iamdub
Full Access Member
Hey, TYF! I've been stalking ever since I bought my Tahoe a little over a month ago and finally decided to speak up. A little about me: I'm originally from Plant City, Florida and I now live around Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I'm a Field Service Tech for a safe company (safe, as in the metal lock boxes that store things). Basically, I drive anywhere from Arkansas to the Gulf coast and from Texas to the Florida panhandle to service electronic safes. I'm quite the gearhead/hot-rodder. My previous ride was an '02 S10 Xtreme that I bought nearly-new. I went through a LOT with that truck and had a LOT of fun. Since 2010, I've collected parts for an LQ9 swap. I had the motor, trans, wire harness, headers... almost every last nut and bolt to perform the swap. But, life has changed since I started all of this and I needed/wanted a family hauler. I sold my beloved S10 and all the swap parts at the end of March and drove my other toy, an '01 XJ, when I had to get around.
Xtreme:
XJ:
Now, about my Tahoe: Due to my extensive driving for work, I was able to check out a lot of dealerships and used car lots for a Tahoe or Yukon. I found so many over-priced and ragged-out trucks that I was considering getting a 200,000-mile+ one for cheap and swapping in a low-mileage (and slightly hopped-up) drivetrain, new leather interior, etc. But, one of the other main reasons for selling my S10 was to eliminate projects as I don't have time for them any more. A small lot not far from me that deals only with higher-quality used trucks had an '07 Yukon with every option except a sunroof. A sunroof was one of my stipulations, but I was getting tired of searching. I told the owner that it was everything I wanted except for the 'roof and he said the Tahoe his wife drives has a 'roof, but no DVD/reverse camera. I can install electronics and such MUCH more easily than a sunroof, so I told him I'd look at it. This is what he brought the next day to show me:
It's an '08 LTZ with 147K miles. The interior is nearly mint, the tires and brakes are nearly new, the body has no dents and there are only 4 very small damaged spots in the paint. The underside is as clean as the top and is bone dry except for some power steering fluid on the LH tie rod boot. Rust on cars "doesn't exist" in my part of the country. It was worlds cleaner than what the online pics of the other four on my list showed and even smelled kinda newish. After looking it over for about 10 minutes, I told him I wasn't even gonna bother going to look at those other four and wanted to work out a deal. All of the potentials I had on my list of five were in the $15,000-$16,000 range, but they all (except for this one) had the ubiquitous cracked leather on the console lid, peeling chrome interior handles, worn steering wheel trim, considerably more paint and body damages, etc. He was asking $15,900. I told him I was shopping by the total out-the-door price since I was at the top of my budget and taxes/fees must be considered. We went back and forth on calculators for maybe 5 minutes and agreed on $17,000 total, which comes out to $15,250 for the truck itself, $1,525 for taxes and $225 for licensing and other fees. I'm extremely satisfied with the deal! All in all, this one ended up being one of the cheapest, yet the most immaculate ones. He even left the full Weathertech floor liner kit in it, which was gonna be one of my first investments.
I'm not tearing into this one like I did my S10, but it does need a few improvements. The first thing I did was install the catch can that was originally going on the LQ9.
I also scored a barely-used AEM Dryflow filter for just the cost of shipping. I was reading reviews on Amazon and saw where a guy said he saw an immediate drop in MPG that sustained over a couple of months and on a routine route, then got his original MPG back when he reinstalled the original filter. He told another user that they could have it for the cost of shipping, but that user never replied so I took him up on the offer. I haven't installed it yet as I want to establish a solid baseline MPG figure first. Being I usually only drive my Tahoe on the weekends and rarely during the week, burning gas takes a while.
Other plans in no particular order:
Fix power steering leak
Replace wire loom in engine bay
LED lighting inside and out
Whiter headlights (not putting HIDs in stock housings and I doubt I'll ever have the time and money to do a projector retrofit)
Home-fabbed resonator delete
"Quiet" performance muffler
Airraid MIT
Stainless long tube headers
Replace the driver's side engine mount (probably with a home-fabbed polyurethane design)
22" wheels
MAYBE lower it 2" or 3" front and rear
Get rid of the woodgrain
Headrest DVD monitors
Possibly a factory touchscreen/reverse camera
Perform full AFM delete with custom mild cam
Custom tune for mods
I'll eventually start a thread on it once things get rolling. For now, it just sits most of the week.
Whew! With the intro out of the way, I feel like I can now participate in threads. See y'all around!
Xtreme:
XJ:
Now, about my Tahoe: Due to my extensive driving for work, I was able to check out a lot of dealerships and used car lots for a Tahoe or Yukon. I found so many over-priced and ragged-out trucks that I was considering getting a 200,000-mile+ one for cheap and swapping in a low-mileage (and slightly hopped-up) drivetrain, new leather interior, etc. But, one of the other main reasons for selling my S10 was to eliminate projects as I don't have time for them any more. A small lot not far from me that deals only with higher-quality used trucks had an '07 Yukon with every option except a sunroof. A sunroof was one of my stipulations, but I was getting tired of searching. I told the owner that it was everything I wanted except for the 'roof and he said the Tahoe his wife drives has a 'roof, but no DVD/reverse camera. I can install electronics and such MUCH more easily than a sunroof, so I told him I'd look at it. This is what he brought the next day to show me:
It's an '08 LTZ with 147K miles. The interior is nearly mint, the tires and brakes are nearly new, the body has no dents and there are only 4 very small damaged spots in the paint. The underside is as clean as the top and is bone dry except for some power steering fluid on the LH tie rod boot. Rust on cars "doesn't exist" in my part of the country. It was worlds cleaner than what the online pics of the other four on my list showed and even smelled kinda newish. After looking it over for about 10 minutes, I told him I wasn't even gonna bother going to look at those other four and wanted to work out a deal. All of the potentials I had on my list of five were in the $15,000-$16,000 range, but they all (except for this one) had the ubiquitous cracked leather on the console lid, peeling chrome interior handles, worn steering wheel trim, considerably more paint and body damages, etc. He was asking $15,900. I told him I was shopping by the total out-the-door price since I was at the top of my budget and taxes/fees must be considered. We went back and forth on calculators for maybe 5 minutes and agreed on $17,000 total, which comes out to $15,250 for the truck itself, $1,525 for taxes and $225 for licensing and other fees. I'm extremely satisfied with the deal! All in all, this one ended up being one of the cheapest, yet the most immaculate ones. He even left the full Weathertech floor liner kit in it, which was gonna be one of my first investments.
I'm not tearing into this one like I did my S10, but it does need a few improvements. The first thing I did was install the catch can that was originally going on the LQ9.
I also scored a barely-used AEM Dryflow filter for just the cost of shipping. I was reading reviews on Amazon and saw where a guy said he saw an immediate drop in MPG that sustained over a couple of months and on a routine route, then got his original MPG back when he reinstalled the original filter. He told another user that they could have it for the cost of shipping, but that user never replied so I took him up on the offer. I haven't installed it yet as I want to establish a solid baseline MPG figure first. Being I usually only drive my Tahoe on the weekends and rarely during the week, burning gas takes a while.
Other plans in no particular order:
Fix power steering leak
Replace wire loom in engine bay
LED lighting inside and out
Whiter headlights (not putting HIDs in stock housings and I doubt I'll ever have the time and money to do a projector retrofit)
Home-fabbed resonator delete
"Quiet" performance muffler
Airraid MIT
Stainless long tube headers
Replace the driver's side engine mount (probably with a home-fabbed polyurethane design)
22" wheels
MAYBE lower it 2" or 3" front and rear
Get rid of the woodgrain
Headrest DVD monitors
Possibly a factory touchscreen/reverse camera
Perform full AFM delete with custom mild cam
Custom tune for mods
I'll eventually start a thread on it once things get rolling. For now, it just sits most of the week.
Whew! With the intro out of the way, I feel like I can now participate in threads. See y'all around!
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