Rocket Man’s 2008 Tahoe Build Thread

[Rocket Man]

OK enough of tagging all my Tahoe work onto the end of my Silverado build thread. It looks like I’ll be doing a bit to this truck since I’ve already started. I’ll have to move or copy some stuff over. Patience. Here it is today, black handles on one side, chrome on the other, another pair sanded and waiting to be painted to match. Headlights are in process. Tails just installed.

 

[89Suburban]

Sub'd.

So you falling in love with the 'ol girl?

 

[Rocket Man]

Sub'd.

So you falling in love with the 'ol girl?

Maybe….
Actually it’s got a lot I like and tbh it’s nice to drive around nice and quiet like. And the interior is pretty sweet and almost exactly like my Silverado. Now that it handles good after the drop and shocks plus the change to the 22’s with lower profile tires I like driving it a lot. It’s coming around, let’s put it that way.

 

[PG01]

Im here for it Red…..

 

[OBSandaNNBS]

So far I think you are striking the balance between blacking out and not blacking perfectly. So many guys overdo it. The tail lights really set it off nice. Handles a really great touch too.

 

[Rocket Man]

Ok back to when I bought it. Here it is. It wasn’t pretty but it had potential and it was cheap. 162,000 miles. I know these have 300-500k in them if maintained so I wasn’t worried.

 

[Rocket Man]

The hazy headlights had to be dealt with and I didn’t want to spend much so I tried Cerakote’s restoration kit and it worked great. Pretty easy to do and cheap.

 

[Rocket Man]

It also had a cracked tail light and some minor body damage. I got a used tail light off eBay and reattached the rear bumper at the body and buffed most of the rub marks off.

 

[Rocket Man]

The passenger running board was pushed in and dented and the plastic end caps were missing on some so I bought brackets and caps on eBay again and it looked ok. Still dented though.

 

[Rocket Man]

The front end links were shot so I replaced them. Also installed a Pioneer head unit about this time. I gotta have wireless CarPlay

 

[Rocket Man]

But since I had the dash apart and it had the usual cracks I decided to pull it completely and buy a hot stapler to try to fix it. It came out ok, but next time ill have a helper so I can look at the top as I weld the back.

 

[swathdiver]

Z71 steps, think they were made by Lund. You have the heated washer fluid option too. I think someone makes a new heater if yours was deactivated under the recall.

Never been aligned, still has the plastic inserts.

 

[Rocket Man]

One thing to note was that at first I wasn’t sure if I was going to keep this truck or sell it after I fixed my 02. I have since decided to keep it. So priorities have changed.

I replaced the rear shocks and compressor with a Dorman compressor and Arnott shocks.

 

[Rocket Man]

I also replaced the brakes all around with Raybestos Element 3 rotors and pads. They’re ceramic and carbon fiber composite pads. I like them.

 

[Rocket Man]

I did a budget 2/4 drop on it by flipping the front coil springs to mount under the lower control arm and attached with grade 12 bolts and nuts for a 2“ front drop,and using some eBay 4” drop rear coil springs. Altogether it was about $200 iirc.

 

[Rocket Man]

I bought a hitch cover and painted it to match. Next was that dented running board. I found a set of Escalade ones for $100 and installed them. Much nicer.

 

[Rocket Man]

And since my 02, The Beast, is waiting for me to fix the transmission I decided to swap wheels. The 22” reps look nice on the Tahoe. Poor Beast.

 

[Rocket Man]

I felt bad looking at it so I bought a cover for The Beast. And I lost my Tahoe keys about this time so I made a copy from my spare and ordered a Boost Auto 2015- up key fob. Very nice feel.

 

[Rocket Man]

I had decided to spend some money on it by now so I ordered some of Spyders best head and tail lights. I swapped in LED bulbs into the low beam projectors with great results, see the cutoff lines in the bench test. Those are H7. The high beams are H1 and use reflectors and ship with halogens. I tried several LED bulbs and all end up orienting the bolt at a 45 degree angle and you can see the bench test. The white light is the LED and the yellow is the halogen. The LED at the 45 degrees throws a scattered beam, so I left the halogens in the high beams. There are H1 LED bulbs with adjustable collars for about $125-up. No thanks.

 

[Rocket Man]

The rest that I’ve done is painting parts. I bought a set of door handles and mirror caps in smooth black and painted them. The roof rack I did just like I did my 02. I found an Esky rack in matching Silver Birch Metallic for $100 and painted the chrome parts. First I sanded with my Harbor Freight DA sander with 150 grit and then down to 600 with it. Then SEM self etching primer, wet sanded that with 600 and 800 and then base and clear.