Here are some pictures:

The trip up to Webster went quite well.  It held 65mph just fine cruising down rte 104.  The oil pressure was fine while cruising down the road.  When I finally pulled off of 104, it dropped a bit low and I could hear a slight noise (I hesitate to call it a knock) from the motor that I did not recall hearing before.  This kind of troubled me… 

I stopped at my destination where I was for about an hour and then started on my return trip.  On the way back home, the temperature started to creep up.  It wasn’t getting too high, but still high enough to worry me.  Every other trip that I had taken never resulted in the temperature rising this high.  I turned on the heat (it was a bit chilly out anyway) and dropped the windows.  I used the heat to gauge whether I was loosing any coolant.  While driving down the highway, the heat stayed steady on the high side of the factory gauge.  Every time that I would drive through a small town, it would drop down…  I think I know what’s going on..!  I’ll elaborate when I get time to dig into it.

Surprisingly, now that I have the problem with my hands/forearms, my hands do not cramp up like they used to when working in tight areas or with repetitive motions.  Good thing!

Put it all back together and found that the fuel gauge and temp gauge did not work.  Removed it and traced out the lines.  Found a bad connection to the temp gauge and fixed that with a short strand of copper and a little bit of solder.  Removed all of the gauges and cleaned them while I was in there.  Put it all back together and still nothing…  Checked the fuses and the 3A cluster fuse was blown.  A quick run to Autozone for some fuses (all I had was the mini blade fuses) and it was back to working great.

While I was at autozone I bought a new headlight pull rod/knob to replace the broken one that was there.  So that was done.

I also picked up a new window crank handle for the passenger side.  Put it on and noticed why the previous owner had removed the old one…  The window track was broken making it almost impossible to roll the window up once it was down.  I had another rear window track from a pickup that I was able to cut off the truck upper bracket and weld on the bracket for my cut down doors (73-75 full convertibles had a different upper bracket).  Put that in and tried it again…  The window still jumped off…  A bit more inspection showed that the window regulator was bent up to the point that it was pulling the window out of its channels.  One of the doors out in my shed had a good manual window regulator so I removed that and dropped it into my door then dropped the window back in.  ALL IS WELL!!  It was a bit of a hassle to get the window back on the regulator, but now that it is in, it works as good as new!

Now that my roof is done, my next purchase will be that 74 Jimmy to cut up!  The first thing I am planning on doing is skinning the doors to get the additional supports out of them.  Then I will be converting my extra set of doors over to full convertible use. 

I will be using it primarily for the frame and plan to completely detail the frame then install my 3/4 ton running gear under it.  The doors will be gutted for their inner supports and other miscellaneous brackets/trim required to convert the pickup, suburban, and later model doors for use on a full convertible.  This will save me from having to cut apart my current doors.  This truck also has a rough set of low back bucket seats in it.  The plastic trim still looks to be in good condition so I may restore those seats and use them in my truck instead of the high back buckets I currently have installed.

All in all, I should be taking this home for between $150 and $200 depending on current vehicle scrap prices.  I’ll be going down there with cash in hand and the flat bed in tow…

These quarters came off of an 87 Blazer if I remember correctly so if I use the whole passenger quarter, I will have to change over to using a fuel door.  I have to look into what is different between this and what is currently on my truck now.

I am itching to start cutting panels off, but my schedule right now sucks.  I am way too busy with other things to make time for the K5.  I am content right now to be able to drive it around!

I continued with the trim removal on the inside, getting all of the plastic trim removed carefully so that I could attempt to sell it to regain some of the money I spent on buying the truck.  This was not a difficult task and after about 45 minutes, It was done.

The carpets, headliner, and side trim in the back were junk and treated as such.  The main reason why the previous owners were getting rid of the truck were quite evident once the interior was gutted.  The entire passenger side was sagging 4” below the bed floor inside.  The center two body mounts were busted up through the floor.  There was absolutely nothing but the roof holding up the rear quarter at the C and D pillars!

As I was planning on chopping the truck up anyway, I busted out the saws-all.  The passenger quarter panel was my first victim and two cuts is all that it took to be removed!

The truck was quite rotted underneath.  The next time I am down there, I will take a picture of the underside of the rear floor to show just how bad it was. 

The “barn door” style rear doors were a cinch to remove only requiring the impact wrench.  The rear doors on the sides were also quite easy requiring some trim to be removed, electrical connections disconnected and then removal of the mounting bolts for the hinges. 

The front doors on the other hand…  After removing the trim on the inside it became evident that the wiring had to be disconnected from the components inside the doors and then fed back through the hole in the door first.  Only then could the doors be unbolted.

Once the doors were out, we pulled the glass.  This was made very easy with the way the glass was installed at the factory.

Here are some pictures:

Parts retained for the K5 include:

• TBI 5.7L engine and full wiring harness
• Tilt Steering Column
• 2wd Steering Gear box – for future cross-over steering setup
• Full dash, firewall, and all A/C components – for a future swap to add A/C and the later model dash
• Front doors – good doors with minimal rust and full power windows/locks
• Center console
• A portion of the rear bed floor if it is still in salvageable shape.

For my Chevelle, I will be keeping the recently rebuilt 700R4 transmission

The rest of the Suburban will be parted prior to finally scrapping it.

I was able to get a set of Hooker headers for $146 delivered next day from Amazon.com.  The headers and the exhaust system I have purchased are made to work with each other nicely.  However, not as nice as a true bolt in.  Some "massaging" of the exhaust will be necessary to get the mufflers and tail pipes located where I want them. Nothing a cutoff wheel and a welder will not fix.

The good news is that I was able to save the Flowmaster Series 40 mufflers that were on the truck and they will get welded back into the system.  I am trying to find some high temp cold galvanizing paint locally right now so I can spray down the welds to try and prohibit rust formation.

I also did some more digging into the speedometer calibration and what needed to be done.  I pulled the driven gear out of the back of the transfer case and had a look at it.  It has a 7 tooth drive gear and a 19 tooth driven gear. I would need to step up to a 23 tooth driven gear to get the speedo to read right.  However, only up to a 21 tooth gear is available.  So I will need to purchase an add-on unit (speedometer ratio adapter) to get to the proper ratio.

I have pictures of all of this stuff, but will have to update later.

I received a new manual rear window crank handle to replace the broken piece that was on the tailgate when I purchased the truck.  In the process, I had some fun with some of the bolts in the tailgate.  If I had of thought of how to properly attack this, I would not have gone through all of the trouble that I did.  I ended up removing the window, regulator, and latch to get down to the bolts that hold the crank handle in. 

As I did not get the lock cylinder, I also did not get the latch pawl and spring.  I was able to fit a 1/4-20 x 1/2” long bolt into the clutch portion of the crank handle assembly so that the outer crank would drive the regulator.  The window can now be opened by anyone.  At this point in time, that is not a concern.  Before I actually put the truck on the road, I will have to remove the crank handle assembly again and install the proper lock cylinder, spring, and pawl.

In the process of messing around with the crank handle, I realized that some one had done a “modification” to the tailgate latch assembly which consisted of drilling a hole through the top of the tailgate and welding a screw driver to the latch lever inside the tailgate.  I guess that the original latch handle had broken and it must have been easier for them to do this “fix” instead of replacing the original components.

Prior to doing any work on the tailgate, I removed the spare tire carrier from the back.  The carrier itself is bent up pretty good and was often in the way of the tailgate when you would drop it down.  Once I had finished working on the tailgate, I took some time to attempt to straighten the tire carrier.  I was successful in straightening the lower bar, however, I have come to find that it really should have some degree of a bend in it to maintain the alignment with the bracket on the back of the tailgate.  This bracket on the tailgate also has to come off and undergo some straightening as it is bent a bit as well.  I also noticed that the bolts that hold the bracket inside the tailgate are prohibiting the window from fully retracting into the tailgate. 

I did not take any pictures (I know shame on me!), but hopefully next time I will remember to take the camera out there with me.