Greetings ya'll

BuffettTruck

Original poster
Member
May 2, 2018
96
Florida
New to the forums.

I acquired an 05 TB EXT about a month and a half ago. It is high mileage with just over 170k miles on it, but it sounds and feels quite sound mechanically and I do not mind getting my hands dirty with a bit of preventive maintenance. The body is a little banged up, but nothing immediately obvious. The interior was the worst thing about it as it looks like the previous owner must have left the windows open a lot as the the carpet and upholstery appear to be weather rotted. I very quickly had to order some cheap seat covers. The third row seat even had a subtle odor of cat urine. I had no intention of keeping the third row in, so that was not an issue for me. All in all it was pretty much what I was looking for: An inexpensive, blank-canvas SUV for me to build up.

Back in the 90's I was very much into the Minitruck scene and even though I have matured since then and now have a physical disability that prevents me from driving a ground-scraping, lowered mini, not to mention being a family guy, there is a part of me that has never left that custom vehicle mindset. Every vehicle I have had since then has had something custom, no matter how minor, done to it, but this TB is my first real 'project' vehicle in a long, long time. I say project with a bit of hesitation, because it has to remain my daily driver and carry the whole family.

My goals for the TB are to give it a custom paint job, lower it slightly and completely redo the interior. The overall theme is "The Caribbean". For the stance, I want to lower it just enough to be noticeable, but without sacrificing the surprisingly comfortable ride too much, so maybe a 2" front and 3" rear drop. I will probably get bigger wheels, but not 'too big' as, again, I do not want to sacrifice too much of the ride. 18" or 19" probably. I do not plan to do too much to the body. In the 90's, I would have shaved everything I could, but aside from fixing the dings and scratches and debadging it, I will probably just swap the front bumper cover and maybe the rear one, if I can find ones I like. For the paint, I am currently planning on GM's Aqua Blue Metallic, though I want to find some way to change it just enough that it doesn't get taken for a factory paint job, at least by people who pay attention to that sort of thing. The interior is where all the real changes will happen. It is currently gray, but I want to change it to a tan and aqua scheme. I am planning out an SQ-oriented audio system that will be as low-profile as possible with the sub-box nestled into the footwell area of the third row seat. I would also love to find a way to separate the second row into two seats instead of the 60/40 split, but I have yet to figure a way of doing to so without some major fabrication work. The one major downside of the interior is that seems to be the very basic with no frills at all. I will be attempting to add in some of luxury options like heated seats (one of the easier upgrades from what I have read), but there are other features like a steering wheel with controls that I am not sure how involved the upgrade would be. I do not plan on doing much, if anything to the engine and drivetrain, if I do do anything, it will be with the goal of improving mileage rather than power. Anything that can save me a few gallons on the 90 minute trip to the beach is worth consideration.

All that said though, it has been a long time since I have actually done this sort of thing and there's just a lot of stuff that I am very much not up-to-date on, especially in regards to the TB. So I will probably be dropping in from time to time to ask a few questions regarding various technicalities of the TB, at least when internet searches fail to provide the information I am looking for (like a post I did today asking about swapping in SS parts). I like to do the jobs I can handle, such as wiring, part swapping and system design, and leave other jobs like painting and upholstery to the professionals, but even on those jobs I like to at least have a knowledge about what to expect and/or ask for when dealing with the pros, especially since I will have to do some searching around in my area to find out which shops I want to work with.

So, sorry about the long intro, but,

tl;dr

Newb here. Hi.
 

xavierny25

Member
Mar 16, 2014
6,323
Staten Island, N.Y
Welcome to the Nation!!!:tiphat:

Lucky for you... you've got a few members from the site that might live a hop,skip away from you down there in Florida. @Blckshdw has a get together with a few members every now and then.

We've got plenty of info on mods and what can and can't be done.
 

Blckshdw

Moderator
Nov 20, 2011
10,665
Tampa Bay Area, FL
Welcome to the party neighbor (sort of) :tiphat: Not sure how far you are from the Tampa bay area, but this is where most of our remaining active FL members are.

I was in a similar boat. My LS EXT didn't have many bells or whistles, so I added a few. DIC, steering wheel controls, temp/compass rear view mirror, Homelink/Memo module overhead console. Did the steering wheel controls years after having the DIC cluster, so wired up 4 momentary buttons mounted where the 4WD selector switch would be (mine's 2WD) to toggle the DIC controls.
 

BuffettTruck

Original poster
Member
May 2, 2018
96
Florida
I'm about 90 minutes from you. Heck, I am 90 minutes from either coast, really. I am just outside of Lady Lake in the opposite direction of a certain overly-huge retirement community that I shall not name :tongue:
 
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Sparky

Member
Dec 4, 2011
12,927
Yo
 

Mooseman

Moderator
Dec 4, 2011
25,262
Ottawa, ON
Welcome! You are in the right place to feed your mod bug.
 
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HARDTRAILZ

Moderator
Nov 18, 2011
49,665
Welcome. Pumped to see how you do some ole minitruck vibes into a newer family ride!
 

Capote

Supporting Donor
Member
Jul 14, 2014
24,227
Atlanta, GA
Welcome to the nation brother!:tiphat:
 

Locksmith

Member
Nov 19, 2017
76
Columbia,SC
Hello Buffettruck! Get out those sockets and wrenches, but whatever you do, don't lock your keys in the truck! Hah ha hah!
 

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