New here, high schooler in Oxnard & in love w first car (05 Tahoe 80k miles). Need help on build

[Chuy_8055]

Sup everybody. Been eyeing this forum for a while just made an acc rn. This is my 1st build all I’ve done was debadge, remove trim and roof racks & added speakers and HU. I’ve seen beautiful builds on here, fav part of mine is the color (dark grey metallic) willing to change alot.

I got no clue of where to start but I do know that I wanna:
-new headlights n taillights (don’t know good brands)
-lower (don’t know how much drop or how to, but if Ik parts needed I can do for free in school auto shop)
-new rims (dk which ones)
-paint wheel wells black
-tint dark but not enough to get harassed constantly
-paint match door handles, mirrors.
-front bumper (wanna get a Ss bumper n paint match but I heard it’s hard to find a good fit) or paint match stock bumper (but I heard it doesn’t stick to chrome well)
-grille, HD grille, or paint match this chrome grill or get a mesh one & paint match.
-HD hood paint matched
-make louder has flow master don’t know w one but it sounds ok. will a super 10 sound good?
-add performance engine parts for more responsiveness (don’t know where to start AI said to start w air intake. engine is a 4.8 V8)
sorry for long intro , id love to hear where you guys started w your builds, & seeing pics of your builds cause Tahoes are so good looking imo. [don’t clown on me to much for dirty car really windy today usually wash 1x a week]

 

[adventurenali92]

Welcome from Southern California! Looks to be a nice truck and 80k is pretty low mileage on these things! Working on these things is so simple for the most part and it’s awesome that you still have an auto shop in school! We had it and my mom made me take it my junior year. I hated it at the time but looking back I’m so thankful for the skills I learned in that class. Good on you for wanting to learn! Sadly it’s no longer offered here and that’s such a shame.

Start a build thread to document what you’ve done so far. The forum is a wealth of knowledge and plenty of threads to research covering just about every topic you can imagine. You can search through the GMT800 section of the forum(2000-2006 subsection) and there will be many threads detailing drop information. In fact I actually think in the first part of that subsection there is a stickied thread right in the first few threads with lots of helpful drop info.

Chrome can be easy to paint if it’s actual metal, which your front bumper cap chrome action is metal. Plastic chrome, like the grille pieces are a pain the behind. That’s when paint doesn’t really like to stick to and makes it a challenge. Lots of guys have color matched their front ends, specifically the metal chrome and the plastic caps. and gotten great results. The black plastic caps are pretty easy to color match, but the key is to sand all the texture out of the plastic so it has a totally smooth surface for the primer and paint to grab onto and bond with. I learned that with color matching a set of side view mirrors.

Lots of cool builds to check out here. If you’re using the forum from a web browser on a phone, rotate sideways. Most guys that have builds have links to their builds in their user signatures which will show up at the bottom of a reply they make, when you rotate the phone to the horizontal view. I’ve taken a lot of inspiration for builds from other guys on my own rig.

 

[Tonyrodz]

Sup everybody. Been eyeing this forum for a while just made an acc rn. This is my 1st build all I’ve done was debadge, remove trim and roof racks & added speakers and HU. I’ve seen beautiful builds on here, fav part of mine is the color (dark grey metallic) willing to change alot.

I got no clue of where to start but I do know that I wanna:
-new headlights n taillights (don’t know good brands)
-lower (don’t know how much drop or how to, but if Ik parts needed I can do for free in school auto shop)
-new rims (dk which ones)
-paint wheel wells black
-tint dark but not enough to get harassed constantly
-paint match door handles, mirrors.
-front bumper (wanna get a Ss bumper n paint match but I heard it’s hard to find a good fit) or paint match stock bumper (but I heard it doesn’t stick to chrome well)
-grille, HD grille, or paint match this chrome grill or get a mesh one & paint match.
-HD hood paint matched
-make louder has flow master don’t know w one but it sounds ok. will a super 10 sound good?
-add performance engine parts for more responsiveness (don’t know where to start AI said to start w air intake. engine is a 4.8 V8)
sorry for long intro , id love to hear where you guys started w your builds, & seeing pics of your builds cause Tahoes are so good looking imo. [don’t clown on me to much for dirty car really windy today usually wash 1x a week]

Everyone has to start somewhere--if you swap headlights to aftermarket--reuse the oem headlight brackets. They're much better then the aftermarket brackets. As to taillights--do you want led or keep stock bulbs? The led tails scare me, they seem to burn out too quick for me.
I used an oem junkyard HD grill. I really like the look of them. I personally don't like chrome, but I think it would've looked good in chrome. I dipped mine because the chrome plating was starting to peel. If you want to paint your front bumper, you might be better off buying a used painted bumper. The z71s came with factory painted bumpers, or do what I did--I dipped mine. It's holding up pretty good. Wheels are a personal preference, along with the exhaust sound--whatever floats your boat. Just keep in mind, the bigger you go might affect your speedo and will affect your rear gearing--might make it slower. You most likely have 3.73s since you have the 4.8. I put 22's on mine(I also have 3.73s). Looked great but it definitely slowed it down off the line. If you want it to run a little better without digging deep, a tune would be your best bet. Better throttle response, better performance and possibly a little better gas mileage. They could also tune the transmission for better, cleaner shifts. For the drop you could go cheap. You could drop the front by utilizing your factory keys. You can maybe get 2". Or get some factory Ford keys--not sure which ones will work so you'll need to do your homework on those. For the rear you could buy some lowering brackets that will relocate your shocks. Those aren't crazy expensive.
I jumped around with your questions, but I tried to answer as many as I could.
Check out my build thread for some of my mods. You could also float around on the " Under Construction threads" to get some more ideas and questions answered. Good luck on your 1st build. These trucks are definitely fun to play with.

 

[adventurenali92]

Everyone has to start somewhere--if you swap headlights to aftermarket--reuse the oem headlight brackets. They're much better then the aftermarket brackets. As to taillights--do you want led or keep stock bulbs? The led tails scare me, they seem to burn out too quick for me.
I used an oem junkyard HD grill. I really like the look of them. I personally don't like chrome, but I think it would've looked good in chrome. I dipped mine because the chrome plating was starting to peel. If you want to paint your front bumper, you might be better off buying a used painted bumper. The z71s came with factory painted bumpers, or do what I did--I dipped mine. It's holding up pretty good. Wheels are a personal preference, along with the exhaust sound--whatever floats your boat. Just keep in mind, the bigger you go might affect your speedo and will affect your rear gearing--might make it slower. You most likely have 3.73s since you have the 4.8. I put 22's on mine(I also have 3.73s). Looked great but it definitely slowed it down off the line. If you want it to run a little better without digging deep, a tune would be your best bet. Better throttle response, better performance and possibly a little better gas mileage. They could also tune the transmission for better, cleaner shifts. For the drop you could go cheap. You could drop the front by utilizing your factory keys. You can maybe get 2". Or get some factory Ford keys--not sure which ones will work so you'll need to do your homework on those. For the rear you could buy some lowering brackets that will relocate your shocks. Those aren't crazy expensive.
I jumped around with your questions, but I tried to answer as many as I could.
Check out my build thread for some of my mods. You could also float around on the " Under Construction threads" to get some more ideas and questions answered. Good luck on your 1st build. These trucks are definitely fun to play with.

Excellent point on the headlight brackets!

 

[BlackBearPerf]

Welcome to the forum from Nothern Idaho! That's a nice first car, way better than mine. I had to settle for a beat-down Ford Taurus for my first car back in the late 90s hahaha. You are getting great advice already!

 

[adventurenali92]

Welcome to the forum from Nothern Idaho! That's a nice first car, way better than mine. I had to settle for a beat-down Ford Taurus for my first car back in the late 90s hahaha. You are getting great advice already!

A lot nicer than my first ride as well hahaha

 

[Miami-Dade]

Welcome from Miami&Queens NY!

 

[Hoesgottaeat2]

Welcome to the forum. That's a beautiful first build you got there. Good luck.

This was my first ride. Bought not built...

 

[OR VietVet]

Welcome to the forum from Oregon.

"Sup"?