"Solomon Grundy" 1969 K20 Suburban build up

[ChopsawSurgeon]

Welcome to the rebuild/customization of my '69 Burb, lovingly referred to as Solomon Grundy. Purists be warned, things will be changed or modified to suit my needs, I'm a bit of a hotrodder at heart and it will show.

This is where it all started at back in September, kind of a fluke that I found it, but glad I did.


From there all I did was put a front bumper on it and leave it sit over winter as my parts collection grew quite large.


I rebuilt a TBI unit and stripped down a TBI harness on my spare time while watching the snow pile up, started on a custom instrument cluster, then spent a few hours in the cold North Dakota darkness pulling this out of a half ton 73 Chevy,

then swapped it over to 8 lug and added some warn lockouts,

and impatiently waited until spring and wedged it under the truck


Disc brakes, 3.73 gears, and clean inside. Couldn't see a downside to it, I still have to build a Corp 14FF to match for the rear.

Spring turned into summer and with that came a $30 rattle can paint job, the completion of that custom instrument cluster, and a new temporary home.


Looks better then the mismatched panels, but in hindsight I should have painted it brown and practiced my Walter Matthau impression.

Heres the instrument cluster, combination of many different factory GM parts. 73 G series van speedometer face and half sweep gauges, 86 GM chassis motorhome voltage gauge, and 79 Grand Prix trip odometer. The factory speedometer head was retained as well as the tin so it would still bolt into the dash.


With all that, here he is currently. I'm terrible at remembering to take photos as I'm working, so alas all I have is post tear down photos.


This is the reason for the relocation, gravel driveways and cherry pickers do not mix. This is the second hand crate 350 I picked up, its basic except for the cam that is in it which I do not know the specs of. Very clean inside, and was a good runner, I picked it up cheap because they wanted a 454 instead. I added a single plane Torker 2 to it and switched the power steering pump to the older 74 style instead of what is shown.

Complete TBI swap is currently being worked on as well as an NP205 swap while the old engine is out. I don't have pictures of this as cardboard boxes aren't fun to look at.

Stay tuned! I'll be updating around work and un-"fixing" this thing to correct some of the things that were rigged or just plain wrecked because of lack of mechanical knowledge or not caring. If you have any questions, ask away! I'll be happy to answer how or why I'm doing or have done something!

[Average Joe]

Cool project. The gauges turned out slick!

[pwdcougar]

Looking good so far. I agree the gauges look great!

Paul

[ChopsawSurgeon]

Thanks guys, I'm very happy with how the gauges turned out!

So, small update, the frame is tweaked! I had a sneaking suspicion that it was, but now I know for sure. Its not terrible so I'm just gonna slap it together, drive the crap out of it, and make note as it will have to be straightened before I begin any body work. How did I find this out?

This. Took me about an hour and a half to wrestle this thing into place when it should have been a quick bolt on piece.

I also pulled the pan off the motor that came out of this thing to see if it was a 4 bolt main or not (spoilers: it isn't), and found this gem!

Motor isn't original, but the oil pan is! I have no idea if it's leaking as everything else was leaking.

And finally, RTV


RTV everywhere!

Man, I hate this stuff. Its like WD-40, it has a purpose, but ends up on everything else instead.