Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Awesome build. I know all about getting a monster motor to fit. Lot of tunnel work.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Here you go Dale

Attachment 1499829

Attachment 1499830

They're 8" wide and 14" long, stamped from 1.4mm (from memory), ones a bit rusty but will clean up fine, done on the original Abbey Panels tooling.

And below in their natural habitat

Attachment 1499831

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Thanks Nik

Hi John. Working on your truck will take care of any stress. At least it does for me :)

Thanks Chizzler. If you can make that big diesel fit then I should be able to get my motor in.

Thanks Ian those are very cool.



Yesterday we got the motor mount frame brackets welded in. Next time the motor comes out we'll box them in. Today we removed the passenger side of the firewall to get ready to install a new one.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

When we cut out the firewall we found more rust that we had to remove. Then when we cut that out we found an apartment complex for rodents above the kick panel vents. And since we had lots of access we cut off the bottom of the kick panel. We finished today tacking in a patch panel on the front of the vent box.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Nice job Dale. Stupid mice. Whats the story with the yellow '68? quad cab?

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Looks good dale, I was wondering as well about the yellow truck

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Thanks guys. The yellow truck is a 67. Originally from California I found it as an abandoned project in a barn 1/4 mile down the road. It has a 327 with a 700r4.' We stretched the cab 27" and made the extended cab rear doors. Then we cut 27" out of the front of the box. Now I'm just waiting for the snow to melt.


Today we got the patch panel welded

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Looking good stay at it

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Thanks Pirate


Friday we replaced the section that we cut out of the kick panel. Today we started by patching one of the holes for the heater intake.Then we made panels for the toe board and firewall and got them tacked in place

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Like quite a few builds on here, you continue to be my touchstone of sanity.

I am on week two of a seven week classroom training course in haematological anti-coagulation and find myself looking in on threads with much envy.
I guess this will pass and I will be able to pay my mortgage and buy bits for my engine and do my truck further.

Thank you as always for posting up and sharing.

There..........

I feel better.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

well since you've removed every panel, im sure you'll have the cleanest burb on the planet!!!

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

The kick panels did you make them or buy them new...if you bought them where did you get them

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Totally dig what you're doing with that firewall and toe board.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

I will continue to watch in awe of your abilities and work space

love the build keep it up

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Hi Rian. I'm happy I can be part of your ongoing therapy.

Hey Pimpston where have you been. Still working on your new house?

Hi Pirate. We made the panel. It just replaces the flat areas below and behind the vent.

Thanks Greg. We're just having fun.

Thanks Starchaser. You keep watching and we'll keep building.


We finished welding the firewall panel and then cut out the rust on the bottom of the vent box.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Yup, no truck work til the snow takes a hike. just remodel for now!!! wainscott, rough plumbing etc...

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

lol, So Im checkin' in on one of my top 5 favorite builds outta 525 I follow.
As I read the progress of "We finished welding the firewall panel and then cut out the rust on the bottom of the vent box".
I look at the pics.
Welded it back together better than what you see in a magazine and chop the Heck outta the other side.
Skills. Real Man Skills. Love it!

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Nice job Dale, the firewall is lookin really clean

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Spring should be here soon. I'm looking forward to watching your 'burb progress.

Thanks Greg. I don't think we're doing work of your quality but we sure are having a good time chopping stuff up. Building a left over parts truck is very liberating.

Thanks Nik. It's nice to get rid of all the holes.


No truck progress but my daughter just returned from a school trip to Cuba and brought some pictures of the old cars still in use.

The first two are taxis that she took to and from the airport
The third is a school bus they took to the beach
The last two are cars she saw on the street

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

They are so cool

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

I watched that series on the Discovery Channel a while back called Cuban Chrome. It was interesting to see what they have to go through to keep those vehicles running.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Yes one of the characters even used a boat motor in his car. It look like it weighed a ton!

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Enjoyed the series also. Looking forward to more updates on the twisted sister. Thanks for the Cuba shots.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Here's the progress from Friday and today. We cut out the drivers side firewall and the lower part of the kick panel. Then we patched the kick panel and tack in the new firewall. We'll try to get it welded tomorrow.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

This morning we finished the welding on the drivers side firewall. Then after lunch we started on the center section. First we made a center piece with a curl on the top then we tacked on two curled sides. Then we added two curled triangle pieces to the corners

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Very nice work Dale, are you going to run an under dash master cylinder setup or are you going to drill into that nice clean firewall?

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Thanks Nik. So far the plan is to mount the master cylinder on the firewall but sometimes plans change


Today we made a removable crossmember and frame brackets that will go under the transmission.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

When I was in Cuba a year ago we took a '54 ford car that was all Hyundai diesel under the body. Great place. Nice progress.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Thanks Lower


We pulled the motor out so we could box the motor mount brackets. This is the passenger side.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

We also tacked the center portion of the firewall in place

Shortly after lunch today a yellow courier truck arrived with a package from the United Kingdom. Ian sent these Jaguar XKE hood louvres to me for free. He stamped them on the original tooling and saved them all these years. It's kindness like this that makes this community great. Thanks Ian.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Nice work Dale. Wow, that was very nice of Ian! Great people here.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Dale, nice work rebuilding firewall and kick panels. I wondered about the louvers when i saw the pic earlier in your build. It was good of Ian to send them to you. I'd love to know the story behind them. Ian made them?

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

I used to work for Rolls Royce. Back around the turn of the century Jaguar decided it would make one final batch of XKE hoods using the original tooling and sell them through their main dealer network (these things were going to be $8500 a pop). They commissioned our press shop to stamp the panels and I had to oversee the production.

The louvre tool was a really clever old thing, originally (I think) built by Abbey Panels in the West Midlands, it held the hood upside down and stamped both sides at once (on early XKE's the louvres were stamped separately and welded in) and would also stamp more or less louvres, depending upon how much "weight" or "set" you put on the press. Obviously you don't set up on $8.5K hoods so I cut some random pieces of steel to use for set-up. Once finished I was left with 4 pairs of perfectly good louvres which it just seemed a shame to throw out. I did ask my boss if I could keep them, he was an accountant (not a car guy) so seemed really bemused by the request but said OK.

The first set went in a gasser style Anglia, the second set in a Coombs style Jaguar Mk2 (with supercharged XJR motor), and now I can say the 3rd set will be in radical 66 Suburban. :metal:

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

its gonna be bout a 3rd jag already, so why not sheet metal. i got a few parts i can donate. ima need em back after you rework them thou!!!

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

HOW INCREDIBLY COOL!!!

I have benefitted from Ian's generosity too.....


Well done mate.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Really digging on your firewall, I definitely have to go back and tweak on Steiner.
Thanks for showing

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Dale, those louvers are pretty special. I'm sure you'll use them in a creative way. Sorry for hijacking your thread. :o

Thanks for the interesting details Ian.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Wow cool! those will really set the burb apart from any other vehicles ever built. It's details like this that really make it special

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

That's awesome

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Thanks Doug. Great people make it fun to be here.

Thanks John. It is a cool story.

Thank you for the louvres and the story Ian. I'm sure I'll be repeating it alot when I get the truck on the road.

I don't have the front designed yet but why not start with jaguar louvres. If you need help with your donated parts let me know.

I agree "INCREDIBLY COOL"

Thanks Greg. I didn't mean to make more work for you.

I'm working on some ideas for them but nothing definite yet.

Well I do like to be different.

Thanks Pirate.


Yesterday we finished the firewall welding. Then today we welded the crossmember brackets and drilled the holes in the crossmember.