Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Finally after a long time welding we have the rear gate all in one piece again. So we hung it back on the truck.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Cool ... Looking awesome

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Like what I see.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

:agree:

Very nice work. I so enjoy watching the metal work you guys are doing with this one!

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

That is totally awsome!! It will quickly become a pass time watching people look at your burb trying to figure out all you have done.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Thanks Pirate

Thanks Rusty

Thanks Bill. We really are having a lot of fun chopping this truck up and welding it back together.

Thanks Lower. I think it might make a few people scratch their heads.



To start mounting the front sheetmetal we need to finish the front of the frame. The first part we need is to mount the front sway bar. Then we'll build the frame to fit. Here's the start of the brackets for the lower control arms and the start of the links.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

We finished making the lower control arm sway bar brackets and found that moving the sway bar mount forward to clear the shockwaves puts the ends of the bar into the tires when they are turned. So I'll have to look for a shorter bar. We also made some progress on the modified rear bumper.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Very nice work on the bumper modification. What did you use to make the cuts? They look very straight.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Awesome work on the bumper Dale, really unique touch.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Continue to be amazed and have a silly grin on my face Dale.

Bumper looking great too.

Carry on.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Dale the work you have done to the Burb is amazing. I thought putting a truck roof was difficult on my Suburban and you have gone and changed most of the panels in some way.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Thanks Doug. We used a 3" cut off wheel in a angle die grinder.

Thanks Nik. We had to do something to it just for fun.

Thanks Rain. We work hard to keep you smiling.

Thanks 343. We're just out in the shop having some fun. It's very therapeutic.


While we're waiting for a different sway bar to arrive we decided to continue with the front of the frame. We tacked some pieces together and set them in position. We'll make the other side and TIG weld them tomorrow. We also finished off the welding on the bumper.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Nice work as usual Dale, are you planning on getting the bumper chromed or just painting it?

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Bumper turned out nice. Is the front frame sitting at ride hight?

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Thanks Nik. We're going to paint the bumper but I don't know what color yet. It would be a lot of work to get this one smooth enough for chrome. It has a lot of rust pits and small dings.

Thanks Lower. The frame is lowered now. I'll have 2" under the front of the frame and 1" under the center. The bumper may come down below the 2". I want the truck at least somewhat driveable if the airbags go flat.



We got the second front frame section built and TIG welded them both. We'll have to get them square and parallel to each other and then weld them to the frame. We also dug out a rad saddle that has the usual rust in the bottom corners.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

We cut out the rusty corners and then bent up some patches to weld in. We did weld all the pieces together but I didn't take any pictures. After we finished the repairs to the rad cradle we bolted the new fenders, grille surround and rad cradle together. the repo fenders of course don't line up very well. we'll fix that next time it's apart.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

The new frame doesn't line up with the notches in the bottom of the grille surround. So we cut out an offset section around each notch then switched them side to side and tacked them in place. We set them back on the frame and they line up great.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Nice work on the grille support frame cutouts Dale, is the plan to weld the old frame horns to the new frame rails?

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

chop,cut, rebuild!!!

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Thanks Nik. The bumper is going to be modified a little bit so original frame horns won't fit. We'll just make up something to fit when we get that far.

Hi Pimpston Seems like we're always cutting up something. :lol:




We got some of the welding done on the grille surround. We also cut another front section off of a hood and cut a section of the brace and welded them together.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

I decided I needed some inner fenders so we dug out some old ones from my 67 pick up. I think with some cutting and patching we should be able to make these work.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Always something happening ehhh Dale.


Rain here.

No progress on the truck yet, but the little Berlingo van is making me smile.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Now that is interesting.. Like the way you are going

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

With your metal working skills this will be eazy~peezy.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Hi Rian. Ya we're always doing something.

Thanks Pirate.

Thanks Bomp. It's all just cutting and welding.


We spent most of the afternoon trying to center the front wheel. We decided that moving the fender forward 6 5/8" was about right. So we cut the back off a couple of old fenders. Next we'll clamp them in place and start welding.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Wow you guys rock!!

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Those fender extensions are gonna look great :metal:

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Yup what they said :lol: I love this thread :metal:

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Love it

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Thanks Lower. We 're trying our best.

Thanks Nik Should be interesting when we get all the pieces welded together.

Thanks Ian. I'm glad you're enjoying it

Thanks Pirate. I'm glad you're enjoying it too.



We got one of the fender extensions on. It turned out pretty good. We also fixed the panel alignment issues where the fenders meet the grille surround.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Bravo, Nice, clean and straight. Perfect.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Bravo to the metal magician! :thumbs:

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Very Very Impressive.

I guess a bit of practice does help.

That looks like a no filler join.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Thanks Bomp. I'm quite happy with the way it turned out.

Thanks Nik. No magic just a lot of time.

Thanks Rain. It's a case of spend time now getting it strait or spend time later. And I hate sanding bondo.


We finished welding the second fender extension. Then we started making some brackets to mount the front sheetmetal. First two brackets with slots to mount the rad cradle. Then a bracket to weld to the inside of the fender and one to weld to the frame to attach the fender.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Love the creativity. The fender came out looking good!

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Thanks Doug

We spent some time mounting brackets. We tacked the rad cradle brackets to the frame. Then we tacked the lower fender bracket to the frame but the placement was off so we'll have to try again later. We also started fixing the rust on the fender tops (hood sides )

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

We got the fender mounting brackets tacked in place and bolted the fenders on. We also finished one of the patches on fender tops and set it in position.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Looking good :metal:

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

I continue to see a Hotwheels special edition with the lines you have created here Dale.

Looking good team.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Thanks Nik.

The team says thanks Rain.



We continued working on the front sheetmetal today. To start we made some brackets to temporarily hold the front of the hood in position.This piece will become part of the grille surround. We then set the fender top on to check the placement. We found that the fender top needs to move forward 2 3/4 inches to align properly. We decided to cut a slice off a spare set of cowl extensions. That was as far as we got today we'll start tacking next time.