- Joined
- Dec 7, 2012
- Messages
- 3,564
I have posted a few times on here about the high mileage 2005 Tahoe that I bought off my parents and have been daily driving since the unfortunate troubles and eventual lemon lawing of my 2021 F-150. I wanted to make a post and continually update it chronicling my progress through my interior "rehab" and other cosmetic/mechanical fixes I am doing.
For a little back-story, this 2005 Tahoe was a North Carolina truck, spotless as can be. In 2015, it made its way up here to Western New York and my Dad bought it for my Mom. She drove it until buying her 2018 Tahoe in 2021. It was undercoated the first four winters. Currently body wise, couple of spots of rust, but nothing bad. Frame has some light surface rust but nothing concerning. In Feb/March I went through the whole truck mechanically and made it 110% road worthy.
I plan to drive this old pig for a while, so here are some of the things I will be doing to it. Don't matter much to me if the outside is worse for the wear, but a vehicle of mine needs to be nice and clean on the inside. So I'll start with the interior.
The interior looked like your usual 292k interior, sagging headliner, dirty carpet, grime, worn seats, etc.
Pulled the headliner and took it to a local shop to have new material glued to the panel. These look cool with no headliner and WOW what a chore to pull.
With the headliner out, I tackled the rear mili-connector that runs the rear wiper and heated rear window element. Couple of pins were shorted out.
Went to the junkyard, found a Suburban with a clean and non-burnt connector. De-pinned the good wires, re-pinned them, and spliced in new ones for the bad/burnt ones.
I rented a U-Haul van to transport the headliner with the help of my Dad. Here is the after of the headliner installed. I also replaced the two automatic HVAC temp sensors located on the top of the board.
Next, I pulled all of the seats to clean and re-cover where needed. Before and after of the passenger front seat. I clean the heck out of the top cover and ended up adding a new bottom. The seatbelt was also super grimy. So I took a pail with hot water, half scoop of Tide powder... added a drill brush attachment to my drill and ran it in there for about 20 minutes creating a vortex like effect and it proved to be just enough agitation to clean the seatbelt fantastically!
Before
After
Three out of four of my door handles were binding. After dismantling them, I found the metal pin that allows the handle part to pivot was rusted causing them to seize. With not many good aftermarket choices, and wanting to avoid paying a body shop to paint these handles, I ended up drilling out the metal pins and re-assembling them with stainless steel bolts, nylon lock nuts and plenty of grease. Also cleaned and lubed the sticking driver door lock. All work as good as new!
For a little back-story, this 2005 Tahoe was a North Carolina truck, spotless as can be. In 2015, it made its way up here to Western New York and my Dad bought it for my Mom. She drove it until buying her 2018 Tahoe in 2021. It was undercoated the first four winters. Currently body wise, couple of spots of rust, but nothing bad. Frame has some light surface rust but nothing concerning. In Feb/March I went through the whole truck mechanically and made it 110% road worthy.
I plan to drive this old pig for a while, so here are some of the things I will be doing to it. Don't matter much to me if the outside is worse for the wear, but a vehicle of mine needs to be nice and clean on the inside. So I'll start with the interior.
The interior looked like your usual 292k interior, sagging headliner, dirty carpet, grime, worn seats, etc.
Pulled the headliner and took it to a local shop to have new material glued to the panel. These look cool with no headliner and WOW what a chore to pull.
With the headliner out, I tackled the rear mili-connector that runs the rear wiper and heated rear window element. Couple of pins were shorted out.
Went to the junkyard, found a Suburban with a clean and non-burnt connector. De-pinned the good wires, re-pinned them, and spliced in new ones for the bad/burnt ones.
I rented a U-Haul van to transport the headliner with the help of my Dad. Here is the after of the headliner installed. I also replaced the two automatic HVAC temp sensors located on the top of the board.
Next, I pulled all of the seats to clean and re-cover where needed. Before and after of the passenger front seat. I clean the heck out of the top cover and ended up adding a new bottom. The seatbelt was also super grimy. So I took a pail with hot water, half scoop of Tide powder... added a drill brush attachment to my drill and ran it in there for about 20 minutes creating a vortex like effect and it proved to be just enough agitation to clean the seatbelt fantastically!
Before
After
Three out of four of my door handles were binding. After dismantling them, I found the metal pin that allows the handle part to pivot was rusted causing them to seize. With not many good aftermarket choices, and wanting to avoid paying a body shop to paint these handles, I ended up drilling out the metal pins and re-assembling them with stainless steel bolts, nylon lock nuts and plenty of grease. Also cleaned and lubed the sticking driver door lock. All work as good as new!