2000 Suburban K1500 budget low lift with 37"s

CrazyDrei

Space Monkey
Drei, your welding skills are good enough.
Spot and move spot and move spot and move then start back to the beginning and spot and move spot and move...
Drei, Just to clear this up I am a grinder too.

nitro_rat and dirtdobberoffroad,

You guys either have a messed sense of humor or really just want to see how far I take this Avalanche transformation, LOL.

I have a Harbor Freight fluxcore welder too, might have to start practicing in the next few weeks once I strip more parts of the Avi. And cut off the cladded quarter panels.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans!
 

Overlandtowater

Well-known member
one thing that will really help your flux core welder is to change the ground clamp the one that HF give us it junk very little contact to ground with. I've used the .30 and the .35 I really like the .30 for most every thing although it can burn through on the sheet metal. Also the pick us some wire at a big box store or even a welding store you will notice a difference....that being said I still use the HF wire..
 

frink84

Active member
Love the avi suburban idea, and the step bumper is a great upgrade. I initially thought the steps in my '18 Canyon's bumper were dumb but have used them so much...
 

Overlandtowater

Well-known member
another thing if you are considering doing the body work....don't try and overlap sheet metal get a pack of these body panel clips at HF.. they work great and put the proper spacing between the panels....also a brass spoon for welding will help too....I don't know if you know much about body work if so you know all of this if not then this will help with panel replacement tremendously!31PpRGu-FAL__SL500_AC_SS350_.jpg
 

CrazyDrei

Space Monkey
Welding cladded quarter panels...

Thank you guys for the positive vibes and suggesting the butt welding clamps so I would not have to overlap sheet metal.

Just pulled the cladding off the and found a surprise under the plastic.

MzwqHhB.jpg


Drivers side panel behind the door had a lot of rust damage, which would have to be repaired before I swap it onto my Sub.

NtCz1nZ.jpg


Passenger side was a little better but still too damaged for my liking.

I am in the process of puling out the seats and taking the doors off. Once I get the new doors and rear bumper on I will revisit the cladding to finish off the cladded look.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans!
 

rho

Lost again
Love it! Keep on it with the welding and you'll get better. gotta practice though! I'm a fairly bad welder but its something i'm working on... some of our truck projects are going to help with that, heh.

The avi front looks good on there, just make sure to rust coat everythinggggg. The environment out there just eats cars.
 

CrazyDrei

Space Monkey
Avalanche door swap: part 1.

When I bought my Suburban the drivers door did not have a lock core, front passenger door had a lock core and it worked, I could lock and unlock the truck in case the remote died. Rear hatch had a lock core but not the same as ignition or front passenger door. I looked up the price for ignition, front doors and rear hatch lock cores on eBay and quickly decided that it was not a necessity to replace them anytime soon. Having functioning locks and ignition that is keyed the same has been on my dream list for over 6 years. Finally I get to work on fulfilling that dream.

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I had a day to work on taking the Avalanche apart. Doors came off relatively easy, then the seats, center console, most of the dash and glove box.

WoD8esX.jpg


Time to take the doors off and swap in the cladded doors! Sorry for the angle, it was the best I can do with the angle of the sun.

jmnRwyE.jpg


Three 10mm bolts, three trim pieces, and two electrical connectors later the door was off.

m0XP20H.jpg


These doors are insanely heavy! I will put them on the scale tomorrow morning but it's at least 500 lbs for all 4 doors.

NtvVXa4.jpg





Avi door went on problem free. Hinges lined up, electrical connector plugs snapped right in. Door lock works, speaker works, window did not but I don't think it worked in the Avi to begin with.

leaCOuX.jpg


Sub with original doors.

RShqiws.jpg


Avi door hung. Looks pretty good. It'll be called Zebra until the drivers door goes on.

SmATuRn.jpg


Rear passenger side door went on effortlessly as well. All connections hooked up correctly as well.

x96LvJw.jpg


Time for front passenger door.

9UMf6h2.jpg


Poof and just like that it came off also. BTW, I took all the doors off by myself without any help, I would not recommend that, two people to remove and hand the doors is highly suggested.

naOMpbq.jpg


My first sign of trouble. These are the connectors that were in my original door. Medium black connector, medium white connector, small black connector and HUGE grey connector. Weird, Avi door did not have the HUGE grey connector and I have no clue what it's for.

aHxi4rn.jpg


Front passenger door went on well, all connectors that were attached to the door plugged in. Door opens and closes as it should, took a few swings to get it fully seat on the pins. Cladding rubs on front fender flare, grrr...

09GLyhw.jpg


Sun just about set and I finished all but front drivers door.

NrGbIjJ.jpg


So far I really like the look, and I know I will end up putting cladding all the way around very soon.

Not quite a direct bolt on after all. Couple problems came up. Rear door curtsy lights do not turn off no matter what I do. So I pulled the bulbs out to keep the parasitic draw low overnight. Tomorrow I will take apart my original doors, pull the window motors, glass and wiring out of the doors and swap all that into the new rear doors. I have desert tint on rear windows and like it and planned on swapping them anyways.

Nothing in the front door works. Locks do not work, window does not work, speaker does not work, mirror does not work. So just like the rear doors, my plan is to swap out the mirror and wiring from the Sub door and put it into the Avi door. This should fix the wiring problems, if not then I will replace the window motor and glass also.

Once all doors function properly I will swap over the drivers door.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans!
 

nitro_rat

Lunchbox Lockers
Nice work, you're making the right choice swapping all the cladding on, it's gonna be sweet!

Looks like the side window on burb hangs too low to get the avi taillights in there, maybe you can trim the tops of them down...
 

mekcanix

Camper
Ok that looks really cool. I used to hate that cladding on the avalanche. But seeing how your doing it this is very unique and cool and its really growing on me
 

nitro_rat

Lunchbox Lockers
for a bolt on solution Escalade EXT quarter panel cladding might drop on, looks like they're built on the unclad Avalanche body...
 

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