Tonny's 2001 Tahoe build

[Tonny]

Hi guys,

Introduced myself yesterday! This will be the build thread for my Chevy. I got it for roughly 2 months now! The previous owner bought the SUV in 2012. He rebuild the Tahoe as a 2 seater, so he could use it as his work/tow car. This will be my daily work car as well, carrying all my detailing gear and mechanical tools. Atm it run 266.*** kilometers or 165.*** miles. At 230.*** kilometers or 142.*** miles the car was fitted with a LPG gas system. This is quite common to do with the big American cars and engines here in The Netherlands. Main reason, gasoline price is nothing compared to you guys. Also we pay taxes according to the fuel type and weight of the car. Because this is build as a two seater work vehicle, I pay less taxes. In this way, it's some-what possible to drive a big heavy car here in Holland.

Let me take you back two months ago:


With the old Peugeot, now sold to a buddy of mine.


And the back with a drawer as example:


In the first weeks I started a little bit with detailing. I started on a roof where I expected a mess. It's like full iron fallout. So started with Iron Remover:


After three weeks I broke the Chevy. Radiator cracked at the plastic reservoir. I managed to buy a new one in NL. Found out it was a smaller version but still fitted in the other mounting holes on my Chevy. This was a replacementpart for the Avalanche and Tahoe.


And we had to re-fit the plastic mouldings around the fan because of the smaller radiator:




And then it didn't start anymore! After searching and learning, me and some friends found out the Chevy didn't get any gasoline. It always starts and warms up before switching to LPG. After some evenings searching and trying, we got it running again. We heard the fuel pump running but didn't get fuel in the fuellines. We blowed with compressed air from the gasfilter to the gaspump. Hit the gastank a few times with a rubber hammer and finally some fuel came trough the lines. There is probably build up of contaminants in the gasolinetank that is slipping the fuel lines. Used some gasoline cleaner and atm it's so far so good.

Then started with examing the hood. It has been homemade painted once because things fell on the hood.


Started again with Iron Remover:


Then I clayed the hood, full of contaminants:

50/50 after some compounding and polishing:


After compounding and polishing the damage. Able to make it a lot smaller but I can't really figure out whats going on this. If i measure the pain, it still gives higher numbers on the overspray part. I just keep wondering if I could possibly find good paint underneath the mess.

 

[Tonny]

A few weeks ago I deleted my roof rack, to see how it looks and also to get better access for cleaning. I like it more without the roof rack atm:












And me and my college started building the rear interior of the Chevy! Pulled the plastic out to find out the heater is in the back of the Chevy.


My college started tailoring while me watching how that works:






Then I looked at all the old plastics and asked my college, we can all tailor that isn't it? Yes it is..


Looks hot




And last tuesday we continued to building in the drawer. The wood around it will also be tailored.. Don't mind the mess please..

 

[Tonny]

And I'm now working on the roof, did Iron Remover once more and clayed the whole roof. Iron fallout:


Iron Remover:


Washing:


After that I clay bar the roof and dried it, now it is ready to be compounded and polished..


I ordered fender flares in America as well. Send them to my cousin in Massachusetts who send it to NL. Here some test fitting. Primarily to cover up the bad parts because the fenders do have scratches and bumps.

So thisit for now. Will update you guys when I make progress

 

[05Single]

That interior carpet is top notch , love the tailored parts!!! Great progress. Little by little bringing the Chevy back to life. Miles are very low for that year too. Crazy it has LPG system, all of our vehicles in America used for airport work are LPG fitted. I see it’s the law to have those fender marker lights , curious are you allowed to change the housing from amber to clear?

 

[Tonny]

That interior carpet is top notch , love the tailored parts!!! Great progress. Little by little bringing the Chevy back to life. Miles are very low for that year too. Crazy it has LPG system, all of our vehicles in America used for airport work are LPG fitted. I see it’s the law to have those fender marker lights , curious are you allowed to change the housing from amber to clear?

Yeah it really transforms the interior. Curious how long it will last. Thanks . Haha I'm not worried about the miles. Lot of people here think it's a lot but I know better.

Well compared to gasoline I pay around €0,64 per liter gas or €1,60ish for gasoline per liter; €2,90 per gallon LPG or €7,26 per gallon gasoline. LPG is actually a cleaner fuel. But can sense some lag of power when driving on LPG.

This suv is original Dutch delivered so has those amber lights. I think it's allowed to clear them as long as the bulb blinks orange. You guys have orange in front and red blinkers in the back isn't it?

 

[YukonXLMan]

Wow, you are doing an awesome job! Agree with you that unless you are about to do an African Safari, the roof rack delete was a good call. Depending if there is good paint under the remaining roof rack hardware, you may be able to remove those as well and just replace the bolt back in the hole if not too obtrusive.

The carpet interior is really nicely done. I'm curious on where your LPG tank is and how much it holds? Fuel costs are amazingly different between us. i just paid $2.45/gallon for gasoline today. I'd have to push my Yukon and coast it downhill if prices here were $8.14 (7,26 Euros) locally!

I'll be following your thread with interest! Best of Luck!

 

[05Single]

This suv is original Dutch delivered so has those amber lights. I think it's allowed to clear them as long as the bulb blinks orange. You guys have orange in front and red blinkers in the back isn't it?

Can have white in front but turn signal must be orange/amber. And tails must be red but turns can either be red or orange/amber.

 

[Tonny]

Wow, you are doing an awesome job! Agree with you that unless you are about to do an African Safari, the roof rack delete was a good call. Depending if there is good paint under the remaining roof rack hardware, you may be able to remove those as well and just replace the bolt back in the hole if not too obtrusive.

The carpet interior is really nicely done. I'm curious on where your LPG tank is and how much it holds? Fuel costs are amazingly different between us. i just paid $2.45/gallon for gasoline today. I'd have to push my Yukon and coast it downhill if prices here were $8.14 (7,26 Euros) locally!
I'll be following your thread with interest! Best of Luck!

Haha yes well it could be handy to carry large things around but my first thought always was that there is not a easy way to put stuff on top of it anyway. I indeed would like to remove the remaining hardware but unfortunately the threat is stuck to the bolts. So when I turn the bolts the threat will also turn with it. Just I'm still thinking of a good wayto remove then. Tried some things to remove them but didn't work. Probably need to flex and then drill them out.

The LPG tank is 100 liter with max 80% of fill capacity. So can carry around 80 liters which is not a lot but it's ok. It's fitted where the spare rim used to be. If I want a bigger tank I've to sacrifice interior space. I don't want that

Thanks mate!

Can have white in front but turn signal must be orange/amber. And tails must be red but turns can either be red or orange/amber.

I understand, thanks. When the American cars in Holland is really imported with those red signals at the back, you can keep them. I think it's cool but that's also because it's not allowed here except for the reason above.

Greets

 

[Tonny]

All right, little update then. Not a lot of progress on the Tahoe because I'm way to busy, since I'm a self employed person since a few months. But that gave me now the opportunity to rent a place where I will clean and detail cars. And it obviously will evolve to a man-cave



Very stoked about that.

Not so stoked about the fact my Tahoe did funny this morning on the highway. Driving like 70/80 mph. Strange rattling noise, I don't really know how to describe. So I stopped on the emergency-lane.. Took a quick check. Decided to drive slowly to the next exit. Rattling came back at like 55 mph. So via roads I drove carefully back, had to be at work also. So after work the Tahoe drove fine in town, only riding 20 mph. After visiting my new cave I decided to grab a little section of highway and film/record the noise. But it wouldn't come back. For sure it was not the engine but more like a gearbox/drivetrain/differential thing. But that is just someone thinking who is not a mechanic.. Tried some searching on youtube also for the noise, maybe something to do with emergency-brake.. I don't know what to think, I'm somewhat happy it didn't occur tonight but I"m afraid it will be back soon. I never use the parking-brake but it had a new cable at the last inspection. Will be continued I guess

 

[Tonyrodz]

Your roof came out amazing. Do you guys have an iron particle fallout issue? You have front and rear heat and air conditiong looks like.