09 L9H
not a boomer
I think this thread has been a long time coming. I'm gonna start from the beginning.
I moved to a new area in June of 2018 and was in the market for a new vehicle. My dad had let me take his 2004 F-150 with me to school, and since I had just graduated, he was going to let me keep it for a while until I could find something I wanted to buy. The truck was starting to have some issues, and at almost 225k miles, it wasn't unexpected. I had been looking for an early 200-series Land Cruiser, but I was having trouble finding one for a reasonable price. There was no way I could pay $800/mo for a used truck, much less one that was 10 years old.
I was doing some searching on Autotrader one night and decided to look for a 6.2 Tahoe. I knew GM had made a few in 2008 and 2009, but wanted to see how many were up for sale. Lo and behold, there was one for sale 3 miles down the road for me, and I decided to go check it out the next day.
When I got to the car lot, I quickly figured out that the listing had hidden some pretty glaring imperfections. The dash was cracked horribly in multiple places and there was a big dent in the passenger side door, along with various missing interior and exterior trim pieces. Despite these issues, I pulled the trigger and bought the truck for just under $17k out the door.
Here's how it looked the night I brought it home:
It didn't take too long for me to get to work on it. I removed the bug shield and running boards pretty quickly, and a few days later I got 275/60R20 BFGoodrich KO2s and new front wheel bearings. The wheel bearings were unplanned and my wallet took a nice hit.
I also installed a Sony XAV-AX5000 CarPlay head unit and integrated it with a PAC RP5-GM31, and I've been very happy with both. I also did @NathanJax 's in-dash USB port mod, which is fantastic.
From there, I made a list of everything that was missing or broken on the truck and started buying parts. This included the front valence/air dam, tow hooks and tow hook trim surrounds, fog lights, OEM painted fuel door, hitch closeout, and some small trim pieces on the interior. Most of these I've installed within the past few months.
I also installed an Airaid Jr. intake a few weeks ago. I honestly can't feel a difference in performance, but I don't regret the purchase.
This past week, I got the dent fixed paintlessly by Dent Pro Upstate in Greenville. They did great work and I'd recommend them to anyone.
Before:
After:
It's not perfect, but at the end of the day it's a 10-year old truck and you can barely tell. I'm very happy with how it turned out.
That pretty much brings me to where the truck is now.
I moved to a new area in June of 2018 and was in the market for a new vehicle. My dad had let me take his 2004 F-150 with me to school, and since I had just graduated, he was going to let me keep it for a while until I could find something I wanted to buy. The truck was starting to have some issues, and at almost 225k miles, it wasn't unexpected. I had been looking for an early 200-series Land Cruiser, but I was having trouble finding one for a reasonable price. There was no way I could pay $800/mo for a used truck, much less one that was 10 years old.
I was doing some searching on Autotrader one night and decided to look for a 6.2 Tahoe. I knew GM had made a few in 2008 and 2009, but wanted to see how many were up for sale. Lo and behold, there was one for sale 3 miles down the road for me, and I decided to go check it out the next day.
When I got to the car lot, I quickly figured out that the listing had hidden some pretty glaring imperfections. The dash was cracked horribly in multiple places and there was a big dent in the passenger side door, along with various missing interior and exterior trim pieces. Despite these issues, I pulled the trigger and bought the truck for just under $17k out the door.
Here's how it looked the night I brought it home:
It didn't take too long for me to get to work on it. I removed the bug shield and running boards pretty quickly, and a few days later I got 275/60R20 BFGoodrich KO2s and new front wheel bearings. The wheel bearings were unplanned and my wallet took a nice hit.
I also installed a Sony XAV-AX5000 CarPlay head unit and integrated it with a PAC RP5-GM31, and I've been very happy with both. I also did @NathanJax 's in-dash USB port mod, which is fantastic.
From there, I made a list of everything that was missing or broken on the truck and started buying parts. This included the front valence/air dam, tow hooks and tow hook trim surrounds, fog lights, OEM painted fuel door, hitch closeout, and some small trim pieces on the interior. Most of these I've installed within the past few months.
I also installed an Airaid Jr. intake a few weeks ago. I honestly can't feel a difference in performance, but I don't regret the purchase.
This past week, I got the dent fixed paintlessly by Dent Pro Upstate in Greenville. They did great work and I'd recommend them to anyone.
Before:
After:
It's not perfect, but at the end of the day it's a 10-year old truck and you can barely tell. I'm very happy with how it turned out.
That pretty much brings me to where the truck is now.
Last edited:
