Fosscore's 2006 Tahoe Build Thread

Fosscore said:

Yes and I have tried loosening the bolts and jacking it up as far and tight as I can. No change. Bugs me, but I just accept it as part of the character of a 12 year old SUV that isn’t perfect.

For every NBS you see there will be some with no gap and some with a bit more gap.

I think it is also a result of a small tap on the bumper when I got it.

I replaced both the front and rear bumpers as they both had small creases. I got them from a junkyard donor 2002 Suburban. It was a lucky day as they were in great condition before I color matched them.

Click to expand...

Yeah I understand, I straighten the bumper on the silverdao and a month later it droops down again lol.

Fosscore said:

Got sidetracked with the A/C tick under the hood, but will deal with that issue too - belt or tensioner is TBD.

2. Removed the cowling under the wipers and I was thinking about giving that a coat of paint like I did to the rear bumper plastic. Those are the only 2 pieces left on the truck that are not color matched. I already cleaned the cowling with some APC.

Should I paint the cowling or just leave it as is?

3. I pulled the bowtie up front as it needs a refresh. It was silver Plasti Dip from way too long ago and dull. I was thinking of going with silver/aluminum paint and gloss clear to pick up the wheels.

or

Do I go with chrome or billet to match the polished grille?

or

Do I color match it, although it may just get lost if it is CM?

Input on the above welcomed. Thanks.

Click to expand...

I would definitely color match the cowl always wanted to do mine. And IMO I would go chrome or billet bowtie. But just my .02 anything you end up with will look good I am sure.

Got a few things done today. Better pics in the sun to follow once she is cleaned up again.

1. Painted the wiper arms and reinstalled. Bought a lightweight puller from PepBoys for about $8. Not super heavy duty, but grips the bottom of the wiper nicely and the the center cap is hollow so it fits over the wiper spline perfectly. And those wipers were on those splines tight. I cleaned the threads up and put some Tef Gel on so they won't seize up.






2. Painted the cowling and Esky end caps and reinstalled.

Here's what it looked like under the cowling. So I gave it a wipe down and quick polish of the paint, even though it is covered. I also replaced the dry rotted gasket material that sits under the cowling in the center.











3. Painted the grill bow tie in Rust Oleum Metallic Silver. Good match to the wheels with a little extra. Touched up a few chips and polished a few spots on the grille and while it was off. Hard to see the metallic in the pictures.

4. Got sidetracked and did a little polishing of the A/C accumulator and lines. Needs some more work, but looks pretty good so far. Hit it with some Collinite’s Metal Wax and some elbow grease. Zoom in and you can see the difference.

Fosscore said:

Here's what it looked like under the cowling. So I gave it a wipe down and quick polish of the paint, even though it is covered. I also replaced the dry rotted gasket material that sits under the cowling in the center.

View attachment 207980


View attachment 207981


View attachment 207982



3. Painted the grill bow tie in Rust Oleum Metallic Silver. Good match to the wheels with a little extra. Touched up a few chips and polished a few spots on the grille and while it was off. Hard to see the metallic in the pictures.

View attachment 207983

View attachment 207984

Click to expand...

I knew that paint would be good for it. Looks awesome on my speaker grilles. Nice job. You're nuts with under the cowl and polishing the a/c! That's why yours is the best, I suppose.

HiHoeSilver said:

I knew that paint would be good for it. Looks awesome on my speaker grilles. Nice job. You're nuts with under the cowl and polishing the a/c! That's why yours is the best, I suppose.

Click to expand...

Thx for the paint tip. That was the color I wanted and I think the metallic will pop on the grille up front in the sun.

I figured the cowl was off, so why not clean it? And the a/c polishing...I was just messing around and it started to look better so I did some more. Looks pretty good and for free.

Nice work like always!

77691 miles

I replaced the A/C tensioner, A/C belt and the serpentine belt with all AC Delco OEM parts. The tick that I had seems to be gone.

Getting that tensioner out was a bit of a challenge, but I managed not to bust a knuckle. The bolts were pretty tight and the cooler line runs right next to one bolt and the tensioner. I pulled the splash cover and crawled underneath. A bit tight, but much easier to access the A/C tensioner and belt from that position IMO. Had to be careful not to bend those 2 lines running up front too far.

Here is the list of parts. Thx to @HiHoeSilver for that info.

A/C Belt - ACDelco 12576447
A/C Tensioner - ACDelco 12580196
Serpentine Belt - ACDelco 12637204

The belts had some small cracks, so changing out both belts while I was in there was worth the preventative $$.

I cleaned and recharged the K&N filter. I hit it twice with the cleaner just to make sure it was really clean. The end cap was chrome, but kept getting little rust spots from the water sitting at the bottom of the end cap ring. I had painted it black once, so I hit it with another fresh coat of black before reinstalling it.

While the filter was out, I removed the battery tray, gave it a quick scratch and paint. I had done this a few years ago. I also lined the bottom of the tray where it screws in with the Pasco 20mil Pipe Wrap tape.

@randeez Can't go back in as bad or worse than it was when I found it. Just can't leave it alone.

I’ve used this stuff on the truck when I reattached the hood and the hinges where metal was on metal. It is a great isolator for dissimilar metals and helps prevent corrosion. This is not the actual application for the tape, but it works.

There was already pitting on the battery tray, so no fixing that, but might as well not contribute to the issue further.

Here are the details for the Pasco tape. https://www.pascospecialty.com/catalog/PASCO_CATALOG_E.pdf

Official OCD of the year award. Nice job, as always.