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Project Polar Bear: '89 V2500 Suburban

Truck looks good, but it sure has a lot of doors :whistle:.

If you need soft parts in the future, a buddy of mine is a distributor for Precision weatherstrip. He always beats competitive pricing (unintentionally). LMC is good for nice catalogs, but their prices are typically off the hook, bordering on ridiculous.
 
mosesburb said:
Truck looks good, but it sure has a lot of doors :whistle:.

If you need soft parts in the future, a buddy of mine is a distributor for Precision weatherstrip. He always beats competitive pricing (unintentionally). LMC is good for nice catalogs, but their prices are typically off the hook, bordering on ridiculous.
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Well, heck….you’ve been holding back valuable information there sir! As far as weather stripping, I only ordered rear door weather strips as the side doors are fine. The rears aren’t sealing well and rattle like crazy.
 
have you noticed any issues with the tinting effecting night time wheeling? or do you just roll em down when you need to?
 
Smokinthehippies said:
have you noticed any issues with the tinting effecting night time wheeling? or do you just roll em down when you need to?
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Dude, I just got them done Monday :dunno:

But yes, I do suspect there will be some visibility downsides to having tinted windows where they might have to be rolled down to see out. This rig will be more of a driver than a hardcore wheeler and I usually don’t do partake in nighttime wheeling anyway (notice neither of my rigs have off-road lights, cuz I don’t drive at night...it gets in the way of drinking time :haha:).

My buddies and I usually travel/wheel or fish during the day then sit around at night and cook fine off-road dinners and drink. My rigs aren’t used for the sole purpose of bouncing off rocks. They built for a purpose of off-road adventures to getting away from people in the way of camping/fishing trips and long distance/ 7 day long desert get-a-ways to the back country of the Southwest. Trail riding, sight seeing, and photography around the desert is my thing more so than rock crawling, etc.
 
Larry said:
Dude, I just got them done Monday :dunno:

But yes, I do suspect there will be some visibility downsides to having tinted windows where they might have to be rolled down to see out. This rig will be more of a driver than a hardcore wheeler and I usually don’t do partake in nighttime wheeling anyway (notice neither of my rigs have off-road lights, cuz I don’t drive at night...it gets in the way of drinking time :haha:).

My buddies and I usually travel/wheel or fish during the day then sit around at night and cook fine off-road dinners and drink. My rigs aren’t used for the sole purpose of bouncing off rocks. They built for a purpose of off-road adventures to getting away from people in the way of camping/fishing trips and long distance/ 7 day long desert get-a-ways to the back country of the Southwest. Trail riding, sight seeing, and photography around the desert is my thing more so than rock crawling, etc.
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understood, i guess i was thinking more on your previous experience with the k10 and if that was a factor. no driving at night means that night driving wouldnt be a problem! :thumb:
 
I had my BMW fronts tinted. Biggest issue is seeing out of the side rear view mirrors at night.

Besides that, didn't bother me. Got a ticket for them, and had the tint removed. I miss it.
 
I have double black tint on my suburban on everything but the windshield and it makes it a little darker at night when looking out the windows but nothing that makes it dangerous.

Also Larry I would be happy to help you with the bumper. The only thing I would change on mine is making it out of 8" channel and the thickness is completely up to the user. The reason I would use taller channel is because mine doesn't allow my to have the winch mounted flush with the bumper or completely recessed into the bumper. I would be happy to build one for you at cost if you wanted to go that way but I would think you have a welder and the tools to be able to make it yourself for the same amount that it would cost me. Mine is so strong you can literally hit a tree and the bumper would be totally fine. If you look in my profile you can see how mine is built but if you would like some better photos I would be more than happy to send you some. I also look for a truck I can take camping and basically what you do all the time so I build my bumpers and other components to fit those types of conditions. I have many designs for for bumpers, skid plates and rocker panels that would work great for anything you would be using it for so let me know and I would be happy to help.
 
My only issue with tinted windows is trying to back up at night, even with the extra back up lights, I have a hard time seeing anything. I wish it was easier to swap out windows on these things, I'd have a tinted summer set and a clear winter set. But that's just not practical I'm afraid...

I like the looks of your 'burb Larry, but imo, it seems a little big for just tooling about. But your idea of a driver is different than mine.
 
I only got to tinting my front passenger door window on my burb and in dim lighting it makes it hard to see the mirror but hey its got power windows
 
KamikazeRedneck said:
I have double black tint on my suburban on everything but the windshield and it makes it a little darker at night when looking out the windows but nothing that makes it dangerous.

Also Larry I would be happy to help you with the bumper. The only thing I would change on mine is making it out of 8" channel and the thickness is completely up to the user. The reason I would use taller channel is because mine doesn't allow my to have the winch mounted flush with the bumper or completely recessed into the bumper. I would be happy to build one for you at cost if you wanted to go that way but I would think you have a welder and the tools to be able to make it yourself for the same amount that it would cost me. Mine is so strong you can literally hit a tree and the bumper would be totally fine. If you look in my profile you can see how mine is built but if you would like some better photos I would be more than happy to send you some. I also look for a truck I can take camping and basically what you do all the time so I build my bumpers and other components to fit those types of conditions. I have many designs for for bumpers, skid plates and rocker panels that would work great for anything you would be using it for so let me know and I would be happy to help.
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I’ll have to get with you when I am ready for a bumper purchase. You and pma4x4 have some cool bumper options to choose from. As mentioned, I already have one Warn classic coming from Mosesburb.



noJeepshere said:
I like the looks of your 'burb Larry, but imo, it seems a little big for just tooling about. But your idea of a driver is different than mine.
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Hehe, I can guarantee you my idea of a driver is different from yours. I work from a home office so my daily work commute takes about 15 seconds to walk up the stairs to the home office while the Burb and family of trucks sit in the garage. On the occasion I must go to the post office or office supply store, they are less than 10 minutes away. I also live in the rural wide open spaces of Southern Colorado where the Californians, Texans and Washington folks have not yet invaded so we really don't have the over-population and traffic snarls to deal with like Denverforniaexasinton. For the few weeks a month I have to travel for work the airport is less than 50 miles away and I get reimbursed 52 cents per mile each way plus parking fees. Now, why does a car payment free old Suburban seem like such a bad daily driver in my situation? :rolleyes:
 
Hey Larry I got the instructions and dimensions from Warn yesterday in regards to the original Warn winch bumper. I am going to see what I can come up with in the next couple of weeks in duplicating it.
 
Larry said:
Hehe, I can guarantee you my idea of a driver is different from yours. I work from a home office so my daily work commute takes about 15 seconds to walk up the stairs to the home office while the Burb and family of trucks sit in the garage. On the occasion I must go to the post office or office supply store, they are less than 10 minutes away. I also live in the rural wide open spaces of Southern Colorado where the Californians, Texans and Washington folks have not yet invaded so we really don't have the over-population and traffic snarls to deal with like Denverforniaexasinton. For the few weeks a month I have to travel for work the airport is less than 50 miles away and I get reimbursed 52 cents per mile each way plus parking fees. Now, why does a car payment free old Suburban seem like such a bad daily driver in my situation? :rolleyes:
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Well that makes total sense.
 
y5mgisi said:
Interesting. It always blows my mind that people have jobs like that.
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Hehe, the type of job where you get your ass handed to you all day because of product, parts and service issues? Nobody ever calls me to say, “Hey, we love your stuff!” :haha:

I haven’t always been fortunate enough to work from home though. After graduating college in 1997 I spent 5 years in biggest armpit of the Northern Hemisphere……Detroit, MI when I worked at Chevrolet Motor Division. GM offices are much like the movie "Office Space" :haha:. The last year I was in Detroit I worked right smack dab downtown at the Renaissance Center. That was an ugly commute every day through an even uglier city.

I moved to a spun of division of GM as it was being spun off back in 1999 (Workhorse) in order to be able to move back West. The move back to CO didn't happen for me though until 2 years after moving to Workhorse. In 2005 Workhorse was purchased by Navistar and I now support the largest package delivery company in the US with service support on over 30,000 Internationals with diesel engines and 17,000 Workhorses with GM Vortec engines. Their trucks are brown in color. This is my busy time of year where I get 50-70 calls a day and over a hundred of emails each day as my customer is gearing up for their Christmas rush season. They need their trucks on the road to deliver everybody's Christmas presents. At least I don't have to be in an office anymore! :waytogo:
 
The rear pinion seal started leaking on the Burb the other day and made a mess all over the driveway so I got fed up with it and traded it off on a new Tahoe! I’m sick of working on old junk! The dealer even gave me $2,000 trade for the Polar Bear, which I thought was a fare deal.

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Hehe, just kidding :pimp:. We ordered this for my wife a while back and it showed up Wednesday. We took delivery of the Loco Mocha Hoe today. 2013 is the last year before the questionable body style change and unproven powertrain changes in 2014. Had to have one of the last proven ones!
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The rear pinion seal really did start leaking on the Polar Bear the other day though but it was a quick fix to replace the seal.
 
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