Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

I need watch this one for sure.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

The holiday weekend went by in a blur. I have family coming to stay next month so I'm working on getting my back yard in shape. In between sessions of weeding and planting, I have been working on Crewcab Jake.

My buddy Yuma has been clearing a hole in his shop so he can get the body work done, and prepped for paint. For that to happen, I had a lot of preparation that needed to be done first. At some point in his life the roof was damaged. It appears that a tree limb fell on it and dented several spots. That will be the first challenge for Yuma and his crew to over come.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

With that task is accomplished they will focus on the interior metal. After a few decades of living out in the Texas sun, the interior color is faded. It will get a fresh coat of GM red on the entire inside of the cab. That means that the all of the interior had to be stripped out.

To remove the headliner panel from the truck you have to take the front or back glass out. It will not fit through the door opening with out doing damage. All of the rubber seals will be replaced with new ones from Precision Replacement Parts. I opted to remove the rear glass since I was working solo.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

Would you mind taking a picture of the hardware that's used to hold the hood stoppers on the radiator support? My support only has rectangular holes with nothing to thread the stoppers into. Much appreciated. Build looks great btw.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

I will get some close up pics later today.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

With the interior stripped on Friday, I called it a day. Saturday morning I focused on the bed. It needed to come off so they painter had access to the back of the cab. I backed it up to the edge of the door and removed all the bed bolts. With thos out of the way I set up my trusty bed hoist. I know it doesnt look like its OSHA approved, but its safer than it appears. I have a 4x4 running across the rafters with the chain looped over all of them.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

With the bed off, I moved outside to work on the doors. I started with the passenger side and got the front and rear hung. Unfortunately the rear door had a busted glass. I'll swap the glass from the old door and have Precision Replacement parts rebuild the rear quarter window.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

So far I have acquired 3 full power doors. I'm still looking for a drivers front door, but my buddy may have one coming soon. Till then I spent the day hanging the three that I have. I used the truck hinges to keep alignment as simple as possible. I will eventually replace all of the bushings to ensure they close smoothly.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

For those that have never added power doors to a non power truck, be aware that you will need the harness from the donor truck. In this case it had been cut badly so my buddy provided me with a clean harness from his stash of parts. Also not that you must make holes large enough for the plugs to go through. I used a hole saw followed by an air sander with to deburr the holes.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

You got busy for sure!

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

Lots of work to do by yourself.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

are you putting the doors on by yourself ? If so can you tell me how you do it, I have to do mine which are electric and awful heavy.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

Loving the build so far, it's going to be one cool truck when you're done.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

Chris has been pretty busy around his house lately so I had to go lone wolf.
I used a floor jack with a 2x4 on top to help hold it in place. Its rather precarious, but it works. Note that I left the stock hinges in place on the cab, and bolted the them to the doors. It would be much harder the other way around.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

Another way to go is park the truck near the edge of the garage door and use a strap over the door track to stabilize as you have it up on the jack. Works good, done it a couple times doing door pins.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

Lookin' great, Ken!!!! Looks a bit like you have your hands full, but, working smarter rather than harder is paying off!

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

I looked at that initially because i wanted to work out of the sun. Unfortunately nothing seemed to line up with where I needed to be to have adequate space to move around. I'm trying. Thanks for the kind words.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

No shop time this week, and Yuma hasn't started on the bodywork yet. I have been gathering parts again. I decided to keep the drip rails in place. Somewhere along the way the existing rails lost their stainless caps. I posted a request on my Facebook feed and located a mint used set from a 91 Suburban.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

Even though I have a nice 74 grill that's in very restorable condition, I was still looking for better. I came across a buddy that had one of the Key Parts GM Restoration replacement grills. He had two, and very graciously offered me one. This is the same grill like I have in Elwood and the quality is impressive.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

I really like the 73-74 grills. Though I’m still partial to my three bar 76 grill. Nice pieces you have for sure.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

I like the 75 up grills too, but the recess of the 73-74 adds so much depth to the front end.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

After dropping Jake at my buddies shop, things got really crazy for me. Work had a seasonal surge so my company hours were extended. Combine that with prepping Elwood for a photo shoot, and I had neglected my home improvement projects. My yard was a mess, and I had family coming to stay. We had a brief vacation planned with the fam so I had to get busy. I spent a few busy weeks and weekends getting some remodel work done. In between home update projects my wife and I worked on the yard.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

Nice build

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

Going from daylight to dark is nothing new for me, but i ran out of hours to work in the shop. Combine that with my painter getting called away for some contract work, and production on Jake has been minimal.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

Last week I got a text from Yuma and they did get started on stripping the roof. It appears that a tree limb fell on it and caused some damage in several spots. Most of it was minor till the P/O decided to try his skills at fixing it. Unfortunately Farmer Jack did more bad than good.

All those small rust spots are high points where the P/O tried to "fix" the dents. It was a challenge to get it flat again, but Yuma and crew pulled it off. Heres what they started with.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

To ensure that there was nothing hiding under that weathered and worn paint, they stripped the roof to raw metal. The Texas sun had taken its toll on the factory paint, but the sheet metal was all good. With the exception of the bag of marble surface they had to get flat no rust repair was necessary.

It took several sessions of pulling low spots, followed by hammer work to get the high spots flat again. Heres the first round required to fix the farmers fiasco.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

I hate doing work on a roof, so much area to work and if its double walled like the trucks are, just makes the work slower...

Looking good after one round...

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

Tree limbs and hail storms reek havoc. I hate doing repairs on roofs and hoods from areas that get a lot of hail.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

My crew's roof is only slightly better shape than that, I'm gonna get it as straight as possible. With the planned suspension lift and 38" tires it'll be up out of sight so I won't see it everytime I get in...that's the plan anyways but my OCD usually wins out

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

I can do minor metal repair, but this called for the experts. i know I didnt have the tools, skills, or patience to tackle this job. The man thats doing the metal work has been doing it for over 40 years. He looked at the roof, smiled, and said "no problem, I LOVE this kind of work.

We know thats not going to happen. Keep telling yourself if it eases the pain though. ;)

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

No pics yet, but I'm told the roof is ready for primer, and the back of the cab is getting done this weekend.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

I asked my buddy Johnny C to do an improved version of the rendering I had for Jake. I wanted it to be simple, showing no specific color or wheels at this time. I still havent picked it up yet, but heres what he came up with. Thanks Johnny, I always appreciate your work.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

Dang! I sense technical difficulties. (pic not showing up for me)

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

I fixed it. Pic didn't upload.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

I picked up the last of the power doors today. Its still fairly easy to find full power doors. They were common on the 88-91 Suburbans. Unfortunately most of those also came with power mirrors as well. As much as I like the functionality pf power mirrors, the look is not period correct. I'll stick with hand adjusted dumbos instead.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

My wife is amazing. I needed to haul the core support, a fender, and a door to the bodyshop. I knew it wouldn't fit under my bed cover so I planned to load it on my trailer. My wife suggested using her Denali instead. Unfortunately I didn't take pics, but it did fit.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

Yesterday morning I packed my wife's Denali with body parts for Jake's 84 to 74 conversion. I headed to Pasadena to meet with Yuma and see where we were. We unloaded the parts and chatted about the progress. The damage that Farmer Fred had done with has barnyard attempt to repair the roof was gone. The roof was flat and ready for a layer of high build primer.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

The back of the cab had the usual waves and dings that come from the manufacturer stampings. We plan to eliminate or at least reduce them where possible. The sides are taking shape. The back and recesses will come next.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

The only real rust on the entire truck was this weird spot in the rear door jamb. I was perplexed as to why it was in such an odd spot. I investigated the possibilities and discovered the cause. The drain hole in the rear door had clogged enough to allow water to accumulate inside. The door was rusting inside, and the corrosive water was dripping out causing rust in the jamb.
To ensure that Jake will be 100% rust free, the door was replaced with a newer Suburban door. Yuma cut out the rusted area top and bottom. The exposed insides will be blasted, and neutralized. New metal will replace the bad spots, and sealed up properly.

Re: "Jake" the 84 to 74 crewcab
 

Jake's really coming along...its a lot more in-depth than what you've documented with previous builds & I think it's gonna be a good guide for conversions & light damage & rust repair.