Jess's 99 2 door Tahoe Build 4x4

[awsomeaussies206]

About 1 year ago I bought a 2 door Tahoe from an abondoned auto auction held at my work. It caught my eye when it first came in, but it wasn't until the night before the auction I new I wanted to bid on it. So me and my boyfriend briefly checked it inside and out, put a jumpbox on it and it fired right up. The next day I ended up winning it for $1550.00. Not bad considering they go over blue book here. It had 190k on the odometer, but hey it's a Chevy and if it needed an engine swap later down the road then know biggie. Later that day I finally got to take a good look at it in the daylight. Needless to say the body diffinetly didn't look as good as it did when we checked it out the previous night. There where A LOT of small dings everywhere. The hood looked like it had been jumped on, which we already new it needed to be replaced, the rear bumper was bent pretty bad, the tailgate was creased do to the rear bumper being bent upwards, there was a big dent along the pillar betweet the two windows, and the fenders had small dents along the body lines. Don't get me started on the inside. I knew it was filthy, but holy crap it was disgusting.
Sooo my great deal didn't seem as great as it did earlier! lol But I was still happy that I got it and that's all that matters, plus it just convinced me that it needed a new paint job, haha. Here it is the day I got it, loaded and ready to take it home.

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Doesn't look half bad from a distance, but that body diffinetly waves at you when you get closer.
First thing first was to get the inside somewhat clean and the smell out!! There was all kinds of stuff in there, crack pipes, bongs, dog food, garbage, etc. I stripped the inside, pulled the headliner down and cleaned the carpet. I wish I took some pictures of the interior prior to stripping it

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Since the outside of the vehicle was going to get some new paint, I figured the inside needs to look just as good too, so all the plastic pieces will either be getting wrapped in suede or will be dyed/painted black with SEM ColorCoat.

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Headliner covered in suede...

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Getting door panels ready to be painted.

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As good as new

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Dash and all the other smaller interior pieces also got painted.

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My first time fiberglassing! It's actually pretty easy!! Besides the sanding part, that sucks. haha

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Covered in suede.

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I ended up making some speaker holders for the rear headliner that also covered up the old speaker holes, plus it looks alot better imo.

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Then my boyfriend made some brackets to support the rear speaker holder.

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Headliner back up..

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and speaker holder in

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Next I bought a center console out of an Expedition or Explorer, I can't remember exactly.

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Test fit.

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First stage of fiberglassing. This is as far as I have gotten with the center console.

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Changed all the gauge lights. All the interior lights will eventually be blue.

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I needed a break from the interior, so that it is getting warmer out again, it's time to get started with the exterior! You can really see how missed up this hood is.

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My little helper

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Sitting next to my boyfriends buddy's 2wd Tahoe.

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We replaced both fenders and the drivers side door, and now it's time for the shaved door handles...

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I spent alot of time sanding the whole body to get ready for SPI Epoxy primer.

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All primered!!

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The next day I decided to come back and shoot the jambs and back of fenders and hood with base and color.

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I think it went pretty well for my first time painting. The color is Gun Metal. It's hard to see the fine metallic in the pictures.

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Bringing it back home to blocksand.

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That's all the pictures I have so far. I've been blocksanding it for the last few weeks. I don't get a lot of time to work on it, but I think it's coming along nicely. I should be able to get another coat of primer on it here shortly and do the final blocksanding and hopefully will be able to get some color on it within the next month. Everything I have done has been a learning experience from the fiberglassing to the paint and blocksanding. I'm just hoping all this hard work pays off! lol

 

[smrr1]

looking great

 

[70stroker]

the tahoe is looking great. nice progress so far

 

[gmcyukondriver]

Wow, a lot of good work already.

How tough was it to recover the headliner? Mine has a few holes and is coming unglued in some spots. Also, about how much did the suede cost?



Is this truck going to be a DD or show truck? I ask because most people don't shave door handles on DD's, but I've been thinking about it. Good work!

 

[awsomeaussies206]

Wow, a lot of good work already.

How tough was it to recover the headliner? Mine has a few holes and is coming unglued in some spots. Also, about how much did the suede cost?



Is this truck going to be a DD or show truck? I ask because most people don't shave door handles on DD's, but I've been thinking about it. Good work!

The headliner wasn't to bad. I pulled the old liner off and that took a while because it didn't come off clean and I had to scrape the excess fabric off. Just make sure you buy a commercial adhesive. There's a picture of the stuff I used in the background. You can spray it or roll/brush it. I ended up rolling it and it worked great.
I got the suede from yourautotrim.com It's uv treated and foam backed (which is what you need so the adhesive doesn't bleed through and it will hide any imperfections. 60" wide and it takes up almost all 60"s. I can't remember how many yards I bought, but I bought extra to wrap some other pieces. Shipping is kinda high, but it's still priced good for how much you get.

This truck isn't my DD, but it's not going to be a show truck either. I just really like customizing and creating something unique. I don't want to be like all the other Tahoe's out there, I want it to be different. This sickness started when I bought my Mustang. LOL Now I can't leave anything alone! So hopefully the shaved handles won't bite me in the a$$ later down the road, but we tested everything and it should work out great.

 

[bluex]

Wow cool project. Nice work on the interior so far.

 

[awsomeaussies206]

Thanks everyone!