During the late '90s, Cadillac reasserted itself as the epitome of overstated luxury with the Escalade. That image was burnished by customizers who bought the pricey SUV and then threw down their credit cards to buy big wheels, designer upholsteries, wallet-wounding audio and video-you name it. But, not everybody could afford to pour buckets of Benjamins over a vehicle that already had them bumping against their credit limiter. Thankfully, the guys at 714 Motorsports found a possible solution to this problem. They decided to start, not with a pricey '07 Escalade but with its more reasonably priced sibling, an '07 Chevrolet Tahoe, by replacing the distinctively Chevy body components with those from Cadillac, using OE parts in the process.
Before : Here is our hapless...
Before : Here is our hapless Tahoe, parked outside 714 Motorsports before it was disassembled.
An Escalade is really just a finely dressed Tahoe, so disguising a Tahoe to resemble its upscale relative was not a big deal. It was simply a matter of swapping the factory badging, mirrors, some body components, and a few other parts. However, 714 Motorsports took the project even further by replacing some of the new factory Cadillac components with aftermarket sparkle from Asanti, Lexani, and Iced Out Emz. This upped the financial ante significantly, but hey, if you got the money ... Read on to discover how they did the transformation.
The first steps were simple....
The first steps were simple. The Tahoe was pulled into the bay, then the crew took off everything on the outside that looked like it didn't belong on an Escalade. The crew started with the front end. Here, you can see that they removed the fenders, inner fenders, hood, and the grille.
The Cadillac grille support...
The Cadillac grille support for the Caddy clip was bolted onto the existing mounting location for the Chevrolet fascia support.
The original hood hinges and...
The original hood hinges and clips for fastener locations were transferred to the Escalade fenders.
The fenders were installed...
The fenders were installed next. Before that, the front edges of the doors were taped off to protect them from accidentally rubbing against the fenders during the fenders' installation. Then, the fenders were bolted in, along with the two fender braces, which are shown on the driver side. In all, it took 15 bolts and 2 nuts to secure the passenger fender and 21 bolts and 2 nuts for the driver fender. All of the engine compartment components were reattached to the fenders including the fuse box, air intake, coolant reservoir, and so on.