Well, the rebuild begins.
I picked up this 1988 Suburban two years ago from the local owner who I bugged for over three years to sell it to me. It was the normal stop by every four months or so and ask “You want to sell me that Suburban?” He had purchased it new many years ago and even though it was now over 25 years later, it only had 73,879 miles on the OD of which only 12 miles had been put on it in the last twelve months. You could tell the old guy loved his truck, but with many years behind him and knowing he would never get the chance to drive it again, I got the call while on vacation back in the summer of 2013. Of course his place was the first stop after getting home and the deal was struck. Though low overall miles for a Suburban that old, the time had taken its toll from sitting. First was to get it mechanically sound to drive. So after the normal plugs/wires/intake gasket, valve cover gaskets, radiator re-core, full brake rebuild, battery, clearing up vacuum issues, AC charge (R12) etc… and a new set of whitewall tires it was ready to roll and that we did. It became the daily driver while the Ford Excursion 7.3 sat in the driveway.
This past winter with the snow we had here in VA and the whitewall road tires just not cutting it, I decided to look and found a set of factory rally wheels with tires from a young man parting out a truck to help him pay for the rebuild of another Chevy truck he was doing. I have to admit, though I love my “Old Man Whitewall Tires” the factory rallies have grown on me and it will be a hard decision as to which one will be the wheel of choice after the rebuild. It may come down to whitewalls in the summer and rallies in the winter.
After suffering a major heart attack in December, 2014 and open heart (double by-pass) in March 2015 at the ripe old age of 50 years, my wife looked at me and said “Go ahead, spend the money you can’t take it with you”. Being someone that has a hard time justifying spending money on certain things in life, I needed that push. With that nudge, I contacted a young man I know that helped me finish up a rebuild I was doing back in 2011/2012 with a 1986 Chevy K30 Crewcab that I’ve been using in my hot air balloon business. It was time for Chris to help out again on another Chevy rebuild.
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=355449
Chris was happy to help since it’s a change of pace for him and the types of cars he’s use to working on daily at his shop. Chris specializes in the Honda/Nissan/Toyota low profile, carbon fiber, fast engine Japanese car crowd of young boys that like to go fast, low and loud.
Needless to say, the credit card took and few hits with getting ready to start the rebuild. Just like the 1986 K30, the Suburban is getting an all new interior from carpet, seats, headliner, dash pad and just about everything in between being cleaned and/or redyed with Shadow Blue from SEM. All new rubber window seals, vent window rebuild, outside emblems, grille, inner front fenders, windshield, front wind deflector and chrome bumpers will finish it off. Got the seats out and sent off for recovering, the truck has been stripped of the bumpers, grill, emblems, etc...and bodywork has begun. Today started with cutting out the old rust and rough fitting the new panels. Since the truck was driven locally around town, it’s turning out to be a partial replacement of both the rear quarters, the dog legs between the rear door and rear tire (on either side) and one outer rocker.
Another choice will be the running boards. I'll be the first to say, I like being able to step onto and then into the Suburban from the running board. But I'm just not 100% sold on the looks. I think with "Old Man Whitewalls" they do look the part, but with the factory rallies, not so sure. I was thinking about a set of Super Hoops for the front/rear thinking they would look great with the rallies, but not sure how they would look with the whitewalls. I guess, you could just go with both! Whitewalls/running boards in the summer, Rallies and Super Hoops in the winter
Oh well, tomorrow more cutting and test fitting. I'll be sure to take a few more pictures of the progress. Can't wait to see how the seats turned out. If there half as good as the ones he did for the K30, they'll be great!
I will say, I did just miss a factory grill on eBay this weekend for the single headlight setup. Would have loved to have the old Bowtie up front. I guess someone in the end wanted it just a little more than I did.
The thought was to maybe either have the after market one wrapped in chrome vinyl or try to find someone that's doing the water based chrome paint. Not sure how a chrome grill would look.
Until Next Time,
Enjoy,