I have treated myself with a 1999 Chevrolet Suburban K1500

[Svein]

Sorry - it´s been quiet from me for a while. Real life catched up with me, and I even had to do some work (eek!).
Thanks to all of you for comments and encouragement! It´s nice to be able to share the project with someone who understands the passion that goes into it!

How does just your inner parking light bulbs light up? Is it what the European trucks did? And I think you have a K2500 (8 lug), not a K1500 (6 lug). Looks like a nice truck you have there! Can't wait to see what you plan to do with it!

Thanks! The dreams and plans are there, so it´s just a matter of finding the time and energy to actually do it! The parking lights are modified to accommodate the Norwegian (so European) rules. They did quite a bit of modifications when these trucks where imported to Norway back then. Added turn lights to the front fenders, snipped off (and painted) the corner side marker lights, and rewired and hacked the park/turn signal lights so the inner ones has a 5w white parking lights and the outer one is turn signal only. Not to mention what they did to the rear lights. Red turn lights are not allowed, so they´ve cut a hole in the chassis and added some orange hella turn lights. SO ugly!

It is indeed a 1500 - and as skylark wrote, the diesel 1500s have 8lugs.

Awesome find, glad you are bringing it back to life!

Is the GMT400 popular in Norway?

Chevy in general has been quite popular in Norway trough the years. There are still a lot of the squarebodies around - especially g30 vans, and both GMT400s and 900s are a common sight on the roads. Lot´s of stories to be told about tax evasion and tricks trough the years, with the Norwegian DMV having some kind of vendetta against US cars.

To me it looks like the hinge pin you installed isn't drivin down all the way. The knurled part under the head should be into the hinge.

Nice project must be tough dealing with overseas parts.

No, the passenger hinge pin wasn't a success in the end of the day. The new bushings broke, so I had to use the old ones, and at some point I was afraid I would break more than I would repair by hammering, so I let it rest. I should probably order a couple a new ones and give it another go a sunnier day!

Dealing with parts isn´t that hard, really. There are a number of US car part shops in Norway, and you can find a lot of used parts online. Ordering from Rockauto takes a week or so, but it´s generally worth it price wise if you order more than a couple of hinge pins at once.

 

[Svein]

So to continue on my adventures with the wiring. It turned into a very long night:

I was at the repair shop, which is located at the opposite side of town from where I live. No buses anymore. over NOK1000 for a taxi. Thats about $120... The wheel (still with ****** lug nuts) needed to go on in order to go home. I had the cables. I wanted to change them anyway.

I removed one glow plug, just to test it, and it looked even worse than the old ones I had lying around from my express van. I changed them with new ones - and measured them. They all had the same resistance value as the new ones - around 0,8Ohm. The ones in my new suburban measured about 1,9Ohms, so I decided to swap them with the old ones.

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To be honest, I am still thinking I could use new ones - and longer glow plug timing. I really need to put the old glow plug relay into the truck so I can get manual override. And while I´m at it - maybe a new glow (thicker) mains feed for the glow plugs? Argh, the potential costs! But it would be better...

Anyway, I went at it. I replaced the entire passenger side glow plugs, and replaced the old harness with the new harness from ptwiring. Then I Replaced the Battery + Positives to the Alternator. It was hard work, and I removed the nut holding the heat shield and tricked the new cable shoe so it pointed upwards, and was kept in place behind the heat shield. I put the plastic pipe behind the heat shield as well, to make sure the cable is not damaged by it.

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At 4am in the morning, I had changed all the main positive cables. I had to use adaptors for the cable shoes onto the battery poles on the red top batteries. Later on in the weekend, I changed the negatives, and I stole the batteries from the old van. Proper 75a side terminal batteries. I am planning on putting the new extra fuse boxes on top of the batteries - Short way to the big mains, and easily accessible.

Anyway, it was good going to bed after that night. Got the wheel back on, and just as I thought, I had trouble with many of the lug nuts. I had a complete new set for the entire truck ordered in the mail - I guess that is the problem with shipping parts. I could of course get most of the parts locally, but to a much higher price, and when I am out traveling, I have time to plan and wait for parts!

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Just last week, when I had recovered from last weekend, I got around and removed the rest of the spikes from the mud and snow tires I got with the truck. Changed tires and lug nuts around the entire truck. They look a lot better - but they are very noisy! I will however order some top of the line spiked tires to drive on the Norwegian winter roads, So I´m thinking I might at some point swap these tires for a set of more asphalt friendly summer tires!

 

[Bob L]

No, the passenger hinge pin wasn't a success in the end of the day. The new bushings broke, so I had to use the old ones, and at some point I was afraid I would break more than I would repair by hammering, so I let it rest. I should probably order a couple a new ones and give it another go a sunnier day!

Dealing with parts isn´t that hard, really. There are a number of US car part shops in Norway, and you can find a lot of used parts online. Ordering from Rockauto takes a week or so, but it´s generally worth it price wise if you order more than a couple of hinge pins at once. [/QUOTE]

One way to avoid breaking the bushings is to press them in with a nut & bolt into a socket just bigger than the bushing.

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[JackE]

I always use an old hinge pin that I have ground the shoulder off of so the bushing just slides on and off easy. That allows for the full length of the pin to go through the whole hinge so you can't get the bushing going in cockeyed. I also have an angled punch for knocking the pins in straight around the curve of the door.

 

[Svein]

WOW!
Thank you so much Bob L - that picture guide is amazing work! And thank you so much jackE, thats also a brilliant trick! I am learning all the way here! I better order some new pins and give it another go!

I´ve been on vacation the past week. We are 500km up north from where I live, so I don´t have all the new parts with me, but I was able to do add a reverse camera. More on that later.

Before I left, I got several things done to the car. I had a long day with a good work colleague who helped me remove all the rust around the lower body of the car. Unfortunately, we had to stop working on it without getting all the rust removed a couple of places - otherwise we would be trough... I´m gonna do a oil treatment to the underbody of the truck and the inside of the doors later on to try to make it live as long as possible.

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I´ve also been two trips to the local "DMV" - to apply for, and to collect new plates for the truck. He wouldn't´t let me get the small signs in the front, but at least it´s not blocking the holes in the diesel bumper anymore. I am contemplating putting a couple of extra hi beams in there, but since this actually IS a diesel I´m worried I might block some air intake I would actually want to have? Does anyone of you guys know anything about that?

It was a real struggle to get the old plates removed - I had to use an angle grinder to get the back plates off, but in the end I got there:

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If you look really closely, you can see the rust shining trough the bumper. I thought it had just a couple of small spots, but when I started removing it, it turned out it had just leaked trough the chrome a couple of small spots, but the entire bumper seems to be rusted. I think I´ll just cover it up in rubber spray, and forget it until it one day gets so ugly I´ll have to change it. At least I don´t have to worry anything when making new holes for additional lighting and such!

 

[Svein]

Mounting the reverse camera!

Finally, I found a moment to install the reverse camera I bought earlier. It´s a Pioneer ND-BC8 camera that is almost just plug and play with the pioneer 2din radio. I´ve been spending a lot of time thinking about where to mount the camera. I really don´t want to make holes to the outside body of the truck if I don´t absolutely have to. At the end of the day, I decided that the best mounting place was to glue it to the drivers side rear barn door. As center as possible. No screws, and I was able to run the cable hidden away under the center door seal!

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I ran a 20mm pipe rom the firewall along the fuel lines and up behind the rear bumper. The cable was JUST long enough from the power/camera signal split point to the end of the truck!

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I tucked the rest of the camera cable behind the door panel, and taped the connector and the cable that will be flexing in the door. I can always shorten it if it breaks!

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And it works like a charm! I finally have a backup camera on the truck. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to locate the reverse signal anywhere easily reachable, so there is no reverse signal into the head unit yet. I will run a signal from the reverse lights when I pull cables for aux lighting.

 

[Svein]

I also shot some photos of the finished rust removal project. Ugly as **** - it´s spray painted black at the moment, but I will eventually rubber spray the entire truck, and it will all be gone, haha! Here seen with 500km of road dirt on top of it..

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Here is a glimpse of the beauty with the new tires on. I think they look good, but MAN THEY ARE NOISY! I really have to look into getting a set of more quiet tires for summer use, but these will do for now. I have to get around and buy a new set of winter tires asap, so that´s enough money on rubber for a while!

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[98chevy2500SS]

Yeah that's the problem with M/T's, noisy AF! lol! The Burb's looking good. What size are those off road lights on the front? 6 inch rounds?

 

[Svein]

Yeah that's the problem with M/T's, noisy AF! lol! The Burb's looking good. What size are those off road lights on the front? 6 inch rounds?

Thanks - it will look Even better one day, I hope! those Are 6inch rounds, Yes. Some old cheepo crappy ones! Hopefully there will be 4x hella jumbo 320 there for the next northern winter drive!!

 

[Svein]

My days at home is coming to an end. I wanted to do so much while I was home, but that time thing..it just flies away! Ive spent the past days putting together three additional relay panels for the truck:

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This was in the making - I understand why there are so many nests inside the trucks. There is absolutely no space anywhere to put anything additional! I am putting a this panel under the drivers side dash (above the pedals, where there is a nest of different aux labeling as of today.

I have also made two panels that is going to live on top of the batteries like this, but they are not wired yet:

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Tonight, I had a last evening at the workshop before I leave for China for a month! I put in the first of three extra relay panels under the drivers dash, with a keyless entry / alarm module. I went for a Viper 5706 that can do everything including the remote start option. I´m dreaming of putting it one on day, but that will be a potential project for another time. At the moment I am very happy with having my ardic diesel theater wired to an aux relay, and I have pre-wired an aux relay for controlling a block heater as well.

Anyway, this is the finished panel just before I put it into the car:

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I put enough slack on all the wiring so I can snip three cable ties and pull it towards me. Makes it a LOT easier to work on when it´s in the car. I ran a new feed from one of the aux outputs in the fuse box with 16mm2 wire...that would be something between 5 and 6 awG I believe.

After about 6 hours of crawling, The complete panel was in place. I did however miss ONE crucial wire to be able to program the viper - the acc feed. 10cm of wire and a couple of cable shoes, and boom:

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The car had had an old alarm system, and the heated seats seems to have been some kind of weird aftermarket install. The remains of the old alarm system made it very easy to dig out which cables to connect to. I reused some of the old wiring for door lock/unlock signal and the door trigger. But the alarm system, combined with the seat heaters and the diesel heater and wiring for the extra hi beams, it was quite a nest from before. I got rid of a lot of it as you can see!

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I also had a bit of a winter tire project today. Got the alu rims of the old van, and took them to the shop. Tomorrow I will be able to put on brand new spiked winter tires! I also had a stop at the local repair shop and some more lug bolts. Had to replace two more before I was happy with the passenger side front tire, but now It should be a pretty sweet deal to change tires tomorrow!

There might be some planning and sketches going on while I´m going away for work - and then the adventure will continue with the wvo conversion when I get back home!