PoPoPPV 1996 Yukon 2DR Build

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I bought her from a note lot off Craigslist. The seller claimed she started life as 1 owner, Grandma's grocery hauler and kid taxi in North Richland Hills, Texas. (**More on that at the end of this post).

I flew to DFW Airport on a Sunday morning, took a cab to meet the seller, and drove her home that same day. I had searched a long time for a local 2 DR Tahoe or Yukon, but the selection was slim to say the least. The truck was pretty clean and the original owner had recently installed a new GM transmission. The seller even had a receipt for the work.

The passenger door had been repainted after a minor incident with another Grandma at HEB. Not the best color match, but it was close, so I was happy.

Originally, I was looking for a cloth interior 4X4, but when this one popped up I grabbed it. Here are the original pictures of the truck that Sunday I picked her up. The truck had 196K miles on the odometer when I drove it home.





** After a quick stop at RaceTrac for gas, and an ever quicker once over of the interior, I found a baggy of weed in the rear cup holder of the center console. Damn, Grandma's weed got tossed!

 

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Once I got it back to the shop in Lubbock. I started to transform the truck into a 16 year old teenager's dream. This truck was for my Son, who was a freshman in High School.

The first order of business was too remove the exterior moldings and trim. I used a drill and a eraser wheel. I got a little heavy handed on the passenger door and rear quarter. It was my first experience with removing trim like this so I was not very good at it. I should of used my Uncle YouTube for help, but I thought "how hard can this be".... yep.

So, after a little lite body work and repaint, I was good to go. I shot the repair area only, in hindsight I should have shot the whole door. Duh, I was there already!

 

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Now that the exterior moldings & trim have been removed, and my mistake was corrected I was ready for the Bushwacker OEM Style Matte Black Fender Flares, Pacer wheels and new Goodyear tires. I have a friend at a local tire shop that sold me the wheels at cost and gave me the set of tires.

 

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I re-purposed the stock wheels and old tires, I gave them to a guy at the shop that needed a set for rollers at his paint shop.

 

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I did a little clean-up in the wheel wells and brake assemblies and installed the flares, wheels and tires.

 

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Not bad for my first time!!

 

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After I detailed of the interior I was almost there! The inside looked as good as the outside. Unfortunately I didn't take any pics of the interior.

 

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The finished product. I added a chrome, locking gas cap cover and the chrome OEM GM chrome exhaust tip, Z71 decals and Texas Edition emblems.

I did take some liberties with the Z71 decals and Texas Edition emblems and badges, but my kid loved it. It was well worth the time and investment.

 

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Came a long way from the first image to the last, and the total build took about two weeks, working on it after hours and weekends! I kept it in the shop the whole time and surprised him with it Christmas morning.

From the start, the engine and transmission ran very well. At one point I had the 2001 Yukon XL, the 2006 PPV and this Yukon. The Yukon ran better and pulled stronger than the other two. It truly was a great truck!

It served me well for many years and held its value. When I sold it I got all of my money back, plus some. So I got the best of both worlds... I got to drive this thing for a long time and made my money back when I sold it!

 

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When I sold the Yukon, the seed money bought this..... and that's a whole other story.