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Project Polar Bear: '89 V2500 Suburban

We finally got the rear bumper from Hefty Fab in the springs and its a work of art i swear! Gorgeous. A few minor issues but aren't there always an issue or 2.


I would love to see some detail pics of your rear bumper. Great looking piece.
 
Lol...busy indeed. Trying to plot and plan to get the jimmy in shape so at some point i can join uncle nick and you on an adventure....

We finally got the rear bumper from Hefty Fab in the springs and its a work of art i swear! Gorgeous. A few minor issues but aren't there always an issue or 2.

That bumper looks great Doug! I always wondered about that place in the Springs. Looks like they do pretty nice work. I like that bumper a lot better than the home made one on the back of my K10. Looks like you have a lot more storage too. Sweet!

If you can swing it, do the LS and trans at the same time so you can move to a 4L60E or 4L80E and run it on the same ECM as the engine that way you don’t have to fart around with rigging up the screwylue 700R4 TV cable to an LS engine. Or just do a NV4500 swap and have something ;)

The 241 in the Polar Bear sounds like a rock grinder in 4 low as well. Figured it was nature of the beast as I’ve already had mine apart and it was surprisingly perfect inside but I went a head and added new shift pads since it was already apart.
 
Funny thing is that i have never been able to find a spec on tcase chains. I guess as a future rule of thumb - if you crack the case it gets a chain....
 
Funny thing is that i have never been able to find a spec on tcase chains. I guess as a future rule of thumb - if you crack the case it gets a chain....


I have many old GM factory service manuals and unit repair manuals. Sometime I’ll have to look and see if they give any spec on the chain.

I am totally loving your bumper over the one on my K10 even more every second I look at your pic. Mine has worked fine for the past several years but I could use more room on the rear bumper for additional fuel and water cans. I might have to call those guys at Hefty!

I love the double gate feature that I have now so the assembly isn’t so big when it swings open but I could use more storage room on the bumper like you have. If they could integrate a winch and receiver hitch into that bumper would even be better. I carry 12 gallons of fuel and 5 gallons of water on mine now but the ability to carry more crap would even be better! Might just steal some ideas from your bumper and incorporate them into what I already have.
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My collection of GM Helm manuals from 73 thru 2003 went to my buddy dave as i had no where to put it when i lost everything. I did look at a few unit repair manuals and never found a spec which i found odd. Odd because after 12 years with Freightliner i learned there was never a bad part according to warranty...there was always a spec to base the reasoning behind why something got changed out. Dave does all the work on my Jimmy because i have zero time to do it because of work...and no where to do it since i have no place to call home.
 
Well crap! I would like to be able to tell some elaborate story of how a Taxi cab bashed into me after it was highjacked by escapee spider monkeys from the local zoo but that didn’t happen. Ah, Nope! I backed into a pole a few weeks ago…. Errr!

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I fixed the bumper the next day with a porta power and floor jack. It came out alright but it doesn’t look near as nice as the solid virgin GM step bumper that it once was. My buddy Coloradobill and I will be building a new one for it soon similar to what is on the K10.
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The K10 felt sorry for the Polar Bear so it donated it’s tires to the Suburban for a while. It was time for a change as I am getting tired of the black steelies that were on it and the Super Swampers are not a realistic tire to run year around. I really like this tire and wheel combo on this truck more than any other. I'm actually thinking of leaving this set on the Burb and get a new set of wheels and tires identical to these to put back on the K10
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Nothing new to report on the Burb other than I’ve been collecting a lot of 8.1L bits and pieces here and there. Hope to get the engine swap done this winter :laugh:
 
Looking great! New bumper will be nice, don't really like the look of those step bumpers.

Nice custom, or stock rear will look great.
 
Haha did the evil trunk monkey get out if hand?


Hehe, the damn trunk monkey didn’t start screaming when he saw the pole coming! And WTF do they put those little yellow poles so far from huge signs anyway? Errr, the pole must have been 8 feet from the sign and only 3 feet tall. Glad the original bumper wasn’t on it or I would have lost the quarter panel too. I hate those original wrap around bumpers for that reason and why I had to fix the rear quarter panel when I bought it (the stupid wrap around bumper got it). At least the step bumper took the pole like a champ and bent back halfway decent :rolleyes:
 
Gotta say Larry this is my Favorite Sub of all time. I love the Q78s with the caps the most.

Good thing you were able to fix the bumper, looking forward to more updates.

Hows your daughter by the way, she's gotta be close to a year right. My son will be 1 tomorrow, they grow so fast.
 
Gotta say Larry this is my Favorite Sub of all time. I love the Q78s with the caps the most.

Good thing you were able to fix the bumper, looking forward to more updates.

Hows your daughter by the way, she's gotta be close to a year right. My son will be 1 tomorrow, they grow so fast.

Thanks!

Oh, yeah! That was a fast year! In fact her 1st birthday was yesterday but we celebrated her birthday on Sunday. I had forgotten how close our babies were in birth dates. Happy Birthday to your little guy tomorrow!

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Thanks!

Oh, yeah! That was a fast year! In fact her 1st birthday was yesterday but we celebrated her birthday on Sunday. I had forgotten how close our babies were in birth dates. Happy Birthday to your little guy tomorrow!

Thanks. She's adorable, you're a lucky man haha.
 
Love the Polar Bear...and the step bumper. Hell, if I had any spare $$$ I'd put one on the front of my burb...:thumb:
 
Ah, there was one more lucky strike related to the old Burb in the last few months. My buddy snagged a 2wd ’89 Burb on Craigslist to pirate the good TBI 5.7L from. Lucky for me it had the exact same color interior as mine with a perfect 3rd row seat. My Burb originally had a 3rd row seat but it was missing when I got it….not missing anymore!

I usually leave the center row seats flat and any riders get to use the rear limo seat. The old sumbish even rides better with the little weight of the seat behind the axle.
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The Rottypit loves to ride back there like a boss :haha:

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