'89 GMC Suburban restoration/build up project.

[dieselfuel]

I've been putting miles on her around town. The fun factor of the motor swap hasn't worn off yet, this last tank full only got me 11mpg. I bet I can get 12+ if I back off the skinny pedal a little.

This weekend's project was to finish designing bumpers. I think I'm pretty close right now. I like the way they've turned out. I need to buy a couple sheets of 3/16" and 1/4" plate along with a couple sticks of tube and I'll be ready to cut/weld everything. I might stretch the ends of the front bumper to bring it back towards the fender a little more. Both bumpers will have 2" receivers in them and I'll do a hitch mount for the winch. The rear should have room for two swing out pivots so I can do a dual swing out kinda like PMA4x4 did.

 

[tip]

Love the CAD. Great work so far and can't wait to see how the bumpers turn out. I like how clean and simple they are, hope to build similar ones for mine down the road.

 

[holl]

do you use a highlift jack? if so, you may want to design a lifting point. I have had those jacks slip on a angled bumper. Just my two cents.....

 

[98dango]

How well do you think that card board will hold up long term. Sorry had to.

I do like the design and clean appearance.

 

[Renntag]

The highlift jack integration is a great idea. The square stock eyelet that accepts a turn buckle works well and seems to be a very common solution.
I am very interested in this same project and will be considering adding a skinny bolt on ladder to connect the roof basket and the bumper while also acting as a tail lamp/ body corner proctection.

 

[Woofwagon]

The highlift jack integration is a great idea. The square stock eyelet that accepts a turn buckle works well and seems to be a very common solution.
I am very interested in this same project and will be considering adding a skinny bolt on ladder to connect the roof basket and the bumper while also acting as a tail lamp/ body corner proctection.

I have seen bumpers that integrate a lifting eye attachment for hi-lift jacks to chain to. I may do a similar setup with mine. This way I can put a chain under tension to lift the vehicle instead of relying on a single point of contact with just the 'tooth' of the jack.

 

[dieselfuel]

dang, sorry i haven't checked this forum in a while guys, i do most of my posting from my phone and tapatalk and expo aren't getting along for some reason.

nothing really exciting to update with, Daisy made her first trip out of town a couple weeks ago. my wife and i cruised up to Cedar City UT to see some fall colors, we were a little too early in the season but it was a fun trip anyway. we put just under 400mi on the truck with no issues and she averaged just under 15mpg for the trip with a tail wind for half the drive home. i havent moved forward with the bumpers really, i made a small adjustment to the front but that's it. i don't have anywhere to store or work with 4x8' sheets of steel at home nor do i have any means of cutting all of it accurately. (i'd just butcher it with a grinder)

i knocked the corners off to round it out a bit more, i like it. i hadn't thought of hi-lift points built in but i like the idea, thanks!

outside of cedar city.

 

[Renntag]

Great pic of the truck out in it's natural environment.
Keep up the progress. Your build is inspiring mine !

 

[piratexpress1369a]

just finished reading this ..and what a job you have done ,love the burb's ...now get back in there do some more cool stuff

 

[dieselfuel]

just finished reading this ..and what a job you have done ,love the burb's ...now get back in there do some more cool stuff

Thanks man, this winter I'm diving back in, bumpers, sliders, skid plates, interior, hvac, and electronics. **** I better get to work!

I checked all the fluids today in preparation for another southern Utah fall color hunt. while I was at it I took a shot at solving an annoying noise she makes. The power steering pump whines like crazy. The oil was being agitated by the way I had it plumbed. My pump reservoir has two return ports on it and I had the oil returning to the top one, too close to the surface. I swapped things around and it's quiet as can be now.

 

[piratexpress1369a]

makes me want to jump on my 63 gmc panel ..just need a whole lot of money lol

 

[dieselfuel]

makes me want to jump on my 63 gmc panel ..just need a whole lot of money lol

that's all the suburban has needed all along. i'm hesitant to mention what ive got into it so far, mostly because its not at all done...

 

[piratexpress1369a]

i hear what you are saying

 

[dieselfuel]

i ****in love my Suburban!!

the wife and i went back up to utah in Daisy today. she ran like a top for another 400mi at an average of 14mpg. we got a late start, didn't get out of town til 8am or so, getting my wife out of bed before 7am is not easy! we headed straight for Zion national park, what a waste of time that turned out to be. i love that place, have since i was a little kid but it pisses me off to see how crowded and commercialized it's become. we paid $25 to drive through the gate, at which time we were informed that there was no parking available in the canyon and we'd have to park in town and ride a shuttle into the canyon. so i decided to drive up the canyon a ways and take my chances at finding a parking spot to do some hiking. then we see that the upper half of the canyon is only open to tour buses and shuttles. so we're stuck going back to town and riding a damn shuttle, which we wanted no part of. if we wanted to wait in line and ride in shuttle buses, we'd have gone down to the strip here in Vegas... so, frustrated, we left to go find something more scenic. i did get a few cool photos before we left though.

there's a 100+ foot drop on the other side of that curb.

no more curb.

so with Zion behind us, we stopped for a snack and headed the direction we should have in the first place, up towards Kolob Reservoir. the road up to Kolob is awesome, narrow, steep, windy, everything you look for when driving a 7' tall 6000lb truck. there's one switchback that has "5mph" signs leading up to it, super tight, super steep and no guard rails. no pictures, sorry, busy driving... the road winds through the mountains/aspen trees to about 8200' where it ends at the reservoir. i hadn't been there since 2001 and i drove my suburban up there, with 100 something horsepower and a cracked flex plate, on 36" TSLs. this time around was considerably more fun. my wife (Christy) has never been off road in her life and this was the first time i've actually locked Daisy's hubs. the road around the lake was fun, nothing crazy, just some ruts, mud and a few rocks toward the end. i thought it went all the way around the lake but it didn't so i got to drive the whole thing twice, didn't bother me any. Christy was nervous but had a good time, spent a lot of time outside watching me drive. she took some photos, tried to get some video but that didnt work out.

(she had some kinda filter turned on)

she didn't get any decent photos of the rougher stuff, i actually had to drop into 4low once where i had to turn around.
we stopped on the beach, i got out an RC crawler and Christy took some photos.

after we left the lake, we stopped at an over look or two, Christy gathered up some colorful leaves and i pretty much stared at my suburban everywhere we went.

my two favorite girls!

she even drove home, she loves Daisy.

anyway, there's my weak attempt at a trip report, i'll get better at this... haha!

 

[BBslider001]

I have been watching this build for awhile. I gotta tell ya man you have done a really nice job. It looks really good and is very user friendly. I am looking forward to this winter and seeing where this goes! On another note, it TOTALLY sucks about Zion. I have not been there since I was a kid, but I can definitely relate. Grand canyon is the same way....a ton of commercialism and tourists and their cameras/phones/crappy attitudes.