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.

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

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!

I'll be brief on this one - got the title transfer and registration done on the squarebody.

Bit of an ordeal because the owner on the title had passed, and I had a letter from the court saying his brother was executor, but he didn't sign the title with his full name. Got it all sorted, taxes and registration paid, and new plates.

Picture of my planned paint scheme on the squarebody (that should match the factory colors):

Finally got around to putting the new seat covers on the front bench of the Suburban.

When I bought them I thought they were meant to go over the existing upholstery, but they are in fact replacement upholstery. So I had to get acquainted with hog rings.

The seat back went pretty easy, and I was surprised at how easy to use the hog rings and hog ring pliers were.

The seat bottom of course presented more challenges. I got it almost all of the way on before I noticed some of the stitching coming apart where the felt attaches. Crap.

Well, since I had it most of the way I decided to try and re-stitch it with it on and see how it holds. If it doesn't all I'm out is the time to remove the seats again, which I should be able and to do much faster now.

With the new covers the front seat looks great.

Wow, got my second dose of Moderna yesterday morning. Was perfectly fine until about 12 hours in when I started getting chills, and had a pretty miserable night. Doing ok now, operating on 6/8 cylinders.
HUGE sympathy to those that have been infected, just the light version from the vaccine response was bad for me. (It doesn't help that I'm miserable to be around when I'm sick, so people don't want to help me.)
Very thankful to be able to get vaccinated, stay safe everyone.

@ramblinrover That part doesn't surprise me. It is definitely different than the 6.5 turbo diesel in my brother in law's '97.

@ramblinrover Thanks...I think. Agree this isn't good, but from what I can tell the compressor or just pulley wasn't the right part number to begin with. I could just get the correct part, but I'll spend some time trying to get this to work instead of dropping $150 plus having to recharge the system again.

If I get to the junkyard in the next week or so I'll try to get another bracket, then see if my brother in law and I (mostly him) can fabricate a better solution.

Last weekend I finally got the AC working in the squarebody again.

After buying it a few months back it was fairly simple to get the AC running, some new fans, charge with R134a, and a new belt. What I didn’t notice when I put on the belt was that the compressor pulley was not aligned with the power steering and fan pulleys.

For a couple of weeks it was fine, then the belt started to squeal constantly. Thinking it just needed to be tightened I cranked it as tight as it would go. Then it broke.

That is when I actually took a closer look and found that the pulley was about ¾” closer to the firewall than the pulleys it was supposed to align with.

OK, not a big deal. I’ll just add some spacers to the bracket, move it forward ¾”, and it will be fine. Well, of course it wasn’t that easy. It turns out the bracket wasn’t designed to do that.

So what I ended up doing was a bit of Roadkill solution, but without zip ties. I added a large nut (came from diff exchange on the E28) on the bottom pivot point to push it out almost the right amount. Then up top there are three points to attach that allow the adjustment for the belt. The top one was the issue – the hanger from the compressor actually has a bend in it, in addition to attaching from the opposite side as the other adjustment bolts.

With a bit of elbow grease I was able to get the belt just barely on, and the hanger closest to the front of the vehicle tight. I have bolts into the other two attachment points but no spacer, mostly because it was so challenging to get them on in the first place I didn’t want to take them back off once I knew the right size needed. It also isn’t perfectly straight, but it is much closer than it was before.

I’ll try it like this for now and see if it holds. A short test drive didn’t induce any squealing.

Luckily as my brother in law pointed out - if it breaks I’m just uncomfortable, not stranded. It won’t get driven much this week, it is just too darn hot to drive it or the E28. Even with a working AC those systems can’t keep up with the heat and humidity. I’ll stay in my daily driver with cooled seats.

@snuze I assume the intent of that is so if there is a leak / break / something that it is found quickly? Either from the cleaning or because you can see it if it is clean?

@aestheticsinmotion said in If you take this car to a drag strip, you need a parachute to run:

Reserving judgment on the yolk until I get to try one out. I'm trying to make an effort not to be an enthusiast that constantly bashes things on the internet that I've had zero experience with.

I dunno, with the yolk I think there is plenty of experience. All of us have used non-yolk steering wheels forever, and it works. Some areas don't need disruption.

@partypooper2012 Fair enough, definitely better to keep it off the road.

@partypooper2012 Besides bourbon? My wife is trying to get me to go on a whole trip to just do bourbon in Louisville.

@ttyymmnn said in Sportsball News: TX and OU to leave Big 12 for SEC:

. The only good that may come of it is a renewal of the TX/TXA&M rivalry, but A&M doesn't seem too thrilled about that.

@davesaddiction

I'm down for that. My avatar might give it away, but this is one Aggie that has missed the annual game with Texas.

I'll also admit that being the only Texas school in the SEC has benefitted A&M greatly, and that recruiting edge will diminish if this actually comes to fruition. In my college days and even into my 30's I'd be HOT about this whole thing, but I've mellowed.

Not so much that burnt orange is allowed in my house, but I've mellowed.

@eric Dang those look good. My parents just left on a week long Alaska cruise from Seattle, and they drove up there from Houston. I'll see if they can stop on the way back, my dad loves blueberries.

Any specific farms / locations I can pass along?

@highlander I hear you on the heat. I got work done on the Suburban around 2 and haven’t been outside since. 100 indicated here.