Polar Bear Suburban

[DirtyLarry]

Well, I ran across this rig on Craigslist Thursday night and I knew had to have it. I could barely sleep Thursday night in anticipation to call the guy first thing Friday morning. It is a 1989 V2500 Suburban, 5.7L, SM456 with rear barn doors and only 132,000 original miles. When I saw it had a manual transmission in the CL add my eyeballs about popped out of my head and the rear barn doors were a bonus (I don’t care for the tailgate with the roll up window on Subs). You won’t believe what I paid either. $1500! Actually, $1496.35 as I found a few bucks in pocket change when I took the interior apart for deep cleaning.

As usual with a rig of this age and price it isn’t without issue. It needs a clutch, the windshield is badly cracked, the steering column is wobbly as hell (typical loose tilt mechanism situation that these Saginaw columns are famous for), stereo is missing and it has a severe lean to the left due to a sagging LH front spring plus it was filthy dirty! None of this is a big problem as I have a good used Centerforce dual friction clutch that I took out by my K10 last year when I did the NV4500 swap. The lean isn’t an issue either as I have a pair of left over 4” front leaf springs from the K10 as well. Probably do a ORD shackle flip on the rear. I bet I already spent 20 hours since Friday night cleaning this thing. It is turning out nice though! The biggest disappointment is the fact it has 3:42 gears no biggie as I will be swapping in a 14 bolt FF soon but wasn’t planning on regearing the front. Looks like I need to find a pair of axles now. It has a couple small surface rust spots but they will come right off with a DA sander then touch it up with touch up paint. Nothing major.

When I do the clutch I’m planning to kill two birds with one stone. Just yank the engine to replace the clutch and give the engine a makeover (paint, tune up, new sensors, gaskets, water pump, etc). It probably will get an 8.1L and NV4500 someday as I still have a few laying around but for now I am going to run with this TBI 5.7L and deal with the priorities first (fix issues, lift it, address the rust spots).

Let the fun begin! My wife named it the Polar Bear.



The underhood light even works!




Ah, YES!! Manual trans Picture after a major cleaning. That is the shifter from the SM465 out of my K10. It is a NOS shifter with no slop and a new knob. Glad I saved thos Husky floor mats too!