Will in Nashville's 2005 Yukon Denali

[willinnashville]

I started on the basecoat and was almost ready to burn the mofo to the ground after the first coat. It later flattened out and came out somewhat decent after a couple coats of base

Immediate aftermath of the first coat, when brix were shat:

 

[willinnashville]

After some waiting for it to flash it flattened out pretty decent, so I continued on with base:

 

[willinnashville]

Once I got to the clear, things started looking up. I can't remember if I did two or three coats

 

[willinnashville]

More clear

 

[willinnashville]

After drying for a day or so and install of the Esky rack, I'm pleased with how it came out. It definitely needs to be cut and buffed and I have a couple sags that draw my eye to them every time I'm near the truck. The wife and kiddos were impressed, or at least they were attempting to make me feel good about it.

 

[willinnashville]

I had been acquiring parts for a mild drop while all this was going on. I scored a set of belltech drop spindles from @Dantheman1540 and ordered a rear drop kit from @NORCAL SS. One of the spindles showed up fine but the other apparently fell into a lake on the way here. Dan was the man and filed a complaint with USPS. He got a check, which we split. The spindles just had surface rust, which cleaned up with a wire wheel on my drill.








Cleaned up compared to my old one:

 

[willinnashville]

I also pieced together a set of Strada Old Skool 24s and some tires from walmart.com. Snafu with the tires - Walmart wouldn't mount them even though they sold them, so it took me a few tries to find a shop to mount and balance them. Here they are installed and before the drop:

 

[willinnashville]

The drop! After wheels and tires, my favorite part of any build is the drop. I'd never lowered any AWD or 4x4 before, but I felt pretty confident after reading the instructions and watching a few YouTube videos.

I did new hubs and axles while I was in there and I ended up destroying a ball joint to pop the old spindle off on one side. Replacing that ball joint is one of the more frustrating things I've ever attempted with a parts store loaner ball joint kit that didn't seem to have everything in it. I bought a new ball joint tool kit from Harbor Freight and had the new ball joint in 20 minutes after I got home. I bought new inner and outer tie rods and took them to the same shop that mounted my wheels to get them installed and an alignment. They recommended a new pitman arm and idler arm, so I got those installed there too. I wasn't happy with the alignment after the first try, so I brought it back the next day. It's drivable now but it's a little twitchy and looks toed out to me. I'm currently looking for a new alignment shop.

I must've lost the autoride links for the rear so I went shopping at Lowe's for something that would put me at a 3" link (according to the instructions). I'm not 100% happy with how the rear rides now. I didn't put the spacer in, so I might try that. I didn't do the free travel mod, but I did use the smaller bumpstop that came with the kit. It also doesn't feel like there's any air in the shocks, so I'm not sure the links are right.

It still needs some tweaking, but it's getting there. I've never lowered anything that was perfectly right the first time.

Here it is off the jack stands for the first time:

 

[willinnashville]

After a quick bath, I took some more pics. Man alive, it sure does look good. Wow!

 

[89Suburban]

Nice work brother!!!!