84 K20 6.2 Diesel

[nitro_rat]

I've never posted much about my long time daily driver. I'm kind of starting a restoration on it and I'll post some stuff here.

The first bit of work I posted here:

K5 Camper. My offroad home away from home.

You and Larry have motivated me to drag out my old '84 Suburban. It's been down for almost a year. A major case of cancer around the bottom of the windshield has kept me from having the motivation to make any more repairs. This truck was my daily driver for years and was owned by a close...

www.expeditionportal.com

Post #46 or so. Fixing rust around the windshield, I'm clipping that text in here:

It's been down for almost a year. A major case of cancer around the bottom of the windshield has kept me from having the motivation to make any more repairs. This truck was my daily driver for years and was owned by a close friend prior to my purchasing it, I've known it for a long time.

Anyway, body work isn't really in my wheel house but I knew I couldn't afford to pay someone to fix this. I figured I would get it done or scrap the truck. With that I broke out the cut off wheel...





I also attacked a parts truck I bought a few years ago... (the camo Suburban pictured later)



There are about 3 layers of metal there, I had to separate the top layer of my "patches."



A little Bondo to fair it in...



The other side.





Primer and time for new glass!



I got a new chrome lace but used the original seal...



And no, I'm not a glass guy either! The 3rd time is the charm though...



I also took the opportunity to fix some other damage to the front end and both battery trays. It's been a long time since this stuff was solid.

 

[nitro_rat]

Today I picked up a set of chrome 17" "Soft 8" wheels. Tires are some generic M/T's, 33x12.50R17. I got two of them slapped on tonight but it was after dark.



Loaded up in the back of the Ex...



Crappy phone pic with Streamlight lighting...


It's raining nicely this morning so I won't have a chance to mount up the wheels on the other side yet. I was able to snag a much better pic from my porch in the daylight though!



Originally the truck was a 1/2 ton with 3.08's. The original rear end was rebuilt once around 400k. The rebuild let go around 750k. I bought another '84 K10 gas Suburban with a set of 3.73's (it also had the Warn winch carrier and a M8000 with a burnt up motor). That truck was a camo hunting rig.



The pinion of that rear end ended up having a piece of fishing line wrapped around it that had cut the seal. It was totally dry. I had registered that truck and driven it some and it seemed fine (the AC even blew cold) so I replaced the seal and swapped the axles under the blue Sub. That didn't last long, the 3.73 rear blew on me and I was out of action again. It did survive one trip from Texas to Topeka, KS...



A few months later a friend of mine parted out an 80's K20 truck and I scored the axles for a couple hundred bucks. I also got the rear driveshaft out of the truck which ended up fitting the Suburban with no modifications. The rear was a 9.5 SF ant they were geared 4.10.


Here it is right after the swap (notice the spot on the hood where the massive pond of Bondo failed...


And here it is with a fresh set of 285/75R16's. The 'Burb gave up these tires to the Excursion. The new 17's really look nice with the 33's.

At the same time I did the 3/4 ton axle swap I put in some 2" Tough Country HD front springs. The rear is a custom pack that is left over from the 1/2 ton days. It sat a little high in the back with the stock front springs. Now it's perfectly level so it needs to go up an inch or so to get the factory rake back. I'm all out of room on the U-bolts so I can't just throw in a block. I may end up getting the 3" Tough Country rear packs to level it out, we'll see...

 

[zoomad75]

Getting caught up and back at it. Excellent! Keep taking little bites.

 

[nitro_rat]

My goal is to get it back to daily driver status.

The A/C took a dump many years ago and my A/C guy retired. These old dual systems are difficult to keep running correctly and they really need to be charged with R12 for proper performance.

The windshield wipers on these trucks has always left something to be desired. Years ago I ditched the vacuum washer pump and mounted an '87+ washer jug with an electric washer pump. This was a step up but still not ideal. I also added a delay box and switch as this truck originally had two-speed wipers. Performance has never been up to par.

After years of trailering the tail light circuit burned up in the original fuse block. I wired around it to keep everything working, I don't remember exactly what I did but I did it on the side of the road one night...

In order to address all these issues the first thing I'm going to do is get a Painless Wiring full replacement harness. I don't like some aspects of the painless kit but this truck is a crank window/manual lock truck with no cruise control or other accessories so I think it's the simplest solution to take care of the many electrical gremlins this truck has suffered over the years.

I'm going to delete the rear A/C as it's just too much of a pain to keep it going. My evaporator box under the dash was in bad shape the last time I did a heater core also. I'm going to get the Vintage Air kit and do away with the factory setup. The drawbacks to the Vintage Air are (from what I've read):

1. Loud blower
2. Poor heater performance
3. Poor defrost performance

My reasons to consider it anyway are as follows:

1. Loud diesel, the blower noise won't be an issue
2. The heater already doesn't work well
3. The defrost is already nonexistent

I will mitigate the poor heat issue by installing an auxiliary diesel fired heater that pulls off the factory tank.

This truck has a 25 gallon tank. I have a factory fuel tank skid that I'm going to install. I also plan to fit a 35 gallon tank. I'll need to drop the tank anyway to hook up the new harness. The fuel tank swap will require a sending unit swap as well as the 35 gallon tank uses the 40 gallon sending unit.

To address the wipers I'm going to fit the Selecta-Speed kit from Detroit Speed. This will give me a modern windshield wiper motor with 7 speeds. I'll probably fit the '87-up wiper arms also.

I'll also be going over a few other areas of the body and addressing the headliner. There is an aftermarket ABS headliner available but is has a cutout for the rear A/C. I think I can source a piece of ABS from a local plastics supplier to fill the hole. I have the non-A/C headliner trim from the camo truck, it is front air only.

I'll need to source a piece of dash sheet metal from a '73-'83 truck with the windshield wiper control on the dash. I'll be going back to the old style column also and floor dimmer. The Detroit Speed wipers can't be controlled by the late model turn signal stalk switch. This is fine with me.

I may just go with a new Ididit column even though it's expensive. The steering column on this truck has always given me issues and although I don't need tilt (I like the angle of the column best in the "straight" position) it will be nice to have something "new" where all the switches work like they're supposed to!

This poor truck has nearly a million miles on so I guess it's earned a major overhaul...

 

[nitro_rat]

This is the fiddly bit of dash sheet metal that I'll need to liberate from a 73-83 cab in order to use the old style windshield wiper controls for the Detroit Speed wipers. If anybody has a parts truck they're cutting up...

 

[nitro_rat]

I've been using my COVID-19 quarantine time to do some more body work on the old Suburban.


I found some Rustoleum that's close enough for me so I fixed the dents I put in the new red fender and sprayed it down...


I painted over the primer spot on the other fender...


decided to tackle the rust on the back doors...


I cut out the rusty spots...


And welded in patches from the bent front fender...


After a skim of filler and primer...


I sanded the camo spray paint off the hood, hit the bare spots with self etching primer, and fogged on the blue...


Feeling more dignified all one color again!


I started on the other back door today but got shut down by the rain...


It's a royal PITA to get the back door handles off!

This truck was painted once before and whoever did the work made it look presentable BUT they used tons of bondo, didn't weld the holes from the slide hammer dent puller closed, used a cheap single stage paint, and didn't pull the trim and handles so there are terrible paint edges EVERYWHERE!!!

I'm not much of a paint and body man and I don't really even like for my vehicles to look "nice." I also really prefer factory paint. Well, all those bridges have been burned and having a spray paint job over a decent and nicely scuffed base is a close second. It's super easy to touch up with a trip to the hardware store for a fresh spray bomb.

I have some damage to the ambulance doors that needs to be addressed. I also picked up another door shell to replace the driver's door. I'll need to replace the hinges too or at least the pin bushings.

What I really need to do is get inside and drop the headliner. I have tons of holes in the roof that I need to weld up from the roof rack and rails...

 

[nitro_rat]

This morning I went to the hardware store to get some weed eater string. Why would I need that when I don't own a weed eater? If you pull the lock strip out of the window rubber, you can pull the edge back and tuck in the weed eater string. You can now mask back under the window seal and not have a paint line there...

Wishful thinking! There wad way too much rust under the window seal...



It's a pretty quick and easy process to pull the back windows. Much easier than the windshield!



There were lots of cracks in the paint on this quarter panel. They were actually in the factory paint. It all had to come off!



I had to do a small patch at the back of the roof.



Trying to get some paint laid down so I can put the window back before it rains again!



Paint laid down around the window opening.



And got the glass back in without breaking it!

That about took all of the wind out of my sails today. More to come...

 

[nitro_rat]

I got the lock strip laced in yesterday afternoon.



This little guy is a PITA!

 

[TwinDuro]

The rig is looking great @nitro_rat. You can't beat a square-body Suburban and the distance yours has traveled is incredible!

My neighbor growing up as a kid had a 1991 V20 Suburban that was fully loaded that we rode around in quite a bit. Unfortunately it met an untimely end in the early 2000s when a 60 foot fir tree fell across it in the driveway during the night.

One of my good buddies had a mid '80s K20 with the 6.2 and SM465 that I loved as well and I got to drive quite a bit. It had a slight lift and 33" tires and drove really nice as long as you kept the cruising speed around 60-65mph. Got great mileage to boot.

Definitely following along!

 

[nitro_rat]

The rig is looking great @nitro_rat. You can't beat a square-body Suburban and the distance yours has traveled is incredible!

My neighbor growing up as a kid had a 1991 V20 Suburban that was fully loaded that we rode around in quite a bit. Unfortunately it met an untimely end in the early 2000s when a 60 foot fir tree fell across it in the driveway during the night.

One of my good buddies had a mid '80s K20 with the 6.2 and SM465 that I loved as well and I got to drive quite a bit. It had a slight lift and 33" tires and drove really nice as long as you kept the cruising speed around 60-65mph. Got great mileage to boot.

Definitely following along!

This one had a 700R4, 3.08's and 31's most of its life. It would cruise 80 no problem. Slightly slower now with the 4.10's and 33's but it's still a nice ride on the highway. Just doesn't like long hills!

 

[chilliwak]

I just had a look at the great progress you have made on your truck Mr Nitro. You really have come a long way with your truck and it seems like you will have her as a daily driver soon. Thanks for posting up as its great to follow your progress on your fine Burb. Cheers, Chilli.... ?

 

[nitro_rat]

I just had a look at the great progress you have made on your truck Mr Nitro. You really have come a long way with your truck and it seems like you will have her as a daily driver soon. Thanks for posting up as its great to follow your progress on your fine Burb. Cheers, Chilli.... ?

Thanks Chilli. The truck actually was my daily driver until the transmission issue I had last year. The rust around the windshield had me bummed out about the truck.

I bought a clapped out '04 Excursion for $900 and got it going with about a $2000 total investment. This included scrounging together a Warn M12000 and mount. The Ex is nice but it's a heavy pig and swills gas like it's going out of style. I'm constantly having to fire up the Suburban to drag the Ex around the yard as it's favorite past time is getting stuck on wet grass!

For what I have in the Ex it makes financial sense to dump it once I get the Suburban back on the road...

 

[nitro_rat]

Since I bumped a few other threads I thought it was only fair to bump mine too. Not much progress on the Suburban. I do fire it up and use it around the yard to move trailers and stuff. I really hate body work and it's hard to get motivated. I've been super busy with work and a few other projects. I'll probably get back on it once it cools off a little in the fall...

 

[nitro_rat]

Well the Suburban is back on the road as my daily driver again. I took the transmission to a friend of mine (I pulled it out over a year ago) and had it rebuilt. Other than that I had to replace the batteries and repair a few wires to the tail lights that were rat chewed. Just in time for $5/gallon diese

I also found a set of Superwinch Hubs to replace my old beat up Warns…



Before I do any serious highway miles I’m going to have to replace the tires, they’re getting dry rotted.

At some point I’ll try to finish the body work and rust repair but I’m driving it as is for now!

 

[nitro_rat]

I also tossed on a Harbor Freight 12k winch that I had in a box in the garage. The old Warn 8k is still down from when I stole the control box and motor for the 12k on my Excursion project a few years ago.