Toni's 03 XL Denali Resurection

[SirReal63]

We have been looking for an older Yukon XL Denali for quite a while and pulled the trigger on one yesterday. The goal with it will be to bring it back to excellent working order with minimal changes. We enjoy taking long drives to explore our beautiful Texas back roads. We had been using her 2015 Z71 but needed more room and a better ride while trying to avoid racking up the miles on her truck. This one should work perfectly.

I have been turning my own wrenches since the mid 70's and looking forward to getting my hands dirty on this one. While I enjoy turning wrenches, I did not want to start out with a basket case, thus the long search. With just about any modern vehicle the miles are not as important as the condition. I have found many low mile Denali's that have been beat to death and ready to be junked. I have also found several higher mileage ones that have had the correct service and have been taken care of. This one is one of those. 196,000 miles and acceptable condition.

Time for Toni's Denali. These are dealership photos, it is too nasty here today for pics. These are fairly representative of the condition though it was dirty and obviously the dealer cherry picked angles.





















The body is in excellent shape, it has had the proper service at the dealership it was purchased from and runs exactly as it is supposed to. The stereo wiring has been hacked so it will be one of my first corrections. Our changes will be minimal and this thread will not be one of the spectacular ones from the awesome people here. It will be a very slow to evolve thread, but I will do my best to take pics along the way.

 

[kwOH]

Nice truck


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[SirReal63]

Thanks Kenny, it will be a long process but I started making a parts list today and ordered a few small things.

I took the third row seat out today, (we will never use it) and it was a major pain. I do not think it has ever been removed as the latch on the front was stuck and required several tries to get them to let loose.

This will be the third, third row seat we have collected. One from a 2009 LTZ Tahoe, one from the 2013 Tahoe and now one from the Denali. I think I am going to make a base for them and use them on the covered porch for seating.

 

[PG01]

Well, good luck. Looks clean. And you’re already ahead of me on any kind of ‘thread’ ....lol. What are the plans? What’d ya order?

 

[SirReal63]

The plans are simple, make sure it is reliable, replace anything that needs replacing and watch my wife enjoy driving it on long trips. I would enjoy modding one of these but this one is for my wife and she doesn't care about cool mods.

Today's order was small, new key fobs, oil pressure sender, socket for sender and new levers for the rear seats. I did not do much today, it is cold and wet and my old bones were complaining about it.

 

[PG01]

...................... I did not do much today, it is cold and wet and my old bones were complaining about it.

Welcome to my world...

Good luck!

 

[SirReal63]

It will be warm and dry here again in a couple days.

 

[Tonyrodz]

Congrats. Looks in really nice shape.

 

[adventurenali92]

I’m pretty jealous of your leather interior! My 2006 xl Denali is 3 years newer and doesn’t have nearly as many miles on it as yours, but my leather isn’t nearly as nice as yours! Haha. I plan to replace all my leather seat cushion hopefully soon.. Looks like a pretty nice rig! Welcome! These trucks are so comfortable on long trips.

 

[SirReal63]

Congrats. Looks in really nice shape.

It actually is, the entire vehicle is in excellent shape, engine is clean, no oil or mess, no door dings but the front bumper has marks and the passenger rear bumper has been backed into something.

I’m pretty jealous of your leather interior! My 2006 xl Denali is 3 years newer and doesn’t have nearly as many miles on it as yours, but my leather isn’t nearly as nice as yours! Haha. I plan to replace all my leather seat cushion hopefully soon.. Looks like a pretty nice rig! Welcome! These trucks are so comfortable on long trips.

The seats are better than I could have hoped for, the carpets are not though. It was clearly a soccer mom vehicle, little toys in the cracks and spills in rear carpet. From the condition I suspect it was garaged most of its life. Perhaps the engine compartment surprised me the most, zero oil drippings. No power steering or transmission fluid spilled or leaking.

I will wait until it is sunny and take pics of the engine compartment. Clearly the two previous owners took care of it. We do not have grandkids yet but hope we will soon, somI may not replace the carpet but will give it a serious cleaning.