TL;DR - I should be bringing home a square body Suburban later today.

I've been wanting a square body Suburban for a while now. I started off looking for a 6.2 Diesel, but those are really hard to find, so I widened my scope to include gas. (Many have been swapped to better diesels instead of the 6.2 / 6.5 as well.) I also wasn't looking for a show or even perfect truck, and cheap ones were, well, cheap.

Yesterday I was browsing FB marketplace (instead of working) and found a potential. 1988 Suburban Silverado in light blue, 350 with a turbo 400 (pretty sure). Far from perfect with the front fender a bit crunched, but the rest of the body and the interior was in really good shape.

My brother in law went with me to check it out, and in person it presents about like the pictures. Engine and transmission were working great, but on the first stop the brake pedal went nearly to the floor. We got out and checked, and the front pot of the reservoir was completely empty, while the larger pot to closer to the firewall was fine. Luckily we were near an auto parts store so we picked up some brake fluid and topped it all off. The brakes got a little better, but clearly will need to at least be bled.

(Short aside - does anyone know which part of the reservoir serves which brakes? The pot to the front of the car, which was a smaller reservoir, was the one that had no fluid. Does that serve the front or rear brakes?)

Anyway, even with limited braking the driving experience was pure nostalgia. My first car was a 1982 6.2 Diesel Suburban, and this pulled at all the right heartstrings. I negotiated (not well, he took my first counter offer) to $3300 and I'm pretty happy with it given what square body prices are doing right now. I didn't have the cash, so I left a $100 with him and will go by today to pick it up.

There are lots of little things to fix - brakes, front fender, front door, get the AC working, headliner, a couple of cracked windows, small rust spots around the doors, and on, but most parts are REALLY cheap and available. I can get a whole new fender locally for $113. Even if I spend a couple thousand fixing those things up and i lose interest I can probably turn it back around and come close to break even.

Just look at it though, in all it's (un)aerodynamic glory. Did I need another Suburban? No. Did I need another project car? Nope. But I'm excited.

How can you look at the old school Suburban font on the rear and not just smile?

Got the square body home. First up - brakes.

Thank you.

Those of us with kids currently in school can't possibly thank you enough. My kids aren't perfect, and they will make dumb decisions. But they are (finally) starting to learn from those decisions, and you help make that possible. They probably won't appreciate you while they are in your class, but one day they will look back and genuinely appreciate you.

As a parent I'm not perfect either, and I'm still figuring out this "parenting" thing, so I appreciate your patience with us as well.

Glamor shot of my BMW for your time.

I still like and read her work, like the latest on the Bugatti Chiron, but Fancy Kristen always made me laugh.

https://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/41031/2021-bugatti-chiron-pur-sport-first-drive-review-the-absolute-pinnacle-of-internal-combustion

Found out late this afternoon that a good friend from work passed Friday from Covid. I'm mad at myself for not pushing him harder to get vaccinated. I'm mad at him for not getting vaccinated.

Damnit.

I'll write up more tomorrow, but brakes are working on the squarebody again!

Replaced the rear flex line and bled the system again, and no more light!

Still troubleshooting the short in the horn / dimmer / dome circuit of the squarebody last night and found this right under the steering column.

Yep, household light switch. It could mean only one thing - rigged up "secret" kill switch.

Sure enough with the switch Off it will crank but not start. Turning it off while it is running kills it immediately. So while I haven't traced the wiring yet I bet it goes to the ignition. Definitely going to take this out. I may replace it with a proper swich, but not sure.

Back to troubleshooting the short - the cigarette lighter seems to be a common short location, but I can't get the wire off the back. Since I can't see back there I don't know if it has some sort of catch that I need to depress, and I can't get the whole unit out.

I was able to verify that the license plate light works, so I just need to get the horn and high beam indicator working to get an inspection. I have 18 days to my title transfer appointment. If the high beam indicator is just a bulb I may bypass the shorted fuse for now just to get the horn working. I don't want to, because I'd like to have the dome lights working as well.

Also got my (admittedly old style) Oppo sticker installed. And yes, that surface rust around the window looks to more than surface deep in one area....

OK, I know you are tired of my squarebody Suburban content, but hang with me this one is different. I swear.

Growing up we had a series of vehicles, but one constant was a Suburban. We had a '78/79 for a few years (gas) before my dad decided we needed a diesel. So he bought an '82 in '83, 6.2 diesel Silverado trim. (To his credit, we got amazing highway mileage out of it, nearing 30 if my dad was driving....a bit less when my mom drove, but we got there sooner.)

Ours was somewhat unique but looked pretty much like the picture above. Optioned with power windows and locks, but blue vinyl bench seats front and rear, and no third row at all (not even the attachment points). It had AC but not cruise until we added it ourselves from a kit bought at Sears.

Anyway, since we lived in Texas and all of my extended family was in Nebraska, road trips were a normal part of life. I remember hours upon hours of sitting on that bench seat staring out the window. One game I would play to pass the time was to imagine riding a dirt bike along side the Suburban, making it do imaginary tricks through the ditches as we drove by. Or I would nap in the back (seatbelts were more of a suggestion), and I would hear the diesel powering us as the Suburban covered countless miles on I-35.

One constant was the hum and clatter of the diesel. On the highway it was never obtrusive, but always there. Puttering around town it would increase in noise as you pulled out from a stop sign, and still run for a second after shutting it down (they don't call it dieseling for nothing).

Fast forward to the past two weeks since I bought the squarebody. It has a standard gasoline 350 in it, not the 6.2 of my youth.

But I swear I hear that diesel clatter when I drive it around. The steering wheel, driving feel, and the rest of it is so familiar that my mind is filling in the noise for me.

The first few times I actually looked around to see if there was a diesel nearby (pretty common in Houston), but the sound would fade as I realized there wasn't one.

Now I know it is just in my head, but I still hear it, and it makes me smile.

@CobraJoe This came out great.

Fit is great, but haven’t had a chance to take it for a drive yet to see how secure the two set screws hold it. Shorter than the stock, but looks really good with my Pacific Blue interior.

Thanks!

@rusty-vandura What are you going to airbrush on the sides?

@sweedsinthestable What?! Total wine told me it wasn’t out yet…..Damn them.

Love Celebration. Also it was the inaugural keg when my wife bought me my kegerator.

@carsoffortlangley said in Claims of Fort Langley: The Abbotsford Floods:

@jminer No, this is a full on natural disaster. A "once in a century" event (although I suspect as climate change takes hold it'll be a lot more frequent).

Yep, been through that in Houston twice. And I've only lived there for 21 years.

Edit: @facw beat me to it.

@snakesm13 Agree. And you definitely want to keep her around since she encourages (or at least tolerates) you car habits, and by extension, Oppo.

@snakesm13 I have to do that to the blower control in the E28 occasionally. Every once in a while it will be blowing just fine, the just stop. Give it a bit of the Fonz, and it is good again for the rest of the drive.

@snakesm13 said in Man this would’ve been an ideal 2-car garage:

I when I "Fonzy'd" it

I hope you gave it an "Ayy" concurrently or it won't work.

@jminer Local parade you say? Check these out. Somehow I missed the pole dancer bus.

@snakesm13 I’ll have to add it to my list of SATX places to eat while I’m there.

@snakesm13 Equally important, where are you getting BBQ?

@frinesi2 Beermosas? How did I not know this was a thing? What beer?

@i86hotdogs Damn, hope the docs can get you right soon! Good luck!