Phase 2 of search for 2 door tahoe...

I have posted a couple of time about wanting to find a nice 2 door Tahoe for my soon to be driving oldest son that is 6'3 and 250 pounds at 14 years of age. Now that our travel trailer is sold, some of the funds are going towards the kids vehicle. My oldest son wont be driving for another year and a half, but it's getting harder to find clean examples of 2 door Tahoe's with a 5.7 Vortec and 4L60E transmission.

I found this one last week and plan to take a look Saturday as it's 75 miles from our home. What should I look for? Rust is a big concern, but specifically where? Rear quarters, bottom of doors, rockers? How about pump rub, not sure if that was an issue for those years of GM 4x4's? The add pictured below shows that it has a manual transfer case engagement lever which most did not in 98? I called the owner last night, he said he has had it for a couple of years and his wife has been driving it. I asked him about the drivers seat and specifically asked if it had been recovered and he said no. I find that hard to believe. The add says 200K miles, with rebuilt transmission. Paint looks great, not sure if the chrome strips on the rockers are stock though...

What should I be looking for when inspecting a 1998 2 door 4x4 Tahoe?

This is the ad I am speaking to -
https://seattle.craigslist.org/oly/cto/6136220213.html

I don't really know of any specific problematic areas on them but I do know the chrome strips were NOT factory and that is the most typical rust location. Those may be to cover some cancer. Also since they are on there and they obviously have used it in the snow (the included studded tires), the chrome strips could very well have trapped salt water from the roads and added to the decay behind them.

If you're looking for a 4WD, I'd look a little harder. 4WD's are way easier to find then the 2WD's and for that price I'm thinking you'd be able to find one in the 115k mileage range that's clean for that price.

I have a 99 2WD. No common "issues" that I know of.

The interior has been redone, notice the velor on the doir panels but leather seats, on thr gmt400 platform trucks the LS was cloth interior and LT were leather trucks

Price might be a little high but really not too many of these around for sale that are in decent condition ...... pretty cool with the floor shifter, less to go wrong. Do you know if these have limited slip or positraction 4 wheel drive?

Looks like a nice one, I'd offer him 4k.

If I was looking for one, that would be it, manual transfer case is a great downgrade over the push button system.

Rebuilt trans, a free set of snow tires...looks like a winner to me!

Any rust under the add-on chrome strips is easily seen just by crawling under it and looking at the rockers. Any cancer will be readily visible.

The drivetrain is pretty bullet proof with the weak link at that mileage being the trans...as long at it was all regularly serviced.

Rebuild trans would make it desirable to me.

westair said:

Price might be a little high but really not too many of these around for sale that are in decent condition ...... pretty cool with the floor shifter, less to go wrong. Do you know if these have limited slip or positraction 4 wheel drive?

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Open in the front, could have been ordered with either open or posi, most LT's are posi equipped.

Here is a link to all the codes that will show what the build sheet on the glovebox lid details about what came with it when it was delivered.



http://www.gmc4x4.com/topic/305-deciphering-the-glovebox-rpo-codes/

SBMech said:

Open in the front, could have been ordered with either open or posi, most LT's are posi equipped.

Here is a link to all the codes that will show what the build sheet on the glovebox lid details about what came with it when it was delivered.



http://www.gmc4x4.com/topic/305-deciphering-the-glovebox-rpo-codes/

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thanks, that's good info ...... I actually have two of these I keep in havasu ..... one is a 1995 2 door w/floor shift and a 1999 4 door w/ dash push button ..... the 99 pulls the boat up the ramp better
and also performs better in the desert, so I'll check out these codes ..... might just be the motor hp difference.

westair said:

thanks, that's good info ...... I actually have two of these I keep in havasu ..... one is a 1995 2 door w/floor shift and a 1999 4 door w/ dash push button ..... the 99 pulls the boat up the ramp better
and also performs better in the desert, so I'll check out these codes ..... might just be the motor hp difference.

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Pretty sure the 99 has 50 more HP.

Might have a lower rear end in it too if it has a 5 speed trans vs the 4 speed.

Thanks for the responses. The chrome strips are a concern as well as the interior and that none of the black paint is peeling. It does look clean though. I talked to the guy Sunday night, he said the interior has not been redone, hard to believe as the drivers seats on GM's are usually hashed around 100K miles. The rockers and lower rear quarters are the weak link in most vintage vehicles as far as rust is concerned, but I read some where that the bottom of the doors, under the seal is another potential rust spot? I was wondering if there is any other non typical spot where these things rust at?

The other things that I am aware of from either owning a 98 1500 ext cab 4x4 from new or found online issues with - the antilock brake controller (usually on 96 and older), intake gaskets (my 98 leaked after 10K miles, I replaced gaskets when it got noticeable at 100K and it leaked 2K miles later, at 300K it still weeps coolant), shitty pot metal heater hose connection that is a bitch to remove and replace, one of the power steering boost sensors, bouncing feel gauge after fuel pump replacement, door hinge pins and bushings around 100K and weak interior door handles. I sold my 98 truck to my youngest brother with around 150K on it 12 years ago and he still drives it today. The Odometer quit working around 250K (6 years ago) but it keeps on running and getting the same fuel mileage as the day I bought it. Original transmission, engine, diffs and transfer case.

Tank said:

If you're looking for a 4WD, I'd look a little harder. 4WD's are way easier to find then the 2WD's and for that price I'm thinking you'd be able to find one in the 115k mileage range that's clean for that price.

I have a 99 2WD. No common "issues" that I know of.

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I wish that was the case, but everything I have found so far has 150K - 300K miles on the ODO. I live just north of Seattle and am searching with a 300 mile radius minus Canada. That includes east and west sides of Oregon, eastern WA, coastal WA, and even a little bit of Idaho. The upside of finding a local to Seattle area rig is that WA state didnt start using salt on the roads until about 5 years ago. But, sitting outside for decades in the wet weather and or residing near the Puget Sound or Pacific Ocean kinda does the same thing as salting the roads.

SOCALCRICKETT said:

The interior has been redone, notice the velor on the doir panels but leather seats, on thr gmt400 platform trucks the LS was cloth interior and LT were leather trucks

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I haven't seen it in person yet, but the ad says LT trim and shows leather (pleather) interior finishings. Every photo I have seen so far for a tahoe with leather also shows the mouse fur inserts on the door panels. Not trying to poke holes in what your saying, just trying to understand.

IROCDave said:

I wish that was the case, but everything I have found so far has 150K - 300K miles on the ODO. I live just north of Seattle and am searching with a 300 mile radius minus Canada. That includes east and west sides of Oregon, eastern WA, coastal WA, and even a little bit of Idaho. The upside of finding a local to Seattle area rig is that WA state didnt start using salt on the roads until about 5 years ago. But, sitting outside for decades in the wet weather and or residing near the Puget Sound or Pacific Ocean kinda does the same thing as salting the roads.

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Damn. Since I own one, I always search Craigslist and Ebay just to see what's out there. But I'm always looking at 2WD. Seems like there's always so many 4WDs but I never look that close.
Hey man, if you like it, jump on it! :thumbsup:thumbsup

My good friend owns one and it is extremely clean. I could ask if he wants to sell it.. I drove it this week, has a procharger.

I ventured my CL search to So Cal and the results didn't change much. Clean examples of 4x4's are the same, 2 wd seems to be less? Rust is less of an issue but UV damage is almost the same. Paint, dash pads and interior pieces are not cheap either. Not to mention the voto factor, huge ass rims that usually also entail " custom interior work along with big ass custom wired stereo!!". Cant afford to fix the broken shit that allows one to drive the vehicle but 26" rims and 6 each 12's are a must, I am not interested in fixing wiring issues anymore. Mmmm wonder what the maintenance was on the drive train? Yea, we know what it was. NONE.

I told my wife this and she went off, "that's racist". I had to actually LOL. I am the one who grew up in the "Who gives a shit, do what ever you want" family in the 70's and she grew up with strict religious family that didn't allow a TV in their home nor let the 3 girls listen to radio because it was "evil". Man, I could on and on about this.

Anyway, I dont see much difference in pricing for clean examples, if you can find me one for under 5K and it's obviously worth my time to drive down from Seattle to pick it, up I am all ears. Before I make the 1K mile trip to "take a look" I want to see enough pics to know for sure it is as advertised.

JD Dearden said:

My good friend owns one and it is extremely clean. I could ask if he wants to sell it.. I drove it this week, has a procharger.

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If I were buying it for me, I would be really interested. Might still be interested, can you find out what he wants and send me some pics? I am more interested in finding something unmolested that my oldest son can learn to drive and appreciate as his first vehicle, and I can teach to work on to repair basic stuff.

LOL....Yea, there are a lot of half assed lowered ones that are a bit much. I like them lowered clean on 20's.

I check ebay too. You may be able to find one on there worth the ship of 1k. I just seem to remember seeing them for under 5k with 130ish miles pretty frequently. But like I said, maybe it hasn't been super recent.

Jesus, I just searched ebay and craigslist. The pickins are slim and you're right, the high 90's 4wd's that are out there are spendy! Guess it's been a while since I've paid attention to the 4WD models.

We made the 3h hour trek to Shelton WA this afternoon to check out the Tahoe and bought it. Long story short, he was firm at 4800.00, I hit him at 4200.00, we settled on 4400.00 and I told him he could sell his 1K snow tires to recoup his 400.00. Cash talked and I wasn't interested in the tires to begin with.

I couldn't find evidence of it being repainted, and there was only the typical light surface rust on on the frame, rear diff etc. The rockers, bottoms of the doors, rear quarters etc were solid. It's obvious that it had fender flares on it and they were removed recently, the paint was worn through in a couple of spots but it's really hard to see. There is a weird gap at the drivers side front fender indent for the grill, and the bumper looks like it was pushed back a 3/8", but no buckling of the bumper was visible and the fender has the wear line of the old fender flare so it wasn't replaced and repainted. . I think where the fender meets the wrap around grill needs to be loosened up and push out a little, the hood gap is showing the same thing.

The transmission was rebuilt and shifts fine, the engine doesn't leak or smoke, but felt blah, not nearly as crisp as the 98 truck I sold my younger brother 12 years ago, but that might be my memory being hazy as well. The one thing that needs attention is the AC. The owner said he just spent 250.00 bucks having it vacced out and recharged, and it barely worked on the test drive. The AC compressor and clutch are working but it wasn't putting out much cold air. On the way back home it blew cold for an hour then just gave up. Man it was hot today and the last couple of hours sucked. Another thing I found odd was it didnt have a tow / haul switch. I could have sworn my 98 GMC truck had one, this rig doesn't.

I'll post up some pics in the morning.

Congrats on the purchase, sounds like a great first truck for your kid. With how bad traffic has been I'm surprised you got through Tacoma in 3 hours:grumble: It was hot yesterday.. We went boating:thumbup:

WAZE insisted taking 167 through Puyallup was faster, not sure if it was because it still dumped us onto I5 in Tacompton, then it was a 10 -30 mph slog from Tacoma to just about Olympia. Once we were on 101 going west it was 70 MPH. The trip home was 70 MPH most of the way.

Couple of pics from today.

My son, who I had to pay help wash my trucks for years and was incapable concentrating for more than a couple minutes when I was trying to show him last year how to buff and wax the boat and our vehicles is now all over me to show him how to do it.

It needs a good waxing, along with buffing out the taillights. Thats on the list for tonight after the paint cools off. I'll get some better pics up later. It's a clean little rig, my wife was shocked at how short it is. Her suburban dwarfs it.

Nice pick up, Looks CLEAN. IMO good buy for 1st vehicle..:thumbup:

One of my younger brothers came buy this morning and said he would have loved to have something like this for his first vehicle. I would have also, I know we grew up in a different time but we had to buy our own cars back then, except for my older brother. I guess first sons born to old school baby boomers got everything handed to them, it was some un-fucking written rule for parents born in ND. My dad bought my dipshit (to this day he is our black sheep and I refuse to let that fucker in my home) older brother a 71 Plymouth Satellite that had been restored for his first car and he fucked it all up for the other kids in our family, specifically 3 other brothers and a sister. I'm the second oldest and when my dad told me NFW are you getting a car, I saved up my money from working 40+ hours a week at Round Table and bought a 73 camaro when he was working out of town. I found that car because I had to ride my BMX bike to and from work, about 5 miles each way and on my way home I took alternate ways until I found a car I wanted. I also searched the Little Nickel ads as well as the Sacramento times, Mustangs were dirt cheap, even the fast back mid 60's versions back then, 67-73 camaro's were not. I didn't want to settle so I dug deep and found one that sat in front of someones house for a couple of months and worked out a payment program. I drove that fucker home before I had a drivers license.

Today's kids are much different, driving is an afterthought and they typically have little motivation to achieve that step towards adult hood. They have zero interest to get their hands dirty and learn how to fix shit, and I will say that now that I am much older, fatter and have much less free time, I would prefer to pay someone to do the dirty work for me as well. I have a new found respect for my oldest son though, even though I bought this thing as a carrot. He has always been a great "helper, and a hard worker", but his motivation was never about achieving a goal for personal gratification. I know he wont fit an many vehicles that normal people fit in just as I learned when I was 15 YO, but I want him to have something cool, and he has had no interest until now on what is cool. Hondas, Toyotas, Kias and Hyundai etc. They are not cool in my old school view. I know they might be in today's kids minds, so I see this as something much cooler than what his friend's are going to be driving just because it's different yet still does the same thing.

Anyway, here are a couple more photo's.

Couple more.

Tank said:

LOL....Yea, there are a lot of half assed lowered ones that are a bit much. I like them lowered clean on 20's.

I check ebay too. You may be able to find one on there worth the ship of 1k. I just seem to remember seeing them for under 5k with 130ish miles pretty frequently. But like I said, maybe it hasn't been super recent.

Jesus, I just searched ebay and craigslist. The pickins are slim and you're right, the high 90's 4wd's that are out there are spendy! Guess it's been a while since I've paid attention to the 4WD models.

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They are an anomaly that people are quickly realizing are worth money. You can find really clean, low mileage 4 door examples all day long for dirt cheap, like 2500.00 cheap. Try and find a clean, clear titled 100K or less 2 door 4x4 for less than 10K. Aint happening. I would venture to say you cant find more than 5 each 1996- 1999 2 door tahoes with less than 180K miles for sale in the country at one time. When you do find them they will want 10K - 35K.

As these get older people forget about them but I'm stuck in a weird spot, I know my oldest kid will keep growing and probably be 6'6 - 6'8 by the time he gets out of HS. I was 6'1" - 6'2" in HS and my 73 camaro didnt have the leg room I needed and I had to let the seat back down in order to reach the steering wheel comfortably. My kid has a close group of friends that are all about his size and play on the offensive line in this upcoming year in HS, and all of their parents are going to buy their rides and asked / told them what they are getting. Two are getting new Jeep Wranglers and the other a hand me down 2014 BMW 550i.

We already have several trucks in our driveway and in front of the house. The kids car can fit in the garage next to my camaro until he starts driving and when it's parked out front will take up very little space, but he should still fit in it and be able to drive it in snow, and....can only haul around a couple of friends at a time and with barn doors he cant use the back as a bed. I dont need any grand kids until I retire and that aint happening for another decade.