'97 Suburban 1500 ressurection

[RLC2020]

My first GMT400 purchase was this 1997 2wd GMC Suburban with the 5.7L and 4l60e purchased in September of this year. A week later I found a '99 2500 4wd Suburban which I also scooped up. I was thinking I'd sell the '97 since I really wanted a 4x4 for the boat ramps down here (space coast Florida) but after a brief consideration to sell it I've decided to put some effort into it to make it great again.

I was told it had a new fuel pump when I purchased it, but, as I got home from the hour drive after picking it up in Orlando, it stumbled and died in my driveway. Grabbed a pressure gauge, zero fuel pressure at the engine. So, tank came down and it was RUSTY! like bad rusty, like I can't believe I made it home on that fuel rusty. And, of course, the fuel pump unit was rusted nearly in half and obviously had not been replaced.

So, new fuel tank and pump/filter got installed along with new lines from the tank to the filter. Starts and runs great now.

2nd major issue involved the brakes. The pedal was very soft but the truck did stop. I figured the problem was at the rear and boy was I right. Both sides had zero contact with the drum and were doing nothing to stop the truck. I replaced both wheel cylinders and all hardware in the rear. The adjusters were frozen solid and the pads were only slightly worn, but whoever had put them in did not bring the adjusters out and they got rusty from sitting. After bleeding and adjusting the shoes the rear brakes now work great and the truck stops as it should.

here's a few pictures of the truck when I got it. More to come...

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[RLC2020]

Next step was to replace the tires which were date coded from 2004! I also hated the black paint that the PO did and was really looking for a new set of wheels. I really like the rally wheel look but everyone wanted a ton of money for them and there aren't too many options since this truck is 5x5 lug pattern so I decided to just paint my stock wheels instead. They came out decent. I used Metallic Silver duplicolor paint as recommended by a member here and I'm very happy with the results. New Dextero tires (cheap from Walmart) went on after painting the rims. For $400 all in I'm happy with the results. Once we get a few miles on it and confirm no major issues with it then I'll look around for a set of rally wheels or even order different wheels/tires all together.

Original obs rims with black paint and ancient tires:

You must be registered for see images attach

New Dextero all terrains and freshly painted rims:

You must be registered for see images attach

Fresh tires and wheel paint made a big difference

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[RLC2020]

The next item to tackle was the windshield and sheet metal surrounding it at the roof. The windshield had a crack and there was some rust poking through near the crack. As assumed, once safelite pulled the glass it exposed 2 large rust areas. I was able to locate another gmt400 at a local junk yard and cut out the sheet metal i'll need to patch these 2 areas. Getting that accomplished this week and the new glass should be in by the weekend.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

I am by no means an expert welder, but I'm going to give it a shot with my HF titanium flux welder. If I botch it I'll send it off to a body shop, but I think I can make it look good from 5' away which is the goal.

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

Nice Burb, that blue leather is cool! Most of the leather interiors are neutral or saddle,(gray or tan).

 

[SUBURBAN5]

The next item to tackle was the windshield and sheet metal surrounding it at the roof. I am by no means an expert welder, but I'm going to give it a shot with my HF titanium flux welder. If I botch it I'll send it off to a body shop, but I think I can make it look good from 5' away which is the goal.

Prep is key.. get as much as that cancer removed or treated as possible. If you have scrap pieces the same guage, practice on that before hand. Goodluck!

 

[RLC2020]

Nice Burb, that blue leather is cool! Most of the leather interiors are neutral or saddle,(gray or tan).

The blue leather is my favorite part of the truck. I thought about switching it out with the tan cloth in my '99 SLE 2500 that I daily but that's a lot of work!

 

[RLC2020]

Prep is key.. get as much as that cancer removed or treated as possible. If you have scrap pieces the same guage, practice on that before hand. Goodluck!

the pieces I cut out are about 10" larger than the rust spots on the truck, hopefully that's enough to get to clean metal. I do plan to do lots of test welds to get everything dialed in before I attempt the actual grafting.

 

[GrimsterGMC]

the pieces I cut out are about 10" larger than the rust spots on the truck, hopefully that's enough to get to clean metal. I do plan to do lots of test welds to get everything dialed in before I attempt the actual grafting.

Remember these trucks are galvanized so sand through it back to clean metal so you don't contaminate the weld.

 

[SUBURBAN5]

Remember these trucks are galvanized so sand through it back to clean metal so you don't contaminate the weld.

Except the roof lol

 

[GrimsterGMC]

Except the roof lol

What were they thinking, if you are going to the trouble for the body then why not the roof?