FrankenBetty- The 95 2 door Tahoe Junkyard build thread- Long and pic heavy

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dkknaebel

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Well fellas strap in, I'm going to tell you a tale, the tale of the change year model Tahoe that has tried mine and my husband's patience to no end. She has almost ended up in the road, lit on fire without even thinking of putting her out. This truck has tried my patience like no other but the minute I saw her, I had to have her. I should have done so much more research or even chosen a model year different than 95.

So I bought her on April 1st (no lie) 2017. She was black. She was 4x4. She was a 2 door. It was everything I had ever wanted in high school. She smoked, the compression was garbage but my husband is a former mechanic and had a race car. I figured what could go wrong??? We ordered a crate motor from a Chevy dealer that was drop shipped to his work. I thought we'll just swap it out and it will be good to go. However, from the first minute of starting to unbolt stuff and looking at the underside while under the lift, we began to realize just how much red clay mud we were going to deal with as well as how much stuff was just willy-nilly swapped into this ol' girl. We got the motor in, but had a helluva time getting the distributor to seat in this thing. And priming the oil pump? Went on for what seemed like hours.. Nothing anyone had seen before. We also discovered a gouge on the top of my manifold where the TBI sits. Consensus with the race car/fab shop across the way, apply some JB, smooth as much as possible and wait until it breaks. Get everything back together, get her fired up. I was ecstatic. I should have known better. Thankfully the Navykid and his buddy are home on leave and help with the majority of the remove and reinstall. The things we found....a scallop knife, a KFC box, and tons of mud.

We get her back home. I start driving her. She does this weird bucking thing and won't stay in OD. Do the google machine, discover it could be the 3rd to OD solenoid or the VSS. Order both from Rockauto. Hubby puts in the VSS. Boom! Problem solved. I'm happy as a fat kid in a cake store. Drive her for a while. The hubby is keeping an eye on fluids and such and then we discover the tranny leak. Good god, this damn tranny leak. We went through 3 output shaft seals, a t-case seal, we built a new driveshaft because my old one had quite the whammy in it. We finally get everything squared away, it turned out that once we replaced the output shaft seal the 2nd time, the drive shaft was a bit too long and it squashed it and allowed fluid to seep out and spray the underside which soaked into the built up red clay mud and perpetuated a long term leak. Scrub/scrape the mud off and replace the seal, we are good to go.

We replaced the front brakes- rotors (my old ones had mud in all of the vents, that was cute), pad, pins, etc. My master cylinder went out. Replaced that. Replaced all of the front end except for the steering box. Took it to a friends shop, they tried to do an alignment but the tech centered it on the box instead of the tie rods being even. Messed up the alignment. Bought and replaced the steering box. Redid the tie rods to make them a steady 15" instead of 14 and 16. Took it to Firestone for a lifetime alignment, got that squared away or so I thought. Had to have it redone but we seem to be good now.

We have robbed all of the interior trim from a dash, bezel, lower steering wheel closeout, the piece under the ignition, the A pillars, B pillars, the right rear panel, 4 sets of seats, a headliner, a rear seat, manual seat slides, a hood pad, a front grille, taillights, fender flares, a driver door, both fenders, and a console.

We fought through an ignition problem. We replaced the ignition switch, a multi-function signal, a new ICM, a new distributor (again), 2 caps, all of the terminal ends for my sensors, all of the sensors. This made my weird ass two-step thing at stoplights go away.

We replaced my entire a/c system, including the blend door assembly but minus the evaporator. We replaced the dash (again). I'm adding Q Logic kick panels to give me some boom booms. The headlights were replaced. The alternator (from a 94 donor). The intake manifold is going to be replaced and the exhaust manifolds (from the donor). We replaced the rear brake lines as they rusted out. The rear brakes were redone. Oh and I bought 18" take-offs from a Yukon, love those rims. Bought the right center caps for them too.

So here are some pics.

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dkknaebel

dkknaebel

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Some more photos...I'll caption once uploaded. Couldn't resist the pic of my truck reflected in the reflection on the boat, my two favorite hobbies. Well besides hunting, brewing beer and my Big Green Egg. We did drive my Betty one time to a Lightning game, had some pregame beers in the garage in Betty. Anyone elses's gauges get stuck like this? In looking through my pics, I have like 4 of these. To fix it, I usually just bump hard over a curb or aim for a rough spot in the road LOL
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dkknaebel

dkknaebel

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And the final pics. I haven't gotten a pic of the dash being dropped again, but I'll wander out in the front yard in the next few days. Once everything is replaced, I think she is getting painted. I'm stuck between having her done black cherry, a really deep forest green or a midnight blue.

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dkknaebel

dkknaebel

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So the next steps are adding my kick panels, reinstalling the dash, gonna dig that a/c being through one vent at a time unless I say so. Tim (the hubby) is also going to do my front fenders, the driver's door, replace my intake manifold, my exhaust manifolds and remove my belt trim and install my fender flares. I'm also getting new mirrors, just standard power replacements, no tow mirrors. I'm down for a while so this gives him ample time since I'm not driving the FrankenBetty at the moment and I'm confined to the bed or the couch. But it is going to be like driving a brand new damn truck when I can climb back into her.
 
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OR VietVet

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I have owned a lot of Harley's over the years and never once did I not change them to reflect my mood at the time or what I just loved to look at. Same goes with my GM vehicles over the years. You gotta love doing it to do it so much. You have that. I had a white Z71 1996 Tahoe and I still wish I had it back after selling it 23 years ago.
 
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dkknaebel

dkknaebel

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I have owned a lot of Harley's over the years and never once did I not change them to reflect my mood at the time or what I just loved to look at. Same goes with my GM vehicles over the years. You gotta love doing it to do it so much. You have that. I had a white Z71 1996 Tahoe and I still wish I had it back after selling it 23 years ago.

As much as this truck frustrates and flummoxes me, I can't quit her. And now I'm getting closer to having her be what I want. I have driven some absolute shitboxes, then I got suckered into leasing. After two leases, I knew I just wanted simple. And while she isn't simple she's also not like my 2014 Buick Verano. Too much stuff
 

Tonyrodz

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She's coming along great. Looks like all that hard work is paying off. I've always loved the 2 doors. I bet that black cherry would look amazing, but the body has to be in good shape. Any flaws will show through with dark paint.
 
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dkknaebel

dkknaebel

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She's coming along great. Looks like all that hard work is paying off. I've always loved the 2 doors. I bet that black cherry would look amazing, but the body has to be in good shape. Any flaws will show through with dark paint.

Yeah I can't decide. I know I don't want a light color. I saw a dark blue lowered 2 door 2wd at Daytona when I got my dash....looked bad ass. I just have to figure out a time, she's gonna be gone at the body shop for a hot minute.
 

OR VietVet

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IMO, stick with black. Love the beast look with black especially when you can back it up after fixing all that bothers you about the rest of the rig.
 

willxfs

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Good story and nice ride! Hopefully you get all the kinks worked out. If replacing the side mirrors, be careful with the aftermarket stuff. They are all cheaply made. The mirror tends to bounce around too much due to missing or inadequate vibration dampeners. I went thru two drivers side mirrors which almost made me motion sick while driving. I finally picked up a decent OEM mirror at the pull a part. I'm not certain that anything other than aftermarket is available now. Good luck!
 
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