Jason
New member
Not 100% sure exactly how far I'm going with this, or how long this is going to take me, but it began today!
A little background: I'm 30, and have 3 kids with #4 only a few weeks from being here. I've been dragging my feet on tearing into my truck for a year now, and I knew the only way to actually start it, was to man up and DO IT. So, with q few beers for assistance in disassembling my unmolested, all original body panel truck, I dove in, removing all of the front, bumper, fog lights, grille etc. That's as far as I got today, had to pick up the kids, and then dinner was ready, so today was a start...not a big bang, but I'm over the first hurdle lol.
My truck, with loaded enclosed car trailer SOMEHOW crept across the driveway, without me in it, and popped a electrical pole, enough to fubar the front bumper, I've been using it like this (I use it for business), but I was tired of the dented piece on the front and pulled it off to replace it. Well, upon pulling it off, I noticed that my fog lights wouldn't mount inside this bumper (99.5 front bumper) there were no holes drilled, so I figure "I'll drill a few, no biggie", well test fitting showed me that there wasn't enough meat at the top lip of the bumper to drill and mount on, so that plan went down the crapper. I'm not putting it on without my air dam, and fogs. The linger I sat and looked at it, trying to figure out my next step, I realized..I can't drive it without headlights, grille etc., so that was next on the "to go" list.
I called my wife, told her I was going to swap front ends to the newer style, and I was going to make room where my Denali normally sits, and park my truck in there, so it has a place out of the elements, and doesn't look bad while I work on it...with that said, DONE and DONE.
My plans are, while I have it out of commission, I've had a pretty nice oil leak on my motor, front of the turbo spider, all over my intake boots, valve covers etc, and my turbo has been squealing when it's colder, so I need to address that, I've been puking trans fluid out of the dipstick under a load, and when Matt tuned my truck, my icp would drop to 1600, and that was a year and a half ago, and roughly 70k miles as well. Basically, I've got some small issues I'm going to take the opportunity to fix, the right way, and do what I want to the truck. After all of our bills, I've got roughly $6k a month to play with, but I've got a newborn that is fixing to be here, so I'm going to build it in a manner that isn't goig to brake the bank, or put a strain on anything.
List of parts I'm planning so far:
PMR delete, replace with forged rods
238/80's and a 38r
Gearhead stage 1 cam
DI headers
Srl1 hpop
Valve train, and head studs
Etc. Feel free to add or comment on anything I have listed so far.
'05 front end, chrome package grille, CLEAR headlights, chrome bumper with black pad.
'08 rear bumper/tail gate/tails
Lighted '05 mirrors to replace my '02 tt mirrors
Hid's in heads and fogs.
Moving to the interior, I'm getting my seats re-covered (not torn up by any means, I've got a small tear in my drivers seat, but for $150.00 to replace the bottom part of both front seats, it's a no-brainer!
Selling my alpine headunit, going double din, pillar mount tweeters, and a nice set of components front and rear, to compliment my JLAudio sub.
Bilsteins all the way around, traction bars (un-decided so far), upgrading front and rear sway bars, and that should do it.
I don't care about running 12's, or putting down 500, I want a ttfn that wl tow with ease, handles better than it does now, and that will look as good as I expect my vehicles to. She's got 272k on her as of right now, and still shows like a 70k mile truck does, but there's always room for more. I called off my fast car plans, and want to build a do it all truck.
Not on a time line, nothing is set in stone, things can change, but reliability, factory fit and finish, and comfort are my priority in this build. I will get pics up in a bit, and be listing parts for sale as well.
-Jason
A little background: I'm 30, and have 3 kids with #4 only a few weeks from being here. I've been dragging my feet on tearing into my truck for a year now, and I knew the only way to actually start it, was to man up and DO IT. So, with q few beers for assistance in disassembling my unmolested, all original body panel truck, I dove in, removing all of the front, bumper, fog lights, grille etc. That's as far as I got today, had to pick up the kids, and then dinner was ready, so today was a start...not a big bang, but I'm over the first hurdle lol.
My truck, with loaded enclosed car trailer SOMEHOW crept across the driveway, without me in it, and popped a electrical pole, enough to fubar the front bumper, I've been using it like this (I use it for business), but I was tired of the dented piece on the front and pulled it off to replace it. Well, upon pulling it off, I noticed that my fog lights wouldn't mount inside this bumper (99.5 front bumper) there were no holes drilled, so I figure "I'll drill a few, no biggie", well test fitting showed me that there wasn't enough meat at the top lip of the bumper to drill and mount on, so that plan went down the crapper. I'm not putting it on without my air dam, and fogs. The linger I sat and looked at it, trying to figure out my next step, I realized..I can't drive it without headlights, grille etc., so that was next on the "to go" list.
I called my wife, told her I was going to swap front ends to the newer style, and I was going to make room where my Denali normally sits, and park my truck in there, so it has a place out of the elements, and doesn't look bad while I work on it...with that said, DONE and DONE.
My plans are, while I have it out of commission, I've had a pretty nice oil leak on my motor, front of the turbo spider, all over my intake boots, valve covers etc, and my turbo has been squealing when it's colder, so I need to address that, I've been puking trans fluid out of the dipstick under a load, and when Matt tuned my truck, my icp would drop to 1600, and that was a year and a half ago, and roughly 70k miles as well. Basically, I've got some small issues I'm going to take the opportunity to fix, the right way, and do what I want to the truck. After all of our bills, I've got roughly $6k a month to play with, but I've got a newborn that is fixing to be here, so I'm going to build it in a manner that isn't goig to brake the bank, or put a strain on anything.
List of parts I'm planning so far:
PMR delete, replace with forged rods
238/80's and a 38r
Gearhead stage 1 cam
DI headers
Srl1 hpop
Valve train, and head studs
Etc. Feel free to add or comment on anything I have listed so far.
'05 front end, chrome package grille, CLEAR headlights, chrome bumper with black pad.
'08 rear bumper/tail gate/tails
Lighted '05 mirrors to replace my '02 tt mirrors
Hid's in heads and fogs.
Moving to the interior, I'm getting my seats re-covered (not torn up by any means, I've got a small tear in my drivers seat, but for $150.00 to replace the bottom part of both front seats, it's a no-brainer!
Selling my alpine headunit, going double din, pillar mount tweeters, and a nice set of components front and rear, to compliment my JLAudio sub.
Bilsteins all the way around, traction bars (un-decided so far), upgrading front and rear sway bars, and that should do it.
I don't care about running 12's, or putting down 500, I want a ttfn that wl tow with ease, handles better than it does now, and that will look as good as I expect my vehicles to. She's got 272k on her as of right now, and still shows like a 70k mile truck does, but there's always room for more. I called off my fast car plans, and want to build a do it all truck.
Not on a time line, nothing is set in stone, things can change, but reliability, factory fit and finish, and comfort are my priority in this build. I will get pics up in a bit, and be listing parts for sale as well.
-Jason
