New Guy, My project Suburbalanche

This seems like a top notch forum and should help me out a lot with my project. I have always wanted an old 4 door truck with a short box, but they never made one and 4x4s are a little hard to come by around here in decent condition. I also wanted a diesel avalanche but to my knowledge chevy didnt make any of those either. I found an 83 1/2 ton diesel suburban that ran and started great for $500. I put a few thousand miles on it in the few monthes it ran (last fall). It cracked the passanger side head in the normal spot between the valves, so I figured it would be a great time to cut it up and if my idea didnt work I really wasnt out much if I took it to a junkyard. Well after many hours of custom sheet metal work and welding, I think I have offically made a 1983 Avalanche. I cut the rear of the cab off and took the rear of a truck cab and welded that in the back making a 5' box. I got some bed sides from a junkyard and used the bed rails off that to cover up where the rear side windows should be. I also cut the top off the tailgait and covered it with a piece of sheet metal to make a smooth tailgate. Thats about all the farther I have gotten with the body work since I went snowmobiling as much as I could this winter and took time off the project. Getting it sandblasted and painted is the next step. I plan on doing all the work, built not bought!

As for the engine, it hardly runs enough to make it in and out of the shop but it starts very good (even cold 10*F!) Just takes a good jump to get it going. Since I am young and dumb and gotta have more power I have been looking for a 6.5 donar truck and finally found one. The donar truck is a 93 with 200000 miles and a 5 speed manual. I figured it would be fairly easy to get the 6.5 and 5 speed in there, but thats why I joined this forum. Probly have to make a tranny cross member? But my main concern is the transfercase on the 93 is a driverside drop and I guess I really dont know trannys and transfer cases that well and dont know what will work. Back to the engine, I plan on building a strong motor but I want to keep it reliable and budget friendly, dont wana stick more than a few grand in it so I can finish the rest of the truck. I am not new to diesel motors, I grew up in my families Case IH dealership and still work there as a mechanic.

WOW, is that a long enough intro, lol, heres a lot of pics of the progress I have made.

Before I got to it with a saw
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...aha308/169.jpg

Cut the hump out of the roof and lowered it to match the rest
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...08/Burban7.jpg


http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...8/Burban14.jpg


http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...a308/341-1.jpg


http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...1221091920.jpg

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...0102001351.jpg

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...0104001858.jpg
These are just a few pics of the 50 or so I got, if you wanna see anything else just ask. I am not the first to do something like this, but I havent seen any really finished as nice as I plan on doing it. Paint will probly be a darker blue top with a tan/light brown 2 tone bottom.

Joe


My daily driver, 97 sonoma 5" susp. lift, 1" body lift, 33" tires
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...28001832-1.jpg

Welcome to TDP

Great looking project rig. I love the Burbalanche.

Please keep us posted as the project progresses and by all means show us some piccy's of the finished rig when the body and paint work are all done.

This forum has a lot good folks that are always eager to help out with advice and tech support.


Robyn

A lot of work for a great outcome!

Will deffinately post progress pics! Just wondering if I can change a setting to where the first post is first and last post is last, its the other way around right now and is a little confusing since its backwards from all the other forums Ive been on.

Just wondering if anyone has seen anything like this before, I thought I was going to be original till after I started and seen a couple go arcoss ebay.

Joe

nice job! I have yet to see one finished out as nicely as yours. I see myself doing something like this in the future. I was thinking of a blazer hard top, bobbing the rear end to fit it.

what you have there is a quad cab pick up on a 130" wheel base.

Cool project! Welcome to the Page.

Jim

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 85-m1028

nice job! I have yet to see one finished out as nicely as yours. I see myself doing something like this in the future. I was thinking of a blazer hard top, bobbing the rear end to fit it.

what you have there is a quad cab pick up on a 130" wheel base.

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After I got into it, I thought about blazers I have seen finished off into trucks, but I couldnt find any info on them when I searched a little. probly wouldve made it much easier, but so far I dont have anything into it other than the price of the burban and the cheap bed sides I found at a junkyard, oh ya and a load of time!

Joe

Cool project!

Keep us updated with pics.

Several years ago my buddy did a ghetto version of this project with an '81 1/2 ton GMC Sub....... It was a cool specimen: original (and rare) granny 4-speed, 3:73 gears, etc...but gas (no diesel).

Anyway, he just hacked it up with a sawzall. The truck was on it's last legs. Eventually, it had to be junked. I'd love to see one actually come to fruition.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DieselEnvy

Anyway, he just hacked it up with a sawzall. The truck was on it's last legs. Eventually, it had to be junked. I'd love to see one actually come to fruition.

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Thats how it started out, but after I got going I really liked how it looked and im too atached to it now to let it be junked. Check book looks good enough to get the donar truck, but Im looking for doors before I start on the finishing body work. My family has a Diesel light super stock pulling tractor and were getting that ready for this comming season so I got just about no free time for a month.

Joe

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ThatOneGuy

Will deffinately post progress pics! Just wondering if I can change a setting to where the first post is first and last post is last, its the other way around right now and is a little confusing since its backwards from all the other forums Ive been on.

Just wondering if anyone has seen anything like this before, I thought I was going to be original till after I started and seen a couple go arcoss ebay.

Joe

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Yes that is a setting in control panel... edit options ...scroll down till you find

Thread Display Mode
Here you can choose the display mode for threads. For a full explanation of the modes, please view this help page.
Thread Display Mode:
Number of Posts to Show Per Page
Use this option to set the number of posts to show in a thread before splitting the display into multiple pages.
Number of Posts to Show Per Page:

And choose linear oldest first.

Thanks, now the format seems right to me!

Well I bought a 93 2500 ext cab long box truck today for the donar. 6.5 5 speed 4x4 209000 and ran like a top, just started hard because the glow plugs are burned out and the starter dont work so it had to be pull started. I bought it for $1000 and should be able to part it out for that.

I am thinking on taking the wiring harness, gaudge cluster, maybe steering colum and transfer it into the burbalanche? Still havent put much thought into it but all the gauges work in the truck (has a tach!) and the cruse works, supposidly the glow plugs got power but there all burnt out. The one thing is if the fuel guage works on the same amount of elctricity full and empty as my burbalanches then all the guages will work properly. The tranny isnt the newer 5 speed I thought it was, but 5 forward speeds non the less. Low 1 2 3 Over Drive, I dont think my uncles 6.5 had a really low gear, but the hydrolic clutch should help out in making it work easier than building linkage.

Joe