The Ant Farm - 67 C10 Suburban project

[68 TT]

Browsing through CL to find a front clip donor for my stepside turned into an added vehicle in my stable. I needed that like another hole in my head but after seeing it in person and finding out more about it I just had to keep it intact and build it as a family hauler.

The ad mentioned nothing about how long it had been sitting just that it was not running. It had been sitting for 33 years without moving an inch. Turns out it was the original owners son selling it for his elderly mother. His dad the original owner parked it in 1979 when he got tired of the carburetor problems he was having so he bought a new Suburban. He parked the 67 under a pine tree out back on the farm and left it there. He died nine years later. 21 more years passed after his death and she decided to sell the Carry All.

90k miles, original owner, original license plate and title from 1974 when they moved into the state. The lady at the DMV had never seen a title that old before and neither had I. I scanned it in before I did the title paperwork just for posterity.

Sunk 6" into the ground at all four corners on fossilized bias ply tires. Two came off easily but two took some serious pounding to break the rust bond at the hub centric ring on the wheels. Two hours later I had it home and began the clean up process.

Forensic archaeology of the automotive variety ensued. Ants, mice and stink bugs had lived in there for decades but thankfully all that were left living were the ants. Under the rubber floor mats, in every opening in the engine compartment and everywhere in between. 6hp shop vac to the rescue. Ant infestation eradicated.

Ants had moved into the fuel bowl of the carburetor through the vent tube. Could possibly have been the reason he parked it in the first place. Project Ant Farm is born.

Unfortunately the mice had been living in the headliner cavity and had destroyed the headliner boards. I pulled them out intact to use as templates for replacement if I can come up with a suitable material.

A can of rust penetrant later and the stuck door locks & lock knobs functioned again.

[04sshd]

very nice project, have any more interior pics?
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[68 TT]

Somebody must have tried to pull it out of its resting place by hooking a chain to the passenger frame horn. Some damage resulted. Will need cut off at the idler arm mount area on forward and replaced. Luckily I have a spare 67 C10 frame rail in my collection. Simple fix. Unfortunately the front bumper will not fit properly until the frame rail is fixed.

For the most part it is pretty much a time capsule from 1979. Only a few items missing that the owners kids pilfered over the years for their trucks. The worst are the driveshaft and radiator & shroud. Otherwise not too bad for how long it sat there.

Paint is not faded red but a 1969 repaint in hugger orange after a minor fender bender dented the driver side fender. Original color is cardinal red. Not far off from the orange and can be seen in a few spots where the orange has peeled off or was not covered over. I love the patina look and the moss on the hood but the rust in the quarter panels, floor pans & rockers has got to go. May be a losing battle with the wife as she likes the thing but wants it to be shiny. I think this is the first of my vehicles she has ever liked. I will see how long I can keep the moss on the hood before she scrubs it off.

[68 TT]

Been busy working on the Ant Farm. Sprayed WD40 down the spark plug holes and let it sit over night and the thing turned over easily with a socket on the balancer bolt. Stopped there with the ants and critters not wanting to hurt anything in the engine. Not the original motor unfortunately. ID pad code says it came from a 70 Chevelle.

Massive amount of oil caked all over the top of the transmission, frame rails & front suspension. The original engine must have been one leaky pig.

Just pulled it apart today to check it out. Not a used transplant like I thought but a rebuilt engine that used the Chevelle engine as a core. No ridge, great hone marks still, very clean inside. Good aftermarket head & intake gaskets. Need to pull the balancer & timing cover off still but the heads, intake & oil pan are off. Good thing is they upgraded to 1.94 valve heads in place of the 1.74's that were supposed to be on there.

Will check the cam specs and see if I want to reuse it or not. For sure replacing the valve springs after 33 years of some of them being held open. This engine will be going into my stepside after it is freshened up as I have already installed a fresh 4-bolt 350 and a rebuilt T-350 into the Suburban.

The engine is ready to run once I work out the fuel system. There was still gas in the fuel tank. Looked more like maple syrup than fuel. Yuck. I am going to run a 31 gallon square body Suburban / Blazer fuel tank that I have on hand.

[68 TT]

I have already put power steering and a one-ton hydra-boost system on.

I have picked up a 5-lug disc brake setup that will be going on plus a 5-lug rear end to match. Also scored a set of four 15x8 truck rally wheels and two 15x7 van rally wheels for it. Fronts will be 7's with 235/70-15 T/A Radials and the rear 15x8 with matching 275/60-15 T/A's. Extra 8's will get a set of snow tires I have in case I have to use this thing in bad weather.

Not sure how low it will get yet but I started with a full coil off a spare set of front spring I have to see how I like it.

The rear will get a set of spare sport springs I have left over from another project. The stock springs look to be collapsed as the center three coils are touching each other.

It will not be getting a frame notch or air bags. Just a static drop to adjust the attitude a little.

[hotrodchevy1999]

cool find looks pretty good shape for the time that it has been setting

[68 TT]

Originally Posted by 04sshd

very nice project, have any more interior pics?

Not many here at work. I will post some more tomorrow from home.

[68 TT]

Originally Posted by hotrodchevy1999

cool find looks pretty good shape for the time that it has been setting

Many areas are unbelievable how nice they are and others just the opposite.

The firewall, cowl & dash are the nicest I have ever seen on a non-restored truck around here. The front fender cups are not rusted out at all. The doors & hood have never been off and close perfectly. Better than any 67-72 I have ever owned.

Then there are the inner & outer rockers, they are so nasty it looks like it was from the north east.

[68GMCburban]

Awesome find!

[68 TT]

Decided where I live it is best to make the family hauler a 4x4 so it is usable all year long.

I just converted my stepside from its optional HD leaf spring rear suspension to trailing arm so I have the rear leaf parts & rear end to bolt into the Suburban to take care of the rear suspension conversion since it is currently trailing arm.

I am working a deal with a coworker who has a 70 K5 that he is wanting to convert to 2wd so I can get the correct front suspension out of it for the front portion of my 4x4 conversion.

I am going to convert my beater longbed to 2wd since I really only need it during good weather. This will give me the roller cam TBI 350, 4L60E & NP208 that are in the truck now to put into the Suburban to complete the drivetrain upgrade.

I think all I will need for the most part will be a longer rear driveshaft.

It is already getting a square body 31 gallon fuel tank so I can easily put an 87-91 TBI tank & sending unit assembly in there to take care of the fuel supply to the TBI engine.

Now I just need the time to work on it. Too many projects and too little time as usual.

I did get the 32x11.50-15 tires from my longbed put onto a set of square body 4x4 rally wheels and installed them onto the Suburban to give me a little motivation.

[Low Elco]

Cool! Gotta see this

[goldenburb]

Sweet,, when you finish you can do mine.lol
Make sure you put a lot of DIY photos & info.
GOOD LUCK.

[Average Joe]

Gonna be a cool build. Any updates?

[mcbassin]

Looks like another super project. Looking forward to following along. Any recent activity>??

[jlsanborn]

Somehow missed this!? Killer score! Before I had even read it through I knew you were going to be cake-walking them engines around

That had to be our last round of snow right?

[mcbassin]

Update?

[68 TT]

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Update?

Sorry guys. I have been sidelined for a while with rotator cuff problems that lead to surgery. The car accident I was in three years ago caused some cartilage, ligament & tendon damage that just wasn't healing on it's own. I had to have surgery to take care of them. Just got back to work in light duty status a short time ago with a few more weeks of that before my next doctor eval to see if he will lift the restrictions.

Once the weather starts to behave I will be back on my projects with a vengeance. All this idle time has got me amped up and motivated to really make some progress.

[twistedchevy]

Bump

[68 TT]

Life has been hectic for the past two years around here. Finally getting back to my projects again with some new stuff in the mix.

I decided the Suburban really needed to be a 4x4 to make it a good year round vehicle for me so I began the transformation a week ago.

Got the 2wd frame leaf spring setup & truck 12-bolt from my 69 C10 stepside installed on the back with just a minor amount of trimming needed on the forward brackets to clear the Suburban body mount brackets as the frames are a little different.

I repaired the front frame rail damage that the PO had done trying to pull the Suburban out of the ground with a tractor. It was a good 6" in the ground on hard as a rock very flat tires. It was anchored down pretty well and did not want to move from its 33 year resting spot.

Good thing I had the front frame rails from my old 67 C10 that I cut up for parts or I never would have been able to fix the Suburban frame. I replaced the passenger side rail from mid motor mount hole forward and made some relief cuts in the driver side rail to bend it back into the correct orientation. A bit of twisting with a 4-ft lever later and the driver side rail is back to its correct shape. I used the chassis diagram I found on this site a while back and my other 68 & 69 trucks as references to get the rails back into the location they should be. Now maybe the front clip and front bumper will fit to the frame properly. One time it really paid off having worked on damaged equipment a whole lot in the air force. I got pretty good at straightening out twisted steel.

The square body 4x4 front crossmembers and engine mounts fit with a little trimming as the 67-72 frame rails are a bit different in contour and clear height within the C-shape. Not too much work but requires a 90 degree drill with a really short bit to take care of a few holes needed that are not in the 67-72 frame. Some holes are already there in the right place to give you a starting point.

The front spring rear shackle pivot brackets are different between the 67-72 and the square body. I decided to use the square body parts instead of the ones off my old 69 K10 project that had been welded to the frame by the PO to save me a bunch of time with the grinder.

I was considering cutting the shackle mount area out of the square body frame rails and welding it in place on the Suburban frame but decided to modify the Suburban frame instead. I made some relief cuts in the high & low spots on the emergency brake dimples in the 67-72 frame that are right where the shackle mounts have to go then used my ball joint press and flattened out the area. The relief cuts need to be welded up now but I will do that after I pull the drive train back out for better clearance.

A hole that is already in the frame that is used for the column shifter mount was in just the right place to use for the lower rear mount point for the shackle bracket so I used the frame section I removed from the square body donor as a drill guide and bolted it to the frame with the two lower bolt holes. I then used this as a guide for a 1-3/4" hole saw without the pilot drill to create the large center opening. Used a die grinder with a carbide bit to finish out the hole to make it the same size as the square body piece had. If I had a 1-7/8" hole saw this wouldn't have been needed.

The square body front spring buckets need to be separated from the core support bracket as they are not close enough to the configuration of the 67-72 to use them with stock type body mounts. I placed the upright components as close to the 67-72 core support brackets as they will fit and bolted them down after drilling some new holes. This may not be exactly where the axle needs to be but it is really close. I won't know for sure until the whole thing is assembled and the full body weight is present to flatten out the springs to their normal position. I will make offset mount plates for the differential to locate it front to rear as needed to center the tires in the wheel openings once I am to that point.

I tried using the rear motor mount holes on the frame but it placed the transfer case too far from the front axle so the splines of the front driveshaft are too far out of the companion piece for my comfort. It also made my rear driveshaft about 2" too long to fit. I know it works as I had this whole setup in an my 69 K10 4x4 project with an identical wheelbase to the Suburban. I am going to move the drivetrain forward to the next mount holes and see how the driveshafts fit.

I am having issues with my new computer not recognizing my digital camera so I can't get the pictures off of it. I will go take some pics with my phone that I know I can download and get them posted as soon as I can. Bear with me.

It feels good to be back to work on my projects again. I have so much work to do and it is all my fault. This vehicular ADD sucks sometimes

[jlsanborn]

Great update man! Glad to see this back on the list. Look forward to the photos too.

[Average Joe]

Nice progress! Glad to see you back on this project.

[mcbassin]

Life has been hectic for the past two years around here. Finally getting back to my projects again with some new stuff in the mix.

Glad to see you finally getting back on here. Sounds like you have your ducks lined up on the 4X4 transformation.
Looking forward to more progress....with pictures I hope