Joined the Short Wheelbase Club *69 Tahoe Project*

[67sub]

You've got more guts than I do. That looks good sof ar,cant' wait to see the finished product.

[Frizzle Fry]

Thanks everyone And I don't mind opinions, for, against, or even suggestions.

Now for the 3rd door...

This side obviously takes a different approach than the drivers side. I did the driver's side first because I wanted to build some experience level before tackling the pass side.

Here you can see I already started cutting. The blue line (center one) is level reference:


Again, this ledge/cap has to go:


Prep'ing for surgery:






Here we go...

Rust repair via elimination of the area

[e rock]

Originally Posted by 67sub

You've got more guts than I do. That looks good sof ar,cant' wait to see the finished product.

X2

Your "test fit" looks better than the majority of body work I've ever done, so I'm sure it'll be sweet once you get done.

Thanks for sharing.

[Frizzle Fry]

...





This will later become part of the 3rd door:










I want to leave as much of the door jam in place as possible:


Man, that's hard to look at

[Frizzle Fry]

Measure 17 times, cut 3...

Test fit of pass side section:








I ordered two of these trailer fenders in preparation for this project. I only ended up needing one.


And here's where I used it:

[Frizzle Fry]

On to the rocker.

Old one removed (left the front turn up section in place):



POR 15:




I had a front/pass side rocker replacement laying around, so...


You can see here that I had to extent the rear of this rocker by about an inch. Also added the outer lip to the wheel tub:

[Frizzle Fry]

On to the door.

Here's where the wheel well will come through (black line) and some blue cut lines:


I didn't take a lot of pics of this, but here's the door cut and POR 15'ed:


I moved the inner door corner forward and tilted it back slightly to line up with the rocker:


Last shot of this rig with a square 3rd door...


Cut the outer skin to accept the panel I cut from the wheel arch earlier:


It's coming together now...

[shaneschevys]

Man this thing is looking good! Cant wait to see it finished.

[BigMike]

Crazy, just crazy! Gonna be a sick ride when it's done.

Mike

[Frizzle Fry]

On to the frame. First, 8" from the rear:

[Frizzle Fry]

For those who have yet to replace your body mounts

These are the rears:

[Frizzle Fry]

12" from between the trailing arm member and tranny member:

I envy you guys that got to do this on a bare frame...


Coming together. I used a floor jack on the trailing-arm member and a trailer strap between that and the front susp member. Getting this all to line up took several hours and some help. I don't have a shot of it, but 12" put the trailing arm member just in front of a floor support. Like it was meant to be...




ECE Boxing plates in. I was only able to use 13" of it. Not sure what the other guys are doing?




All POR 15'ed up

[Frizzle Fry]

Body mounts:

[Redaddiction]

Sweet project I will be watching this one.

[Frizzle Fry]

To make room for the rear frame kick-up I had to notch the body/floor brace (front of cargo area) pretty severely. I also had to take quite a bit out of the rear passenger floor and seat mount (front of middle row seat).

The body mounts for this position were on the side of the frame before; like the ones in the previous post. But because I notched the body member to clear the frame I had to do something to restore strength in those areas.

I came up with one solution for both issues: Reinforce with 1/4" plate and use that as the new body mount location. So now, the body mounts sit on top of the frame like the rear do.

You can see in this pic where I cut 1-1/4" holes in the frame for this purpose (already POR 15'ed). You can also see the Flintstone treatment in the rear floor...


Here's how that all came together:

The plate is angled to match the frame.

[Frizzle Fry]

And back down on its wheels. Looks like one of those drag cars when they move the rear wheels forward

[NONHOG]

AWESOME!!!!!!
makes me want to start cutting , better get a plan 1st
how long did you sit and stare and invision this before you cut ?

[Frizzle Fry]

Time to lose 20 inches...
I made my cut lines on the inside of the roof because I was able to use one of the roof support members as a guide.

I wanted to make the cut as far forward as possible, but also wanted to keep it slightly back from the C-pillar to ease future bodywork/sanding. On the inside I noticed the factory 3-point seatbelt mounts and decided to make the forward cut just behind those. The rear is 20" behind that.

You can see here that I cut some wood scraps to use as a guide for the sharpie with the roof member as the fence:







After making the cuts from the inside I move to the outside and figured out where to cut based on the previous cuts:



...and there she goes:


That thing is heavier than you'd expect; 50-60lbs I think.

[Frizzle Fry]

Originally Posted by NONHOG

AWESOME!!!!!!
makes me want to start cutting , better get a plan 1st
how long did you sit and stare and invision this before you cut ?

Thanks, over a year at least!

[Frizzle Fry]

And the last remaining metal holding the back on.


I cut this side at an angle so I could lose the spare tire "dish" completely:

[Frizzle Fry]

Last shots before separation:




...and separation complete. The rear section didn't even move one bit when it came apart. The cherry-picker and jack stands did there job beautifully.

[Frizzle Fry]

I have to admit I was tempted to drive it around the block like that But there was no gas tank in it

[Frizzle Fry]

I went ahead and POR 15'ed everything I could access at that point including all in behind the tail lights and even up the D-pillar.

Then I put her back together:

[Frizzle Fry]

The roof didn't match up as I expected, but it should just take a couple longitudinal relief cuts:





These didn't match up either, of coarse, but a little tweaking of the inner panels got it:

[RacnJsn95]

That's like the most amazing thing I've ever seen! I wish I had half the talent it would take to do that! And you're updating like every 10 mintes, with what seems like giant progress! You're the man!