MY BLUE BURBAN MODS

[BLUE BURBAN]

Ok gang This is going to be an ongoing posting of the mods I've done and am currently working on for my 1990 K2500 suburban.
First off a little bit of history on the vehicle.  I am the 2nd owner of this burb and when I acquired itin September of 2006 it had just under 87,000 miles on it. I was told the previous owner kept it garaged all the time and didn't drive it much during his 17 years of ownership. He'd bought it in October of '89. It is (was) a basic model with no amedities except for rear heater and power rear tailgate window with defroster and clearance lights. No A.C. No tilt steering, No cruise control, No power windows or locks or mirrors. No nice comfy bucket seats. Dull blue-grey interior with blue rubber matting not carpeted. No rear interior trim.
 The first thing I did was was remove the useless cubby-hole above the heater controls and replced it with a 6 disc CD storage unit from a BMW X5 and paint the cluster bezel blue.
 

[okuma]

that storage things is cool..... any pix of the whole truck?

[BLUE BURBAN]

Will be adding more pics as i go along I've got them stored somewheres on one of my hard drives I just have to find them or take more.

[FlatBlack77]

pretty sweet man i never seen a setup like that before.

[BLUE BURBAN]

On the outside of it, I've added factory original power mirrors that I've had lying around here for about 10 years Added a factory rear air deflector to the roof of it. I won a $200.00 gift certificate back in February at work from a body shop and had the windows all tinted to match the factory privacy glass for a total cost of $249.00 (Gift certificate + $49.00 cash out of pocket) Next I had them "smoke" the clearance lights on top as well as the front turn signals,side markers and taillights. I also replaced the 194 "peanut" bulbs in the clearance lights with the larger and much brighter 921 bulbs. I then ran 2 extra wires up to the outer clearance lights (one to each side) cut the ground lead away from the same 2 lights,reconnected it to the 3 center lights and wired the outer 2 to my front side marker lights so now they flash with my turn signals.
Here's a couple of pics of it from the outside

[BLUE BURBAN]

My front lights both off and on.

[BLUE BURBAN]

I've also installed power windows and door locks and recolored my interior trim with the exception of the rear door panels. will be doing them this next spring when it warms up outside again.

[Lt.Del]

Nice work.  Question--why the rear air deflector?  What does those things do? Purpose?  I have seen them on  many burbs and depending on their purpose, i may put one  on my Blu Burb  http://www.delbridge.net/suburban

[BLUE BURBAN]

My dash

[BLUE BURBAN]

Nice work.  Question--why the rear air deflector?  What does those things do? Purpose?  I have seen them on  many burbs and depending on their purpose, i may put one  on my Blu Burb  http://www.delbridge.net/suburban

It helps to direct airflow down over the rear window. Greatly reducing the build up of watery road grime and icey snow from building up on the rear tailgate glass.
   I also got rid of that tiny ass interior rearview mirror and replaced it with a 5 panel rearview that I bonded 2 extra panels onto now I have absolutly no blind spots!!!

[werewolfx13]

wow..thats a big mirror 

[77c15]

You should patent that mirror....call it the Gigantor Deluxe Day/Night Rear View Mirror....maybe CIPA would buy into it...ya' never know!

[mike357]

the rear deflector does work. i've had 'burbs with and without and was suprised at the difference in "ceanliness" of the back glass on the 'burbs that had the deflector.

[BLUE BURBAN]

You should patent that mirror....call it the Gigantor Deluxe Day/Night Rear View Mirror....maybe CIPA would buy into it...ya' never know!

   That'd be nice if it wasn't already patented and distributed by RALLY through outlets like NAPA,
CHECKER AUTO, SCHUCKS AUTO, KRAGER AUTO, CARQUEST.  All I did was hold up a 5 panel mirror, take some measurements and found I could add 2 more panels to itand have just enough room for it to fit. It utlizes the original mount in the center plus 2 others that I had glued to the glass by a friend of mine that installs auto glass for a living. Had I known of this site at the time I would have taken pics of the mods and install. As it is y'all get to see just the installed version.
  On a side note since installing this mirror I haven't had to use the sunvisors at all

[BLUE BURBAN]

Ok I said many times I was going to do this and have decided the best way to share it with you is while I do it instead of waiting until it was all done and try to remember all the steps I went thru to reach the final result. But first, a little background as to why I'm doing this.......

I have a small onboard air compressor w/tank installed in my suburban for my train horns & for an on demand air supply for whatever may be needed in the future. I've wanted to put in an air pressure gauge for a long time but didn't want it to look like an after thought P.O.S. install. A buddy of mine was working for a snow removal company at the airport last winter when he came upon an old C70 truck with a factory air pressure gauge and a combination Tach/fuel gauge. I thought it would be pretty cool but one problem - I've got an electronic speedo in my '90 Burb and that cluster just wouldn't work for me. besides what are my chances of EVER finding one of these clusters in a wrecking yard up here in Alaska? So I filed it away in my mental file of things I'll never get to put in my Burb. Then I started thinking. And contemplating. And planning. I would just install a factory tach and a small fuel gauge set up that I got from someone on another site. Well on the very day that instrument cluster shows up on my doorstep I stumble upon 2 other clusters on EBAY that are out of the heavy commercial trucks. the first with a vacuum gauge and the other with the air pressure gauge.
Now being in a hurry to get a bid in and not really reading COMPLETLY THE DESCRIPTION of the first cluster, I negleted to realize that it had a vacuum gauge and not what I thought was a pressure gauge
So I win the bid for both of these clusters and get one already while still waiting on the other cluster to show I decide it's in my best interest to pick up a second electronic speedo cluster to do all my modifications to so my Burb won't be without a dash and undrivable as it's my only running vehicle right now.
Here's what my cluster currently looks like.......