04 Tahoe Z71 resto/audio

[Brian_smith06]

Good afternoon fellow gm fans

I have had my Tahoe for about a year now and just wanted to share my progress/get inspiration for finishing it up. I know if I post on here you guys will hold me more accountable for getting my work done. Plus I went through the entire tgui build thread yesterday(which was awesome!) so thought I would post mine up


Anywho here my vehicle the day I purchased it. It was a repo so I got imo a pretty good deal on it.

Had the front windows tinted once I had some temp tags on it. The front is 20% to match the rear.

It did come with the aem cai as well. This is the only "performance" mod done to the vehicle though. Hoping to get a few other things done at some point but nothing planned immediately

Since purchasing the vehicle I have done some routine maintenance. My dad owns a tow lot and used to own a few gas stations/shops so he helped me out.
new u joints installed
new rotors/pads all around
plugs/plug wires
diff fluid
battery

The initial get everything checked was done a year ago so im sure I forgot several items. The only issue I have had with the vehicle in the past year(knock on wood) has been a thermostat. I have been super lucky! My old car was an 04 cavalier so for me this was a huge upgrade I was happy to make. Is the vehicle new? Nope but it sure is comfy and dependable.

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Had to do some cleaning to the interior as well. It was filthy. The previous owner did not take very good care of the vehicle

After gutting interior

After using vacuum

After using a few cans of blue coral. Much better but still not perfect. Plan to get all new carpet in the future

While the interior was out I brought all of the seats into the house and did a nice cleaning to them as well.

terrible picture but you can tell that they changed colors

One of our kitties decided she wanted to help out

 

[07Burb]

Nice project

 

[Brian_smith06]

Nice project

Thank you for the compliment and getting my thread fixed!

 

[YukonXL04]

Uh oh, does this mean your going to be a regular over here now? lol

Progress looks good, I still haven't started a build thread.

 

[Brian_smith06]

Uh oh, does this mean your going to be a regular over here now? lol

Progress looks good, I still haven't started a build thread.

Yeah I think I just might get some more inspiration to keep improving my build. A pillar build last night went wrong in all sorts of ways. However, I did learn that had I soldered the speaker wires to the tweeters I wouldn't have had to build pillars. Too late now though due to using super glue on them

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After getting windows tinted I upgraded the battery and some wiring for big 3. And yes upgrading the alt will be coming soon too. Have a buddy that is going to build me a 200 amp soon. Just need to get him a case for it

Stinger distro. Accepts a pair of 1/0 in and dual 1/0 out. Using one side for amps in the back and the other for alt

[/

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Now for the actual audio.

Currently running
Deck: Pioneer AVH X5700BHS
Tweeters: Seas Prestige(not sure model#?)
Mids: Silver flute 6.5"
Sub: Alpine 10 type s in JL audio Stealthbox
Amps: 2 Image dynamics q700.2 one on mids the other on tweeters and a q1200.1 on the sub

The goods. And a very curious kitty

this is the 4th deck I have had in the past year for car :/

[/QUOTE]

Pic of it installed and playing one of my wifes favorite songs. I'm surprised at how well Bluetooth sounds on this deck. My old deck sounded like complete dooky

tweeters

Stealthbox

sub in the stealthbox

How I had the amps installed. Going to be building an enclosure that goes all the way across to hide them completely. There is a third one in the mix now.

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also had remote start installed. didn't do aftermarket alarm. Not really worried about people stealing anything.

and applied the second skin thermal block

before

after which is super hard to see but I applied it from about a foot from the headers all the way to the rear of the exhaust. Im not sure how much sound it'll block but im sure it'll absorb some heat. I didn't notice heat getting through before however itll never be a problem

Deadened the hood. No it didn't need it but I had material so why not

Also did a hood liner to absorb heat/sound

I put 3/4 of a gallon of spectrum sludge in wheel wells. Once it cures I will apply a layer of luxury liner pro

 

[S0_chi]

Look like she coming along great....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Brian_smith06]

Look like she coming along great....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you. It has come a long way, however, plenty more to come.

My immediate goals are to sound deaden the doors for the speakers I put in there, followed by pulling carpet out and giving it a good power wash. If it doesn't come as clean as I would like then I will order new carpet. No harm in trying to resurrect it. It also needs a new headliner. That will come at some point within the next year. Trying my best to get it looking as close to new as an 04 can within a low yet realistic budget.

 

[tgui]

Good job so far. I'm glad you liked my thread

 

[Brian_smith06]

Good job so far. I'm glad you liked my thread

yours is actually why I decided to start mine. Yours is on a whole different level though.

 

[tgui]

yours is actually why I decided to start mine. Yours is on a whole different level though.

I'm learning as I go. I don't know shit about audio either, unlike you. What's that hood stuff you put on. It looks clean. Where can I get it?

Oh, and thanks for the cat picture. I thought I was the only cat person here. I assume most Hicks here have either a horse or pitbull. J/k, don't ban me

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Also, do the trim, roof rack and wheel well painting like me. It will really make your Yukon look new

 

[Brian_smith06]

Here is the stuff I used on the hood. If you get some use some good glue and the do the edges with that silver foil tape or it'll absorb moisture and be bad news bears
http://store.secondskinaudio.com/heat-wave-pro-1-sheet-24-sq-feet/

This is what I used underneath above the exhaust. Can't say how well it worked due to not having an issue prior but I assume it's doing what it's supposed to do. It's also on the expensive side so can't say that I recommend it. I will admit the only reason I had it was from my old audio install. I don't want to say I was sponsored by them but they basically gave me a lot of product to do an in depth write up for them and give a subjective average Joe review.
http://store.secondskinaudio.com/1-sheet-of-thermal-block/

And I'm a crazy cat person. I can post pics all day of them. We do not have kids yet so they are our life right now.

And plan to paint wheel Wells like you. They look gooood.

 

[Brian_smith06]

there is about a 20% chance I have a blown head gasket. Go me! :/ Vehicle started over heating yesterday so I checked coolant and it was low so I added some. Almost 2 gallons! I didn't see any spots from the over flow so leaning towards blown head gasket. Praying I don't have any in my oil :/

Just wish I had the cash to upgrade heads/cam/intake right now since odds are I will be taking it apart anyway. looks like the head gasket is going to be 150 for both with new bolts. Doing my head/cam/intake swap would add an extra 3k to this. all in good time. I suppose absolute worst case if anything else is wrong I have a spare motor.

 

[YukonXL04]

Have you checked your waterpump? Are you leaving any wet spots anywhere when you park? I would check your engine asap before you really screw up your engine. Worst case it's a blown headgasket, pull the heads, have them milled and reinstall them... really not a hard job. Better to do it now than keep running your motor till it hydrolocks and you mess up your internals...

 

[Brian_smith06]

odds are I will be going to my parents this weekend to fix this.

I haven't noticed any wet spots anywhere and checked my water pump and oil over lunch. Everything looked ok but im no expert. Def going to have a pressure test done this weekend too. Coolant was still in the reservoir so I am still gold on that. I squeezed hoses some too and could hear it moving around in there.

Im def not taking this lightly. I love my hoe. Already priced all of the gaskets and whatnot and its not going to hurt my wallet too bad. A hair over 200 for everything, which I had saved up for the deadener I was getting ready to order but car has to function for me to enjoy my music.

Even if it doesn't "need" it right now I would almost rather replace anyway for peace of mind. I have no desire to get rid of my car anytime soon

Thinking this
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/fel-hs26191pt1
and
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/fel-es72220d

beats the hell out of consistent car payments.

 

[Brian_smith06]

Was discussing this with a friend last night and he reminded me of a leak I had on my floorboard awhile back. Long story short, head gasket isn't blown and I have a leaking heater core. The hoe will not be undertaking any major surgery now. With the exception of pulling the dash when I get to replace the heater core :/

at least it gives me an excuse to deaden/mlv the firewall which will be nice. As well as reroute all of my wiring. I did a piss poor job when I installed my tweeters. I wanted to hear it right meow!

 

[07Burb]

Glad it turned out to be a relatively minor issue. I'd rather fix a heater core issue than head gaskets LOL

 

[Brian_smith06]

couldn't agree more. I would have to say pulling the top half of my motor apart would be last on my list of stuff I want to do. Not that pulling the dash is much higher on that list but at least I will get to do some of my deadening done. Ive never been able to actually do a firewall before.

I keep reminding myself that I will be keeping this car for quite some time and if I keep telling myself im doing this for deadener I can possibly convince myself im doing this for fun and handling a little maintenance while I have it apart?

 

[07Burb]

LOL whatever it takes to keep yourself from setting the whole thing on fire I do the same thing, though. It helps keep things even keel and in perspective. Plus, like you said earlier it's better than having car payments to deal with.

 

[tgui]

Thats great news! The 5.3 is pretty bullet proof. I haven't ever heard of gasket issues on stock engines.

I had a ton of water on my floor. Turns out my AC drain pipe was plugged.

 

[Brian_smith06]

my wife being the awesome wife she is just ordered me 8 of these for my birthday so deadening will be going down for sure now
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dynamat-Xtr...822?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c98156c3e