Ain't It A Shame?
 

That mean mother rust. I hate it! Me and a friend went and picked up this great '85 K/20 Sierra Classic Suburban yesterday. This was the king of the road in it's time. It has about everything but a roof rack. It's been extremely well maintained/serviced,except it is rotted out. It has a Goodwrench engine and most of the a/c system was replaced in '10. It even has a clean AC Delco air filter and fresh looking fluids. It still had tags and the guy drove it up till 3 months ago. It started right up and runs like a champ. Everything works...all the windows...everything! It has the HD emissions with tubular manifolds,dual exhaust,no cats,locker,3.73s,nice Kenwood stereo and some kind of upgraded speakers. Other than the stereo,alarm,and beauty rings this thing is all stock GM. My friend plans to part it out. It's just so much rust and it's sure a shame. If it was mine I'd run it for a winter vehicle and say screw the rust. Here's some pictures:

Re: Ain't It A Shame?
 

Was it a diesel? It looks to have the glow plug light in the top of the dash. The interior looks really clean.

Re: Ain't It A Shame?
 

No,it's a 350. That's the service engine light. This thing has the OBD-1 set-up. I know he's using the grille in his '85 High Sierra pickup. This grille looks new, The letters aren't faded at all. His buddy wanted to go from 4.10s to 3.73s in his K/20 so my friend had him in mind for those. I'll let him know what anyone wants. When the time comes I'll post a thread in parts.
It doesn't look too bad in the pictures,but the rockers are toast front to back,behind the rear wheels is shot (pass side has a huge hole),the front fenders either have holes or bubbles,the rear sill is weak,the door bottoms don't quite have holes...yet. The frame looks pretty scaly and rust is working at all the floor braces and mount. I think what happened is this guy had a thing for Assateague Island National Seashore and must have gone over on the hard pack sand along the water. The front bumper has a permit sticker and in the glovebox is a pamphlet and permit slip. He also said his son learned to drive in it. Maybe he did the ole splashing through the surf like ta see on TV! Lucky he didn't get stuck cuz we wouldn't be here talking about no Suburban right now.
I put insurance on it and got historic tags today and drove it around some. Like I said,what a shame. This thing runs great and everything works as it should. I'm going to drive it the rest of the winter,or until my '92 is back on the road.

Re: Ain't It A Shame?
 

I went 2.5 hours out of my way to buy a suburban that apparently had 'no rust' mainly wanted it because it was a suburban with a raised roof and power seats and such the thing was so trashed and rusted out now that's a shame lol but they always seem to take the pictures right where it looks perfect at

Re: Ain't It A Shame?
 

My bad, all the trucks I have seen where diesel that have the glow plug and water in fuel light there.

Re: Ain't It A Shame?
 

It's soul will live on in other squares..

Re: Ain't It A Shame?
 

I had to ask Jason about the lights myself. I'm a 6.2/6.5 guy and I had only seen diesel dashes with warning lights there. I'm not sure what the second light reads.
That's what it boils down to. Jason parts a lot of rusted '80s square bodies and does pretty good. He pretty much sells locally. He put together a sweet '85 High Sierra. It started out as a 1/2 decent minimal rust 305/TH350/NP208 K1500 (red w/almond) and now it's a K3500. He fixed the rusted spots,rebuilt and installed a TH400/NP205,2 or 3" lift,14-bolt ff w/ Detroit Locker & disc brakes/Dana 60 (both rebuilt),285/75-16 ProComp Extreme A/Ts on gloss black 7" Ford wheels w/long chrome lugs,Warn winch bumper,9000# submersible Superwinch,Sierra Classic dash/door trim/steering wheel but not carpet,was red interior going to black,top of the line Suburban stereo,and tilt. He still wants to make a rear bumper and has a cowl hood and hood ornament for when he paints it. It's built to work and is very cool in the process. He has good 350s but says he hates to pull a good engine. He did some things to it,but basically just running it till he feels it needs replaced. He's a Pontiac man and we have four full size 65/66 389 Pontiacs to part. Maybe I'll talk him into building one of those for it. I think that would be awesome and held have great torque w/o big mods. I'll have to get pictures and post a thread on his truck.

Re: Ain't It A Shame?
 

At least this guy was honest about the rust. You never know,some people will say it's rotted out and it's minimal rust. One can always hope,but this one was as bad as the seller said,but it still ended up better than expected,overall. We rolled up and it has for sale signs in the windows for $500 more than it was listed for on Craigslist. First thought was what kind of game is going on. No games,just an honest sale. I guess he dropped the price when he listed it and just hadn't had a chance to remove the signs. He got what he was asking for. Just a quick straight sale,loaded,and gone!

Re: Ain't It A Shame?
 

Yes it sucks for sure, and once they have real bad cancer it seems nearly impossible to slow it down.

Re: Ain't It A Shame?
 

I'll check back on this thread when the time comes to part it. I'm going to run it the rest of the winter...another month or so. I'm thinking about tearing into doing the lift on my '72 I've been needing to do while I have this. The original suspension is shot and front tires are getting pretty lousy. I have everything I need to do it. And,I imagine my '92 will be good to go before long. I love running older trucks but sometimes keeping them going can be a hassle. Especially since I need them to make a living.

Re: Ain't It A Shame?
 

If and when he decides to part this truck he will make a thread in the for sale parts section... until this happens the sharks can stop circling

Re: Ain't It A Shame?
 

Thanks Bob. Yeah,I posted about it here as a topic of conversation. I don't want the thread closed for suspicion of being a concealed parts for sale for a non-subscribing member. It's my friend's Suburban,but he's letting me run it until we get my '92 running because it's in such nice shape and I'm squeemish about running my '72 or my '85 Jimmy on salty roads. So far I've been able to avoid that but it's not over yet. We are in cahoots together in many ways...trade off work,go in on things together,trade parts for labor,etc. but all this off this website. He's a member but spends most of his computer time on Pontiac and other GM performance sights. He pretty much just sells on Craigslist and Ebay.

Re: Ain't It A Shame?
 

Does he post over on http://performanceyears.com/?

I recommend it if he is not already over there; pretty comparable to this site in terms of layout and level of activity but for Pontiacs.

K

Re: Ain't It A Shame?
 

Yes Keith,I know he's on their for sure. I don't know what his user name is,though. He has a '69 Lemans convertible disc brake car that he has cloned into a GTO,pretty much. It had the hood when he bought it and it now has the endura bumper,built up 455/4spd/12-bolt posi. I said he's a Pontiac guy but he's also real big on the Buick Grand National/T-Types

I've been driving the Suburban for the past couple days and it really drives nice. My '91 hasn't been on the road for a while. I forgot how it was driving one of these. Although my '91 was newer,this one is more cushy and really makes me want another. I'd be taking him into letting me have it if not for the rust. What a shame...