Pilot's '02 4x4 Tahoe build

[PG01]

2 more boroughs and we have a party....lol


Shit, i have all those seat covers in my basement. I was gonna replace my cloth with leather in my ‘01 when i had it and never did. Shale/tan color. Front and rear seats.

And im right up the deegan from you guys...

 

[PG01]

Plus these parts off my 01

 

[drowssap]

By Cross County

Nice...my grandparents lived right accross from there at Kimball ave! I was down on Palmer road in Bronxville! So awesome to talk with someone close by

But on a more serious note....good job OP on the repairs. I am sub'd! I also have a love hate relationship with weathertechs. There was a discussion here awhile back about alternatives. I will find it and post here for you.

 

[PG01]

Nice...my grandparents lived right accross from there at Kimball ave! I was down on Palmer road in Bronxville! So awesome to talk with someone close by

But on a more serious note....good job OP on the repairs. I am sub'd! I also have a love hate relationship with weathertechs. There was a discussion here awhile back about alternatives. I will find it and post here for you.

Lol, my wife grew up off kimball and my cousin lived off palmer.....lol

 

[drowssap]

Lol, my wife grew up off kimball and my cousin lived off palmer.....lol

Now things are getting creepy!!

 

[Rocket Man]

I bought an '02 5.3 LT 4x4 Tahoe about a week ago for $2,900. Here's my intro thread with pics of the truck as I bought it.

Spent over two hours today with Brett at The Custom Shop in Queens. We ordered:

• 20x12 -44 MotoMetal 988 wheels
• 33x12.5 Nitto Ridge Grappler tires
• 4.5" BDS suspension lift w/ Fox 2.0 shocks & steer stabilizer
• Iron Cross front bumper with push bar and 2 Rigid Radiance cube lights
• HammerHead HD flush rear bumper with 2 Rigid Radiance cube lights
• OEM leather seat covers and cushions for both front seats from theseatshop.com

I was looking at a couple of different companies for the seat covers. After watching this comparison video I pulled the trigger with The Seat Shop pretty quickly.

The seat covers and bumpers are made to order so the lead time is 2-3 weeks on those. I'm hoping everything else will be delivered toward the end of next week (1/12/2018) so we can get this build started!

Meanwhile, here's a cheesy video of my Tahoe in the snow in Brooklyn.

I didn't watch the 30 minute video by the Seat Shop that the purpose of is to convince someone to buy their product, but I will tell you from my experience that those guys actually buy alot of their product from China. Richmond has informed me that the Seat Shop also buys from them, and that they're mostly a front for product made elsewhere. They used to make most of their stuff but not anymore. They make videos and lie about their stuff being made in-house. And now I see they're actually trying to hurt Richmond, who actually make ALL of their products in their own factory. Richmond sent me a replacement over a year after it was out of warranty, along with material and instructions to repair my foam where it was broken down. Good company. I find the Seat Shop to be dishonest people myself.

 

[Pilot]

I didn't watch the 30 minute video by the Seat Shop that the purpose of is to convince someone to buy their product, but I will tell you from my experience that those guys actually buy alot of their product from China. Richmond has informed me that the Seat Shop also buys from them, and that they're mostly a front for product made elsewhere. They used to make most of their stuff but not anymore. They make videos and lie about their stuff being made in-house. And now I see they're actually trying to hurt Richmond, who actually make ALL of their products in their own factory. Richmond sent me a replacement over a year after it was out of warranty, along with material and instructions to repair my foam where it was broken down. Good company. I find the Seat Shop to be dishonest people myself.

Fair enough. My wife is from Asia—I wouldn’t really care if they were made in China, as long as the quality meets my standard.

If they’re being dishonest though, that does bother me. I’ll keep your recommendation for Richmond in mind in the future. Thanks for the info.

 

[Pilot]

2 more boroughs and we have a party....lol


Shit, i have all those seat covers in my basement. I was gonna replace my cloth with leather in my ‘01 when i had it and never did. Shale/tan color. Front and rear seats.

And im right up the deegan from you guys...

Damn! That’s exactly what I ordered (for the front row anyway).

Nice...my grandparents lived right accross from there at Kimball ave! I was down on Palmer road in Bronxville! So awesome to talk with someone close by

But on a more serious note....good job OP on the repairs. I am sub'd! I also have a love hate relationship with weathertechs. There was a discussion here awhile back about alternatives. I will find it and post here for you.

Thanks! Yeah, if you happen to find that thread I’d love to see it.

 

[Rocket Man]

Fair enough. My wife is from Asia—I wouldn’t really care if they were made in China, as long as the quality meets my standard.

If they’re being dishonest though, that does bother me. I’ll keep your recommendation for Richmond in mind in the future. Thanks for the info.

I watched him putting down Richmond's covers and at least in my experience, they mounted and fit perfect. Color match was spot on. I personally can't stand the Seat Shop. They sure put alot of money into videos and marketing. I guess they must feel threatened by Richmond. I'll bet there's differences on some of their covers too that aren't the same as factory but they aren't going to show that are they? Anyway enough about that!

 

[Pilot]

2 more boroughs and we have a party....lol


Shit, i have all those seat covers in my basement. I was gonna replace my cloth with leather in my ‘01 when i had it and never did. Shale/tan color. Front and rear seats.

And im right up the deegan from you guys...

Hey Pete, would you be interested in parting with any of that stuff you have for an '01 Tahoe? I'm interested in the retractable cargo cover and the seat covers for the 2nd row seats (assuming it's the bench style and not captain's chairs).

Let me know!

 

[Pilot]

Wheels, tires and lift kit have arrived. Still waiting for bumpers and seat covers–probably be a couple more weeks before that stuff is done. Just dropped the Tahoe off at The Custom Shop to have the lift and wheels/tires installed. I'm super stoked. I'll be out of town skiing this weekend but hopefully will be able to pick it up on Monday.

I snapped a pic of one of the MotoMetal 988's while I was there. Looking sick!



In the mean time, the Tahoe didn't come with an owners manual so I snagged one of those on eBay for like $15 shipped.



Also, the truck only came with one key. I found two different aftermarket replacements–a separate key and fob (OEM style) and a combined key+fob. I couldn't make up my mind so I just ordered both.



I had one of each cut and paired all of the remotes with the truck. The pairing part was super easy. Unfortunately the combined key+fob is bulky as hell, so I've just been using the original configuration. Oh well, it's nice to have a few backups.

I'll update again when I pick up the truck from the shop.

 

[05Single]

Wheels, tires and lift kit have arrived. Still waiting for bumpers and seat covers–probably be a couple more weeks before that stuff is done. Just dropped the Tahoe off at The Custom Shop to have the lift and wheels/tires installed. I'm super stoked. I'll be out of town skiing this weekend but hopefully will be able to pick it up on Monday.

I snapped a pic of one of the MotoMetal 988's while I was there. Looking sick!

View attachment 190911

In the mean time, the Tahoe didn't come with an owners manual so I snagged one of those on eBay for like $15 shipped.

View attachment 190913

Also, the truck only came with one key. I found two different aftermarket replacements–a separate key and fob (OEM style) and a combined key+fob. I couldn't make up my mind so I just ordered both.

View attachment 190912

I had one of each cut and paired all of the remotes with the truck. The pairing part was super easy. Unfortunately the combined key+fob is bulky as hell, so I've just been using the original configuration. Oh well, it's nice to have a few backups.

I'll update again when I pick up the truck from the shop.

Those flip keys are fun to fidget with tho lol

 

[PG01]

HBD dude.

 

[Pilot]

HBD dude.

Thanks man!

 

[Pilot]

Finally picked the Tahoe up from the shop last night. We basically ended up replacing the entire suspension:

• Right & left upper control arms
• Right & left lower control arms
• Right & left inner and outer tie rods
  
• Right & left front axles
• Rear hub bearing and hub assembly
• ABS sensors
• Rear rotors
• Rear brake pads

And added mods:

• 4.5" BDS lift with Fox 2.0 shocks and single steering stabilizer
• 20x12" MotoMetal 988 wheels
• 33x12.5" Nitto Ridge Grappler tires

I'm so stoked–this thing rides like a dream now. It floats over bumps like a Cadillac. Now I just need to wash it haha. It's completely filthy from all the salt on the roads here in NYC.

 

[Pilot]

Here's a video I put together of the before and after.

 

[Pilot]

Seat covers arrived from The Seat Shop. While I don't have any problem with these covers per se, the reason I chose to go with The Seat Shop is because of their comparison video where they pointed out all of these issues with their competitor's covers.. well the covers they sent me look just like their competitor covers in the video! WTF?

I haven't installed the seat covers yet and they look fine, but I think Rocket Man might be right. The Seat Shop just seem to be dishonest. Don't think I'll order from them again. I'll try Richmond Auto Upholstery next time.

By the way, most of these upholstery shops only sell the driver's side replacement cushion, which I ordered. But I also ordered a replacement cushion for the passenger's side, which I had to get from gmpartsonline.net (the black cushion in the photos). The driver's side feels a little softer to the touch than the passenger's side, but I think they're going to feel about the same once installed. I'll update with photos after that's done, but here are the photos of just the cushions and covers.

Driver's side


Passenger's side



Covers

 

[Pilot]

...more seat cover photos...

 

[Pilot]

I ordered a cheapo mesh grille from eBay which arrived a few days ago. My plan is to just use that as a frame to build my own custom grille, but if anyone would like pics of that, just let me know and I'll post them here.

I'm still waiting for my steel front and rear bumpers to arrive–they'll likely be here in the next week or so. When they get here we'll install them as well as the seat covers and cushions at the same time.

Meanwhile, I went nuts on Amazon last night and ordered:

• Depo projector headlight housings
  
• DDM Ultra 55W HID Xenon low beams
  
• Auxbeam F-16 series LED high beams
• Anzo chrome clear bumper light housings
• Lumen taillight housings

All of that should be here by next week.

 

[HACK BLOCK]

Wheels, tires and lift kit have arrived. Still waiting for bumpers and seat covers–probably be a couple more weeks before that stuff is done. Just dropped the Tahoe off at The Custom Shop to have the lift and wheels/tires installed. I'm super stoked. I'll be out of town skiing this weekend but hopefully will be able to pick it up on Monday.

I snapped a pic of one of the MotoMetal 988's while I was there. Looking sick!

View attachment 190911

In the mean time, the Tahoe didn't come with an owners manual so I snagged one of those on eBay for like $15 shipped.

View attachment 190913

Also, the truck only came with one key. I found two different aftermarket replacements–a separate key and fob (OEM style) and a combined key+fob. I couldn't make up my mind so I just ordered both.

View attachment 190912

I had one of each cut and paired all of the remotes with the truck. The pairing part was super easy. Unfortunately the combined key+fob is bulky as hell, so I've just been using the original configuration. Oh well, it's nice to have a few backups.

I'll update again when I pick up the truck from the shop.

let me know if the key+fob combo works. I read a lot of reviews saying its too long and hits the shifter when coming out of park