DarkandShiny
Registered Member
Okay here is my first project truck ever. I really wanted an old box suburban. My friend had one when we were in high school and we explored a lot of the Utah wilderness in it. Now that I've got my own kids I'd like to make some memories doing the same thing with them.
Here is the story from the beginning. My Hyundai Elantra that my wife and I purchased new when we were in college finally kicked the bucket at just shy of 200,000 miles. I sold the car for 2k and was looking for a new vehicle. My wife insisted that I buy something nice like an Acura or go get a new Suburban to haul the kids around. I went to the Chevy dealership and looked at a new Burb. To my dismay the price for a new Suburban with 4 wheel drive came to $59,000 after taxes! Also I think the truck is ugly; it looks like an electric shaver to me. I'm sure it is a great piece of engineering and does lots of amazing things, but for 60k I want something that really speaks to me.
Surely for significantly less than 60K I can build a Suburban that I would be proud to own, is unique (like its owner), with the on and off road performance I require to drive everyday and take my wife and three kids (one more on the way) camping and explore the Utah wilderness. After a few months of searching I found myself in Los Angeles on business with a rental car and a flight home out of Las Vegas. So I searched the Craig's list ads and found a 1989 3/4 ton Burb in Hesperia California (right off I-15 and on my way). I paid the seller his asking price of 2,500, dropped of my rental car, and drove my new Suburban home 650 miles without incident.
Here she is without me touching her yet.
The interior needs a lot of love. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best I would say it is a 4. It isn't readily apparent how dirty and old the interior is by the photos
So the first thing on my list was to get the Suburban (no name yet) to pass safety and emissions. I knew passing the safety test was going to take some work as the only issue I had driving home was that the truck wandered all over. The steering was very loose. I also heard an exhaust leak out of the manifold/header on the right side. I had no idea if the truck would pass emissions but I got about 15 MPG on the ride home (going 65).
So to fix the steering issue and catch up on some regular maintenance that I wasn't sure had been done recently I did the following:
That got me to the point where it felt more comfortable to drive it since it doesn't wander like it used to and it passed safety and emissions!
So now that it is running well and registered I can do an evaluation and set some goals for this project. The truck is in amazing shape - No Rust! Well i haven't found any rust. The truck's exterior is in amazing shape as is the under carriage.
The things that I like about the truck:
There are somethings I don't like about the truck:
I will be posting lots of questions to my fellow brothers and sisters on this board. This truck will essentially become "The Suburban that CK5 Built" as I won't do anything without consulting with the experts here.
Thanks for reading - DS
Here is the story from the beginning. My Hyundai Elantra that my wife and I purchased new when we were in college finally kicked the bucket at just shy of 200,000 miles. I sold the car for 2k and was looking for a new vehicle. My wife insisted that I buy something nice like an Acura or go get a new Suburban to haul the kids around. I went to the Chevy dealership and looked at a new Burb. To my dismay the price for a new Suburban with 4 wheel drive came to $59,000 after taxes! Also I think the truck is ugly; it looks like an electric shaver to me. I'm sure it is a great piece of engineering and does lots of amazing things, but for 60k I want something that really speaks to me.
Surely for significantly less than 60K I can build a Suburban that I would be proud to own, is unique (like its owner), with the on and off road performance I require to drive everyday and take my wife and three kids (one more on the way) camping and explore the Utah wilderness. After a few months of searching I found myself in Los Angeles on business with a rental car and a flight home out of Las Vegas. So I searched the Craig's list ads and found a 1989 3/4 ton Burb in Hesperia California (right off I-15 and on my way). I paid the seller his asking price of 2,500, dropped of my rental car, and drove my new Suburban home 650 miles without incident.
Here she is without me touching her yet.
The interior needs a lot of love. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best I would say it is a 4. It isn't readily apparent how dirty and old the interior is by the photos
So the first thing on my list was to get the Suburban (no name yet) to pass safety and emissions. I knew passing the safety test was going to take some work as the only issue I had driving home was that the truck wandered all over. The steering was very loose. I also heard an exhaust leak out of the manifold/header on the right side. I had no idea if the truck would pass emissions but I got about 15 MPG on the ride home (going 65).
So to fix the steering issue and catch up on some regular maintenance that I wasn't sure had been done recently I did the following:
- oil and filter change - It looked like the truck was 4 quarts high!
- New plugs
- New wires
- New distributor cap
- New distributor rotor
- Replaced the steering box
- replaced the exhast manifold gasket
- replaced oxygen sensor
- replaced the serpentine belt
- replaced both lower ball joints
- replaced both upper ball joints
- reapced the front wheel bearing
- replaced the sway bar bushings
- replaced the oil dipstick tube
- filled it with coolant
- replaced the gear oil in the rear diff
- replaced the inner tie rod
- filled it with transmission fluid (looked empty!)
That got me to the point where it felt more comfortable to drive it since it doesn't wander like it used to and it passed safety and emissions!
So now that it is running well and registered I can do an evaluation and set some goals for this project. The truck is in amazing shape - No Rust! Well i haven't found any rust. The truck's exterior is in amazing shape as is the under carriage.
The things that I like about the truck:
- Rust free (so far)
- 3/4 ton
- tailgate - I don't think I would have made a purchase if it had barn doors
- no previous mods - bone stock except for a pair of headers
- relatively low miles - there isn't a six digit odometer but it looks like there is only 106k miles on the truck
- Mechanically in good shape, good enough to pass safety and emissions with minimal work
There are somethings I don't like about the truck:
- Interior is in below average shape
- It is only a 3 speed automatic
- only a 14 bolt semi float
- no tachometer, just a huge fuel gage where one should be
I will be posting lots of questions to my fellow brothers and sisters on this board. This truck will essentially become "The Suburban that CK5 Built" as I won't do anything without consulting with the experts here.
Thanks for reading - DS
