Old black Betty build

[Trey Hardy]

I never really did a build thread on my Tahoe so I’m going to try to show it along it’s stages the best I can and can remember
I got this thing a couple years back I found it on Craigslist for 5,000$ it had high miles (255,000) when I first got it but I was told the previous owner drove it from Raleigh to Atlanta every other week so if it was highway miles it diddnt scare me as bad.
The first year was hell obviously I went through it and started replacing stuff as money allowed for awhile this was my wife’s Dailey driver for the first year she took me to work (3-5hr) one way and back every wensday.
The day we got her home I stared messing with it

Led fogs and turn signals and a chrome bow tie that hardly fit off a 06 cateye I had

Put new headlights painted the stock emblem black and sold the chrome one to my buddy put a z71 emblem in the grill to help the black and chrome scheme and demolded/debagged it

Sold the stock ltz wheels to a buddy and threw my 20x12 wheels off my cateye project on the stock 275s no lift at all and rode like that for awhile

at the shop

 

[Trey Hardy]

I put a cold air intake on it with a throttle body spacer someone give me i ported the stock throttle body and the spacer and intake with a dremel and had it tuned to cut the stabilitrac and rear 02 and dod off within the first month because when it would drop to 4cyl mode it sounded like she was about to blow after the tune and a quart of Lucas she was good for a good while

Some interior pics when I got it

I think she was sitting around 277,000 miles in this pic 3 pallets of sod and a dump trailer around 15,000 maybe less I was told it was 3500lbs a pallet and it was a big dump trailer lol the temp tag was hanging in by a thread I had issues getting the title back at first over some lean release from the original owner and was a 6-7 month ordeal countless times getting pulled over.

Anyways new mods are the led taillights I had backed into a tree and busted one so the wife give me the OK!
I also did the Cadillac style window trim which was a big improvement not to much but enough to make it look tasteful if you catch my drift

This is where stuff gets funny
I got this set of icon coil overs off let go for like 425$ shipped only a month old off a 2020 at4 I said screw it and ordered em lil did I know their 2” higher from the factory so the 3.5” was more like 5.5-6” of lift I forced it to go together by hooking my in-laws tractor to the to hooks putting weight on it so I could get everything bolted together then used a chain style filter wrench to loosen the coils because I had no spanner wrench in sight

 

[Trey Hardy]

Check out those angles and that slick tire

Ended up doing new Monroe’s and a 3” level with rc upper control arms

Wheel bearings went out I replaced both with kryptonite bearings and put new brakes from Detroit axle for the time being until I could save for a Callahan or power stop Set up
Ended up changing to bilstein lift struts to do away with the spacer and added a 1” bottom spacer but the ride was too stiff where the Monroe’s felt too soft I was never happy with the ride quality of the Tahoe
I put some 285 ridge grapplers on her they look way better then the streets did

My little helper doing her first brake job

Been trading wheels on my Silverado trying to work my way up value wise and ended up with these 24s and 33s they looked super clean and I really wanted to keep them but I had other plans up my sleeves so I sold them a month later

 

[Trey Hardy]

What I picked up I sold a 800$ set of 20x12 moto metal wheels for a 2200$ set of 24x14 Akron’s I got for 1000$ I traded for the 24” snowflakes above and sold them for 2200$ then got these fuel forged 24x14 and 35 fury’s for 1700$ with plenty of money in my pocket from the deals to pay for new tires down the road!

 

[89Suburban]

Sub'd.

 

[Trey Hardy]

Attempt at fitting them with a 4” leveling kit I just could turn but it give me some more ideas for down the road!

Couldn’t fit these either I Almost traded the moto metals for these so I could match my white truck but the 20s looked way to small so I traded the boy back I eventually got my friend to come off his kmc slides I’ve wanted for years and that was definitely my favorite setup for awhile 24x10 with 33/12.50 landspiders and 2” wheel spacers

I did finally get a billet grille new license plate that weren’t pink and my wife’s lmao and some front and rear billet bow ties

 

[Trey Hardy]

Finally got my license plate I went with the big rock blue marlin one it goes with our local area and I like the fish in it . I put some dakine pads on also.

So I was to work and me and my buddy was talking about rear lifts to level my ride and he swore he had one but bull crapped me well god sent down a angel and that angel Told me to specifically look up lift kits on Craigslist I never look for used parts on Craig’s list only wheels and tires so idk why I did it but look at the very first post that popped up

Man what a deal! Broke as a joke I called and asked the wife if I could get the ok and surprisingly she said yes but no eating out that week! So off I went 2 hr away at 8pm in my boats crew van to go pick up this kit!

No it isn’t perfect but dude for 200$ I got almost 3500$ give or take of suspension! It cleaned up damn good
First thing I did was post the diff for sale and it sold a week later! 425$ I more then doubled my money but in reality I was trying to recoup the 425$ I spent on the icons I weren’t able to use so therefore I had 200$ in the whole suspension!
The wife was against me putting it on and I was scared I would tear it down and find out this lift won’t even work it’s for a 2018 but the day came where the wife was tired of our old Tahoe nickel and diming us after replacing heater core Ts, radiator and hoses, alternator, battery, thermal fuse, blower motor, blend door actuator, window motors, oil pressure sensors she was just over it because she was getting to the point that she diddnt feel comfortable to drive it to work and back every day. I work on my own stuff I keep tools in the trunk at all times so we talked and we finally bit the bullet a month later and went to get her a new car!

Not when we first got it but this pic looks cooler cause I did the red brakes

 

[Trey Hardy]

It’s on like donkey Kong now! We got her car wensday on our way home by Friday I had the front end ripped out the Tahoe!

I like wide wheels and I already knew the kmc wheels were going to look retarded on the Tahoe so I traded for these two piece 22x14 fuel marvicks that was twice the value

I was waiting on a leveling kit to come in so I could use the icon coil overs I had laying in the garage to compensate for the height difference with the lift kit and so I can crank the preload down some for a smoother ride

Got my new calipers rotors pads and lines from power stop and got my icons in also
I know the red don’t match the lift but hey I’m on a budget maybe one day I’ll buy a Craigslist stove to Powdercoat with I’ll probably be to cheap to buy the powder then though….

 

[Trey Hardy]

She’s done!!

well hallway Done… I had so many people ask if I was going to squat it so I did it in spite so I could see what they would say!
Let me get back in the perdium and I’ll get it I promise!

Ride comparison is night and day I am very happy now it’s time to work on the rear a little bit because the front has really showed me how bad the rear is

Had a 4 month brake after I broke my foot and had to have surgery. In the meantime my buddy picked up a Escalade to rob the motor out of for a Camaro he said I can have whatever I wanted off the thing for free if I wanted it so I took off!
I got as much as the black plastics as I could from front to rear (seats were too bad to use) I did door panels kick plates glove box gauge cluster which was a PITA

Shift lever and cluster installed
Don’t Mind that dash crack just pretend it’s not their…

 

[Trey Hardy]

My old cluster was at about 293 or 297,000 miles the Escalade one has just over 100,000 miles so whenever I check my milage I just add 200,000 to it and it’s around their
In my defense the baby and wife liked the Tahoe a lot better when it was squatted because it was much easier for her to get her into the car seat once I lifted the rear they both went to bitching about it being to high in the air and that she has to crawl and jump out of it! Side steps might be in the near future

Finally got the rear springs in 6” rc
Went with Jeep sway bar links
That’s about it
Still felt off though after research I ordered some rear trailing arm drop brackets and a adjustable panhard bar
I still need to get a panhard bracket to raise it off the rear end so I can clear a aftermarket differential cover but that’ll come in time

Also put some Escalade roof racks on it with painted end caps now I need to find a driver side mirror for a Escalade so I can do the mirror swap also

 

[Trey Hardy]

Done a clay bar and good cut and polish she shines up good for a old girl minus that rear bumper and spoiler I’ll get those painted eventually

Done the big 3 upgrade
Replaced some broken pcv lines
Replaced my third oil pressure sensor screen
New o2 sensors
Finally got her running halfway decent again mph dropped from 14.5 to 14.1 I know that’s not a lot but hey every lil bit counts

She started a horrid lifter tap around this time too close to 300,000 on the dod lifters she sounded like she was about to blow up. I thought about a highschool buddy who bricked the gas pedal trying to blow up a 4.8 and when she ran out of gas he got it fired back up and no more lifter tap! So what did I do? Pull out of food lion in 1st year and red lined that biotch! When I got back to the boat it was gone the next day I changed the oil and added a quart of marvel mystery oil and that’s been my solution for the past 20-30,000 miles no more lifter tap!

My new door speakers and amp now I just need a highs amp and a good alternator to power it all!I can only turn the bass up 1/4 way before it drops the voltage this amp is a beast!

 

[Trey Hardy]

The panhard bar centered my rear end and the trailing arm drop brackets took away the high speed vibration I was getting on the highway later on I’m going to upgrade the shocks to resi shocks and put some nice trailing arms on it
Couple ideas I’ve been looking at

With a G2 or mag hytec differential cover

Polished the wheels up real good with my new zeyphrs kit and buffer

 

[Trey Hardy]

Got my new tires put on finally I like these better then the fury’s for sure and my god look how wide they are! I’ve literally tried to curb my wheels and forced it to climb up the curb and never once touched the wheel! Well worth the money imo and after 15-20,000 miles they still look new!

Things are monsters for only being 35s

 

[Trey Hardy]

Picked up some 1 7/8 Longtubes the other day for 150$ brand new the guy ordered the wrong set and couldn’t return them
I also have a set of 7x18” tips and a x pipe im planning on running no cats a x pipe with true duels and a set of borla ataks or kooks bullet mufflers with the tips axle dumped in place of the spare tire

 

[Trey Hardy]

about to leave in this pic to take my jet ski and 4 wheeler to trade for a obs gmt 400 it was around a 11-12 hr round trip non stop I drive over night so my transmission temp diddnt get too hot the highest it saw was 190* I need to make the time to put my tru cool 40 k transmission cooler on that made a huge difference on my Silverado

Got the truck back to the house! Another project I don’t have time or money for but just was too good a deal to pass up! If I can ever get my white truck sold this build will be started quickly after
(lsa 408 swap with a SAS)
Yea I know stupid but bad ass at the same time

 

[Trey Hardy]

And this is how she sits as of now!
Still got a lot to do but she’s come a long ways from the day I got her

On the to do list still
Aftermarket Rear trailing arms
Differential cover (g2 or mag hytec)
New fluids in differential transfer case and front axle
Install my transmission cooler
Kryptonite sway bar links
Hellwig sway bars
Smoked Cadillac third brake and tail lights
Repaint the rear bumper and add a chrome step cap like the Escalades
Escalade mirrors
Bigger alternator and or battery upgrade to yinlong cells
Get the exhaust put on
14 bolt rear end swap
Need matching red calipers for the rear lol
New power coat on everything
Resi shocks for the rear (icons probably)
Get and wire up a mids/highs amplifier
Wire up my backup camera to my Kenwood double din
And lots lots more! It’ll take some more time and money but one day maybe I’ll finish it

 

[pwtr02ss]

Great progress!

 

[Trey Hardy]

Great progress!

It’s going slow but steady we got her back in may of 2020 so I feel like I’ve done good with the time and money I’ve got into it I’ve put more money in front end parts and what little bit I’ve built the rear then I did the lift wheels and tires!
I got a wheel bearing and two tires and ABS pump to straighten out on the wife’s car before I do anything else and she’s still talking about going on our honey moon beings a year is coming up since our wedding so tax return might go towards a vacation this year instead of new wheels for her car or Tahoe parts

 

[pwtr02ss]

I vote a nice vacation. Speaking of vacations, I'm about ready for one myself.

 

[Trey Hardy]

I vote a nice vacation. Speaking of vacations, I'm about ready for one myself.

I want to go back to Tennessee gatlinburg area she wants to go on a cruise I spend 1/2-3/4 of my time in the water so I’m wanting to get away from the water and beach but maybe we can come to a agreement before to long