Fosscore's 2013 Suburban LTZ Build Thread

89Suburban said:

Half assed

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Yep, and never regretted it. How'd that running wires external to your steering column work for you?

07Burb said:

Yep, and never regretted it. How'd that running wires external to your steering column work for you?

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I don't remember that one haha

89Suburban said:

I don't remember that one haha

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Yeah you do. You did it on Silvy and sold it like that Rather than running the wire through the column.



I've got a bunch of other @89Suburban tinkering half-assery secrets to spill if you'd like me to We've known each for too long to not have some locked and loaded in the chamber for when sh*t talking commences

@guy from norcal @kbuskill
Got me thinking about Mini Truckin' and Truckin' magazines of the late 80s. Used to buy these all the time. Even did a few things on my 1983 Toyota SR5 4x4 because of those magazines.

These links show all the covers of those magazines. Have fun!

Couple guys at school/around small AZ town had some lowered/chopped 2 door pick ups. Datsun like this orange one. Slammed, same black tonneau cover, blacked out windows, fuzzy dice coz Arizona and he was Mexican, hammering bass coming from the bed. And the extra cab Mazda B2200 with hammering bass coming from the extra cab.

Fosscore said:

@guy from norcal @kbuskill
Got me thinking about Mini Truckin' and Truckin' magazines of the late 80s. Used to buy these all the time. Even did a few things on my 1983 Toyota SR5 4x4 because of those magazines.

These links show all the covers of those magazines. Have fun!

MiniTruckin (Page 1)

history, archive, and cover images for 'Mini-Truckin' magazine published in 1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994, 1995 and 1996.

99wspeedshop.com

Truckin Magazine (Page 3)

cover images for 'Truckin' magazine for the years 1987,1988,1989,1990,1991 and 1992.

99wspeedshop.com

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Those bring back memories.

I've always been a 1st gen (Squarebody) S-10 guy, especially the 2 door Blazers. I have also owned a couple Nissan Hardbodys through the years.

Those trucks definitely bring back memories of the good ol' days.

The holidays found me on the go for the last month working away from home, so not much to report on the Burb. Found this gem in the driver front tire when I got home thought. Had my wife take it to my buddy's shop since roadside warranty. No *********** thankfully and they pulled it out.



Had the HF battery tender hooked up to keep her charged up. My wife went to drive off one day and forgot to unplug it. She was actually on the phone with me when I asked her if she had unplugged it. Luckily before she got it wrapped around the fan blade or belt she stopped. But it was my fault for plugging it back in as I got home for Christmas, then left again. Somehow she had run over the plug and one blade was broken off. Thankfully no damage to the truck or the female end of the extension cord but the HF charged had to be 86'd. WTF!

I had a back up HF unit and threw that one away, but left the explanation and jab at my wife alone. lol I mean the extension cord was running in front of the both vehicles in the driveway and she has to walk over it to get to the Buick every day. So other than 2 washes to keep her clean, nothing been happening.

Camry got an oil change and tire rotation before my son headed back to Orlando for Spring semester.

Got this message from OnStar about the Buick.

>>Your 2021 Buick Envision detects a battery, starter or connection issue. The battery is needed to start the vehicle. To avoid a situation where you can't start your vehicle, please schedule service with your preferred service provider as soon as possible, so they can determine if your Battery or Starter needs replacing. You can still drive your Buick but it may become harder to start. And if the battery does fail, you will not be able to start the vehicle. Please disregard this message if your vehicle is already in for service (as this could be a false notification if the vehicle is in for service and the service being performed affects this component).
Service Code SAC005<<

With a quick Google search just to read more:

>>Buick Service Code SAC005 indicates a System Performance issue with low cranking capability due to high resistance in the battery or a short in the starter system, signaling a critical starting/charging problem requiring immediate dealer attention to prevent being stranded. It's a proactive alert, often showing as a yellow indicator, meaning a thorough battery load test, starter check, and scan for low-voltage DTCs (Diagnostic Trouble Codes) are needed to diagnose if the issue is a failing battery, high resistance, or starter fault. <<

Had my wife take it down to our buddy's shop, as the warranty is out-of-date and I'm not paying stealership prices and time for that visit. I figured it was the battery given the time on the road since I got it after my dad passed. Might as well have roadside and battery warranties at his shop, since he does all of our vehicles. He installed a new Interstate battery, reset the codes and back in business. Funny or not funny, my wife asked why I wanted to take it to the GMC/Buick dealer rather than our buddy's shop. WTF? I said we are not taking to the stealership because it is out of warranty. My fault for her not hearing me clearly. She is amazing, but seriously? lol

108800 miles

Super Bowl Sunday
After living in Seattle for 10 years in the late 70s and early 80s, playing peewee football in the grey and green with Seahawks stickers on our helmets, getting to play in the Kingdome during halftime and getting a picture with then, future Hall of Famer #80 Steve Largent, having Hall of Fame #45 Kenny Easley jersey in our closet for decades, it was pretty cool watching them win the big one!

Finally found a perfect weather day with nothing else to do but detail the Suburban in between the Olympics, the Super Bowl and the in-laws from Australia with us.

I took care of the Buick and Mazda on Saturday and geezus the girls can "destroy" a clean car in minutes. But I do it anyways. Just like you, but sheesh....

xoxo ladies!


Washed, then time to detail. Wiped down with Collinite's Universal Detailer (very similar to 845 Insulator Wax but in liquid form, so it goes on so easy with a fresh microfiber.) And it really keeps the shine IMHO. Then it was time to attack the wheels, tires and fender liners.

I started by washing the wheels and hit the inner barrel with Sonax Tire Cleaner and a stiff brush to make sure any brake dust was cleaned off. I wash the inner barrel every time I wash the truck, so the cleaner did not really even foam up or turn purple. Then it was time to use some Star Clean wet polish, which helped for an extra polish. I didn't want to spend the time pulling the wheels today, so it may be time to put a polishing ball and some Mother's or other polish in there at some point.

I washed the wheels about 3 times during this cleaning process just to make sure nothing was left on too long. The ceramic coating I applied last year is still holding up very well. Might be time to put another coat on, but that is for another day.

I scrubbed the tires again with the Dura Cleaner and stiff brush to get ready for a fresh application of Dura-Coating Dura Dressing. I know some don't like this approach and there are probably other options like Cera Kote that gets good marks, but after applying so many tire shine options that just wash off, sling or don't shine, this has been working for me. But it does take maintenance every so often and seems to average about 45 minutes to an hour per tire and lots of elbow grease to get the tires cleaned (even with the previous coating that is still there) to be ready to apply the top coat for a fresh Dura-Coating Dura Dressing.

It is work, but once the tires are cleaned and the suds are white, the temperature and wind helped to dry them out for the top coat application. And today was perfect for that! Not too hot either so I could clean the wheels in the shade and then turn the truck around to apply the dressing in the bright light to make sure it was an even application. That should keep them shiny for a few months again. That's the part I do like, especially when I am traveling.

I also decided to use Cera Kote ceramic wipes to shine the fender liners and the running boards too (gave them a solid degrease and soapy wash first). This old girl at 109k miles is still looking great, but there are some cosmetics that keep popping up around the vehicle, so taking the time to attend to some of these issues when I can and keep her running strong.

Plus, it keeps my build thread going....

Not a call you want to receive on a Friday night after your 17 year old daughter has left the house to go out with her girlfriends, but has to drive I-95 south towards Miami.

1933 my daughter calls.

Dad, dad, (she's crying, sobbing, very stressed and emotional, not hysterical thankfully) I've been in an accident, more crying and sobbing, anxiety on both sides immediately heightened. Are YOU ok? Where are you? Are you hurt? I'm on my way. 6 lanes wide, 2 express lanes to the left with the plastic poles and she and the other car are stopped in that lane, fkg idiots honking at them as they whiz by. I tell her to try and get to the shoulder and I am on my way or if you don't feel comfortable then stay there.

1937 I call 911 as it was first on my mind, non-emergency and they say they will send Florida Highway Patrol.

1940 I call my wife and then my daughter again on the way. I am on scene at 1955, she is very upset telling me about what happened, freaking out about her Mazda CX-5, that she loves her car. Told me the girl wanted to sit in the car with her, she told her no. The other girl was 19. She called her boyfriend to come be with her. She was visibly shaken and probably panicked and contemplating the lost car and rise in insurance. Thankfully she had coverage (GEICO) and did not lay into my daughter about the accident.

The girls had managed to cross 4 lanes and pull over to the shoulder, which does not offer much room due to a guardrail, a slight corner and an on ramp with cars, trucks and motorcycles whizzing by.

I called our girlfriend who is Hollywood PD. She was all the way across town on duty, but took a few minutes to talk to my daughter about how it would go, what happened and that she was not at fault.

The girl who ran into her will be at fault, that someone will come take the statement and write the report for insurance (she has been our friend since my daughter was a toddler and her and my wife are best friends).

Her daughter crashed a car a year ago so been thru the same thing. It was nice to have another female voice of reason and good as she is PD and a long time friend.

We sat and talked, shared some snacks that she was taking to her "Galentine's" dinner with the girls.

Time keeps ticking. I call our friend again as she wanted us to keep her update even though she was on a domestic call.

She calls dispatch and says that we are in the system, but FHP was busy with a stolen car issue. She said they are the worst, slow and they beat to their own drum. lol

My daughter asks if we will be on the body cam? I said, IDK, but smile!

Road Ranger rolls up, but nothing for him to do and he says he will call FHP again.

We talk some more, eat some snacks, call my wife and our girlfriend again. Then call 911 again around 2130. Says someone will be there.

Cars are whizzing by and we saw a couple blue and reds moving at a high rate of speed. Not for us. Another Road Ranger.
No po-po.

Finally somewhere around 2330-2350 FHP turns up. He takes her license, registration and insurance info and asks what happened.

Asked her how fast she was going. She said IDK. He says you should know how fast you are going. Then he goes to the car behind us, punches the info into the system and comes back with the printed report a few minutes later.

It was the Florida Traffic Crash Driver Information Exchange. We can log in and find the report later. But at least we have insurance info for the other girl.

We had our hazard lights on for so long that her car wouldn't start. My Suburban did not start either. I thought about turning them off earlier but we got talking and left them on to keep the other idiots from possibly hitting us.

A question my daughter asked, "What happens if someone hits us? Let’s hope they don’t.

I pulled out the jump starter and guess wtf, it won't jump anything either. There was a friend of the other girl in an F250 that turned up and said he could jump, but the FHP said sorry can't let you do a u-turn on I-95.

Trooper says that he usually carries his NOCO unit, but forgot that night. He digs out his cables and I've got mine in the jack storage on the driver side rear. He pulls up in the active lane, with his lightbar going.

Says he is not really supposed to do this due to liability, but let's get both vehicles going and you on your way back home.

He told me that the delay was the shift change at 2130 and that we had moved from an active travel lane and no injuries were reported, so not priority for the night as it was a non-emergency. Fuggghh!


It was a long night waiting around, but then again my daughter and I had a good bonding time together, which is hard to get with our schedules and she is headed to college in 1 year.

And no injuries to either girl and selfishly, thankfully, my daughters Mazda is not toasted like the Hyundai.

We have to drive on
I-95 back north, when I see the road resurface crew with lots of traffic backing up the motorway, so we exit and head up US1 thru the city.

She is going very, very slow. I call her and she is crying again that her car is ruined, making noise, she won't speed up, that she loves her car, she yells at me and hangs up.

We limp home and it's after midnight now. Her 2 friends are waiting for her along with my wife and MIL.

I take the car for a test drive and romp on it to 60mph on US1. It drives, tracks, shifts, turns, brakes, speeds up and slows down, no problem. There is a grating/scrubbing sound like tires on the liner, but no squealing, grinding or hesitations.

The rear bumper skin is cracked and scuffed, but thankfully no lights or the lift gate have been damaged and it opens and closes without an issue.

I found the bumper skin online and at LKQ just because we had so much time sitting on the side of the road. I told my wife and she said isn't her insurance paying for it? Yes, but I had to look for cost and availability so I knew for myself.

2 bumper brackets were broken loose and pointing down after the impact and I could hear a hiss from the exhaust flange.

I had her rev it, then covered it with a rag and that quieted the hiss. Likely what she was hearing driving home. There is also a small crimp in the exhaust pipe, where it must have taken an impact from the cross member and a sensor dangling but not torn off. There was an indicator on the DIC that said occupancy sensor. It later would go away or got cleared on restart and nothing showed up on the code reader.

But nothing else at first glance looked bad. Missing the tow eye cover on the bumper, but I'll just white electrical tape it for now, so it doesn't look too bad for her. We all hugged and she gave me a tighter and longer hug than usual.

By the time I shut down my brain and showered, I was last in bed at 0200 and had to be up at 0600 for work out of town for the holiday weekend + a few days.

We called our buddy at the shop and the girls took it down to him to put it on the lift the next morning for a driveability check. I sent him pictures I took of both cars involved so he could understand what to look for.

It was a Hyundai Elantra that the low front end went under the rear bumper of her CX-5 and totally pushed in her front end.

And again thankfully missing the liftgate. That rear bumper construction did its job well. Now if it was a big truck, it would have been 100% trashed.

He reported back that it was good to drive with a few notes about what he found/adjusted.

>>Mechanic: It’s safe to drive. I repositioned the exhaust so it’s not hitting the subframe and secured the bumper cover to the bent brackets. It will probably need a new exhaust or a section replaced if they do body work. If not, you can drive it the way it is. No more noise.

I asked him about the dead battery as I had only put the Suburban on charge over night and it wasn't fully charged when I left at 0700. The Mazda did not have any charge yet.

>>Mechanic: A bunch of voltage below threshold codes because battery was low and one for passenger occupancy sensor. And one random misfire but I cleared it and it doesn’t seem to have any. I drove it. Said the battery tested good and probably recharged from driving it. Plus I asked my FIL to put the trickle charger back on it as well.

And there you have it...another saga on the thread. Thankfully all things considered, #1 priority is that my daughter is safe and unharmed. Bonus #2 that her Mazda is still fully operational and finally #3 not her fault and no ding on insurance considering 4 vehicles and 2 teenagers is just not friendly. My mum reminds me of us boys (3 of us) as teenagers and my brothers were pretty bad with their trucks (other time stories), all with trucks and numerous accidents. Not sure how they managed that with $$$.

Can't see the pinched exhaust, but just below the cross member. He managed to pull it down a bit so it wasn't banging on the cross member.


Fender braces were bent down. He folded them back up and attached them.

Glad she is ok. Sounds like you handled the situation very well.

Glad daughter is ok!! Having your first accident is scary and even more so on a 6 lane interstate…. Been there done that myself and it certainly isn’t a pleasant experience! Glad you were able to go rescue her! Dad to the rescue!

Phew, thank God everyone and everything turned out ok.

Mazda CX-5 returned in great shape. Painted rear bumper panel and new bumper pad, damaged exhaust cut out (not the prettiest bead, but she will never notice lol) and rear airbag sensor recalibrated. Built like a "little tank".

Happy daughter and happy wife so all is well with the world!

Had the in-laws in from Australia for 5 weeks thru February, which was great. I only missed a week of their time with us. Dad and I put in so many hours in the yard, planting, raking, building and cleaning up. In our old house, we planned and laid a 4 zone irrigation system, lay sod all around, built a fence around the yard and somehow managed to tear down 2 large, tall overgrown ficus hedges....lol if you know how difficult they are then you will laugh and swear at the same time! He was in his 60s. He is now 82 and won't give in to quitting. Walks the dog every day and loves to play golf. True pleasure spending time together. We text now that he is back in Sydney, but the memories or our time together as family and since my dad passed a couple years ago, it is nice to keep in touch and share my continued work on the house. Hard for my wife to be so far away and the flight costs keep rising. Cheapest we ever got it was loooong ago for under $700 return. Now it is just stupid, but only choice to get back home.

I ripped down the rotted fence around the pool pump and A/C unit to build a new one. The old one was in such bad shape, it just fell over due to rot. And the placement of the concrete footers on top of the supply line and over another PVC pipe and electrical conduit took some care to dig it up and chip it out without damaging the PVC pipes. Then found some really old sprinkler lines and pulled up about 35 feet of it, buried under tree roots and 1.5 feet of earth. Finally just cut it off and left it poking up to deal with later.

The fence is anchored by 4 pieces of 4x4 PT in cement, screwed into the existing fence and tap cons to the CBS house, so it is not going anywhere soon. Then for price and punishment of the sun and rain, I used fence pickets and cut off the dog ears and gapped each one the thickness of 2 pickets. Turned out pretty good. Had some left over pavers and looks like enough to paver around the pool pump and some river rocks in the small spaces between the concrete slab and house. That will just tidy that area up so not always in the dirt when needing to clean the tall paper filter for the pool. My every week, my wife every 2 weeks, even though I tell her 1x per week. lol



I will probably lay down another paver walkway to the gate, which needs to be ripped off and rebuilt like the other side of the yard. Other parts of the fence need mending, but it is still standing, so not trying to invite more work unless summer storms necessitate it with a blow down. The gate is so heavy and there is no latch from the outside, rather they installed a barrel bolt to slide into a hole. Hard to use. So far other than some pavers in the front patio, Dad and I were able to recycle all the pavers from the yard to add to our projects and keep continuity somehow. Wife wants a shed on the other end of that side of the yard as the pool pump, which is under the trees so no grass will grow there, but there is an active sprinkler line, that I may route to the front yard as the supply to the front yard.

There is a secondary indexing valve out there, but we cannot get it turn on and or activate the sprinklers out front or even know where they are located. The current indexing unit is on the other side of the house by the new paver walkway. Lot of weird stuff and some bad DIY work from the previous owner. He did lots of stuff, but some was a bit crooked or wonky. I found a couple sprinklers that I have capped off and some that are under pavers or buried. A project for another day. Little victories for me, while fixing little things inside the house and planning to paint the exterior of the house, probably in May, so busy filling the holes and scraping the loose paint off to get ready for it. Wife will be very happy! Plus the rock face on the lower part of the walls will be painted white the and garage door will likely be a light color or same as house. IDK...I'm just the painter. lol
Then she wants the roof painted as well, after a solid pressure wash. Uhhhhhmmmm... there is only 1 of me and summer hell heat is coming soon!

We built/extended the paver walkway out the side of the garage so nobody had to walk in the mud to the bins, through the gate or to the driveway to clean up the vehicles.



Dad has a green thumb so he put some new plants and flowers in the ground for the ladies (at their explicit instructions, as you know). The orchids my wife scattered in the trees around the front and back of the house, have finally flowered after the "cold spell", which is amazing! Here are a few that have bloomed. Our last house we hung pallets on the fence and had small pots hung with large hose clamps to make a hanging garden that was very pretty when you walked in the house and looked out the opposing window. Everyone loved it!



The ladies decided to put bird feeders in the front and back of the house, so now we have blue jays, mockingbirds and the occasional cardinal, plus squirrels eating so much seed that they are emptying the feeder! The girls kept offering up peanuts in the shell, so now we have brave blue jays and squirrels coming to the kitchen window for deez nuts. Our little dog goes absolutely berserk!

At least the cold spell culled a lot of the iguanas, as their presence has been noticeably reduced. Only took near 16 years to get that cold, for that long, to put them down.

A few shots from an early morning run to Lowe's for concrete and rock. Sure enhanced the stance! Compressor fuse is pulled as the bladders on the OG shocks are toasted, but the actual shock is still in good shape.



30 March 2026
Suburban 110000 miles on the clock.


Went to my buddy's shop for an oil change, electrical system check, rotation and a new battery. The Interstate I had in there was a little over 2 years old, had been killed twice in recent months and was completly dead the other day again. I could not charge it with my lightweight HF charger. Had to jump it with the Mazda, then put it on charge to be able to start it and drop off at my buddy's shop. Got a little bit of pro-rated warranty, which was worth getting a new battery now.

Still flirting with getting her down a little more like with the rear end full of concrete. Not sure when I can fit that in, but sure would look good!

The last couple of weeks we have had so much rain, even though most of Florida is so far behind in precipitation that we are classified as extreme drought. Finally got her cleaned up this weekend after some yard work. Leather treatment, Rain X, a good coat of the Collinite's detail spray and cleaned and coated the tires again. This is tedious work, but looks very good once they are cleaned again with a fresh coat of the Dura Coating. It holds up good, but does need attention every 2-3 months, especially if there is a lot of rain. Each tire takes about 1 hour of scrubbing to rinse clean, then that coating really shines!

Fosscore said:

@guy from norcal @kbuskill
Got me thinking about Mini Truckin' and Truckin' magazines of the late 80s. Used to buy these all the time. Even did a few things on my 1983 Toyota SR5 4x4 because of those magazines.

These links show all the covers of those magazines. Have fun!

MiniTruckin (Page 1)

history, archive, and cover images for 'Mini-Truckin' magazine published in 1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994, 1995 and 1996.

99wspeedshop.com

Truckin Magazine (Page 3)

cover images for 'Truckin' magazine for the years 1987,1988,1989,1990,1991 and 1992.

99wspeedshop.com

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way back in the day a friend of mine had his truck on the cover, wonder where it is now.......
he was a rich kid and could afford all the work and paint, silver spoon.
pretty sure it was this one, the only blue nissan that was featured in the 1980's, a little googling shows he was featured again (in the magazine) in 1991 after adding some massive stereo system I had moved away in 1987. We used to cruise a lot down in so-cal with my junker I think I had a mazda wagon at the time lol

Doubeleive said:

way back in the day a friend of mine had his truck on the cover, wonder where it is now.......
he was a rich kid and could afford all the work and paint, silver spoon.
pretty sure it was this one, the only blue nissan that was featured in the 1980's, a little googling shows he was featured again (in the magazine) in 1991 after adding some massive stereo system I had moved away in 1987. We used to cruise a lot down in so-cal with my junker I think I had a mazda wagon at the time lol
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@Doubeleive nice find. Loved those magazines. All the cool graphics, body kits/ ground effects and massive stereos in the beds, lowered and lifted to the sky. I had some graphics on my 83 Toyota and even changed the Rancho boots to pink for a while while some guys had lime green. I had quick connects to my speaker, so we would throw in the house speakers and cruise our one horse town main road. Back then, they let us do that and you could sit int he bed of the truck having fun. 4th of July time we would throw water balloons and charged up water fire extinguishers and spray each other while we cruised, parked and hung out listening to music, stopping in at the Jack in the Box. Too many old sweet cars and trucks to list, but 454 dually for the ranch guy, who also had a Z28 that we would go to lunch in with lawn chairs because he has no seats. Forever working that car, but fast. 69 C10s. 66 Mustang with some pounding 6x9s in the rear deck playing Def Leppard Hysteria album in 1987, one guy, his dad had a bone stock orange 66 Bronco with white top that he always took off. There were corvettes and lots of square bodies, some rice action too. Good times muddin' then cleaning. I was a fruit loop about it then and my dad always made fun of me.

Yard looks great. Gotta say the burban looks brand new still.
So weird to hear someone from florida talk about a drought Im in ca.

guy from norcal said:

Yard looks great. Gotta say the burban looks brand new still.
So weird to hear someone from florida talk about a drought Im in ca.

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Thanks man. Trying my best to keep it looking good. I know drought... and we have been getting pounded with rain, but still a bit behind. Also why I am dragging my feet on the irrigation system being operational yet. Wife not beating me up own that, but ready to paint the house....lol priorities and I just need to say some of the magic words, "Yes dear, that looks great"!