sorry to another one getting reclaimed by nature here.
-reminds me of a suburban i had briefly. My friend's church pastor bought a 500 dollar 1989 4wd suburban off ebay, site unseen... drove out of state, picked it up and drove it home. decent looking paint job- decent interior... unkown mileage on drivetrain. he hauled some of the church kids around for about a month, then it wouldn't start. He couldn't figure it out... towed to mechanic they replaced the starter... no start/couldn't figure it out...
He had 500 dollars of bills for his 500 dollar suburban
, so he sold it to me for 500 dollars (I like math that makes sense)
I had to tow it home on a flat bed, using my 3/4 ton burb... engine wouldn't turn over by hand. spark plugs out- crank engine with starter and shoot water all over engine bay (blown head gasket and hydro locked). both heads rebuilt and new gasket set... drivin around town like a pimp in my new 4x4 burb...
then, in the driveway, over beer with a friend, wee started picking at a few rust bubbles... "wow -the paint is fairly new, but this spot is really rusty?!"
"wow -my FINGER just pushed through it????"
"give me a magnet, and a screwdriver..."
then, with inspiration from beer, we went around the truck, inside and out, pulling major sections of "body" off of the truck, and poking screwdrivers and fingers all through the rockers, floor boards, wheel wells, fenders, pillars, window/windshield frames... after a couple hours, my nice 4x4 suburban looked pretty much like the photos at the top of this thread.
I had 3 trash cans full of rotted metal, chunks of wood, and lots and lots and lots of bondo. No power tools... we took that thing apart with a couple of screwdrivers and our hands (and beer)
the best part was the "rocker panels" -they were not a boxed/stamped steel assembly. They were SOLID?? -solid bondo and paper mache... I was able to rip the entire driver side rocker area off in 2 pieces -newspaper rolled up tight and packed into the cavity, and then bondo an inch think over the top! We were able to unroll almost complete pages of the newspaper from Tijuana, and were trying to read the articles and adds that were all printed in Spanish and 8-10 years old at the time.
the truck was unsafe to drive, and there was no way I could fix the body for 500 dollars.. cant argue with math!
we pulled the drivetrain, stripped the interior and glass, and cut the entire suburban into scrap the next day.
