" tires would not be a good match in my opinion. Too bad I didn't know you were swapping yours, I would have offered to buy those shit-looking flares off of you

 

[Gjovik]

Back to work on this thing, finally got time to take some pictures. I removed the bodyside molding back in July and found that there were some areas that needed paintwork (some bubbling and chipping happening). Still haven't given the rust my full attention, and I know at this point it is going to wait until next spring/summer. But I wanted to hide the imperfections as much as I could, so I decided to cover the lower panels with something.

I've seen a lot of guys using roll-on bedliner products or various spray-on options, but I haven't had any experience with these. I ended up using plasti-dip on another project earlier this summer on my daily driver, and I really liked the stuff. It was a snap to work with, super cheap, and surprisingly durable (has held up perfectly on my car through weather/highway bugs/carwashes since May). So that's what I went with. Just masked off and sprayed on, looks nice. If a person gets really close and the light is just right, you can see that the paintwork underneath has some problems, but who cares? It looks good from a few feet away, so I am happy.

Next thing was the fender flares. We removed the chrome fender-lip trim before putting on the new flares, and some of the screws required a grinder to do this, but the best luck was that there was no rust underneath! The Bushwackers were great. They were not pre-drilled, but had some guides as to where to drill. This was for the best because some of the original holes on the body were in tough shape, so this way I could decide where the stongest attachment points were. Even with this being the case, some of the screws wouldn't hold, so we went with pop rivets in a number of spots. Overall, not that difficult and looks great now. I really am pleased at the color-match of the unpainted flares and the lower rockers with the plasti-dip. Who knew??

The last few projects of the year are swapping out my rims and tires, new rear shocks, new brake pads, and getting a remote start installed. Hopefully in the next few weeks. Got some pics of the work I've done and what it looks like right now. Also, a shot of mine next to my dad's '99 4 door. All together, there are 5 GMT400's in the family, 2 Tahoe's, 2 K1500's and a Suburban. My dad and older brother have lots of practice working on these trucks...

 

[95escahoe]

Came out great

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