53 Surburban "Family Truckster"

[ADchevys]

Are your front bag mounts upside down? Looks good, subscribed

[lolife99]

Originally Posted by ADchevys

Are your front bag mounts upside down? Looks good, subscribed

I think they are upside down and on the wrong sides.
Following this killer build,...

[youngrodder]

Originally Posted by ADchevys

Are your front bag mounts upside down? Looks good, subscribed

Originally Posted by lolife99

I think they are upside down and on the wrong sides.
Following this killer build,...

Just making sure you guys are paying attention. Ha ha. Yes it looks like when I reassembled the rails I flopped the bag mounts. I will switch them tomorrow. Good looking out guys.

Marc

[oldman3]

Marc, frame is looking great...Jim

[ChuckDriver]

Those PorterBuilt welds are nice!!!

[youngrodder]

Originally Posted by oldman3

Marc, frame is looking great...Jim

Thanks Jim..

Originally Posted by ChuckDriver

Those PorterBuilt welds are nice!!!

Yes, they really are.

Marc

[youngrodder]

Well, I got back at it this afternoon. I spent a great deal of time re-doing some things. I flipped over my top bag mounts. Upon mounting the rear notch I realized/confirmed that my passenger side front PB frame rail needed to move forward about 1/4".

After I got that squared away I moved to the back. I clearance for the bolts of the notch. It fought me when I tried sliding the notch over the frame. I figured out I had the notch backwards. You might laugh, but it is somewhat easy to screw up. Once I figured it out it fell right in, but I fought it for 30-45 minutes first...ha ha. Porterbuilt also does something neat to try to eliminate this type of mistake. They put a small notch in the front of each part. I took a picture of one of the notches to you can see what I'm referring to. I looked at this notch and thought no, I have it right...I was wrong. The good news was by the end of the evening, I mounted both notches as well as the bridge. All that is left is to drill some holes and cut out the old frame....on to the pics.

I should mention that these photos were after a massive garage floor cleanup. I had all sorts of metal shavings and grinder dust.

[84blaze]

Do you know when PB Fab will start releasing these kits to the general public?

[69CST-V]

Looks great...Nice work Marc.

[lower50's]

That is going to be one sweet burb.

[youngrodder]

[quote=84blaze;7393282]Do you know when PB Fab will start releasing these kits to the general public?[/QUOTE

I would say soon. Give Nate at Porterbuilt a call and ask.

Originally Posted by 69CST-V

Looks great...Nice work Marc.

Thank you...di you get yours yet?

Originally Posted by lower50's

That is going to be one sweet burb.

I hope so. it's nice to finally see some progress on it.

Marc

[ptc]

Looking pretty nice! - are you planning on welding everything up to the frame after its all figured out? I would think that would be better for strength overall.

[69CST-V]

[quote=youngrodder;7394625]

Originally Posted by 84blaze

Do you know when PB Fab will start releasing these kits to the general public?[/QUOTE

I would say soon. Give Nate at Porterbuilt a call and ask.



Thank you...di you get yours yet?



I hope so. it's nice to finally see some progress on it.

Marc

... Still waiting

[youngrodder]

Originally Posted by ptc

Looking pretty nice! - are you planning on welding everything up to the frame after its all figured out? I would think that would be better for strength overall.

I doubt it. By the time you add all of the support pieces and bolts it is quit stout. It will be a much stronger frame bolted together then the original frame was riveted together...I'm not worried at all about the strength.

[quote=69CST-V;7395374]

Originally Posted by youngrodder

... Still waiting

I bet yours is close.

Marc

[lower50's]

Just a Question: If all your using of the original frame is the straight center part why not build the whole thing new.?

[youngrodder]

Originally Posted by lower50's

Just a Question: If all your using of the original frame is the straight center part why not build the whole thing new.?

You could. I'm also using the back of the frame. Keep in mind you would need to add your body mounts and running board mounts. To me you are taking a stock frame and just improving on it. That is different than making a totally custom frame.

Again there is a bunch of different ways to go about it. This is the route I chose since I don't have experience setting up a chassis from scratch. I would rather pay PB for their engineering...ha ha

Marc

[reaper71]

You are right on that Marc!
If the frame is not broke don't fix it kinda thing, simply box in the remaining portion of the frame and will be way stronger than O.E.

Mark...

[lower50's]

Originally Posted by youngrodder

You could. I'm also using the back of the frame. Keep in mind you would need to add your body mounts and running board mounts. To me you are taking a stock frame and just improving on it. That is different than making a totally custom frame.

Again there is a bunch of different ways to go about it. This is the route I chose since I don't have experience setting up a chassis from scratch. I would rather pay PB for their engineering...ha ha

Marc

Originally Posted by reaper71

You are right on that Marc!
If the frame is not broke don't fix it kinda thing, simply box in the remaining portion of the frame and will be way stronger than O.E.

Mark...

Cool sounds good. Can't wait to see this thing put together.

[GreasyLikeaBurger]

Maybe I missed it, but what truck suspension goes on the PB kits? I assume its C10 stuff. Also, did you order everything including arms, rack and shocks from them? Or are you going to source those parts later?

[youngrodder]

Originally Posted by GreasyLikeaBurger

Maybe I missed it, but what truck suspension goes on the PB kits? I assume its C10 stuff. Also, did you order everything including arms, rack and shocks from them? Or are you going to source those parts later?

Yes, it utilizes C-10 components. I bought everything from PB minus the rack which I sourced locally just to save some some shipping. Porterbuilt is great on providing you everything you need or just the parts you want. I actually purchased my parts from Travis at Pro Performance. He's a vendor on this site and great to work with.

I will have more pics of the a-arms and other components soon. I'm getting ready to cut some rivits from the factory center support and bold in the new PB one. This center section is very nice look part (as is the case with all of the PB parts).

Marc

[youngrodder]

I have spent the last few day fine tuning and confirming my rear dimensions. Nate at PB has been great to send me all sorts of cad drawings to make sure that I was spot on with my measurements. Keep in mind that this is first Suburban frame, so we need to make sure that there are no major differences. SO far so good.

I'm getting ready to drill the remaining holes for the rear notch and add the other support pieces. Then I will turn my attention to the factory support center section to get the rest of the rivits cut out in order to install the PB center support.

I plan to get out in the garage this weekend.

Marc

[reaper71]

Looking good Marc, bet your getting all sorts of Excited now!

[Advanced Design]

Nate sure provides outstanding customer service in addition to his high quality parts.

Marc, the only difference I've noticed between the Suburban and truck frames was the body mount outside the frame by the rear running board bracket that you had a picture. There might be others. My chassis was built from a truck frame so I just transferred that mount.

[Iceburgh]

looking good... I assume this will be able to drag the running boards if you want?
Have you decided on size of wheels?

[youngrodder]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Nate sure provides outstanding customer service in addition to his high quality parts.

Marc, the only difference I've noticed between the Suburban and truck frames was the body mount outside the frame by the rear running board bracket that you had a picture. There might be others. My chassis was built from a truck frame so I just transferred that mount.

yes, like most things in life you get what you pay for. As for the suburban frame that's what we are seeing but we wanted to make sure as we where not agreeing on some of the measurements but it good now.

Originally Posted by Iceburgh

looking good... I assume this will be able to drag the running boards if you want?
Have you decided on size of wheels?

You know it.. ha ha. I believe that it was set up for 30" diameter wheels. I need to confirm that. I will probably run 20's. I have time to figure that out and it depends on how much I need to cut up. I want to retain front inner fenders and I will have to most likely tub the rears.

Originally Posted by reaper71

Looking good Marc, bet your getting all sorts of Excited now!

Thanks Mark, it just feels good to be making progress and have some actual pictures to flood my build thread with.

Marc