Beelzeburb, The Story More Than a Decade in the Making

[argonaut]

Just stumbled onto your thread and started reading. I'm only on page 2, good story so far!

[6erWebb]

How dare you! Ive been cooped up in my bed reading this since 8:45, it is now 11:06 and you, Sir, are responsible for there now being a very long and detailed list sitting on my bed! This now turns my spark plug and manifold gasket change into a drivetrain-all-at-once rebuild...

Seriously though, very well written and easy read you have here. I love the detail and time you put into your burb, its inspired me to go to the extra effort and do mine right the first time.

-Webb

[lowrodderchev]

Just glanced over your thread love it man cool story I almost got one of these but ended up with a square body k5

[l92Firebird]

Great story, nice Burb! Maybe I missed it, but how well does the A/C work In southern AZ?

[twistedchevy]

Bump

[Beelzeburb]

Much busy.
Run around lots.
So work.
Why many things?

Been super occupied lately. Wife and I bought a 75 year old house and we've been in renovation / restoration mode for two months solid now (seriously, who would cover quarter sawn 3/4" white oak floors with linoleum and then carpet?). Sometime this summer I get to install my garage door and move all my tools & equipment over. Yes, I finally have a garage space of my own. And yes, a 12' long carpet remnant will fit inside the Suburban, as will a 9'x7' garage door new in box.

Since last posting I've taken care of some maintenance items on the Suburban. Mostly just replacing some steering wear items and a few other fixes here and there, but I'll cover those with a real post on a future date when I've got some time again. In the meantime, enjoy a picture from the curb this week as I was getting ready to drive it to work.

[1994Sierra350]

Just read the entire thread. Cool story man. I'm sure your dad is smiling down on you right now as he see's you still working on the burb. How's the Blazer going?

[Shox Dr]

How are the Wheel Vintiques Wheels holding up. Is the powder coat still good?

[Beelzeburb]

Originally Posted by Shox Dr

How are the Wheel Vintiques Wheels holding up. Is the powder coat still good?

Wheels good, powder coat started getting rust the first year I owned them. And that was even before winter came with snow and salt. Right now its just slowly spreading from the outside in. Before too long though, I'll probably have to fix them.

[rubrduk]

great story and great read...


quick question...how is the POR15 holding up on the chassis and high-wear areas?

[Beelzeburb]

Originally Posted by rubrduk

quick question...how is the POR15 holding up on the chassis and high-wear areas?

Same story as the powdercoating on the wheels. Started rusting way before I expected it to. In the interior and in the engine bay it looks as fresh as the day I applied it. On the frame though, I've got surface rust coming back. Even though we sandblasted and applied two coats it somehow wasn't enough and I've got mild surface rust all over. In the future I'm thinking of using OSPHO and going with more coats, or switching to the coating material that MosesBurb mentioned somewhere in one of his posts.....


Great, now I've spent two hours reading through his build / adventure thread again. Not that I mind of course.

[1985-GMC]

He said it's an engine enamel made by Pioneer: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...&postcount=474

Sorry to hear about the surface rust popping up everywhere. Everyone always says how great por15 is but I don't believe in painting anything without putting down primer first. I've done it in the past and it's always come back to bite me in the ass, never again.

I've always had good luck with rustoluem rusty metal primer and gloss black on top of that, I add enamel hardener to it as well and that makes it even better. The only problems ive come across is having the black start peeling after several years because of me not properly scuffing the primer. So either spray the black while the primer is still wet or sand it once it's dry.

[Low Elco]

I dig this story so much. What is happening with the 510? THAT is a great story, seem like a lot of fun. Hope the truck is running well for you.

[Beelzeburb]

I did the 4-wheel 280ZX disc brake and dual SU carb swap on the 510, and it is pretty much ready to drive again. Just need to bleed the brake lines and mock up a bracket to hold the e-brake cables.

My current (always growing) list of things-to-do goes something like this:
Finish current renovations inside the house
Install garage door on workshop at the back of the house
Move tool box, tools, bench, compressors, etc... to my house
Park 240Z inside garage
Drive 510 to house, park in driveway
Start working on vehicles again

I'd have been quite far along on that list, but we had our first child born toward the end of last year, and, well, she's either too cute or fussy to get away from for long.

This winter the Suburban's odometer did finally roll over 6,000 miles since being back on the road. Quite low, I know, but I bike to work and use the Suburban mostly for bad weather driving, errands or the occasional bit of fun driving.

[kehstr]

way cool build!! keep us updated when you start working on it again!!

[Billyburban]

Originally Posted by Beelzeburb

A week before coming home for fall break of 2007 I drove out to DVAP to get a crucial piece for the Blazer fuel tank install. Their yard had a LWB 67-72 truck sans bed, which was perfect for my needs. I had one of the yard lackeys torch the rearmost crossmember out for me. They charged a princely sum for it, but I didn't have the patience to try and locate a 67-72 LWB in one of Phoenix's pick 'n pull yards and then sit in the sun trying to remove it's rear crossmember with hand tools. September in Maricopa County is not a pleasant time to work outdoors.

After measuring, mocking up and then relocating the original crossmember this is what I came up with:



That extra crossmember I had sourced went in front of the fuel tank. My original one was moved to just behind it. All tightened down, the tank's original rub pads cinched snugly against both crossmembers. Since I wasn't planning on dealing with rust for a long time after the Suburban reached completion, all of the fasteners I could replace on the frame and elsewhere have been stainless steel. I regularly depleted the local hardware store's stock.

That same week I had taken the fuel tank to a man in town my dad recommended me to. Said man removed the fuel filler neck from the tank, relocated it to the opposite side and filled in the hole that was left behind. This way it was positioned to utilize the stock fuel filler location without running excessively long lines anywhere.

The tank was secured in position with some new '73-'91 straps as I didn't have a clue where the originals had wandered off to. New holes were drilled in the crossmembers for stainless bolts to pass through and fit into couplers added to the tank straps.

If you look really close at that last picture you'll spot my Off Road Design 1” Zero Rate Add-a-Leaves bolted under the rear spring packs. These were necessary because they let us move the axle rearward 1.5”. If you recall, the tires had been too close to the fenders after we installed ORD's 4” shackle flip. As an added bonus, the rear was lifted an extra inch.

We reused the fuel hard lines from either my grandfather's '88 truck, or another Chevy of the same vintage. I was surprised how closely they fit the contours of my frame. A little bit of bending and tweaking took place to get them properly secured back by the tank itself but other than that everything curved perfectly. The front braided steel lines that lead to the TBI unit got a little pinched at some point in time, so I contemplated eventually replacing them.

Sometime over the past year I had ordered a full stainless steel hard brake line kit for the Suburban. Actually, I ordered Inline Tube p/n SCTB71B4 which is for a 1972 Suburban 4wd with power disc brakes. It was the option that seemed to suit my rig the best. The sales rep who took my order at Inline Tube wasn't quite sure I knew what I was doing, but the fit was almost perfect when the lines were secured in place. The rear axle hard lines couldn't be used as they were completely different, and a couple of sections needed a little adjusting with the line bender but in 2010 everything is currently connected and holding pressure.

The headers in that last picture are the final ones my dad bought for me. A nice set of ceramic coated D303Y Doug's.

Now it was starting to look like something.

Next order of business was to put the body back on the frame. I had ordered the stock replacement body mounts from Brothers Trucks many moons ago. They were on back order from General Motors for a few months, but arrived in time for the install.

I was ready to replace those old body mount bolts too.



The new ones would be zinc-coated Grade 5 or Grade 8 hardware.

Before the body went back on the frame it had to be pushed back into the shop and corralled onto the lift. Those little caster front tires miraculously still held air a year and a half later. The back ones were still useless. First I had to place a piece of plywood in the gravel under the Suburban, then the floor jack rolled on top of the plywood sheet. Otherwise we would have never negotiated the gravel with those tiny solid metal wheels on a floor jack. The proverbial sailing was fairly smooth once we got back onto the pavement. It took three guys to simultaneously push and steer all that mass up the slope that led to the bay we were headed for.

I had to go back and check my pictures in order to determine where the lift arms and stands had been placed when we removed the body. I didn't want to be lowering it onto the frame only to realize that one of the lift arms was going to hit before the body did.
One of the plans I had formulated during the 'off season' if you will, was to clean and POR-15 coat the underside of the body before it was reattached to the frame.



Because this was a shop that had to be open for business five days a week, I only got time to sand, prep and coat the parts that would be immediately covered up and made inaccessible later by the frame and drivetrain. I took a closer look at the rusty front floor supports and added them to my shopping list.
The other area I wanted to tackle before the body and frame met up again was the firewall. It was going to be unreachable behind that large motor, plus it still needed to be modified to clear that driver's side valve cover. A number of extra holes in the firewall were welded shut by yours truly at the same time. I'd been planning on a Vintage Air system for the future and liked the idea of a smoother firewall.

Here's how my firewall mod looked:



I think I took a junk transmission pan and cut it up because it already had the curvature I wanted. These were some of my first weld jobs and I wasn't very familiar with adjusting the settings on my dad's 220V machine, so the wire went on thick without much penetration. There were a couple of rust pinholes in the vent box on the passenger side that I took care of at this time as well.

All in all it looked pretty good with two coats of POR-15 applied by hand with 50¢ paintbrushes.





Now the moment of truth was upon us. Would the body and frame fit back together the way they should and agree to play nice with each other?









Wait for it....









No!

For some reason or another that big block engine seemed to be even further back than when we had mocked it up. Gaaaa!

I went inside the cab with a cut-off wheel and chopped out half of the work I had done on the driver's side, plus I trimmed it back a couple more inches to clear that pesky valve cover. My dad raised the body back up with the lift, and mini sledge in hand he coerced the passenger side of the firewall with his own brand of persuasion. That POR-15 could hold up to some abuse if it was applied properly.

Everything finally fit.



The front fenders, inner fenders, hood and bumper were quickly thrown on with a couple of bolts each. I had purchased a SS bolt kit from Brothers but saved it for the future, whenever the final assembly would take place.
It looked like a Suburban again for the first time in more than two years.



As an added side effect, it was no longer taking up a bay (or at times two) in my dad's shop. Back out to the gravel it went until my next visit. This time no floor jacks were required to hold up the rear end.

The gas tank did it fit in frame rails or did you have to cut or shave anything?

[Bigdav160]

Looks exactly like how I did my fuel tank.

40 gallon R/V body Suburban tank and straps. Relocated cross-member and sourced another to hold the straps.
And relocated the filler neck.

The width, length, and height are perfect.

[Beelzeburb]

Originally Posted by Billyburban

The gas tank did it fit in frame rails or did you have to cut or shave anything?

The 40 gallon tank fits just perfect width-wise between the framerails.

[Billyburban]

Ok cause I was looking at buying this tank

[notchbackgta]

Originally Posted by Billyburban

Ok cause I was looking at buying this tank

I got the 40 gallon version of that, the only issue is getting the fill neck and body side filler connected. Not a big deal, but the neck goes over top the frame and it is a tight fit between the body, no extra room really. I used a torch to spin the neck a touch in the tank and re-soldered it. Wasn't a big deal but I over heated the neck and had to re-tin it in one spot