My 99 K2500 Suburban

[Jman95]

Got the fender cut down. Decided to try the backing strip method, since I have access to the back of panel.

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I will be able to seal the back of the strips with the adhesive I’ve used on the rest of the car.

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Figured it would be easier to keep the panel flush, I used cut offs of the patch panel to make the backing strips since they are crowned the same as the body.

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This is the most recent pic, however the fender is ready to be burned in. Can’t decide if I want to wait to install the axle and square it up so that I can be sure the arch is correct. Might be overthinking it a bit.

I ordered all the parts to put the suspension and steering together. Got some custom rod ends from Bulletproofsteering.com. I will be posting all that stuff up as I get time to put her back together.

 

[Jman95]

WOW! 2 years to the day.. Much has happened in life as you could imagine. Without going into that, the burb is still in my possession! I have recently started on the bodywork again and will be posting updates. During storage, nobody would fess up but the windshield was cracked somehow.

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It is hard to see from the picture, but its cracked across the bottom and up along the pillar on the D/S. I removed the glass, as I will be removing the doors to fix on them as well as replacing the D/S rear door. (I got a clean donor door from a yard.)

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There is a long list of bodywork to go through, my goal is to be through most of it by September. (We will see how that goes..)

List:
Seal up mirror holes and repair small rust on bottoms of front doors.
Replace the D/S rear door with the donor door I got from the yard. (Mine is rotted through.)
Remove the rear barn doors and replace with donors I purchased second hand. (Mine are rotted through.)
Weld up the small holes for the fender flare straps on both sides.
Weld up holes in the floor pan that were made when the exhaust heat shields were cut off the bottom of the truck.
Finish welding the D/S rear fender. (My time spent in my craft since I started the fender repair has educated me on such fixes and I will not be using the backing strip method.)
Clean up surface rust on the front fenders.
Source a hood. (I haven't decided if I want a steel 2" cowl hood or if i will run the stock style hood with a bug guard.)

This will be starting this week, I have not touched the truck for the whole 2 years. Long story short, for those who are curious. Negotiations at my old job fell through, and I job bounced for a while within my field. (Diesel Technician)
There was many broken promises and life happened as it always does, I have landed a job as a shop lead and been steady for 6 months now. During it all, I refuse to hang up this project and will see it through. The updates will be coming as I continue to progress!

 

[98BlackSierra]

Your dad would be proud!!! You definitely do some good work and do it right. I feel your pain with the rust and living in the salt belt (Michigan guy here).

I’m in the process of cleaning up my dad’s ‘98 Silverado and it’s taking quite some time to do….the thread is a few below yours actually.

Looking forward to keeping up with your progress!!

 

[Jman95]

Your dad would be proud!!! You definitely do some good work and do it right. I feel your pain with the rust and living in the salt belt (Michigan guy here).

I’m in the process of cleaning up my dad’s ‘98 Silverado and it’s taking quite some time to do….the thread is a few below yours actually.

Looking forward to keeping up with your progress!!

Thanks! I checked out your thread, I love going to Silverlake.. When mine is done you will definitely see it there lol

 

[Jman95]

I got the rear doors off and they fought the whole way..

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Got the puller tool off of eBay, it didn’t quite fit so I ended up using a 14mm socket on the top side of the pin.

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Believe or not these doors opened and closed relatively easy.. One of the donor doors had a rat nest in it at some point so the wiring and actuator is all chewed up, I will just swap all my hardware over and be done with that.

I know a good body shop through my work, they are going to paint the truck for me. The plan is to go with the “PBS” pearl blue on the top half and then “Diamond pearl black” on the bottom. Two tone, or possibly black raptor down around the rockers. I haven’t decided on that yet. However he wants the truck with the doors off so he can paint the Jambs and align the doors for me with new hinge hardware.

I will be working on getting as much of the bodywork done as possible so he will have to do minimal glazing on the body before priming, blocking and painting it. I’m going to have the quarter glass removed and will spray the interior with epoxy before laying down the dynamat, once the doors are off and the glass is out I won’t have to worry about taping anything off.

Will also address the roof rack mounting holes as I believe that is where the water was getting through and rotted the rear wheel well, not sure how much weight I plan to run on the roof rack or if I will fab a custom rack. I will look into reinforcing the mounts from underneath since I have the interior out, just in case I want to use it for something heavy.

 

[Jman95]

I have been working at it! Slow progress only a little bit to share but at least its something.

Made a patch for the inner wheel tub where the old tire jack mount made swiss cheese of the wheel tub. (don't have a before pic) Just some 16GA bent over the hump in the cab lol.

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Some gentle taps with the body hammer until it fit flush. Then the old "cut n butt" lol.

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This is more than likely never going to be seen again once the interior is installed, but ive came this far with this project and its all or nothing at this point.

 

[Jman95]

Attacked the mirror hole in the d/s door! I had made a patch out of 16GA steel to put in it, crowned to match the panel..

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I was afraid the weld would sink the body line though.. I am scrapping the rear door since its rotted on the bottom anyway, so i cut a piece out of the rear door and decided to weld in the body line, will grind the weld to match the body line and be able to blend everything with filler later.

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That is the piece I had cut from the rear door.

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I don't have a pic of it dressed up yet, it was a challenge to weld on the middle of door, there isn't much support in the skin and there is a brace from the inner structure of the door preventing me from getting to the rear of the patch.. I kept it as cool as I could and welded super slow to prevent warping.. I think it will be alright.. The welds sank naturally the steel shrunk a bit, but its only about 1/16th of an inch lower than the surrounding panel, will go over it with fiberglass reinforced filler and then finish with regular filler. I wanted to keep this door since it has all my vehicle info on it.. If im not happy with the filler when the time comes I have found a site where I can get licensed reprints of those factory stickers though.. Needless to say, I went junkyard hopping and found a clean P/S door as well as a clean rear D/S door.. I was going to grab the D/S front door but every truck I found it was either already missing or rotted..

 

[Jman95]

I made patches for the "half holes" my younger self left on the inner fender tub..

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That was a pain to say the least.. Still need to dress the welds inside the wheel well and then I will spray a coat of epoxy primer inside the quarter/wheel arch and i'm gonna brush some of the structural adhesive/seam sealer over the welds inside the fender just incase i missed any pin holes.. Then I will close up the fender. My air compressor has been working overtime and my shop smelled a little funky and I found my plug was melting my extension cord..

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Whoops, will replace the plug and change the water filter on it. I have an additional filter on the way too. It has been humid here and i've had to drain a lot of water out of this sucker, will be spraying epoxy soon and don't want to have to worry about spraying water with it..

She is coming along slowly but surely, I loose motivation sometimes with how slow some of the body work is taking. Trying to stay in it though, I have came this far and invested far too much time and money to give up now.. Besides the old man would kick my ***!

As soon as the body work is finished up it will be all hands on deck throwing everything back into this empty frame. On a side note, I haven't been able to get a hold of Realift to get my hands on a set of torsion bar relocators. My fear is that they have went out of business, so I guess if anyone has an extra set I would love to get my hands on some of them.

I have been trying to update as much as I can on this, when I lose motivation and I scroll through this thread it helps me out. I know there are still people here that can't wait to see this finished aswell. I'm working guys!

 

[South VA]

Thank you for creating and continuing with this thread. It’s been a journey, to say the least!

I am in awe of your developing the necessary welding and bodywork skills to do this restoration . And for sticking with it for so long and through so much. It is clearly a labor of love.

I just read the thread through, again, and am inspired on my own build, which admittedly pales in comparison to yours. It is such a pleasure to see the challenges you’ve overcome and the progress you’ve made.

I understand that motivation can be elusive in such times, but please know that your build is being followed and is inspiring others. I am so looking forward to seeing more progress as you reach your goal.

Great work! Keep on keeping on!

 

[GrimsterGMC]

I made patches for the "half holes" my younger self left on the inner fender tub..

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

That was a pain to say the least.. Still need to dress the welds inside the wheel well and then I will spray a coat of epoxy primer inside the quarter/wheel arch and i'm gonna brush some of the structural adhesive/seam sealer over the welds inside the fender just incase i missed any pin holes.. Then I will close up the fender. My air compressor has been working overtime and my shop smelled a little funky and I found my plug was melting my extension cord..

You must be registered for see images attach

Whoops, will replace the plug and change the water filter on it. I have an additional filter on the way too. It has been humid here and i've had to drain a lot of water out of this sucker, will be spraying epoxy soon and don't want to have to worry about spraying water with it..

She is coming along slowly but surely, I loose motivation sometimes with how slow some of the body work is taking. Trying to stay in it though, I have came this far and invested far too much time and money to give up now.. Besides the old man would kick my ***!

As soon as the body work is finished up it will be all hands on deck throwing everything back into this empty frame. On a side note, I haven't been able to get a hold of Realift to get my hands on a set of torsion bar relocators. My fear is that they have went out of business, so I guess if anyone has an extra set I would love to get my hands on some of them.

I have been trying to update as much as I can on this, when I lose motivation and I scroll through this thread it helps me out. I know there are still people here that can't wait to see this finished aswell. I'm working guys!

Motivation is a tough one. Rather than seeing the whole job as one task so that there is no satisfaction until it is completed, break it down into many smaller jobs and take a moment to congradulate yourself for completing each one as you go. Each completed small task is still a step closer the finish of the project. Remember, you are not alone, we are all here in the background cheering you on.