Project-----"Shoestring Suburban"

[grayharville]

Ill have to agree, that ultra cover paint is badass. We used it on a motorcycle frame not too long ago
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[Jonboy]

Richard, what is the Olds that keeps sneaking into your pictures?

[gearheads78]

Originally Posted by Jonboy

Richard, what is the Olds that keeps sneaking into your pictures?

71 Olds 98 Coupe I picked up a few months ago. Its needed a lot of minor TLC that I fixed and now its ready for its next home. Hopefully it moves sooner than later.

[gearheads78]

More thinking than anything tonight. After looking closer at the crossmember holes in the frame I saw that the holes were in different side to side positions. I needed a way to get the exact pattern but moved back 1 15/16" After some brain storming this is what I can up with.

I first put a piece on 3/4 tape along the edge of the frame as a reference. I then butted a second piece of 1 1/2" tape right up against it. I make a perpendicular line across both pieces. I then made a second line 1 15/16" back. After marking where the old holes were with the tape I removed the wider piece and lined it up with the 2nd line. I used a center punch to mark the frame. Now once I drill the holes it will all line up perfect.

[gearheads78]

Good news today. The Olds I bought to fix and flip flipped today.
Few bucks of the profit can go to the Burb'

Bye Bye

[Cherub]

congrats

[gearheads78]

Little bit of work today. I got done with what I have been dreading. 8 new holes in the frame for the cross member. I started by making a jig to make the drill bore the holes exactly where I wanted them. Two of the hole overlapped old holes in the frame. If you have ever had to drill a hole where there is half a hole there you know it near impossible to drill where you want without clamping the piece down in a drillpress.

What I did was weld an old lug nut to a piece of scrap and then drilled it out to 31/64 which is the size of the holes needed in the frame. I then centered the jig over where I had already marked the tape and clamped it down. The result was holes right where I wanted them. My arms are sore as hell now from drilling the first 4 bottom holes with a heavy 1/2 drill. I just loved all the hot chips hitting my face too.

I removed 4 of the body bolts and used a bottle jack to lift the body one side at a time to get the top bolts out of the frame. I then used an extra long 31/64 bit in an angle drill to drill the top holes. After test fitting the cross member it lines up to all the new holes like it was that way from the factory.

[gearheads78]

Little bit of work tonight. I am working my by myself and I am getting to old to fight and balance a transmission on a jack and try to stab it at the same time. I whipped up this cradle that bolts to my jack out of some scrap wood I had laying around. Trying to get at least something done as often as possible even if its for 30-45 min after the kids are asleep.

[Cherub]

I hear that cant wait to see what kinda gas milage your getting with the 700r4

[gearheads78]

Very slow progress. Right after I sold the Olds I picked up a 03 1 ton that had no A/C from the factory. I used a wrecked donor truck and converted it to factory A/C and was able to sell it and make some decent change to go toward this project. Even made a couple hundred on the wrecked truck 1 day after buying it and striping the parts I needed.

Late this morning I got out to the garage and finally got the 700r4 bolted up. The crossmember placement was dead on. Everything bolted right together.

[texassquarebodies]

Your burb is coming along nice. Where did u get that c notch at? Thats drop kit and rallys is going to look clean! Your not going to paint it are you? Everything I build is on a shoe string budget

[gearheads78]

Originally Posted by texassquarebodies

Your burb is coming along nice. Where did u get that c notch at? Thats drop kit and rallys is going to look clean! Your not going to paint it are you? Everything I build is on a shoe string budget

Thanks Tony maybe I will get to drive it before the transmission warranty runs out. You said 12 months 12000 miles right...haha

As for the notch I guess I am not allowed to say. It was in a previous post but someone was nice enough to go back and edit it for me. I guess the mention of any product not bought on this sight is off limits even if no one here sells or makes the product. Kinda pisses me off that someone would edit my thread and not even mention it to me. If you would not have asked I would have never even known it was gone.

[texassquarebodies]

I believe it was airbagit.com . Not a real rebutable seller from what I have heard. I use McGaughty's alot and Summit Racing. I bought a flip kit, then was too low for me. I did a 2" shackle and took out the middle spring in the rear. I have no idea how many miles were on that trans. That burb only had 78k miles on it. It had not rolled over.

If I was going to flip the rear again, I would use a 2" lift added into my spring pack. Top Gun Customz on Ebay has them. Great customer service.

[gearheads78]

Well I think I need to rename this project "Slow Motion" It would be more fitting Between 3 young kids and 13 hours away from home every day for work I can't find time for the garage.

I did get a little done today. I finishing buttoning up the 700r4 install under the truck and then started top side. The truck has an original 78 Quadrajet so my original plan was steal the whole throttle shaft out of a mid 80s Qjet from a 700r4 truck. I got both carbs apart and once I put the newer shaft in the older carb I saw that the shaft was almost 1/2" longer. At first I thought could make a spacer to take up the slack on the end but when I tried to put the baseplate back on part of the fast idle tabs were not meeting up right and not having correct travel. Basicly it just would not work and I wasted a bunch of time with it.

On to plan "B" I carefully ground down the peened over end of the shafts to be able to swap the end brackets. I couple of tack welds I it was back together. I used a factory TV bracket from a donor truck and it bolted right up to the manifold.

After back together I was able to drive the truck up and down the street for the first time since owning it. I still have to hook up the lockup converter but the trans swap is finally done other than that.

Next up will be see what the valve train rattle is and fix a power steering leak.

[gearheads78]

Not any real work but did collect some important parts this week and fitting my "shoestring theme" I got a cleaned up and regasketed LS motor , high pressure pump for LS, EFI tank, fuel line adapters, ls mounts , stand alone harness and tuned computer for free.

Not truly free but bought someone elses abandoned project and stole the parts I needed and sold the rest tonight for what I had in it.

edit: I guess I jumped the gun a little. Buyer called this morning and said his wife freaked out he was buying another project so he backed out. Its OK though. I have people interested in several parts of it so I will get my money I need just not all at once.

[Devillusion]

Nicely done, sounds like you budget alot like me.......buy, steal parts needed, sell what's left, put money and parts into project, and repeat! hahaha, good to know I'm not the only one.

Project looks great so far...

[gearheads78]

Originally Posted by Devillusion

Nicely done, sounds like you budget alot like me.......buy, steal parts needed, sell what's left, put money and parts into project, and repeat! hahaha, good to know I'm not the only one.

Project looks great so far...

HAHA its an addiction I have. I also have a 68 442 original 4-speed car I am putting together to sell and put profit toward the Suburban. The tires on it were junk and I needed tires. I found some with cragar S/S wheels in great shape attached to a 72 Elcamino project last weekend. I stole the wheels/tires and resold for $300.00 more plus $100.00 to deliver last night.

[gearheads78]

So about a week ago I started to put some life support in this project. Shortly after my last post I pretty much tabled everything and parked it on my land across the street. Life with kids , job , economy all too their toll.

I took a new job about a year ago with a pretty good pay cut but better long term potential so right now the shoestring part is valid now more than ever.

Its been driving me crazy not having anything together lately so I decided its time to drag this one back across the street. Power Tour is coming through town in June so the plan is to thrash to have it ready to take my wife and kids on the tour and have the room for them and all the junk that goes with them.

The plan is to get it running and dependable, drop it, go through suspension , brakes and get the A/C going. If I still have enough time I will do the 5.3 swap but if its cutting it too close I will do the swap after the tour.

Just over a week ago loading it up to bring it home

[gearheads78]

I got it home and started with vacuuming and blowing out rats nests and spider condos and even found a snake skin. I just hoping it was a visitor and not a resident.

Starting with the basics did a compression check hooked up a small electric pump to suck out about 5 gal of old gas. The compression is not steller but for a cold engine in a car sitting for 4 years I am happy with it. Added 5 gal of fresh fuel but could not get the carb to ever prime. Checked the fuel pump and our wonderful fuel we have today killed it. I ran to the store for a pump and did a quick swap. I was then able to get it to fire but would not idle down for anything.

Instead of spending $50.00 on a carb kit I robbed a known good carb from another truck I have with a blown motor. It then idles fine but the valvetrain rattle was as bad or worse than it was 4 years ago.

I pulled the driver side valve cover and cleaned up all the rockers and pushrods. There was no signs of any damage so put it back together and ran the valves. With fingers crossed it was fired again and all was quiet.

This brings us to yesterday morning. Here is a quick vid of it running again.

https://youtu.be/7vDrNDFF9-Y

[gearheads78]

I already had tires for this truck but I robbed peter to pay paul about 6 months ago and used the front tires. I ordered a couple 225 70-15 BFG's mid last week and they showed up Saturday.

I am satisfied the motor will be ok to use so I moved on to the suspension part of the project late yesterday. Pulled one side down last night and and the other this morning. It took a while to get some of the bolts with he engine still in but finally had the crossmember out late this morning. I spent about 2 more hours scraping almost 40 years of dirt and grease off of it before I had to stop to go to a family get together.

[terrylgreenjr]

Are you planning on doing the whole Power Tour or just the stop in Grand Prairie? I'm planning on doing the whole thing this year for the first time in my 91 Suburban

[gearheads78]

Going to try to do the whole thing if kids cooperate. At least 3-4 stops anyway.

[rusty76]

Cool burb and I will be watching this one for sure.

[aggie91]

I am thinking of doing a couple of stops of the tour this year. Too many irons in the fire at this point to commit. This year would be the best year so far for me to do the whole trip, but not in the cards.

In on this one to see how it comes together!

[gearheads78]

Not much progress this weekend. This was my 1 on 2 off Saturday to work so I only had 1/2 of the day today to work. Mostly started stripping bushing and balljoints off control arms and organizing bolts and hardware to drop off at the industrial plater