1966 C20 LWB onto 1977 Suburban C10 Chassis

[Nopocustoms]

The inner fender rested on the power steering hoses, too easy - I made 2 relief cuts and bent the fender up, also the steering shaft is too long to mate with the rag joint on the power steering box - I loosened it up and pushed it back into the cab.

[Nopocustoms]

After the steering moves were made, a quick check of the level puts the cab the same distance from the frame both front and rear. Also this is where the 66 body bolts hit the suburban mounts - close but no cigar. At this point I marked them with a paint pen. I had previously measured everything relative to the front axle centerline, and common sensed it from some known shared points between frames.

Could have pulled the burbs mounts and welded on the 66 mounts first, but in my shop measuring tapes have been known to lie

The rear is pretty close, but I will have to fab something up, which is fine - the old C-20 rear mounts were SHOT the passenger side had completley seperated, It would cost a ton to try and get new ones... The burb had plenty of rubber doughnuts!

[Nopocustoms]

The rear mounts, so close - yet so far - I think I can customize this with a 6/16 drill bid, some 3/16 plate and a long bolt -

[Nopocustoms]

Could have saved a step and trusted the measuring tape - but a quick touch with the blue-tip wrench and the old mounds fell off - had to take the fronts off too - they will have to be moved forward 3/4 inch

[Nopocustoms]

Placing the 66's mounts was as simple as it looked - 3 of 4 holes even lined up! I think GM Knew this would be the simplest chassis swap in history.

[Nopocustoms]

A few bolts to hold it in place for a mock up, lowered her off the lift - and here she sits.

Next on tap -

Weld front cab mounts to frame.
Fab Rear Cab mounts using late model style doughnut.
Weld front Core-support mounts.
Shorten steering shaft, and weld on Suburban flex joint.
Figure out how to mount the brake booster.
Install drive line.
Hook up Big-Block to 327 wiring, and I should be a radiator away from a driver!

After proof of concept, I will mount the rear bed and shorten the rear frame up.

More to follow.

[Dinos63]

nice work!

[Nopocustoms]

I am heading down to the shop in a little while, Yesterday it appeared the brake booster was way to big to fit in the engine compartment - is there a factory one that will bolt in??

Off the top of my head I think I will need to cut some sqaure tubing open on one side and use it as an adapter to my firewall - I just wonder is someone out there has used a factory booster from something else ( I think the 78-87 G Body El camino etc) has a small diamater booster that could work thoughts?

[ole dollor]

i like what your are doing and the pic's are great....hope everything you are doing goes good. that is a great way to upgrade your truck.....looking good...

[Nopocustoms]

A ton of guys told me this was a monster project, and that I would need to raise the bed floor - that's a fact - The suburban kick up is about 3 inches higher than the C-20 frame - well once you include shock mounts and room for the drop shackles I will be adding...

The old bed floor was wasted - and only had 2 crossbars installed, thus it sucked. First I tore out the old floor (3 pieces of 3/4 plywood + mold) and propped the bed in the approximate position that I was after - then out came the trusty sheet rock square and straight edge - I surmised that 14.75 inches down was the new bed height, almost exactly 3 inches higher than the previous floor - another blessing in disguise is that I can lop off 3 inches of rust!

I used some 3/4 angle iron and welded it around the perimeter to mate it to new crossbars.

Then I notched the ends of the crossbars - 1.25 X 1.25 X .125 square tubing.

[Nopocustoms]

Next I randomly picked a spot for the first crossmember - randomly meaning above the burbs rear body mounts - they may just come in handy.

[Nopocustoms]

the rear got the same treatment - I used an old crossbar yesterday to set the bed on - but today, I cut it off and used some jack stands.

[Nopocustoms]

After welding in the front and rear cross members, it was sturdy enough to build some front frame mounts - just simple 1/4 steel with a gusset, then a bolt through the middle and one of the Burbs big body washers underneath - it gives me a solid 1.5 inches of wiggle room up front.

[Nopocustoms]

Next I angle ironed the front, and added another cross beam - this one will just load bear on the frame itself, and two more cross members tommorrow - It was enough for work for the afternoon... It's hard to keep your steam after a day at work!

[Nopocustoms]

Wood Bed kits are expensive - Tounge and Groove pine flooring CHEAP - before popping for a pricey bed kit, or grooving up hardwood myself at 1.94 a board, this is the perfect interim bed kit! It will look pretty snazzy when I does it with some Dark Cherry Deck-stain, and use stainless carriage bolts.

If it lasts a year, it will be worth the 29 dollar investment!!

I am getting pretty excited, I think I am a few evenings from having a solid driver

[Nopocustoms]

I wasn't happy with the idea of the wood being cut out to fit the wheel wheels, so I yanked them 46 years worth of road crud made it a pain in the ass. I then used some angle iron to build a square holder for the bed wood, this also makes cutting it faster and cleaner.

I notched the wells to clear the stake pockets, hindsight - 20 20, should have cut the steak pockets

Finished the rest of the cross braces, and test fit the wheel wells.

[Nopocustoms]

I just started cutting and placing boards - it went pretty fast, but this cheapo soft wood has some serious warpage, I plan on bolting it down at each crossmember - so each 8 footer will have 2 in the front, 2 in the rear and 8 in the middle - 12 bolts per board? may be overkill - I will just have to see. Also I need to fins some kind of brass, or copper, or chrome flashing to put around the top edges.

[Nopocustoms]

Finally I got the last boards in and hit the top with a coat of stain and deck sealer - after it dries I will pop it all apart and do the edges and bottom, and one more heavy coat on top.

All in all I am pretty happy with how this has turned out, after I finally haul the body and old frame to the wrecking yard I should be back to the original cost of the truck, and a solid 40 hours of labor... Good thing I like this truck, once I install a radiator, and make it a solid runner driver again - It's probably only worth 1500 bucks

[Nopocustoms]

No pictures tonight - had to fix the blend door on my wife's Range Rover, gotta love British Electronics.

I didn't get any good ideas for a brake booster that would bolt in, so I Ordered the factory one from our local parts house - No brackets on the back.

So I mocked up the Burb's original booster and no kidding 2 of the 6 holes lined up, 2 bolts interfere from it fitting flush but I think with the plasma cutter, some 3/16 plate and some patience and it will work - even the push rod is the right lentgh! One of the guys on here sell brackets - and man they are clean and would work awesome, but I want to drive this tommorrow! I will post pictures when I fab the brackets.

[Nopocustoms]

For my first test fit I cut some studs from 3/8 -16 ready rod. It seemed to work pretty well, Then I popped on the booster and checked the rod length - it was 2" too short.

So i installed the booster on the studs, it sat flush with the bolts - then I marked the location for the upper studs.

[Nopocustoms]

Well after the brake booster install, and some quick wiring, I decided to see if it would crank - it did. As a matter of fact it fired right up - which would have been cool except I backed out of the shop to notice my excitement didn't include the radiator you can see laying on the ground. Not a super big deal , except the trans-cooler lines worked great!

I think the gallon of ATF on the floor made for a rather artistic picture....

[jonzcustomshop]

you are on it!
I am curious to see the side profile/stance pics
I am a couple days late to tell you you can use that booster( I put one out of a sub in my wifes 63 ) but it looks like you figured it out

[McMurphy]

Man that is TOTALLY like something I would do !!
Except for me I have a bad habbit of finger tightening things to mock up the install, then with that up and in, I move on to other projects and forget to go back and wrench the part down in tight....

Where I work we constantly ask patients how they best learn.
When asked, my reply is "painfully"

congrats on its life tho....cannot wait for the day I get to hop in the cab and turn the key for the first time!

[Nopocustoms]

Today was kind of my last push on the truck for a while, I didn't do much of anything to it yesterday as I wanted to go to a car show, and had to dig out my 52 chevy sport coupe (pretty awesome car) - then this morning I got down here at the crack of noon to button some things up.

I have to go out of town for the next 3 weeks on wednesday, and can't leave it un-drivable!

A few zip ties and I poked in a radiator, bolted the hood on and did copius burn outs - that 454 doesn't even wheeze at the thought of smoking the tires! It was pretty impressive how well it all works together, I have a pretty extensive list -

1: Put bumpers on it - Can't decide what to use for rear bumper - I want stock looking chrome with some style - thoughts?

2: Re-drill the mounting point on the brake pedal arm to give more travel - the brakes just don't seem to have enough push! stops well but lots of travel.

3: Finish weld the bed angle iron and paint rear frame / bed braces

4: Stain underside of bed wood

5: Bolt in Bed wood and wheel tubs

6: Install new shocks ( shot)

7: Finish Weld the steering shaft

8: Find a more permanany radiator solution - open to ideas!

9: Re0build rear exhasut to exit straight out back (currently it points at the inside of the rear quarters...

10: find some 5X5 15" steelies to paint black, install spider caps and white walls.

11: replace front cab bots with something shorter -

12: install AC Compressor and hook up to mark Iv Roamer -

13: Finally put a camshaft, lifters, intake and carb on and paint engine bay.

That should only take a few YEARS... It feels pretty good to be back where I started but with a much more solid product - Big block, power steering, heavy duty Disc Brakes - The fun part of this build can now start!

Oh yeah, if you made it this far, here are some pictures of the profile people asked for. Thanks for looking and all the support!

[ole dollor]

man you have done alot in a very short time....i like it....keep us posted and lots of pic's....