At this point, I figured I better start documenting my build, or I'm never going to catch up. I originally didn't plan to be making enough changes to justify a whole build thread, but I can safely say that I'm well into full rebuild range now.
Here's the subject:
It's a 1986 C20 Suburban that I've had since 2012. It's a factory 454 truck, with the HD towing upgrade that included a 14 bolt full floater out back, 13" brakes all the way around, and a few other goodies. I've done a lot to it over the years. I started with some cooling and suspension upgrades to make a reliable long distance towing machine out of it. Then I threw a Richmond no-slip in the rear diff, upgraded to some H2 rims and modern sized 17" all terrains, and did some backcountry driving/camping stuff for a few years. I took it over Tincup pass in the summer of 2012, with my then girlfriend, now wife aboard. To this day she swears we're never doing something like that again, but the truck handled it great. Nobody on the trail, especially the guys in their Polaris ATVs at the top could believe I made it up in a 2 wheel drive. A couple of other long trips later, and some cross-country moves, and around 2013-14 timeframe, I swapped in an NV4500 5-speed, along with a custom VDO gauge panel and some extra gauges to keep an eye on things. Since then, I've been driving the wheels off of it and loving every minute, but the 6 years of living in coastal environments and surviving all the weather from the driveway has taken it's toll, and the old girl was starting to show her age by last summer.
This project is about the most extreme case of snowball that I've ever witnessed. I guess you could say that it started last June. I used the burb to tow my 24' enclosed trailer, race car, and team down to Daytona to run the chumpcar series endurance race there. The truck performed flawlessly, except for the fact that the A/C compressor clutch froze up the day before we left, and I had to ride 12 hours down and 12 hours back with no A/C, in the sweltering southern summer heat. Add to that 6 hours behind the wheel of a race car without any sort of cool suit, and another 8 hours of working the pits, and you could say I had a sticky weekend. It was fun though.
When I got back, I decided that I was going to figure out something with the A/C. I've already been through this A/C system twice, the first time to rebuild it and convert to a serpentine belt setup with a Sanden compressor. After the first compressor went bad, I rebuilt it a second time, thinking it was the junk eBay compressor I'd used. When the second (brand new from Rock Auto) compressor clutch locked up, I decided something might be up with my setup. Being the kind of guy that likes to do things right, I decided to stop experimenting and give the guys at Vintage Air a call. Soon enough, a Gen IV surefit kit was on its way.
Then things started to get out of hand. On one of my late night internet surfing sessions, after I'd already torn fairly heavily into the truck to prep for the A/C swap, I started to rekindle my old dreams of an 8.1L swap. I've wanted to do this for years, ever since I followed Larry's K5 and Polar Bear builds when I still owned my '90 1500 Suburban. I realized that the only thing that had been holding me back was the fact that I'd redone the A/C and accessories already, and didn't want to do them twice. Well, now that I was into it anyways, why not look around some?
A few calls and clicks later, and I had an eBay purchase made for a lower miles 8.1L pullout from a 2004 C5500 Schwann's truck. More on that sub-snowball later...
Once I started pulling the truck apart to fit in the Vintage Air, I found a windshield that was leaking into the floorboard from rust I didn't really know I had. Then I decided to investigate the bubbles in the rear window seals, and found more of the same. Overall, the truck is extremely clean, but the desert has really burned off most of the paint, and the coast has gotten to what's left behind. I figured if I didn't get a handle on it now, I was going to lose the truck to rust in another decade or so. Might as well fix it right, so the teardown continued.
I think I've hit rock bottom on the mudslide/snowball now. This morning I won a government auction on a 92k mile '86 K30 3+3. Since my Suburban is already blown into a million pieces for all the swappery and paint, and it was in desperate need of a front end rebuild, I figured why waste the money doing two wheel drive stuff when I've really always wanted a 4x4 anyways. I really have to put the brakes on the project now, or it'll never get back together again, but here's what's currently in the works:
1. Vintage Air Gen IV Surefit with rear-A/C delete
2. Vortec 8100 swap, ported heads and intake, cam, headers, and some other goodies
3. K20 Suburban frame swap
4. Dana 60/1-ton 14 bolt/1-ton brakes/NP205 swap from the K30 (along with a 4WD NV4500)
5. Repaint inside and out (inside is already done)
6. Full sound deadening and modern audio setup (most of this is also done with some previous projects)
The motor and wiring harness are already done. I'm in the process of bodywork now on the firewall, roof, and doorjambs. When the K30 gets home, I'll start gutting it for the good stuff and get ready to flip it to someone else to enjoy. Over the next few posts, I'll try and catch up to where I'm at so I can start making regular updates. Stay tuned!