Project Polar Bear: '89 V2500 Suburban

[Larry]

This here rig is my latest project. It is a Craigslist score from October 2011. Funny, I wasn’t really looking for a Suburban but a K5 for a day trip rig but when I saw this Burb with a manual trans, rear barn doors, white paint and timeless tan interior I knew I had to have it. If I could have bought a new burb in 1989, this would have been the one I would have bought, although I sure the hell wouldn’t have spec’d with 3:42 gears! This burb was dirt cheap too as it needed a clutch and had a major case of the typical loose Saginaw tilt steering column blues.

On with the process so far….

Craigslist picture. October 2011

After I got it home and started the long process of cleaning it. Man, what a pig sty it was! The PO was actually using the center console as a trash can! Power washed the hell out of everything.

Then I gutted the interior for a thorough douching. A year later I have come to the realization the carpet will eventually have to be replaced as the stinch of filth and dog piss still lingers heavily inside.

I’ve seen and fixed plenty of loose Saginaw tilt steering columns over the years but this one took the cake. It was so fangled up the upper bowl and all the bearings had to be replaced. Good thing I had an extra column laying around to pirate parts from.

One day I got bored and painted the grill with some fresh satin black paint

As I mentioned, it needed a clutch. I had an decent used left over clutch from my K10 so last December I yanked the engine to replace the clutch. The reason I went the engine removal route was because I wanted to reseal the engine (it leaked as bad as the BP Deep Water Horizon) and give it a rattle can paint job. The engine wiring was pretty sketchy too so it was a good time to kill a bunch of birds with one stone.

Tossed in an ORD steering box brace while the engina was out of the way

Used Centerforce clutch and P/P. (the K10 got a new CF clutch during the NV4500 swaperoo a few years ago)

Rattle can rebuilt complete

Used a new Denso starter motor. Use a premium starter motor once..and never buy another! These are commercial grade starters. UPS uses them on delivery trucks that start and stop 100+ times a day with great results. I run this same starter part number on my K10 8.1L as well. Last starter you’ll probably ever buy! Never mind the green stuff on the battery cable. The new cable was on order when this pic was taken.

Tah-da. This pretty little engine can't hardly pull a greasy string out of a Coke bottle though. Gonna have to bolt in more power soon!

 

[Larry]

Then I moved to the inside for a while and installed a set of Cabela’s Trailgear seat covers. Cool and durable seat covers for only $40! The seat fabric is actually in really nice shape under the covers.

Also added some cheap Walmart bicycle bottle holders while I was at it. I have these in my K10 as well and they are very handy

Added a cheap Vhatozone tach a couple times. I say a couple times because the first one lasted a week and got stuck at 3,000 RPM. Got a new one and a few months later it is intermittently doing the same thing but sticks at 2,500 RPM. Errrr

In February I had new tailpipes installed as the last clown routed them under the leaf springs where when the suspension flexed it would break the hangers. Idiots! Also added a “Test” pipe in place of the restrictive cat (I live in a non-emissions testing county). I reused the single inlet/dual outlet Flowmaster. Sounds decent.

Got room for the ORD shackle flip now too

 

[Larry]

Then came the body repairs in late August 2012. Beware, I am no body man but it turned out alright for someone that hasn't done body work in 20 years. This burb isn't intended to be a beauty queen, just a decent looking driver and capable day trip rig.

It had a pretty good size body filler crack with rust forming on the right rear quarter panel. The PO claims to have purchase the burb from the original owner in 2008. The original owner told him Maaco took care of some minor dents and added fresh paint around 2004. Huh, minor dents my ass! After I peeled the molding off. What a mess!

It didn’t take long to figure out why this quarter panel rusted and had a body filler crack. Those lazy SOB’s at Maaco used an old school screw type dent puller then didn’t weld the holes shut. Body filler absorbs moisture if exposed on the back side. I welded the holes shut after this picture

Welded the holes shut, ironed out a few more of the dents, spot blasted the area then added fresh body filler

The barn door rocker had some cancer going on too

These spot sand blasters are the cat’s meow for surface rust repairs. I went through 250 lbs of sand in this little gun during the course of this project

Glazing putty added to smooth out the surface rust. The rust wasn’t bad enough to cut out and replace the rocker

Primed and ready for paint

Quarter panel primed at the same time

Various spots that needed to be dealt with. Easy work with the spot blaster

This was actually the worst of the rust on the entire truck. The typical spot on left rear quarter panel just behind the wheel.

Cut out the cancer

Then started welding in ½” strips. Welding in small strips makes it easier to follow the body lines.

After the strips were welded in I spot blasted the area before adding body filler

Couldn’t get a good picture of the back side where I cut that portion of rust out but here is the patch I formed and welded in.

 

[y5mgisi]

Subscribed here too!

 

[Larry]

Funny as there wasn’t any major rust spots on the back side of the rockers at all. The couple little spots blasted off easily and were undercoated.

Ready for primer

As I was block sanding

After paint and removing the paper. Hehe, what a hack! I painted it out in the open air!

Fresh paint! I goofed and didn’t paint the top edge by the molding. For some reason I thought the molding went over that little section. Oh, well

Left rear quarter panel with fresh paint with a bonus bug stuck in it too. Good thing the truck is white!

Driver’s door. There was a good size rust bubble here too but I didn’t get any before shots of it.

How ya like this? I got a huge run in the right rear quarter panel that I had to redo. I let it dry a few days then sanded it down and reshot it. I made a mess of the rear step bumper too that I had to repaint. The recently acquired factory rear step bumper looked like a Chimpanzee painted it with a greasy mop. Got that all fixed up too. Need to get new pictures of those areas now.

Nice to see it sans the rust spots!

At the moment I am stock piling parts for a 4” lift, a D44 front axle, 14 bolt FF with 4:10s from a donor truck along with the usual ORD goodies. After that I’ve got a NV4500 that needs some work that will eventually go in it then some time in 2013 it will get an 8.1L infusion. Someday I really need to get a radio into too. I hate installing stereos! I am really looking forward to the NV4500 though, after driving the NV4500 in the K10 for the last couple years I can hardly tolerate the dump truck shifting SM465 in this burb

 

[noJeepshere]

Gee, a guy in his driveway can do a better job than the monkeys at Maaco. Guess there's a reason they're the cheapest...

Looks good.

 

[Deuling]

Damm you do nice work! 8.1s make me silly feeling in my pants lol

 

[rdn2blazer]

Nice body work man! Makes me miss my burb. It was white as well with the exact same interior as yours only it was a 1/2 ton. Keep up the great work. I just realized mine was an 89' too! Pic of my old burb. Another member has it now.

 

[Larry]

Interesting bumper on that burb rdn2blazer! Our Burbs almost look like twins.

Well, half of the lift is done! Started thrashing the rear tonight getting ready for the ORD shackle flip and 14 bolt FF swap. To do the rear shackle flip the tank must come down and of course, the tank was ¾ full so that took a while to syphon the gas out. Still need more parts and I have some work travel coming up so probably won’t get the lift all wrapped up for a couple weeks. To my surprise, the old springs I removed from the K10 many years ago that I cleaned up to use on the Polar Bear are 6” springs, not 4”. Ah, well…..it will come down an inch or so once it gets an 8.1L.

I am also in a quandary what I want to do with the front drive shaft. It is now too short but I don’t feel like spending money on lengthening it as I plan on swapping in a NV4500 sometime this winter and don’t want to pay to have the shaft reworked twice. Problem is I don't know exactly when my boss (wife) will let me throw down the coin to fix up the NV4500 I have laying under the work bench. Might have to do the same for the rear shaft too. Dang! I need someone to start buying some of the stuff I have on Craigslist so I can finish my projects

These Q78 Super Swampers will not be on here full time. They will just be used for certain trips.

Out with the turd 9.5” semi floater with 3:42 gears!

 

[dhcomp]

Looks killer . Jealous of your paint!

 

[y5mgisi]

Looks awesome with those tires!

 

[Larry]

Thanks guys!

I forgot to mention that I yanked the front 10 bolt w/3:42 gears out and threw it in the iron pile while installing the front lift. I installed a Dana 44 with 4:10 gears from my dad’s old wrecker that I just parted out in August.

This is the Dana 44 after I refreshed it. The D60 in the back ground is a recent score from for the K10.

Way up in front is the 14 bolt FF for the Polar Bear. It too got refreshed. Since this picture was taken it got new 13" drums....DRUMS I say!.....not rear disk. I don't buy into all that rear disk business everybody is tripping over themselves to retrofit

 

[y5mgisi]

I thought you already had a D60 in the k10? No?

 

[Larry]

I thought you already had a D60 in the k10? No?

Nope, been running a D44 with 4:56 gears & Detroit Trutrac in the K10 all these years. Actually it only let me down once playing in the snow with a broken u-joint due it being dry. I would have kept running the D44 for years to come but this D60 deal was too hard to pass up being it had the correct gear ratio and it was a single wheel hub and cost the same as a used D60 that would needed single wheel hubs and probably a regear. D44s, or even 10 bolts, aren’t that bad as long as you are ginger on the loud pedal and drive with finesse. People that complain about D44’s being weak are the same people that break D60’s too.

 

[y5mgisi]

I hear ya. Interesting. I guess i just thought it already had one.

 

[eclipse85k10]

Such aa nice build. I wouldn't expect less thoughafter seeing your k10 (one of my favs)

This doesn't help my want to convert my burn to 3/4ton

 

[rdn2blazer]

This pic is funny. I also have a few axles in my garage, two D60's and two 14FF's, and a D44 outside under our capopy cover. Two 454's in my garage and two tranny's and two transfer cases. Then throw in ALL the hundreds of other parts for two trucks and it's ALOT of shat to store lol! Hence the reason I had to buy two 20' shipping containers so I can move alot of stuff into them so I have space to actually work with my equipment in the garage. Rig is coming along man, looking good. Keep up the progress on her.

 

[Larry]

Finally got some work done to the Polar Bear that is post worthy.

Removing the rear spring shackle brackets. I find it easier to cut the rivet head in half then use an air hammer to knock off the rivet halves then beat the rivet on through the frame. Unfortunately, my air compressor was dying so removing these rivets still turned out to be an all-day event.

ORD shackle flip brackets mounted and the old 9.5” semi-floating axle pitched in the iron pile.

As the 10.5" 14 bolt full-floater was going in. Learned something with the rear brake backing plates….do not always believe the AC Delco online parts catalog for “Vehicle List” to view which vehicles use the same part. The AC Delco catalog had me believing the 13 x 2 brake backing plates from the 9.5” semi-floater were compatible with 13 x 3.5 drums on a full-floater. Ah, nope! After finding that issue, I had to go scrounge up some 13 backing plates at the salvage yard for a full-floater. Funny thing is this axle had 13 x 3.5 brakes on it when I pruned it out of the donor truck but I stole them to bolt on my K10 and had planned to use the K10’s 11”s on the back of the burb until it dawned on me I would have a park brake issue being the 11” backing plates had the bolt on park brake cables while the Suburban requires the later style push in cables. The only way to make the park brake work correctly was to find full floater backing plates with the push in cable design (1984 and later). What a ha$$le that turned out to be! Actually, I would have had the same issue had I used the 13” brakes that were originally on this axle anyway as they were the early bolt on style. It is easier to find the correct backing plates to work with the Burbs park brake system than rework the entire park brake system on the Burb to the old style U-system. With it being a manual trans, a park brake is a must so it was worth the lost week of chasing parts!

All buckled up and ready for some tires

One thing I need to redo is replace the drop pitman arm in exchange for a raised steering arm. I had a 2” drop pitman arm lying around that I thought would suffice, but no dice. It steers horrible……In fact, it barely turns left before the draglink smacks the leaf spring.

Nice butt!

To my surprise, it actually sits level and rides so much better even with the bias ply Super Swampers. Rear shackle flips make a huge different in ride. My buddy and I need to fabricate some rear bumper brackets next weekend to mount the rear step bumper. Even with a step up in tire size the change in gear ratio to 4:10 (from 3:42) did give the big bear a noticeable amount of oomph at the bottom end. The step up to 13 x 3.5 rear brake shoes/drums gave it a noticeable bump in brake power as well.

That’s all for now. Next up is hanging the rear bumper then I need to get some tunes in this thing. Been driving it for a year without a radio.

 

[y5mgisi]

Looks great! I am all the way in love with that wheel and tire combo!

 

[BerettaMato]

She's a bute Clark. Keep up the great work. Can wait to tax season to finish mine.