Fosscore's 2013 Suburban LTZ Build Thread

[Fosscore]

How well does the light shine through the sticker at night?

@BADRIDES

Clear and clean. The fan up and down stickers were applied at least 2 years ago IIRC. The - (minus cold button) for the driver is next on the list too.

 

[Tonyrodz]

@BADRIDES

Clear and clean. The fan up and down stickers were applied at least 2 years ago IIRC. The - (minus cold button) for the driver is next on the list too.

View attachment 467927

Thumbs up for Metallica. You got taste my man--Because Nothing Else Matters.

 

[Fosscore]

Thumbs up for Metallica. You got taste my man--Because Nothing Else Matters.

BIG METALLICA fan here. That channel on SiriusXM is gold! Took my son to Tampa back in June for his first time seeing them. My daughter had a throwback day at school for Homecoming week, so she wore my 1994 Summer Sh*t concert t-shirt from their stop in Phoenix. What a hot July day at the Desert Sky Pavilion that was in no man's land near Luke AFB back in the day. @Tonyrodz

 

[07Burb]

BIG METALLICA fan here. That channel on SiriusXM is gold! Took my son to Tampa back in June for his first time seeing them. My daughter had a throwback day at school for Homecoming week, so she wore my 1994 Summer Sh*t concert t-shirt from their stop in Phoenix. What a hot July day at the Desert Sky Pavilion that was in no man's land near Luke AFB back in the day. @Tonyrodz

View attachment 467931

She sure does have a cheery face

 

[Fosscore]

TBC…

 

[kbuskill]

View attachment 471681
TBC…

Perhaps it is because I am over tired or maybe I'm just not part of the hip crowd... what is TBC?

 

[89Suburban]

Perhaps it is because I am over tired or maybe I'm just not part of the hip crowd... what is TBC?

To be continued I assume

 

[89Suburban]

 

[Tonyrodz]

View attachment 471681
TBC…

I can definitely relate to this.

 

[Sparksalot]

I can definitely relate to this.

+1

 

[05Single]

Perhaps it is because I am over tired or maybe I'm just not part of the hip crowd... what is TBC?

Today Be Crazy

 

[Fosscore]

Today Be Crazy

Damn @05Single I been wondering where you been at ...figured maybe you went on walkabout in the desert...good to see my thread still brings you in for some chat. How the heck you been?

Yes today be crazy and still to be continued or TBD and @kbuskill not even near the hip crowd my man. Too many stories and updates to add to my thread, but trying to find a moment to write it out here....is well like @05Single badgering me on my thread. Not often enough these days....lol

 

[05Single]

Damn @05Single I been wondering where you been at ...figured maybe you went on walkabout in the desert...good to see my thread still brings you in for some chat. How the heck you been?

Yes today be crazy and still to be continued or TBD and @kbuskill not even near the hip crowd my man. Too many stories and updates to add to my thread, but trying to find a moment to write it out here....is well like @05Single badgering me on my thread. Not often enough these days....lol

See you in another 9-15 months ….

 

[Fosscore]

oops wont rotate, but check out the paint closely


Plenty of stories to share.

First off, my boy got lit up by the blue and reds in his black Camry at 0032 one night just driving around. Pulled him over for 1 tag light out , then metered his windows and gave him a $116 traffic citation. "Drivers side window tint 19 percent -unsafe - driving vehicle in unsafe condition." Thankfully not a moving violation for points and destroy my insurance any further. It just went up another $200/month by welcoming in car #4 and 2 teenagers. Civil penalty ticket $116. Some B.S. right there.

Officer was just looking to hound someone. Sucks for my son. But now he knows.

My daughter is now the proud driver of a 2017 Mazda CX-5 Grand Touring with 96k on the clock. That was after many weeks of looking, playing the stupid stealership $5k add-ons over the asking price, no negotiation, no F's given, but we humored our daughter also so she could see and understand the process. We looked at the side lots with POS auction cars including one with a death wobble at speed. To everything in between including the crackheads who had photochopped the ad enough that we drove to see the car one Saturday morning. The smell test was on full alert as soon as we rocked up and the "real" state of the car, dents and scratches, the smell were aplenty and the glove box was full of miscellaneous stuff, plus many cobwebs and surface rust on the frame and super dirty engine bay.

Their stories were different, we bought it from our friends, but haven't registered it, she drove from Montana back and forth to Florida. They sheep dogged me looking under the hood, checking the tire dates and pulling codes from the OBD port, changing their answers, no insurance, not registered, said they would call their friend they bought it from as she was in New Zealand (haha I said no you won't, +15 hours ahead then and she would be asleep, never heard about her again) and a tragic neighborhood Fast & Furious "test drive" with the dude, smelling like some funny plants. He wouldn't let us go for a drive out of the neighborhood. I think he was pissed I pulled a transmission code, checked with my buddy and he said walk. After that test drive, we bolted. What a couple of ummm...you fill in the gap here! lol

My wife got a private sale hit in Orlando, so we decided to do a same day viewing, have lunch with our son, then drive home. 3 hours each way. The heavens were relentless during the viewing so it was hard to get a solid view, but the test drive and interior all felt and looked right. It was passing the initial smell test and my daughter was feeling giddy, but I told her to be patient and let's look it over as best we could while getting soaked.

It was the exact car she had wanted after many iterations and arguments trying to get her to tell us exactly the one car, trim, color and non-negotiable she wanted and within what we had deemed an acceptable budget. So we could try and find that unicorn. The things you do for your kids. It was a good test and experience actually for her with many times falling thru, days and weeks with nothing to look at, no time to go, not the right car, too expensive, too many miles, accident, listed in a location that is known for swapping VINs, salvaging titles and turning over flooded cars, even cutting and rewelding the VINS, and feeling she would "never" get a car. It was humbling and frustrating but educational for her especially.

The car was owned by a girl who was 2 years out of FSU, had a company car and didn't need it anymore. She was the 3rd owner. CarFax looked good with regular oil changes, no major services but at least in Florida and at the shop every 3k miles. The car had been sitting at grandpa's house for quite a while and the leaves in the cowling and grime in the cracks were evidence of this. it had only been listed a couple of days and we knew it would be gone fast, so we made her an offer and she accepted.

We agreed to take ownership in 2 weeks as she was out of town (we never did meet her in person), so we put a $200 Zelle deposit down and drove home in hellacious thunderstorms and flooding, a couple cars had spun out in the median and one had gone off the side and down a slope. I kept pushing the Suburban home dodging hazard lights and confused drivers.

The Thursday finally came to go collect the car. My wife and I turned off our Find Me on the iPhone to avoid her seeing where we were. After trying to meet up with the girl and 2 schedules 200 miles apart, we ended up back at grandpa's house after a Brightline train ride and our son picking us up. We met her mother to collect the title and keys, check the oil and coolant and pump up the tires for the road trip home.

We had organized the wire 2 days before, which took 2 days as it went to the fraud department for review and was stuck in transmit purgatory for that time. Due to the high increase in wire fraud, ours got flagged and needed some extra security checks to process, then it finally went thru a few hours later. It was a good step, because once that button to TX is pushed, there is no retrieval process. She got the money and we were a go.

We small chatted, then finally left with the title and 1 key. She would have to mail the second key and I asked to drive home with her FSU plate and would mail that back.

Traffic was so bad it took us 4 hours to get home. Car ran well. Small vibration at 75mph, but tracked well.

We grabbed some dinner to bring home, my daughter was at work and we planned to park it in the driveway with a big bow on it. The timing was perfect, that I had just backed it in all by itself and she whipped around the corner in the Buick and came flying up the drive and jumped into my arms with the biggest smile and hug. My heart was on fire! That was one of those bestest feelings ever from one of your kids and especially a daughter. We shared the stories, got the bow on and some photos to send to the family, took it for a spin around the neighborhood and chatted some more. She was on cloud 9!!

I got it registered on Friday and the plates would be in the following Wednesday after Veteran's Day.

I had it lined up to go to my buddy's shop on the following Tuesday which gave me all Sunday to do some detailing because the weekend was about her turning 17 the week before. We had (5-10 qty), 17 year old girls in the house over the weekend and my wife and her friend did a killer beach set up and sunset dinner for them.

I spent the next 3 days, detailing sections of the car for a few hours each day and it sure needed it. Better to break it up and do it right vs get tired and skip around. It sure came to life. Every area seemed to have not been attended to in a loooong time. Coffee under the cup holder pads, sand in the carpet, foggy windows, leaves and droppings etc...etc...girl car. haha I gave the interior a full work over one night. The next night I washed, iron remover and clay barred the paint. A lot of it needed some fine aggressive light scrubbing to get some of the stubborn leaf and tree dropping stains off the paint. And finally on Sunday after the birthday party night, I pulled out the DA and 3 step polished the paint and windows and dressed the plastic with Cerakote Ceramic coating. Started before sunrise and wow it looks great!!

That Snowflake White Pearl Metallic paint came to life. A few chips, and very small dings/little dents, a wobbly rear lower reflector was revealed. But wow it popped in the sunshine and looked amazing with the metallica pearl! I ordered her Husky Xact Contour mats as they had a sale right then saving about $50 on a full set and cargo liner. The mats sure dressed up the interior nicely and will be much easier to keep clean too. I changed out the incandescents to LEDs cool white and always so much better and no heat. Her dad had already upgraded the cable for CarPlay to the OEM system, which was a huge win for music and nav.

The car went into the shop for the mechanic look over on the lift and the report wasn't bad. Oil change, air filter, alignment and 4 new tires (those were from 2017 haha). After the registration, another ouch, but at least I know she is in a safe car that is in good shape. And last few things, I got the 2 front windows tinted to match the rear glass. A bit too light for my liking, but they match the rear factory glass tint and the girls did not want dad dark. Took the shop less than 30 minutes to knock it ou. it just adds that little bit of privacy and the ceramic for heat rejection is great.

I just have to get the passenger rear panel adhered and tucked into the trim again.

The plate came in and she took us for a drive. She can run 87, so her first fuel up with us was under $30 and can get mid 20s MPG and closer to 28-30 on the motorway. I trailed behind her on 95 this morning en route to school and work and she got her parking sticker. So she can park next to her friends - Bronco, Tesla, Honda EV....but you know whose car is the cleanest ammaright...? Hopefully some of the OCDish dad clean car vibes will rub off.

Long story, but super stoked for her and kind of sad too...the gradual steps of her gaining more independence and having her own wheels now makes that even more so, but glad she got what she wanted, color, trim level, and it is in great shape too. Drives like a dream and should last her for a long time.

Sent the Buick in the very next day as it also needed new tires and an oil change, plus it had a screw in it for the past few weeks dropping the TPMS to 25psi every couple days. So 3 full sets of tires and 2 for the Camry all within 6 months. Yikes! Some pics...

Here are the dirty pick up photos.

 

[Fosscore]

 

[07Burb]

Cannot believe you allowed that car to drive home with an engine bay that dirty.

 

[Fosscore]

Cannot believe you allowed that car to drive home with an engine bay that dirty.

It was very hard not to break out the hose at their house before we left. Because cleaner car runs better lol. All betterer now though.And 1 very happy young lady.

 

[Fosscore]

So back to our regularly scheduled program and that long body.

Same week issues. CEL, pulled this code. Chatted to my mechanic friend when it popped up. Plenty of oil, engine not actually knocking. Cleared the code and it came right back, so I had my wife drop it off the see what was going on.

He checked a lot of things in and around the engine and found this knock sensor connector had some rust present.

He changed it out and sent the truck back home. That was right around Halloween, so going on 3 weeks, have not had any CEL back on.

Genuine GM 12623730 Knock Sensor​

The next day my wife backed out of the driveway to this really loud noise. Had her friend video it so I could send it to my buddy. We were not sure as I was at work and he was at the shop, sooooo called the flatbed, just in case it was the driveshaft or transmission.

Got it to the shop and they ended up finding the drivers side parking shoe had come loose and was floating around the rotor.

Popping and squealing. Mechanic took it out and will be replaced at next brake job. And since in flat Florida and no hills, it is rare that we ever use it here. lol

So at least the flatbed was part of my insurance, but back-to-back days in the shop for totally unrelated, random items was a PITA.

Cleaned the tires again and put a fresh coat of Dura Dressing for more shine.

Washed the Burb, Buick and Camry on Saturday morning. I changed out my son's tag lights to 194 LED lights I had left over from the Mazda since that was why he got pulled over and issued a ticket.

Gave them all a vacuum and wipe down plus a top coat of Collinites detail spray.

Had a left over license plate holder I painted white for my daughter's Mazda and installed that for a finished look and received the 2nd key from the seller.

Treated my family to a Panthers hockey game for my wife’s birthday, since we were all together and hadn't seen a game since before they wont the Cup.

Then washed the Mazda on Sunday, had to go into work for a few hours, then we had Thai food and cake for my wife's birthday before my son heads back to school for his final exams.

Busy weekend as I am out of town for a few weeks. Since everyone has their own wheels now, the Burb will sit there and I might just put on the trickle charger/conditioner to make sure the battery is good to go when I get back.

 

[07Burb]

Had the parking brakes do that on my 2007 years ago. Basically, threw the shoes out and never repaired. Couldn't use the parking brake any more but didn't make any noise and was a free fix so #winning LOL So far, the same thing has not happened on the Esky yet **knock on wood**

 

[89Suburban]

Had the parking brakes do that on my 2007 years ago. Basically, threw the shoes out and never repaired. Couldn't use the parking brake

Half assed