SiX-5 SuBuRbAn

[jonzcustomshop]

Originally Posted by The_Hub

I can take a few measurements if I get out to mine tomorrow so you can kind of gauge how far of a gap should be between the front frame rails.

that might work, I am thinking that the right frame rail is bent up from going in a ditch.
the fender has a kink in it at the cowl panel, the fender well is bent at the hood hinge, and where it bolts to the fire wall is pushed in about 1/8 inch.
you can also see the bottom of the bumper is pushed up and the gap to the door gets bigger at the bottom. on the bolt at the bottom rear of the inner fenderwell you can see that the fender well pulled forward and up a little bit.

for now I don't know if all the frame flexed and all the parts stayed bent , or if the rail is bent too.

I am thinking maybe put it on jackstands at the front body mounts and right before the rear kick up, then level it at the cowl, or roof, then measuring down to a level from certain points on the frame rails and see what I get.

[padresag]

it looks like the bumper is bent right at the side of that frame horn and it was possibly the bumper pushing back that caused trhat fender to buckle.
ron

[MagicCity66]

Your vehicle is special as it has factory a/c. And those that did (Burb or truck)have the ash tray under the dash. Do not lose it as you will not find another !

[The_Hub]

Originally Posted by jonzcustomshop

that might work, I am thinking that the right frame rail is bent up from going in a ditch.
the fender has a kink in it at the cowl panel, the fender well is bent at the hood hinge, and where it bolts to the fire wall is pushed in about 1/8 inch.
you can also see the bottom of the bumper is pushed up and the gap to the door gets bigger at the bottom. on the bolt at the bottom rear of the inner fenderwell you can see that the fender well pulled forward and up a little bit.

for now I don't know if all the frame flexed and all the parts stayed bent , or if the rail is bent too.

I am thinking maybe put it on jackstands at the front body mounts and right before the rear kick up, then level it at the cowl, or roof, then measuring down to a level from certain points on the frame rails and see what I get.

I see what you're saying now. Hopefully its nothing too severe. Just let me know if you need anything measured out. Mine is all together so it may be harder to get certain numbers.

[jonzcustomshop]

well, how about a complete 180?
disregard everything from post#12!
the frame was bent. I read chief rokas burbmaster thread. I noticed that I had an 87 buick wagon that we bought for the good 403 olds to put in one of the trans ams. I decided that I am probably not ever going to do anything with any of the trans ams.
the buick measures out with a 115.9 inch wheelbase.
I also used one of these frames in my radical 60 build.-worked pretty good.

so here we go: in December I took the buick apart. then it snowed.
I decided against the stock funky exhaust manifolds, and ordered some headers.
the headers are a tight fit, and will live up to their nickname (headaches) when I go to change the oil!-they lived up to that name during the install as well.
I notched the transmission X-member for the dual exhaust.
then I scabbed together a dual exhaust system out of couple of these wagon systems.

[jonzcustomshop]

today I got started on mating the two together.
I had to cut off about 5 inches of the rear of the frame, I used a piece of a driveshaft as the new X-member.
as per chiefs thread: I notched the fender well, front and rear cab supports and over the rear wheels.

[jonzcustomshop]

...and here we sit, I spent the rest of the afternoon cutting on the front (I am going to try to use the buick radiator). next time I get a full day I will weld in all the body supports.

[pimpston65]

Originally Posted by jonzcustomshop

...and here we sit, I spent the rest of the afternoon cutting on the front (I am going to try to use the buick radiator). next time I get a full day I will weld in all the body supports.

looks like something out of the movie animal house "ramming speed". looks like you have a stock pile of parts there as well!!!

[pimpston65]

I would put a chair right next to the burb and look at those mountains for days on end, man I miss being out west...

[65sub]

Cool idea Jon

[jonzcustomshop]

Originally Posted by pimpston65

I would put a chair right next to the burb and look at those mountains for days on end, man I miss being out west...

my wife took this the same day, she was on a road trip to Kalispell, this is near st.ignatius, about 40 miles away....

[jonzcustomshop]

Originally Posted by pimpston65

looks like something out of the movie animal house "ramming speed". looks like you have a stock pile of parts there as well!!!

just a few parts trucks!

Originally Posted by 65sub

Cool idea Jon

thanks, chiefrocka gets points for doing most of the homework:
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...533641&page=15

[pimpston65]

Originally Posted by jonzcustomshop

my wife took this the same day, she was on a road trip to Kalispell, this is near st.ignatius, about 40 miles away....

looks like crosscut saw teeth

[gostranger]

awesome nice work!!

[jonzcustomshop]

I got a couple free days, and got some progress on this.
working on the body mounts:

first I had to wrestle the body around on the frame, and had to trim the body supports back a little bit to get the body square on the frame..
once it was where I wanted it I went out into the yard and scavenged some parts to make the mounts.
in the first pic, you can see the 3rd mount ends up being way off the top of the frame, this is the mount that is under the rear floor section, the 2 pieces of frame rail off the back of my crew cab happened to fit in the hole... in the center I used the ends off a 60 Pontiac frame that I had , and then used some flat plate to box them in.

the next pic shows the front mounts: the best solution turned out to be the radiator core support mounts off a 73-87 2wd... the left one took some doing because the trans cross member ends right under the body mount.

next is onto the rear mounts, I used some more 60 Pontiac pieces for the 4th mount, and the 5th I was able to use the factory mount since I cut the rear frame rails off the suburban frame.- that worked out pretty nice I was able to bolt the frame rails to the bumper, and then to the suburban, get the bumper set just right, and then weld the ends to the new cross member.

4th picture: I will be able to use the buick wagon gas tank, I built a frame work to strap it up to, and then had to notch a piece of the LH frame rail for the filler to go through.

5th pic.
I was able to retain the stock floor over the rear axle, I just got some pieces of 2X2 angle iron and welded them together in a "Z" shape and bolted it in place!

[65sub]

Nice work Jon. I like the "factory" look of the rear floor.

[aerotruk63]

Yes the rear floor does look nice.

[jonzcustomshop]

pretty exciting! next time I work on this I top it off with fluids and fire it up.
it will need a touch of rust repair on the passenger floor and then I should be ready to drive it for this summer. will try to get some pics so I can post 'em here.

[Clyde65]

Wow! That sits nice too!

[jonzcustomshop]

some interior shots: I used a 88 sub 3rd row seat in the back. I had to rebuild (weld and respring) the 65 sub front cushion. I pulled most of the factory air stuff out, and switched to a cheap heater system (thrift air I think). I changed the instrument cluster and wiring harness from lights to gauges. I am thinking that whenever I replace the windshield I might pull the air dash and sell it , and switch to a regular dash.

[jonzcustomshop]

I moved the battery tray over a few inches to make room for the Buick radiator, I also trimmed the left side so it would fit, and cut some of the tin out of the rad support for air flow. I used the cradle style clamps off a 85 suburban, and the Buick rubber cushions.

[jonzcustomshop]

the steering needed a heim joint and a three u joints to connect.
trimmed the fender wells a bit to clear the frame, and used a capt.fab booster bracket to connect the 79 buick booster to the firewall. I also used a tip from the forums and drilled the hole in the brake pedal 1 inch lower to compensate for the power brakes.

under the heater you can see part of blue/green firewall I trimmed off to cover up the big hole that was cut for the factory air.

[jonzcustomshop]

I got the bumpers hung, and customized a C/60 grille by floating the "Chevrolet" letters in the center. the rear bumper had a hole cut in it from a hitch that I repaired. I love the "Native of Tropical Montana" bumper sticker, it is from a local bank in 1977, also funny -the old plates, it was last on the road in 79, which is the year of the Buick wagon that I tore apart to build this
For now I sourced the slots off my custom 61, but I also have a set of steelies and stock hubcaps that I might run.

[jonzcustomshop]

I am hoping to get this running tomorrow: apparently the Buick wagon gas tank was rusted through!
since the car was running and I drove up to the shop, I didn't think to check the tank, when I was hooking up the fuel lines and the gas gauge wires I could smell gas, I noticed a wet spot on the bottom of the tank...... touched it-big mistake it immediately started leaking, I guess it is rusted through from the inside. luckily my custom 60 which is not running right now has a good tank in it (same model Buick), so I will borrow that for now.

[65chevysub]

I love what you did with the letters for your grill. Looks factory. The "slots" look great on the sub as well.