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Frankenburb the 1978? 1984? Suburban

I believe they are labeled, not? I'd have to look again. It's been awhile.

Martin
 
So it's been a while since I posted anything. I've been doing some little work on the truck. Mostly cruising junkyards and collecting interior parts. Today I painted the door jams. Everything looked great and I went to dinner. When I came back (~1 hour) I noticed a bunch of little bubbles on the surface of the paint in some places. Anyone know what happened?

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I realized after the fact I should have prepped the rockers and just did them at the same time, oh well.

Work on the truck has also been a little slow because we were saving up for a down payment for this:

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2011 Tahoe z71 4x4, my wife's 'new' car. Her Pontiac G6 was just too small for our family and having three car seats in the back was unsafe. I've been searching for weeks and we decided to buy this one. It is very clean and was a one owner truck. Now we're back to two car payments so work on the Suburban will slow down for a little while. I've got most everything I need to build out the truck, except for an engine and hood, just need the time.
 
Got some more painting done. This time it was the battery trays and transfercase skid plate and two of my wheels. The battery trays and skid plate were painted with the Eastwood chassis black primer followed by extreme chassis black. The wheels were painted with rustoleum white auto epoxy out of a spray can.

I'm at a point right now that I'm trying to decide if I should take the body off the frame and clean and repaint the frame. I figure now would be the best time since most everything is disconnected already. How easy it this to do with a Suburban? Any advice is appreciated.

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I would pull the body, but I have access to lots of equipment. That will be your deciding factor.
 
I would pull the body, but I have access to lots of equipment. That will be your deciding factor.

I really want to pull the body, I figure do it right once and not have to worry about it later, right? I need to determine how best to move forward with that.

A friend recommended a local auto body/paint supply store to me and I went there today to see if I could source my paint locally instead of buying it online. I took my original paint chips in and we found a color that looked like a dead on match. I had them fill up an aerosol can for me so I could test it before buying in bulk.

I sprayed it on the interior of my front passenger door. It looked good in the garage. I clear coated it and it got a little darker, but still looked good. I took it out into the direct sun, along with the side passenger door to compare. I feel like the color I found today has too much metal flake in it and that it's too dark.

I've never seen a pristine condition truck painted in Catalina Blue print code 25 before, but the color I bought online looks closer now. In the garage they almost look ideal, but not in direct sunlight. Thoughts? I was hoping the supply store would be able to use something like they use at Lowe's or Home Depot to match paints (machine that images the color and tells you the composition), but they didn't. Which do you guys think looks better? Left is the online match, right is the local match. Either one look better? Or did I start over and try for a different color?

Outside pictures
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Inside my garageIMG_20170309_132142247.jpg
 
I really believe that the darker color is correct, but I am going by totally by memory. I remember seeing them back on the day, and I think that the lighter color was not the one on the trucks.

But which do you like???
 
I have been known to use the caps off of right guard cans as gauge holders...:whistle:


I wanted to see what it would look like with the temp gauges on the A pillar, so i rigged them up. I like how it looks. I'll have to cut some of the excess face off and figure out how to wire them to work. Anyone know if it's possible to use these out of the gauge cluster on their own?

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Did you ever get pics of the 208 shifter? I can get them tomorrow for ya if you still need them...
 
Do you have a separate shop to work on it in?

Do you have lots of money and nothing to do with it to spend it on the truck?

If you answered not to either of those questions then I would not pull the body off the frame. Ton load of work just to make it look pretty. If you are fixing it then maybe....
 
Both if you can, but mostly at the t case. I'm pretty sure I know how everything hooks together, but it never hurts to be really sure.
 
o.k. it's raining now, I'll try tomorrow.
 
That is a 2wd body, yes? I'll get some measurements for you. I had a 86 2wd I planned on swapping to 4wd...with parts from my ex's 89...

I did learn the 2wd floor is lower in the trans tunnel area. You might want to consider a 1 or 2 inch body lift. Or welding in a tunnel section from a 4wd unit.
 

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