Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Hey Marc congrat's on the welder. Looks like you quickly put it to good use!

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Yes, I plan to tackle the rear floor structure next...I hope this helps to speed things along.

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Congrats nice looking unit!!!

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Nice welder! I have the same one. So far, I have only run .023 er70s-2 wire in it. I'm really liking the TIG for sheetmetal. If you haven't bought the TIG kit yet, you can put together better stuff for about the same price.

There is nothing wrong with the ground clamp. It has heavy duty copper jaws with plenty of contact area.

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Mark

I appreciate all of your tips. I'm using .030. If I drop down to .023 do I need to get .023 tips for my gun? it only came with .030 wire and tips.

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Yes, I need to buy the TIG stuff. I have never TIG welded but I do want to learn.

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Your stinger should be fine..I've used mine about 20 years..had a little trouble here and there..I just replaced mine with a upgraded heavy duty version and wow...what a difference...like i said..your ground looks better made than mine was..before I changed it out if I did much continuous welding it would get extremely hot and wouldn't clamp tight..I think you'll be fine..I used the tweco clamp on mine now and it works great..

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Thanks. I also picked up a welding cart today.

Thanks Mark I appreciate the help..

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

I got back out in the garage Saturday. I picked up a welding cart since my last one caught on fire....(jk). While Doug is busy shucking peanuts, I'm going to try to catch up...

I have quite a bit of the rear floor structure cut to length. I started to fab up the front section of floor. The plan is a strong structure that will provide support and added structure. I plan to use some type of wood over the top of the structure. If you look closely at the top of the photo you can see where I used some of the old flooring to space out the structure so the same thickness of wood will fit between the flange and support bracing. I'm kicking around a couple different ideas in my head for the wood.

I will use this same 1" x 2" tubing to go over the notch all the way to the rear. This will also provide a nice strong tie in for body mounts.

I tried to take a few pics....the lighting is not the best.

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Yep, I paused my peanut shucking and see you are making good progress. Good idea and direction.

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Soooo cool. Can't wait to see this done. I also wanna see your pickup in person. One of my favorites for sure. I'm glad to see another person with the multimatic. I'm eyeing that one myself. They still have some pretty good deals on them right now.

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Thanks Mark

Thanks Doug

Yes, you and me both. I need to figure out the floor and rear tub situation before I pull the body back off and paint the frame. Thanks, you welcome to check out my 48 anytime...Yes, I dig my Multimatic. Rebates good until the end of the year.

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

I have been busy working on the floor structure. I added more supports as well as the structure that goes up and over the large notch. I paid close attention to place one of the support structures over the body mounting tabs. I will drill through the support to that I can bolt the body through the floor and structure to the frame like it was from the factory. In one of the pictures you will also see I placed a small piece of the rear floor to get an idea of how it will look.

everything is spot welded at this point. This is a good thing because I had to change around one piece I welded in because I used the wrong measurement...that's what the mock up process is for.

I also added one piece across the notch. I might add another one above the gas tank.

The vision I have for the floor is some type of cool looking wood in the front and rear sections of the floor and a metal notch cover.

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Another pic.....The next step will be to trim down the stock inner fenders and raise them up slightly...I saw a guy on Facebook that did something similar with his build. I'm following his lead and putting my spin on it.

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Looking good!! How do you like your welder? Are you accessing your compressor and tanks from underneath or hatch?

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Looking good!!!

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Lovin the welder...you have no idea. I kick myself for not pulling the trigger sooner. Yes probably. I will have a wood floor that I can remove from above if need be. I can also remove them from the bottom. Not sure the failure rate constitutes the extra work.

Thanks

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Marc you are cruising on the floor structure. Isn't the welder awesome?

Are you still going up through the floor for your fuel fill?

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

thanks, I had some of the metal already cut in advance and a general idea of how I planned to lay it out. Yes, I'm loving the welder..

Yes I'm planning on a small pop up gas cap directly above the fill on the tank. Depending on how far down the gas cap flange extends down I might only need about 2" of hose to connect the gas cap to the tank.

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Great progress and the floor looks really solid! Nice welder - I got the Miller 211 last year and love it. I'm still burning holes but getting better over time.

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

I like the build. It's looking great.

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Who makes those manifolds Marc?

Thanks

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

They are made by Holley (Hooker brand). I went with the natural finish because I'm cheap. For my look I will probably wrap them in fiberglass anyway.

Here is a link. I got mine locally to save on shipping.
https://www.holley.com/products/ls_p...ust_manifolds/

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Thanks. I was out of state for a week for work then deathly sick. I have a week off of work over the holidays so I would like to get some work done on the Suburban very soon.

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Thanks Marc!

Rick

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Well I have the week off of work so I'm going to spend some time in the garage in hopes to catch up to Doug. It was over 50 degrees today in Michigan which is crazy for December. I decided it was a good day to pull the 20's off of my 48 to throw them on the 53 suburban to check fitment. I also started to fit the inner fenders. The goal is 22" rims up front with full OE inner fenders. I have such a nice set of OE inner fenders that it pained me to cut them up to fit to my Porterbuilt drop member. I also spent a few minutes to weld up a few small holes in an effort to clean up the inner fenders.

On to the pics.

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Marc this is a killer pic

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Cant wait to see more of this!

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Looks great!!!

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

How did the wheel and tire fit?

Those inner are really solid pieces. Looks like it is all fitting well Marc.

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Thanks I had wondered for quite some time how it would look.


Thanks Mark

Thanks, I hope to make some decent progress in the months to come.

Thanks man

The wheels fit pretty good. I want to roll my front fender wheel opening lips and trim a tab that I won't be using for the fender brace. This was a little trick I did on the 48 in an effort to squeeze as much room as I can. The inner fenders don't look to interfere at all. The wheel hits the fender when aired out and I turn. more work to be done here.

I have since went back and added some material back to the inner fenders to improve the look/fit. I'm liking the fit more and more..

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Man I can relate to this!!!! just finally getting back to mine after getting sick on a plane just after Thanksgiving....

Project looking really nice!!!

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

looks great. I too woulda cringed cutting up them inners.

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Thanks man

Yes, but I'm liking them so much more than the flimsy inner fenders on my 48. I used some from ******n products because they went with the firewall. I like how they are turning out. I have went back and added more metal in parts to get them really fitting the contour of the frame rails better.

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

the extra work will pay off. are you painting the engine bay area? I personally love the stock inners. its just one of the things the factory did so well from the gate. glad you are using them. IMO the newer parts in the engine bay have more contrast with some of the old original features of the truck. If everything looks new I feel like the balance is off and it feels too modern. To me I like the contrast of old and new, more toward the old!

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Yes, I see what your saying. Yes the engine bay will be painted and very detailed, even if the outside is not painted nice..

Marc