Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Today we finished making the drivers side front frame rail. Cut two crush sleeves and welded them in. Last two pictures are with the front frame rails tacked in place.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

i see why you called it twisted, with all those "twists" and turns and the frame rails. like i said if you need a shop hand/whipping boy im your guy!!! what thickness on the frame rails are you using!!!

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Picture one is some of the tig welding on front frame. The last two pictures show the rear inside corner tacked in and some plasma cutting on the rear corvette section

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

cool so far! frame is interesting, but I can't wait for the body mods!
maybe this is what I should do with my 1990 corvette!:lol:

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

65sub, outstanding project and really love the frame work! Very creative...and a lotta skill there too. I am all in to tag along.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Pimpston you will see the reason for the frame design when we get to the body modifications. You're not far away, come and have a look. The 2X8 tubes are 1/8 wall, the 2X4 tubes are 3/16 and the curves are 3/16


Thanks Jon Doing the body mods should be a lot of fun.


Thanks A.D. We've had a good time doing this frame.


Friday's work was just welding and grinding on the front of the frame. Here's three pictures of the finished welding

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Fantastic looking work on the frame. Looking forward to following your build.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Awesome work.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Thanks guys I appreciate the comments.

First two pictures we put the front suspension back together
Next, after some careful measuring we removed the rest of the corvette frame and left the rear suspension on the table.
The last shot is the first two pieces of the rear frame section

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Man o man this is one awsome build you got going on here! Gonna be following this! Just out of curiosity why you using a Corvette for suspension?

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Thanks Franky. The corvette suspension is just for fun. For the driving I do it really has no real benefit but as I mentioned earlier, on this truck I 'm going to do everything I ever wanted to try whether it's practical or not.



Yesterdays progress was just welding some 2X4 frame curves. Today I decided my daily driver needed some work so we changed the head lights to LED then we used "GMC Sub4X4" idea for LED taillights http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=623681. Makes quite a difference.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Nice! Where did you get the headlights?

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Frame and burb are looking good! :chevy:

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Thanks Guys

The headlights came from the local truck and tractor parts supplier. I haven't decided if I like the look of them yet. They stick out about 1/2 inch.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Here's Friday's work. One rear frame rail welded and ground and one just tacked together.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Yesterday's snow storm kinda slowed things down today but we did get one rear frame rail mocked into position.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

We got a bunch done in last couple of days. First we welded on the other rear frame rail. Second we made some boxing plates for the rear corners. Next we put in two angle braces for the rear frame rails.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Then today we got some 1/4 x 3 flat bar drilled thee mounting holes. We bent the ends in the metal bender. The last picture is the bracket tacked in place

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

can i borrow your "easy" button when your done cuz you make all the hard work look easy!!!

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

You can borrow the button any time you need it. With your attention to detail finding nos parts you could build this if you wanted.

Friday we finished the welding and then used the cherry picker to lift the rear suspension into place

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Looks good

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

We made a little progress the last couple of days. First we made some brackets for the batwing crossmember and got them welded on. We aren't finished with them yet. Then we cut out one of the shockwave brackets.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Very nice brackets. Did you use a plasma cutter?

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Thanks A.D. I just used a cut off wheel in a die grinder and a sanding disk.

We made a spacer for between the lower shock mount and the shockwave bracket. The we made upper and lower brackets for the shockwave

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Beautiful work, I will be following this one.

Dave

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Thanks Dave


Here's my picture for today. Hot rodding in the Great White North

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

I just found your build thread. Very interesting for sure.

My in-laws owned some property in Dresden about 25 years ago and they planned to build out there. All I remember is that Dresden seemed like the middle of nowhere (no disrespect intended).

Are both your Burbs Canadian in origin?

Greg.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Awesome build so far!!

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Thanks Greg. Yes Dresden is definitely a small town in the middle of a lot of farmland. Both my Suburbans started out in the US. The red and white one is from Arizona so it was relatively rust free. The green one is from a Michigan field and life there was not kind


Thanks cheesee

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Greetings from Cambridge, I am in awe as much as I am perplexed at what you are doing. Really looking forward to seeing this one progress!

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Another job of someone knocking it out of the park, some talent being displayed here.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Hey neighbour. Thanks for the compliments. The frame is almost done making the body fit the frame will start soon.

I'm not sure about knocking it out of the park but we are swing at it :lol:


We had to make a small notch for the driveshaft. Next we got the upper and lower shockwave mounts for the rear tacked in place. Then we got started making bump stop brackets.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Nice work! You move fast!

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

i need a set of replacement burban frame horns welded on, you should cross and help me out??? i'll have some timmies(tim hortons) wait'n for ya...

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Thanks AD.

My buddy is the better welder but maybe when spring gets here we could arrange a trip. If you need a suburban frame I will have an extra one when we take the green body off.


Today we got a bit of welding done. Then finished the bumpstop brackets and tacked them in place. Also started the rear frame turn down

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Well Friday went well and we finished the rear frame turn downs. Today however did not go as well. First the air compressor blew a head gasket then my mig welder screwed up. The wire keeps getting jammed inside the nozzle. We did manage to tack the reenforcing plates over the joints

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

Nice! I had a rough shop day Saturday with the air compressor going down and the heat went out too.

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

sorry bro i borrowed your easy button, once its back all will be well...

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

So you too know what it's like to head to the shop with a plan and end up spending the day fixing broken crap.


maybe we should buy another easy button so we both have one :D


We got the compressor rebuilt but the mig welder is still down. So today we decided to flip the frame over to weld the bottom. Used the engine hoist to remove the front and rear suspension. Then picked the frame up and flipped it over

Re: My suburban's Twisted Little Sister
 

once you finish the prototype, you can start making them for other$$$, ps i like the diamond shape weld bridge pieces, i think i seen those on cars during my junk yard jounts and never gave it a second thought, where did you get the idea???