Well, I suppose it's time to stop filling What did you do to the X today? with my builds and make my own thread, for my sake and y'alls.

To give an overly vague introduction of sorts, my life got flipped upside-down on a lot of different levels, and so I kinda found myself starting from square-one here in October. I was honestly hoping for another Suburban/Yukon XL 2500, as that's a platform I've rocked for a hot minute and know intimately, but they were just about impossible to find around me, and the few I did find, they were asking prices that would've made sense with 50k mi. & 5 years sooner.

I pored over Cars.com, CarGurus, CarMax, AutoTrader, Craigslist, Facebook Market, etc. (I didn't know FTE even existed at this point) in an effort to find a truck that would suit me. I had a few days to get it done while my girlfriend was taking some time off from work to help me out. With the lack of Suburbans, I just figured I'd be headed in to a 3/4 ton truck. I'm not a brand loyalist. I've had all GM products thus far, but I'd have been happy with anything from the Big Three. On a whim, I added Excursions to my search presets, and I found my future truck in Mansfield, TX. A 2000 Excursion, well-used, a little worn out, but cheap. (Knowing everything I know now about the platform, I could've/should've haggled for even less, but.. oh well. It's done now). My girlfriend and I shot over to Plano to test drive a Tahoe that had a lovely knock, then zipped out to Mansfield and checked it out. It needed a lot of love, but I could tell it was exactly what I wanted.

2000 Excursion Ltd. 4x4 V10, 261k mi.

I neglected to take a photo there at the dealer, but I snapped this a few days later, picking up groceries at Walmart:


I don't think it's been this clean ever since...

Now, here's where I'll admit my disadvantage of not knowing the platform. I'm not 100% familiar with what needs work vs. what is simply a platform difference between this and the GM 2500 SUVs. For example, I'm used to the GOBS of torque my lightly-built 496 and Stage-2 4L80E output way down low. This motor (in my limited window of experience) lacks that punch there, but has a wealth of output higher up. Nothing wrong, just different.

Nonetheless, I'm happy with my truck. It's slowly becoming mine. Yeah, I wish there was more available to do to the motor. I was a little frustrated to discover that, unless I want to do something pretty outlandish, I'm down to a tune and headers. I suppose I don't really need all the go-fast parts anyway. I just wanted a mild cam to give 'er a little rasp and attitude, but she'll do.

More details to come soon.

 

Natually, after pulling the trigger on my truck, I was looking for some inspiration to give me a sense of direction. You'll see some that I've clearly taken to heart, and some that I'm still a long ways from. Vision is the important thing. It's good to have something to work toward.


I've always loved the overland style. I want to fab my own rear spare carrier.


Firm believer in Ranchhand over here. I put one through a wall, and it did nothing to the truck or bumper.


I particularly enjoy what McNeil Racing has come up with for the Excursion. The '17+ SD is a sharp truck. Just imagine the possibilities. Plus on the inside you've got plenty of room for a waterfall console with modern style/amenities. Alpine's Halo series HU can open some doors as well.



That's enough for one night. Cheers.

 

Very good, subscribed!

 

Subscribed! Looking forward to seeing where you go with it!

 

The day I bought my truck, I left out of the dealership just before sundown, and drove 90 miles to my house. As the sun set, I quickly learned two things about my new ride: 1) the dash illumination sucked, and 2) some jackwagon installed purple HID lights. Also, my headlights were hazier than a Cypress Hill concert.

First, let's talk about the cluster. I had a bulb out, and the ones that were still in there were blackened, probably on the verge of burning out as well.



Looks pretty lousy, huh?

Let's make it look like this instead:



I did a little research and came across VLEDS. Practically everything I read gave them high praises. In natural form, I didn't bother reading the tech folder. No, I just dove in, pulled my cluster, and figured it out as I went. When you pull your cluster, this is sort of what you'll see:


,
Unfortunately, this is my after picture. I killed my iPhone the day after taking my before, and hadn't run a backup. Whoops...

Anyway, what you're looking at is the back of a 2000 Excursion gauge cluster. @Rainmaker1 asked me to diagram it, so I'll give it my best go.

The bulbs circled in yellow are the cluster illumination. The 5 larger sockets are a 194 bulb. The smaller white one is a 74 bulb in the OEM holder; more on that in a moment. VLEDS offers different color temperatures, different colors altogether, and different output levels in many of their bulbs. For all of my illumination, I chose the 5000K color temperature. For the 194 style VLEDS in my dash, I chose the 14-LED.

I didn't circle them, but you'll notice most of my smaller indicators are still the brown OEM bulb holder. VLEDS offers a T5 bulb which replaces the OEM holder. You'll notice I replaced a handful of mine with it. My original intention was to replace them all, but the order got messed up and all of the reds they sent were T4, so with that dismay, I just stopped for the day with all but my reds done. "But Low Range is amber not red" Fact, but when I replaced that bulb with an LED, it stayed dimly lit all the time, and I thought that looked lousy so I swapped back in the OEM bulb.

With that wonderful tangent completed, if you clicked on the T5 link, you'll see that it's just a straight-fire double-LED bulb. Not very useful in the instance of lighting up my speedo. So that little bulb smack-center in the cluster, I just bought a 74 and swapped it in. Here's a pic from when I did my front HVAC controls).




Now, should you find yourself in my shoes and you're debating between the T5 or 74, buy the 74. They're 1000x easier to install. VLEDS' T5 is pretty much the exact same size as the hole for the light, so it's a little tough to get in. The 74 puts out better light and shoots it everywhere.

Anyway, that's all I can cover tonight. Sorry if I missed any detail. It's a little past my bedtime! haha.

VLEDS type 74 bulbs, one 5000K
VLEDS type 194 bulbs, five 5000K
VLEDS type T5 bulbs, 7 red, 6 amber, 3 green,1 blue

 

Are they dimmable? I like to adjust mine as I like them bright when there’s more light out and dimmer when it’s pitch black outside.

 

They handle dimming really well. Even when they're down, they're brighter than OEM. I'll see if I can get my gf's Canon and get some pics with the camera settings held-constant to show the difference.

Sorta on that subject, I don't know if this is exclusive to me, or something across all of our trucks, but my Lie-O-Meter is pretty darn dim in the day, and when I pop the ambers or headlights on, it's really tough to see it until it's actual night out. I want to pop my console off and mod the display not to respond to the illumination/dimmer circuit. Can anyone give me some insight? Or when #COVIDhysteria calms down, should I just go down to the local dealer and look at some other trucks of the same vintage as mine? To add insult to injury, for kicks (because I had the spare bulbs) I replaced the bulbs in my front-row rear A/C controls (they're 194, just like the larger instrument cluster bulbs), with VLEDS 14-LED bulbs and it's a little overkill. I need to toss a resistor or potentiometer in there, but I just haven't felt ambitious enough to tackle it. Likewise for the 2nd-row controls. It's like a nice ball of Kryptonite glowing vibrantly from my ceiling.

 

Doesn't look like there's a lot of hot spots in that cluster either. Any chance you can get an installed picture in the dark?
Im debating changing them out but in order to do white I have to get that **** green film out

As far as reducing brightness, you can use resistors to reduce voltage. Find the main power wire and trace it back out to under the dash vs behind the actual controls and tap into it there. At least then you don't have to **** around with taking the dash apart
Or you can use diffuser foils but that's a pain in the ***

 

I have a dim spot around 70, but I believe that's an issue with my cluster, since it was there in my before pics.

I gave the Canon a shot tonight, but it has more controls than Bond's car, so I couldn't intuitively find a setting for these night shots. The settings I did find actually looked decent but required a mount to be effective.

So, here's the best I could muster with the iPhone 11. The first pair are with my domes on, so the camera wouldn't auto adjust the light balance. The second pair are typical night-time shots with "night mode" disabled (you'd be shocked at what that mode/setting is capable of, for the record), and I reduced the brilliance setting to -55 on both to more accurately portray the output and not look overly saturated, as phone photos sometimes do.








Hopefully this helps. Cheers

 

Your pics have inspired me to do this same mod. Looking good! 👍

 

I'm gonna go on a bit of a tangent for a moment here, but ride with me for a moment and it'll all come full circle.

With the recent free time, I have set out on numerous projects around the house, as well as the truck. I needed to knock out some organizational tasks, and our closet was at the top of that list. Our closet was likely the same setup from '85, when our home was built. I'm not the type that's uptight about everything having its' exact spot, but I hated how my girlfriend had to cram things together, so something better was in order. Some of these pictures are taken with the wide-angle lens on the iPhone 11, so if the perspective seems off or fish-eyed, that's why.

Here's how the day started.


My best friend and I got a little carried away with gettin' er done, so we didn't take any in-progress photos. We had to patch in some flooring under the cubbies, spackle some holes pertaining to the shelves going around the sides, and repaint (so, you didn't miss much, though the flooring came out pretty nice). Once the paint was dry, the new system went up pretty fast.


My clothes are already in, and it's her turn.


Fin.


Now that all of that was done, it was time to turn my attention to the garage. I think we're all guilty of, at one point or another, commandeering the garage and making it a shop as the projects pile up. With all the things I've taken on, I kinda booted her Jeep out and set up shop. I let my workbench get overrun with crap, and before you knew it, it was a big mess. So, I took the time (and believe me, it was some time) to clear out and organize my bench top. I've pretty much filled up the drawer unit on the left, and I still have a second I can add on the right side (which will probably be going up soon). I salvaged a shelf, two brackets, and a hanger rod from the old closet and created a little shelf over my work bench. I mounted up a 3' LED shop light on the underside, and mounted a pretty cross she had up on the wall. I made a space for my clipboard (crucial for brute-forcing the door keypad!), and hooked up my Google kinda-smart-but-not-really speaker.

Now when I go to my work bench, instead of tensing up at the sight of the mess, I am relaxed and ready to tackle something new. A clear workspace = a clear mind. The added bonus was that she was thrilled to park her Jeep back in the garage (2014 GC Altitude 4x4, and she wants me to install a leveling kit and Ridge Grapplers! ). Yes, I know there's still some things piled up here and there, but you have to start somewhere, and the bench was my somewhere.

 

Very nice. I haven't built a garage yet, I rent the neighbors. I'd love to clean and organize it, but it isn't mine. I just try to keep my stuff organized the best I can.

 

I organized the crap out of my half finished basement and my garage today, which is single car FULL of my crap. And the shed out back. Now I have an X load of crap for the dumpster at the office tomorrow!

 

I just wish I had a shop to work in, or even that my garage door was tall enough to accommodate the Ex. The garage itself is, but the door/opening keeps me out. Especially now, with my rear axle on the fritz, I'd really like to do what @Nicmike did and have everything prepped, then do the swap. I drooled over his swap thread for the better part of the morning. I'm rolling around the idea of a D60 front while I have the downtime, but I have a lot of research to do before I get to that point.

I digress, it's really nice to see a clean bench every time I walk in the garage. I can't stress enough, should you find yourselves in the same predicament, do yourself the favor and take the time to clean your workspace.

 

Most of my content for the time being is going to be old stuff that I may or may not have already posted in the What'd You Do thread, but I want to repost it here for the sake of showing my build as I've gone along.

I picked up some Power Stop Z36 brakes on sale from Summit, then they sat in a drawer while life got hectic. When I got around to putting them on, I only took a few pictures.

Wheel off


New rotor on my work bench


Side by side of the two


Backlit through the Eagles.


I still have a bit of a soft pedal in the first half of my travel, so I know I am probably do for a flush/bleed, etc. but I'll tell you what, these babies BITE when you get past the dead zone. I'm on the interstate in and out of Dallas for my work, and with the traffic good brakes is a must-have. I had a few close moments with my original setup, but these new ones can bring my Excursion to a standstill at the snap of a finger. I highly recommend them to anyone needing to redo their brakes.

I still haven't done my rears. I just hate the idea of jacking that back end up on my gravel/dirt driveway. At least I can nose the front in to my garage.

Well, there you have it. Cheers.