Custom 1989 Chevy Avalanche on 2040-cars
Portales, New Mexico, United States
|
Up for auction is my custom, 1989 Chevy suburban 2500.It has been extensively modified into a one of a kind Chevy Avalanche. It has been reworked inside and out, with body and interior parts off of a 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche, but has the lines and lower body of that classic square body Chevy!
I started out with a clean, bone stock, 1989 Chevy Suburban 2500 with 80,000 miles. It runs and drives perfect. After spending half a year scouring eBay and auto parts yards for the random avalanche plastic shroud pieces for the back of the cab, I finally got them all. This is where all the fun started. First the back roof got cut off. Once I did that, I realized that the avalanche plastic pieces didn't line up with the new back lines of the cab. That is when I remembered that I had "mocked" the avalanche pieces on the back of a pickup cab, and that the roof line of a suburban takes a different angle to accommodate the rear seat passengers. You will notice a rise in the square body suburban roof line, right above the driver seat, that is not in the pickups of the same year. I noticed it, and solved the problem. Transplant a roof from a crew cab pickup onto the roof of the suburban. This also solved another problem, getting the back of the cab of a truck to line up with the odd roof line of the suburban. One bonus of this massive undertaking was that the doors and windshield lined up and could be reused. With all the roof and truck cab grafting done, it was time to fashion the Avalanche plastics. It is almost unbelievable how precisely the plastics line up with the body lines of the suburban. The two big problems I ran into were trying to figure out a sub-frame for the plastic pieces, and the fact that the center plastic piece with the third brake light, was to narrow with the outside pieces mounted flush with the body. The first problem was solved by finding a wrecked Avalanche at a local junk yard, cutting off the stock sub-frame mount for the plastics, and welding it onto the cab/bed of the suburban. Unfortunately, the plastics were not on that wrecked Avalanche, so I had to start a new search online for another center plastic third brake light piece. The most expensive of all the Avalanche plastic pieces. Found one online, bought it and cut the outside three inches of each side to fill the gaps left by the first one being too narrow. With those two mods, the plastic pieces were mounted and looking great. The next issues to tackle were the tailgate and bed side tops. Suburban tailgates have roll down back windows, making them heavy and impractical. A pickup tailgate will not fit on the stock hangers for a Suburban gate, and the length of the Suburban bed was about a foot longer than the bed of a 2002 Avalanche, and it was very noticeable. Since the theme so far had been two birds, one stone, I thought why not chop a foot off the Suburban bed, and graft the back of a pickup bed on so a pickup tailgate would hang right on there, and it would look more like a 2002 Avalanche. I got a square body long bed, just the bed, and did just that. I used the top of the bed sides from the long bed to convert the back window frames of the suburban, into pickup bed sides. Then I cut the foot off of the Suburban, and welded the entire back end of the long bed onto the suburban, tailgate and all. To clean up the look, a smooth roll pan was welded on. After some mods to the floor, the construction of a box enclosure in the bed that is open to the cab, and the fabrication of a sweet bed cover, the back end metal work was done. Now to the interior, the 2002 Avalanche theme continues. Four front bucket seats from 2002 Chevy Trucks have been custom mounted, and two center consoles finish off the look. The amount of comfort has been increased greatly, and the cab gets the luxury feel of a king ranch ford with captain chairs all around. The stock Suburban came with non/tilt steering wheel, manual door locks, and manual window rollers. I found and bought a tilt steering column, and the donor crew cab that supplied the roof, also had power windows and locks in the doors. So now this suburban has power windows/door locks, tilt steering, four captain chairs from 2002 Chevy truck, and dual center consoles. The entire project was a work in progress from 2005-2009, at which point the shop I was working at and working on the Avalanche, shut down. All work on the truck stopped and has been stopped since. The truck was moved immediately to another indoor storage facility, where it has been ever since. As it sits, the entire process of converting the 1989 Suburban into a custom 1989 Avalanche has been done. All the metal work and fabrication has been done. That being said, it is in rough body work form, meaning the foundation has been laid for you, the buyer, to have your own styling and finishing touches done to turn this into the custom truck of your dreams. A 75-80% complete custom truck. You decide the color, your call on the interior fabrics and finishes, your fine touch to the engine, suspension, and drive train! I have priced it to sell, because I need to clear up space, and just have not done anything to it in 5 years. Last weekend (6/21/14) I pulled it out and got the dust blown off of it. I replaced the battery and the fuel pump, and it fired right up. It reminded me that it has a 58 inch glass pack installed, and it makes that 350 sound beastly! I also found a set of bushwhacker cutout fender flares, the most desirable grille from the 90-91 suburbans and radiator shroud, and two auto-loc hydraulic actuators to raise and lower the bed cover. I can supply an extensive price list for all the parts, aftermarket, custom, and stock. But I will assure you that the Buy It Now price is more that fair given that the stock suburban books for $2,500, and a rough parts list I have totals over $4,000. |
Chevrolet C/K Pickup 1500 for Sale
Custom 1989 chevy pick up truck(US $8,500.00)
1971 chevrolet 4x4 truck
V8, k10, c10, 4x4, np205, long bed, new motor, ram-jet, 350, fuel injected, 4wd(US $5,500.00)
** shop truck ** c10 ** patina ** silverado **(US $11,950.00)
1956 chevrolet 3100 frame off restoration nut and bolt 283 v8 a/c classic chevy(US $18,990.00)
1979 chevy truck k1500
Auto Services in New Mexico
Tranco ★★★★★
Sharp`s Truck Service ★★★★★
Lincoln County Auto Brokers ★★★★★
Hobbs Wrecking LLC ★★★★★
Freedom Auto Sales ★★★★★
Desert Sun Roswell Inc ★★★★★
Auto blog
First 2014 Chevy Corvette Stingray spotted crashed in the wild
Tue, 12 Feb 2013This restyled blue 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray is wearing manufacturer plates, and it appears to be the same one seen around the internet in various pictures lately. This crash is likely not part of the Chevrolet testing regimen, however. Digital Corvettes forum member gpetry posted the shot with a note: "got this picture e-mailed from a friend in Arizona last week..." No circumstances are given, other than the incident occurred in the thick of a set of curvy roads, and the coupe ping-ponged off a guardrail and into the rock wall. Hopefully everyone involved in the incident walked away.
It may not be a pretty thing to see, a crashed sports car that's not even available for sale yet, but rest easy. Many pre-production cars are used for development and then unceremoniously crushed and scrapped, anyway. If that's the case here, that makes this wrecked 'Vette less of a tragedy and more of a case of exceptional efficiency.
Nissan sells 3,117 Leaf EVs in May, climbs over 3,000 for first time ever
Tue, Jun 3 2014Chalk up a big win for the Nissan Leaf. In May, the world's most popular electric vehicle sold a record 3,117 units, the first time any pure electric vehicle has sold over 3,000 units in a month in the US (unless Tesla managed that feat but rolled the number into a quarterly report). This marks the 15th month in a row of record Leaf sales and the seventh where the Leaf was the top EV seller in the US. The challenge bar is set for someone to step up to compete with this all-electric wunderkind. Chevrolet did sell over 3,000 Volts once, in August 2013. The Leaf's one long-standing competitor, of a sort, is the Chevy Volt, which used to regularly outsell the Leaf but moved only 1,684 units in May. That's still an increase of 4.8 percent over 2013 but is part of a 4.5 percent decline in year-to-date Volt sales for 2014 compared to last year. The last time the Volt outsold the Leaf was October 2013. Chevrolet did sell over 3,000 Volts once, when it moved 3,351 in August 2013. Let's take another look at those 3,117 Leafs sold last month. They represent a 45.8 percent increase over May 2013, when 2,138 Leaf EVs were sold, so someone is doing something right in Japan and Tennessee. So far, Leaf sales in the US are up 36.4 percent year-to-date, to 10,389 EVs. That's just under half of the 2013 total, and it was accomplished in five months. In 2013, Nissan sold a total of 22,610 Leafs. Anyone want to hazard a guess where the total will be at the end of the year? As always, we'll have our detailed monthly sales write-up including other plug-in vehicles as well as hybrids and diesel car, up soon. For now, though, the big news is big Leaf sales. Read Nissan's press release below. Nissan Group reports May 2014 U.S. sales May 2014 May 2013 % Change Nissan Group Total sales (units) 135,934 114,457 +18.8 Nissan Division May sales 125,558 106,558 +17.8 Infiniti May sales* 10,376 7,899 +31.4 NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Nissan Group today announced total U.S. sales for May 2014 of 135,934 units, an increase of 18.8 percent over the prior year and a May record. Nissan highlights: Nissan Division set a May record at 125,558 sales in the month, an increase of 17.8 percent. This marks a monthly record for Nissan division in 14 of the last 15 months. May was the best-ever month for Nissan LEAF with 3,117 sales, an increase of 45.8 percent over the prior year. In May, LEAF passed 50,000 total U.S. sales since launch, further establishing it as the leader among electric vehicles.
Junkyard Gem: 1985 Chevrolet Sprint
Thu, May 21 2020For in the 1985 model year, General Motors began selling Chevrolet-badged Suzuki Cultus hatchbacks in California. Sales of the cheap three-cylinder econobox in the rest of North America followed soon after (with the Canadian version known as the Pontiac Firefly), and did pretty well considering the crash in gasoline prices during the middle 1980s. Starting in 1988, the facelifted Sprint became the Geo (and, later on, Chevrolet) Metro. Here's one of the very first Cultuses sold on our shores, found in a San Francisco Bay Area car graveyard. Amazingly, the primitive rear-wheel-drive Chevrolet Chevette remained available all the way through 1987, competing with the thriftier front-wheel-drive Sprint in the same showrooms. For 1988, Pontiac started selling a rebadged Daewoo LeMans, so the Sprint/Metro never lacked for intra-corporate competition. Inside, you'll find the same stuff most mid-1980s Japanese econoboxes got: tough cloth upholstery and long-wearing hard plastics. Suzuki quality in 1985 wasn't quite up to Honda or Toyota levels, but you weren't paying Honda or Toyota prices for the Sprint. MSRP on this car started at $4,949, or about $12,000 in 2020 dollars. The cheapest possible 1985 Chevette cost $5,340, while a new no-frills Ford Escort would set you back $5,620. Subaru, however, could have put you in a punitively unappointed base-model Leone hatchback for just 40 bucks more than the Sprint that year. I think I'd have sprung the extra for a $5,348 Toyota Tercel, a $5,195 Mazda GLC, or— best cheap-commuter deal of all that year— the $5,399 Honda Civic 1300 hatchback. I was 19 years old and driving a Competition Orange 1968 Mercury Cyclone that year, and I recall feeling pity for Chevy Sprint drivers, new-car smell or not. Still, these weren't bad cars for the price, though a Sprint with an automatic transmission was a real character-builder. Got three cylinders and uses 'em all! 48 horsepower from this hemi-headed SOHC 1-liter. The Turbo Sprint — yes, such a car existed — had a howling 70 horsepower. The hood-latch release is a rectangular button that resembles a badge. 1985 Chevy Sprint Commercial The highest-mileage, lowest-priced car you can buy. 1985 holden barina commercial The Australian-market version was the Holden Barina, and the TV ads featured the Road Runner. 1983 SUZUKI CULTUS Ad In its homeland, this car got screaming guitars and a drive through New York City for its TV commercials.