A North to South Tahoe Build

[ClemsonHoe]

Well ladies and gentlemen, after being a longtime lurker on here (and many other forums), I've decided that it was time for me to keep a log of all the things I've done to my Tahoe, and more importantly, all the things I WANT to do.

Some background info: I'm a New Jersey native, Ocean County all my life, but I now attend Clemson University in the wonderful land of South Carolina. This naturally led to my username and wonderful build title, "A North to South Tahoe Build." The title's a work in progress, much like my vehicle, which will be customized to my liking from top to bottom and front to back. However, ONTO THE HOE.

She's a Green 2002 Tahoe LT that has been in my family since the wonderful day we picked her up in November of 2001. With a measly 140k on the clock, she's lived a healthy life with my father and will keep on going for many more under my command. I took control of her just over a year ago and the mods have been minor up to this point. Luckily, that's all about to change. The goal I have in my mind is to turn this modest street queen into an all out Expedition Style rig that will be able to take on any obstacle I choose to set in its path. In order to achieve that, I want all future mods to be effective, reliable, and good looking (naturally).

Onto the good stuff; What I've done thus far.
As I said before, she's been in my possession for just over a year now, and until this point, she was 100% stock. So naturally, being a stupid teenager, first thing I did was I threw the loudest system I could afford in her, putting in two 12" Kenwood's into a massive dual ported box hooked up to a pioneer radio. Threw them back in the cargo area and bumped hard and loud for about three months. Needless to say, the appeal wore off quickly. So I took them out and added them to my on going home stereo set up instead (GREAT for movies.) This was about the time that I realized that driving off the road was a hell of a lot more fun than driving on it. And so that's where my mind really started turning, and has ever since.

If you've actually read all this up to this point, props to you, and thanks. So I'll promise it will get less wordy. LIST FORM! Everything done up to this point:
Yakima roof rack
20" LED bar on the roof rack
Custom Switch panel for LED Bar (Others to come)
CB radio with firestik 4' antenna
Hidden Radio Antenna
Blacked out BowTie
De-Molded both sides
Running Board Delete
Cranked Stock keys to even front and Rear
Tape Deck Delete
Pioneer HU
General AT2's in 265/70/16

[I'm sure there's more but I can't remember right now]
(expect many updates)

In Progress mods:
Interior LED swap (going to all green)
Designing new Front and Rear bumpers to be made by me by the end of July.

Now onto my favorite part, dreaming about the future: (not in any order)
Replace the stock headlight housing's with black depo housings
35W 5000k HID's
Paint the radiator supports
Snorkel
Move LED bar from roof to new front bumper
Put an inverter under the center console
Create a relay bank in the Engine Bay
Clean up my in cab Switch Bank
Add a second battery (with isolator)
Add a roof mounted solar panel
Slotted rotors
HD Hood
HD Mirrors
BlackBear Tune
RCX 6" lift
All Moog steering components
Bilstein 5100's
35" x 17" General Grabbers
(Not decided on Rims yet)
Electric Fans
Custom Vinyl Wrap the Dash
Hi Lift and Shovel Mount on Roof Rack
Cargo Netting between rear seats and cargo area
Bed Liner the Wheel wells and Spare Tire area
Bed Liner the rocker panels
Some sort of extended Fender Flares
Upgraded Alternator
Install 8" or 10" sub in factory location with custom box. (The Stock sub is totally blown out, so I removed it today)

Once again, I'm sure I'm missing something, and as always, we always want new things for our vehicles, so this list will constantly change and be updated. Of course, being a college kid who has to work to achieve all these mods, alongside other bills, things will come in spurts. But I'm glad to be here and am excited to share all my progress with y'all.
OH, and before I forget, I haven't added any pictures to this post, but be sure to lookout for them tomorrow.

 

[JochenWoern]

All sounds good, ............ But you wrote ALL this and then no pictures?

We WANT pictures!!!!!!!

 

[ClemsonHoe]

I know, pretty dick move typing all that out, and not putting any pictures attached to it at the end. Especially because I'm a big picture fan myself, words get boring. My apologies. However, to remedy that fact, I've got more than a few for today.

Trying to just throw a variety of interior and exterior shots of some things I've done and the Hoe as a whole in the next two posts.

 

[ClemsonHoe]

Let them Continue
De-Molded
Blacked out Speaker Grills
Pioneer Head Unit and Uniden CB
and a Driveway Poser Shot

 

[ClemsonHoe]

Now for the Sneak Peek of what's to come.
Custom front bumper pictures. Designed by yours truly with inspiration taken from THIS wonderful piece of craftsmanship...

http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/76-speciality-forums/82-exterior/400605-my-custom-bumper-build.html

If you actually follow the link and see that wonderful beast of a tow rig. You'll notice that my design follows his quite closely. with a few exceptions coming into play with center piece length, certain angles being harsher, and my bumper being much closer to the body as a whole. I didn't want it sticking out much farther than stock, but still wanted a mean looking, functional, steel winch bumper...

I don't have a final picture of the SolidWorks mock up, I'll have to switch to my windows side of the laptop to grab one... only problem working on a multi OS computer.

 

[ClemsonHoe]

Finalized, in Black.

The only thing That might change is the End plate angle towards the front tires. Might might the angle smaller to increase approach angle.
Not shown is the Skid plate that will replace the plastic Stock Skid Plate.

 

[Z-56 Hoe]

I like it!

 

[easybake]

Looking good. I like the roof rack, buddy has one on his 09 escalade

 

[NathanJax]

Would look a lot better with a GAMECOCK sticker on it... jus sayin...

 

[ClemsonHoe]

A Super Late Update

Well its been over two and a half months now.. so yeah, I'm a little late on updating. BUT, its been well worth it. I got myself into a little fender bender that ended with me cracking my left headlight and driving light. So y'all know what that means, break it, then buy new and better! So I went the blacked out projector look with those. Put the Depo's in expecting a future HID retrofit, and got some generic smoked out driving lights just to match the black headlights. Also swapped out the interior lights, dash lights, and puddle lights to all lime green, to match the outside forrest green color and because white was just too boring. While I was at it, I swapped the chrome grill for a matte black one with a matte grey bar, with the intention of painting the bar black and switching the bowtie to ORANGE (GO CLEMSON).

Now, for the best part... It took forever, 4 weeks of solid work every couple of days. But I honestly couldn't be happier as to how it came out. The brand new front bumper is STOUT, and can stand up to anything I'm going to throw at it I'm sure. And if I do say so myself, looks bada$$. It's not perfect, but once I switch the driving lights around and close up the gap a little, it'll be done for the time being... until I put a nice big Warn behind there.

On to the good stuff. PICTURES

(Let me know if y'all want details on anything specific or specific pictures, more than willing to cater to you folks being that I cruise around on here so much.)