WL: 1986 K10 into 1983 (1984?) Suburban.

[82355]

82355 submitted a new Build:

WL: 1986 K10 into 1983 (1984?) Suburban.

Years back my buddy Wade bought a 1986 K10 Silverado short box. It had a 4" lift, with 35x12.50x15's, a 400 with a TH350/NP208 combo behind it, and ten bolts with 3.42's. He blew out the rear axle, it sat, the wheels were stolen from it, it was drug home, and dumped in a buddy's tree line for a few years. Fast forward to the fall of 2009, and I went and drug it out of the trees, and over to the shop where I was working at the time.







Martin

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[82355]

I rode down to Kansas with a buddy, and picked up some scab hummer tires from Trailworthy Fab.



Here they are on the ride home, fueling up in McPherson.



On the way home, I stopped and bought this beauty from an old college buddy.



I borrowed my little brother's 2006 K2500HD for the task. Here it is fueling up North of Milford, after getting soaked in the rain loading the damn thing.



A real "fine one owner".



Got the truck back to my shop, and started dismantling it.



Yanked out the engine and tranny. This truck had been a straight six from the factory, someone had swapped in the 350 later.



Got her on the ground. The engine turned out to be a 1979 .010 .020 4 bolt main 350. It has two spun rods, #1 and #2. Still a good usable core though.



I needed this bracket.



Stripped off everything I wanted.


This is how I unloaded the pickup that now had no brakes or steering.



I also mounted up one tire on a rim while I was there. Check out how much taller the mounted tire is.



Martin

 

[82355]

The following weekend I went and picked up this gem.



My Burban pulling it.



Looked better without the tree.



Apparently trees were a big part of this truck though.



Another shot of the "spring repair".



I never bothered to unload this one. Wasn't near as much that I needed off of it. Basically just got all the hardware loose to remove the axles.



Dropped it off at my junkyard. This one I just backed all the way up to the silo and let it roll off as I drove away with the trailer.



Had to put a new U-joint in the long side shaft, and I had a good set of 3/4 ton axles.



Martin

 

[82355]

These are the pictures from when I actually went and drug the K10 to the shop.



Got it on the trailer with a little John Deere assistance.



It wasn't very far thankfully, because that is all the tired 305 wanted to pull with the 3.08 gears.



Gave it a good bath, while it was still on the trailer.



Used the forklift to just pickup the rear end of the truck, due to the locked up axle not wanting to roll.



Here was the root of the problem.



Martin

 

[82355]

Another friend of mine was kind enough to show up and help with the job.

Here we are using the old man's 4020LP as a jack.



Closer pic.



Then Joe drug it around in a circle in the yard, so we could drop the front end down by the silo, and pick the back end up, to roll the axle out from under it.



I got a bunch of pics of this, because I think Joe was enjoying himself.



Like I said, a bunch.



It was a big circle he made.



Getting closer.



Just about got it there.



A triumphant Joe!!!



Picked up the rear, and removed the 14 bolt full floater.



Made it a pretty easy job.



14bff in loader bucket.



Joe still at the controls.



Loaded the axles into my 1982 K30 3+3, to haul them into town.



Martin

 

[82355]

Hauled the axles into the shop.



Got the Z bar bracket bolted on.



I remembered the part number for the conversion u-joint.



Got the 14 bolt in there.



Got the SM465/NP208 in, and sitting on 3/4 ton axles.



Moving under its own power for the first time in years.



Wade.



This impressed me at first. I knew he was strong, but I hate moving them things. It is missing one axle shaft. he didn't realize it would just fall out . . .



This is when I was really impressed. I was just joking with him, and he didn't realize it. I told him just to unload the front axle by himself.



Martin

 

[82355]

The K20 I bought was missing 8 lug nuts, so I went down to Doc's Service, and found these horrid chrome jug nuts. Luckily, I also found a set of hub caps while I was there, to cover them up.



Then I threw some black spray paint on the body, and some white spray paint on the wheels. Not perfect, but it looked nice from a distance.





This box showed up from DIY4X as well.



Martin

 

[82355]

That box had DIY4X shackle flips on it. I got those installed, did a few other things, and then Wade drove it back to Lincoln. He drove it for a year or two, and broke some stuff on it. Finally it started on fire one day when he was driving it, and he parked it. So I had to drive to Lincoln with a trailer again, and haul it back home again.

I ended up buying this 1989 GMC Suburban for $600 with a bad transmission. I was going to part it out, and use the 350 TBI in place of the 400 in Wade's K10. I figured if I was going to have to rewire the entire engine compartment, I might as well upgrade to a better engine.





Turned out there was nothing wrong with the transmission, so we decided not to scrap it.

We started discussing turning that Suburban into his off road rig instead. Talks of bobbing the rear and such.

We decided that the 1989 was a pretty nice rig, so we had a change of heart. Especially after I bought this next Suburban.







It was a 1984 (maybe 1983?) half ton, with a 6.2 diesel. I bought it for $400.

Martin

 

[Deuling]

 

[82355]

About a year ago to the day, we started cobbing parts from his short box for the Suburban.

It had plenty of bullet holes, but we were not planning on using that part.



Previous owner really enjoy John Deeres. And shooting his own truck.



Got the 14bff under it, still needed to install the shackle flip.



I had picked up a pair of Dana 60's a while back, so the DRW one went under this.



Steering arm.



Rearched factory springs???



ORD told me that is a stock replacement spring pack part number.



Oh, and of course, this was the very first modification I made to the rig.



Martin

 

[82355]

Got the front axle under it. It looks funny with regular wheels on a DRW Dana 60.



How it sat with 4"(ish) lift springs with 35x12.50x15's on the front, no lift on the rear with 36x12.50x16.5" Hummer take offs.







Martin

 

[82355]

...and this is what happens when Wade mounts a 36x12.50x16.5 tire on a rim when it is damn near full of water.















Martin

 

[82355]

Wade came up yesterday, and we did some more work to his Suburban.

The fuel tank had to come out, but I had to leave for the bar, so I left Wade behind to work on it.

He got it out.



Using only the finest safety first ideas.

Made room to cut some more.



Martin

 

[82355]

This is where we started today.

The lighting in the milk barn is fairly poor.

We removed that rear most cross member from between the frame rails.



Excess frame rail behind the rear shackle flip brackets.



Damn near 26".



Then we bolted it back in place between the shackle flip brackets.



Started cutting off the frame rails.



Torched them off, much quicker than the sawzall.







Both rear frame rails gone.



Martin

 

[82355]

It had been sitting in the milk barn since November. I robbed one battery out of it for something else. Threw in a battery today, and put the charger on them for a couple hours. She started right up. Then died. I did get it to stay running after the third try. Smoked like a sombitch. I thought this looked neat though, so I took a picture.



Wade drove it out.



We had to mess with the alignment, it would barely turn left.



Also had to do some more fender trimming. Which it was going to kind of need anyway, but with the standard wheels on DRW hubs, it really rubbed.

We took it to the cut. Damn near made, but spun out right at the top. I think it would have made it with lockers.

Then it didn't want to stay running on the incline, so we figured it was low on fuel, so we snuck it into town (not really, met a deputy on the highway....), and got some fuel.



This is the current fueling procedure.



On the way back home we screwed around on a mim road for a while. Flexed it out and such.



I thought the rear would flex better.

Then my phone got cold, and quit working. Pussy. So I didn't get any pictures of the near flop. I took some with Wade's phone though. maybe later we'll get to see them.

Martin

 

[82355]

That is where we are at as of today. I kind of glommed pictures from old worklogs and such off our local board, so some of it may be confusing. Wade did send me a bunch more pictures from his phone, so I might get them posted tomorrow.

Martin

 

[Deuling]

What happened to the k10? How bad was it burnt? Looked fairly clean.



Digging the burb.

 

[82355]

It looked better in the pictures. Doors were rusty. Cab corners and rockers were gone. Bedsides were rusty. The fire burned up everything under the hood.

Martin

 

[82355]

Here are the pictures Wade sent me after my phone turned off.











...and this is when it about went over.





That back body mount isn't doing much.



Martin

 

[treborjm87]

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