53 Surburban "Family Truckster"

[Advanced Design]

Your Burb does look good laid out Marc. Too bad the rear is too wide, though like you said it can be narrowed. Just more work and money...

Man, those fenders are really solid!

[oldman3]

Looking good...Jim

[CHIZZLER]

Hey marc. My tire size is a 6.70-15. conversion charts show it as A 205/75/15-215/70/15. Hope that helps. Burb is looking great.Keep at it.

[Coach529]

Looks great!!

[reaper71]

Looks really slick slammed on the ground!!

Mark...

[68basket]

Great looking suburban!! I am looking at trading for a 1950 suburban and was checking out your build when i saw a picture of my engine. I am glad i was an inspiration on the look of your ls. I am liking how yours is looking.

[Eagletucky]

Awesome progress!!!

[youngrodder]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

Looking good Marc

Thank you

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Your Burb does look good laid out Marc. Too bad the rear is too wide, though like you said it can be narrowed. Just more work and money...

Man, those fenders are really solid!

Thanks Doug. I still need to roll the edges of the front fenders. One rear fender I had ot add a lower section where the running board mounts..

Originally Posted by oldman3

Looking good...Jim

Thanks Jim

Originally Posted by CHIZZLER

Hey marc. My tire size is a 6.70-15. conversion charts show it as A 205/75/15-215/70/15. Hope that helps. Burb is looking great.Keep at it.

Thank you Chizzler. I'm going to try to fit a 29" wheel...I might need hot butter and a crowbar.

Originally Posted by Coach529

Looks great!!

Thank you

Originally Posted by reaper71

Looks really slick slammed on the ground!!

Mark...

Thanks Mark....I seem to like anything that is on the ground.

Originally Posted by 68basket

Great looking suburban!! I am looking at trading for a 1950 suburban and was checking out your build when i saw a picture of my engine. I am glad i was an inspiration on the look of your ls. I am liking how yours is looking.

Yes, I saw you were looking at Thomas Tuckers old Suburban. It is one of my all time favorites. Although I have never seen pictures of the inside. I would be interested in seeing the rear notch area. On mine I will run all three rows of seats which will be another challenge to pull off.

Originally Posted by Eagletucky

Awesome progress!!!

Thanks brother....I have been following your suburban build...

Marc

[youngrodder]

OK after speaking with Travis at AZ Pro Performance as well as Accuair I got my questions about mounting the sensors figured out. What worked good for me was to double side tape the sensor where I thought that I wanted to mount them and then take my measurements to confirm that I had the right range of motion. This worked great. The Accuair tech told me that the mounting of the sensors is the most difficult part of the install. This is cool because I got the front and rear mounted

I typically spend money on items that are clean and help and install go easier...In this case I purchased ride sensor mounts by Choppin Block from Travis at Pro Performance. They are billet aluminum and really make mounting of the sensor quite a bit easier. I love how clean the install looks.

On to the pics

Marc

[lower50's]

That will look sick driving down the rd. Love the clamps I will be adding ride height some day.

[69CST-V]

Mounting looks clean...I'm going to borrow this in the near future...easier to ask for forgiviness, then to beg for permission... or something like that. LOL

[Advanced Design]

Ok, those clamps are on my shopping list. Thanks for the share Marc.

[youngrodder]

Originally Posted by lower50's

That will look sick driving down the rd. Love the clamps I will be adding ride height some day.

Thanks Lower. This is my first experience with Accuair or ride height sensors.

Originally Posted by 69CST-V

Mounting looks clean...I'm going to borrow this in the near future...easier to ask for forgiviness, then to beg for permission... or something like that. LOL

No secrets here. If I were worried about others barrowing ideas I wouldn't have started a build thread...Its all good, that's why this site rocks...

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Ok, those clamps are on my shopping list. Thanks for the share Marc.

They are not cheap ($18 ea - I think) but they are sturdy, they look plastic but are painted billet aluminum.

Marc

[youngrodder]

OK, so one of the things that I wondered about with the size of the notch is can I run all three rows of seats. Not many people that are building them to layout are using all three seats.

Today I took one step closer to figuring it out. I had to cut 26" out of the center of the wood floor to clear the notch. The front mounts are fine. It looks like the rear seat will either have to move backward some or I will have to cut off/modify the legs of the rear seat.. If you look closely to can see the oval shapes where the legs mount to the floor. the rear only has two showing. the other two were 5" into the area that I cut out.

Here is a pic of the wood temporarily in place so I can fit the seats to see what modifications are necessary. I'm pretty excited to see it will most likely be possible.

The other thing that is cool is that if this truck is 1/2" off the ground it rolls very easily. My 48 will not roll smoothly this low. I need to keep this in mind when I reinstall the fenders to make sure it always rolls smoothly.

Thanks
Marc

[84blaze]

Are you replacing the wooden floor with metal?

[youngrodder]

Originally Posted by 84blaze

Are you replacing the wooden floor with metal?

No I will be replacing the wood with new wood. What I'm doing here is strictly for mock up purposes. The idea I have in my head is using some cool distressed wood intended for the home. I would install a thinner plywood sheet and then make up the difference with the decorative wood. I can tell you, the original floor was a chore to remove without cutting into a punch of pieces. I can put my wood back in smaller sections because of the notch so it is easier. I do like how clean and sealed Doug's turned out though.....I have not figure out what I want to do for a notch cover yet (steel or wood).

Marc

[youngrodder]

I started fitting the middle row and back row seats to see what modifications are needed. The middle seat is fine as is. For those of you that don't know, these middle seats are hard to come by. They are narrower than the rear seat and they are mounted to the left hand side to provide access by the passengers to the rear seat. For the rear seat I will most likely need to remove the legs and come up with some way to attach the front of the seat to the notch and then fab up some new rear legs. I might even narrow the seat 3"-4" to provide more room for wheel tubs. The watts link is killing me for rear seat placement......more to come, I need to stare at it a while longer before I start cutting.

Marc

[Advanced Design]

Just thinking aloud...maybe mount the third seat on a platform to go above the watts link?

Rather than narrowing a third seat, can you use a second seat in the third seat position so it is narrow enough to clear the wheel tubs? The third seat, as you know, could be sold for way more than a second seat would cost.

[youngrodder]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Just thinking aloud...maybe mount the third seat on a platform to go above the watts link?

Rather than narrowing a third seat, can you use a second seat in the third seat position so it is narrow enough to clear the wheel tubs? The third seat, as you know, could be sold for way more than a second seat would cost.

Yes, I thought about that..i don't like the platform idea because I took so much time to hid stuff under the floor. I don't care for how it looks when you have the rear doors open. I actually thought about moving the middle seat to the rear and vise versa.... You could enter through the back doors to get access to the back seat. I have time to figure it out...ha ha

Porterbuilt is shipping my front core support mount tomorrow so I will be able to finalize how that mounts and bolt up the front fenders..

Marc

[CHIZZLER]

When i was building my burb I tried my hardest to use the 3rd seat. It was just to awkward at the position it would be in. I ended up selling it to a guy that was doing a factory build. For me 5 people was enough. Burb is looking good Marc.

[lower50's]

Marc could you not mount the seat on top of the diff hump and have your legs hang just in front of the hump?

[Iceburgh]

I know you are using the original seat frames so what I did wont help.
I ended up getting flip seats out of a S10 that originally flipped to the side.. I mounted brackets to the floor so these would flip up and down. Not very comfy, a ***** to get in and out of and then no room for any storage if someone is back there.
But it is an idea. Wont be the look you are going for with your build.

But loving what you are doing so far....keep going at it. I am glad I got mine done when I did. New position has me on the road all the time. So far I have put 40 miles on my Burb this spring /summer

[youngrodder]

Originally Posted by CHIZZLER

When i was building my burb I tried my hardest to use the 3rd seat. It was just to awkward at the position it would be in. I ended up selling it to a guy that was doing a factory build. For me 5 people was enough. Burb is looking good Marc.

I know that is the same stuff I'm struggling with. I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet.. I'm a slow learner

Originally Posted by lower50's

Marc could you not mount the seat on top of the diff hump and have your legs hang just in front of the hump?

I not think so because it would put you right up against the back of the middle seat.

Originally Posted by Iceburgh

I know you are using the original seat frames so what I did wont help.
I ended up getting flip seats out of a S10 that originally flipped to the side.. I mounted brackets to the floor so these would flip up and down. Not very comfy, a ***** to get in and out of and then no room for any storage if someone is back there.
But it is an idea. Wont be the look you are going for with your build.

But loving what you are doing so far....keep going at it. I am glad I got mine done when I did. New position has me on the road all the time. So far I have put 40 miles on my Burb this spring /summer

Thanks Jim.. Boooo to only putting 40 miles on yours. Take a vacation this fall and drive out the NSRA Nats north in Kalamazoo..

I will get more garage time this weekend.

Marc

[youngrodder]

Not many people would take a rare 3rd row suburban seat and cut it up. Well you can only stare at something so long before you just have to start cutting.

The idea I had was to cut off the legs because it was interfering with the watts link and notch. Then I decided if I narrowed the seat a couple of inches it would help fit between the wheel tubs that I also need to widen. I narrows the seat 3". The ideas was to narrow it slightly so it is not overly noticeable. I was amazed at how well the seat springs and jute looked on the seats.

After I cut the seat frame tubes I used some cold rolled steel tub to reinforce where I cut. I plug welded it for strength. I was very happy with how it turned out. I will narrow the seat springs at a later date.

Marc

[youngrodder]

More pics....I also noticed on of my wheel tubs had large dent in one side but not the other. At first I thought the wheel tubs were double walled. No someone along the line just filled dents with bondo...I started pounding out the dents and a bondo piece over 1" thick flew off....ha ha

I will be adding 3" to the wheel tubs to allow for a wider rear wheel.

Marc