Kelley's Tahoe - New Transmission

So, I mentioned before that the transmission in the Tahoe went out on our trip home from Houston.  Big BANG and all sorts of noises, as we are flying at 75mph down the freeway.  Kelley was freaked out as we made our way to the next exit and pulled into a parking lot.  Looked under the truck, nothing obvious so I knew it had to be inside the transmission.  I tried driving a little further, but ended up losing all power and pulling over onto the shoulder.  A call to AAA, and a 45minute wait for the tow truck, but we were loaded up and headed back home.  Luckily, Trey was right behind us and we got to ride with him instead of in the tow truck.

Now that we were home, I was on the hunt for a transmission.  I wasn't about to pay a shop to swap it out for me.  Can't be that hard, right?  I ended up looking all over the internet and settled on one from Mad Dog Performance.  Stage 2, 500+hp rating, crisp shift kit, corvette servo, beefed up internals.  Made a quick call, and had one headed my way the next day.

So, while I am waiting on the new transmission to arrive, I still have a TON of work to do on Treys new Jeep.  I'm looking at well over a week of solid night work just to get both vehicles complete.  The trans arrived the day I was finishing up the Jeep.  Now it was time to dig into this swap.

Just to get to the trans required removing the Y pipe of the exhaust, rear crossmember, driveshaft, and some random brackets.  Of course, one of the exhaust flange bolts stripped out and was the biggest headache of the entire process.  But exhaust was out, crossmember was out, driveshaft was out, and I was working on reaching the upper bellhousing bolts.  Don't remember how many extentions I had on that ratchet, but it was quite a reach.  A little help from a floor jack, a good nudge, and busted trans way laying on the ground.

There was no way I was going to be able to get the new one in with a standard floor jack.  So I stopped at Harbor Freight and picked up a transmission jack to make things a bit easier.  After installing a few new studs in the exhaust, and blowing out the trans cooler lines, the new trans went in pretty well.  Everything lined up, bolted back together, and looked good.  Add fluid, and fire it up...problem, problem.  Wicked clicking sound.  Definetley not a good thing.  I was pissed and frustrated.  I called it a night and ran through my head what it could possibly be.  I thought I had it figured out, so I went to removing the entire transmission again.  Luckily, much easier this time.  My suspisions were correct.  One of the flexplate/torque convertor bolts wasn't snugged down completely, and was clipping the head just a bit.  New bolt, snugged down, and we were all good.  No more clicking, everything seemed good so I took it for a lap around the block.

The new trans is definetly a HUGE step up from a stock unit.  More solid, more smooth, more responsive, more of everything.  Minus a small oil pan leak, everything was back together and Kelley had here Tahoe back.  Got a new gasket, fixed the leak and she was 100% again.  In fact, the Tahoe was so much better that Kelley got a speeding ticket the next day.  WTF? 

Trey's Jeep - 2006 Rubicon

First, let me say that Trey is one of my best friends. Real stand up dude. Also, one of my best customers. Always down for doing some cool stuff, and lets me fly with my ideas. So I mentioned before that he got run off the road and had to lay down his bike. I didn't mention that he broke his arm and had a plate with like 6 bolts put in to hold everything together. Couldn't ride for a while. Good part was...Insurance Money!!! Now Trey moved from DFW to Colorado last year and his Dodge Ram just wasn't the most desirable vehicle for his new terrain. A Jeep was in tall order. And not just any Jeep, a fucking bad ass, ready for anything type ride. So while back in TX for holiday break, Trey, myself, and Kelley took a quick trip to Houston to pick up a 2006 Rubicon that he had found online. A quick road test, hours of paperwork, and a few signatures and Trey was the proud owner of a new Jeep. Time to head back North. We've got PROBLEMS, Houston. Transmission in our Tahoe goes out. And it goes out with a BANG! We'll get more into the Tahoe later. Called a tow truck, hopped in the new Jeep and headed home.

 

So now that Trey has his new ride, where does he go? 4x4 store, of course. I came home from work and my garage was FULL of new stuff. Problem was, I only had 4 days to put it all on. The list goes as follows - new intake, exhaust, engine programming, rear rack with gas can mount, Hi-Lift jack with hood mount, fender flares, aux lights in the back, aux lights in the front, light bar up top, new winch cable, new winch rollers, new hood latches, LED headlights (Military grade, sick!!!), steel skid plate...what else am I missing? Really, it was a blur of wrenches, parts, and empty boxes.

All in all, he is stoked on the results.  I'm stoked on another successful project coming out of LCC.  And there is another vehicle out there to help draw more business.  Enjoy the pics.

Fun in the Sun, on Saturday

Had fun hanging out with these 2 on Saturday. Mobbin' the freeways of DFW
in search of free beer and cool bikes. Found a lot of 1, not so much of the
other. WAY too much road construction. Guess that's what they make the
shoulder for. Splittin' lanes and takin' names.

Let's get into my car.

For my birthday 2 years ago, Kelley bought me a car I have wanted for a VERY long time. A 1952 Chevy Styleline Deluxe. 1949-1954 Chevys have always been one of my favorites. And after searching and searching on eBay, we found one. Sent the money, found a delivery company, and 4 days later my new ride was sitting in front of the house. We got it from a guy in Minnesota, or was it Michigan? Up north, somewhere. Running, driving car. A bit too much 80's style hotrod in it, but a solid body with a lot of potential.

This is how she looked the day I got her home. Big and Little tires. A sweet flourecent pink lazer beam on the side. Wore out interior. Dope cassette deck mounted under the dash. And some aux gauges that didn't work. Pretty much needed a complete redo. I drove her around the block, parked it in the garage and she's been sitting there ever since. The 3-on-the-tree was cool to drive, but no way it was going to keep up on the freeway. The plans were building in my head, and I could see my bank account going down, down, down.

I have a total build thread going over on The HAMB. Lots and lots of details. Lots and lots of pics. But the quick rundown is as follows:

'58 235" straight 6

brand new T-5 trans

new driveshaft

'84 Monte Carlo rear end, completely rebuilt.

notched and bagged rear end

tank, valves, compressor, air lines, fittings, etc.

new floor pans in front of the front seat

pulled all the glass

sanded to bare metal and painted

complete rewire

new gaskets in the engine

hand built radiator support

removed some of the trim

some metal work here and there

Still have a bunch to do, but she should be driving around the block shortly. Check out the thread here - http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=466384

And here is a pic as she sits right now.

Kelley's Tahoe

So, when we had our baby girl, Ainsley, it was time to upgrade my wifes ride. Previously, she had a 1996 Jetta, that she'd had since 1998. Needless to say, she had shared some wonderful times with that car and was sad to see it go. But with safety first, and me feeling to need to have my wife rollin' a whip with a bit more style, we bought a 2002 Tahoe.

Now, this is a ride I have wanted for a while. And what better opportunity to purchase one, now that we had a little bundle of joy to tote around. So I tracked one down on Craigslist, wrote a check, and that afternoon my wife was driving home in her new truck. The thing was totally stock, 95,000 miles, leather interior. Really nice. And about twice as big as her Jetta.

This is how it looked the day we brought it home. But one thing you will realize about me is that I can't live with stock anything. Not my truck, not my bike, not my hotrod, not my body. So we had to get some rims on this thing quick. Bought the truck on Tuesday, and by Friday afternoon I had sourced some rims and tires on Craigslist. By Friday evening, she was looking better.






24" Boss Chrome rims and tires on CL for $1100. Looked pretty good for a while, but wife was feeling it was a bit too "ganster" for her tastes. "Not hardcore enough", as she said. So as I was looking for some proper wheels I did a bunch of upgrades to it.

Started with new Cold Air Intake and Dual Exhaust. Projector headlights, LED front turn signals, LED rear turn signals, Escalade rear vents, sport shocks, beefier sway bars front and back, upgraded brake pads all around, took all the stock badges off and added 1 of my own. Also had the engine tuned by Blackbear Performance. New shift points, less torque managment, removed speed govenor, adjusted speedo for wheel/tires, air/fuel mixture tweaked, optomized for 93 octane, switched the TOW/HAUL button to PERFORMANCE mode, which was a couple notches above all the daily driver mods. Don't know about actual HP improvements, but she sure does feel more snappy and fast.
We were getting tired of the skinny tires on 24's, so I picked up some 22's with more sidewall. Black, of course. Color matched the spokes and also painted the front grill and chrome side trim, black. Ride was looking WAY better. Wife was feeling more 'hardcore'. Everyone was happy.

Custom Counter Top Brackets

My Parents have a ranch up near the Oklahoma border. 100 acres, horses, cows, a few barn cats. They were redoing their kitchen counters and wanted a cool, custom bracket to support the larger breakfast bar they were installing. Since they have both shown horses in the past, they thought some snaffle bits would be a cool idea. I made 7 of these, and they are spread out on 2 sides of the kitchen counter. Add in some faux leather wall paper and the setup looks pretty darn good.

Trey's Streetbob

My buddy Trey bought a brand new Streetbob, and couldn't leave it alone. We started off a while back and did a few little things here and there. Raised the tank, new bars, took a few things off. Then last year he got cut of on the road and laid it down. Tank banged up, scratches all over, broken controls, etc. So I pulled it apart, tank got fixed, new covers, new seat, new tail light, hand controls fixed. Back together and looking good.

Pics coming soon.

John in Waco

Was asked to build a bike for a nice gentleman in Waco, TX. Pretty cool dude, Vietnam Vet, and for some reason, had total confidence in me. Shot me some ideas and let me run with them. Turned him out a really nice bike that he loves riding, gets compliments everywhere he goes. Ultima 100", 6 speed trans, 250 rear softail, springer, apes, Dakota Digital gauge

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Let's Start with my bike.

I built this thing like 4 1/2 years ago. Started in my 2nd floor apartment in MD. And I've tore it down and changed it up a few times. But here she is. Ultima 113", 6 speed trans, loud, dirty and fast. Just the way I like 'em.

Where has the time gone?

Wow, has it really been this long since I started this blog? Guess life has been getting ahead of me, and these random things I'd like to do. No progress on the blog, doesn't mean no progress on projects coming out of my garage. Trying to get some things organized and compiled before posting up. Stand by for further excitement.