Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

That is a good move the get the additional drop. Gotta admit I didn't think of trimming inside the body. Like 99 said, if it were easy everyone would be doing it.

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Yes, I have been thinking about it for a while. With all of the time and money invested in my PB set up I really want this thing to layout on 20's or 22's. I have gone this far, what's a little trimming and metal fab.....ha ha

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Yes, now that I have new welder there are no excuses (but lack of talent) ha ha

Yes Mark, but keep in mind this 18" wheel tire combo is more than 2" smaller in dia. than what I will be going with so the running boards will come up and more of the wheel will need to go up into the body. I too think I'm close that is why I'm trudging ahead. I always wanted a truck I could drive ultra low.

Thanks
Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Great progress Marc. On my burb we raised the opening for the wheel wells and used a summit kit that was ok. I looked for a rear axle that was the right length,posi, disc brakes and 5x4 3/4. Ended up getting a early 90's firebird axle. Fit perfect 3" axle tube. Paid $300.
CHIZZLER

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Thanks. Where were you 6 months ago?? JK. This ZR2 rearend I got a great deal on but I will have some screwing around with shortening it... It was 63" wide and I will take 4.25" out of each side. Then I can figure out what my back spacing will be. It is posi and the brakes are already disc which is a plus..

Moser will shorten the housing and stock axles and re-spline them for $260.00 which I think is very fair...a 3 hr drive each way sucks though.

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Good on you......gotta bigger set than I do. I went with 18" so I don't get near the body in that area. 1 crease and buckle from driving and you aren't fixing it easy if at all.
We are pulling for you

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Your just smarter than me that's all.....

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

The weekend progress. I determined that I would need to shorten my ZR2 rearend in order to allow the wheels to go up inside the Suburban body when aired out. I had never taken a posi rearend apart. I ran into a few snags. I will take the housing and axles to Moser Engineering. It is a 3 hr drive one way but very cheap to have them narrow the rearend plus I can reuse my stock axles as they will shorten them and re-spline them.

I will take 4.25" out of each side reducing my WMS to WMS width from 63" down to 54.5". I also took my rear 20" x 10" rims from my 48 truck to see how everything is fitting. In the second pic the top of the tire is actually up in the pocket that I made. The wheels were nice to confirm more trimming of the body was needed. I will probably only run a 9" rim in the back to provide more wiggle room because it is tight. Keep in mind at drive height I will have no issues.

Also while I had the axles out I drove out the studs so that I can get the same thread as the front hub which uses C-10 parts.

I'm getting closer but I'm bottomed out on the jack so this will have to wait until I get my shortened rearend back to confirm everything.

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

I think it looks beautiful!
And I haven't seen it with the fender on yet ;)
Nice work!!

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Thanks Kees, I held a fender up but I need to clearance the top fender flange just like I did the body to give the tire room to clear. I'm holding off cutting the fender until I validate that my plan will work first. I'm dying to throw the fenders on to see it laid out.

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Looks good Marc...Jim

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Thanks Jim

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

I spent a few hours screwing around in the garage this afternoon. I worked on the front fenders. When you run 20" rims with bags you need every inch you can get to turn especially if running inner fenders. One trick I did on my 48 is I removed the inner brace for the front fenders. This allows you to remove the mounting tab on the wheel opening flange. Then you can roll (hammer over) the lip of the wheel opening to gain more room. By hammering against wood and taking your time you can roll the edge without effecting the outside of the fender. It also seems to add a little stiffness to the fender by hammering the flange over.

I also receive my last part from Porterbuilt which is the front sway bar. Nice quality piece (as usual). The only issue is I measured the overall width incorrectly by 1/2". I will either have to modify this bar or have PB make me a new one. I still need to figure out the best approach.

Here are some pics to get an idea of what I did with the front fender flanges.

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

One more straggler of the sway bar end.

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Marc that's a good idea on the fender lip..will you seal the hammered down gap with sealer or something to keep dirt and water from getting in it and staying?

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

I plan to bedline the backside of the fenders so I will make sure to brush some behind the flange.The fenders are in great shape. Water will run out and down from behind there. I'm not too concerned about it.

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Great.. its looking good and coming along quickly..Is that Doug I see behind you in your dust? Haha

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Thanks...No Doug has been quiet but my guess is he's making progress.

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Haha..yeah I think he's hiding in the bushes

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

looks good. for extra support you could even weld a steel strap inside the fender. tuff decision on the sway bar. I'd say just modify it and save everyone some shipping! don't feel bad, I measure wrong all the time!

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Yeah I'm not too concerned about fender support. It still has a lot even with the brace removed. I will probably see if a shop close by with a tubing bender can just bend each side in slightly (.25"). The front sheet metal was in place making it tougher to measure so I ended up being off. Sometimes having another set of hands in the garage is a must.

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

$260 to shorten the axle housing and axles is a great deal. It's always about $200 per side for me. Your fender lip turned out nice.

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Yes, I called around and it was cheaper than anyone plus I can reuse my stock axles. The best part is Moser will do all this work and let me wait for them for same day service since I'm driving 3 hrs one way. I decided the take Friday off from work to make the road trip. Thanks

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

I have been focused on getting the rear end shortened and then rebuilt with new brakes...The backing plates were rusted bad so I purchase new ones. While I had the axles out I removed the brackets that hold the backing plates to clean them up by sandblasting them and primering them then repainting them...You might notice that I also cut off the parking break bracket in an effort to clean the design of them up since I wont be running a parking brake.

I also added more support for my floor structure and then I recut my factory wood to get an idea of how the wood floor will fit.

This is the rear housing that will be getting shortened on Friday.

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

I also picked up these Rotors off of Ebay. These are only drill (not slotted) so that they match my 13" rotors up front. I'm anal like that. These are stock ZR2 rotors. New calipers will show up tomorrow.

The soon to be narrowed 10 bolt ZR2 housing.

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Great service of Moser to let you wait on the job!
Mostly it's out of the question with such large jobs...

Parts looking good!

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Yes Kees they have been great from a customer service standpoint that's why I wanted to give them a shout out. I will need to be out of the house by 5:30 am to make it there on time. Something tells me even though it's a work day I will spring right out of bed. Funny how that works.

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

You're not going to have ANY kind of parking brake? Isn't that illegal? Just curious, not judging.

All your work looks clean and well thought out, as usual.

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Not here in Michigan. If I added one it would not be the factory one anyway. My 48 is also an automatic and I don't run a parking brake. When I get my NSRA safety inspection each year I don't get the 22 point pass beacuase of a lack of parking brake ( and lack of a fire extinguisher which I need to do something about) but that is the only thing that I have been effected by for not going with a parking brake.

Thanks
Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Good going Marc...hard for me to see though because of all the dust!

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Thanks Doug...I'm sure you are making your own progress.

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

That's cool you don't need a P brake, 99% of automatics aren't used anyways.
Found this on FB yesterday.
Attachment 1617745

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Nice progress Marc....

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Thanks for the pic. Jim pointed it out to me yesterday. The funny thing is that picture was just before it was road worthy. One of my favorite pics and one of the older ones.

Thanks Bryce

Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Hey Marc, tomorrows the big day, will be waiting for pics, etc...Jim

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

You know it...I'm excited to get it chopped down so I can finalize the rear suspension/wheel tub part of this build.

Thanks
Marc

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

It would be cool to see pics of their process for narrowing the rear. Hopefully they will let you. Have fun tomorrow!

Re: 53 Surburban "Family Truckster"
 

Funny you ask that because I thought for certain it was a legal thing too when I was doing my rear end build with the Wilwood products. I aksed them and they told me that parking brakes are not part of any vehicle code of any state. Well being from California and knowing that we do everything WRONG... I checked with one of my CHP buddys and he said nope its not part of a vehicle inspection standard that they perform. I went with no PB either on my rig.

The 'Panel' is looking great Marc