1965 Suburban Resto-Rebuild

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by hemifalcon

I've gotten lotsa tips, ideas, knowledge and general info to help me dig up the courage to get as far as I have in this thing--because of the other fine talents if other members...

Dude that is totally me too !!

[GVDobler]

Originally Posted by hemifalcon

Bigger horn huh??? ;-)
Posted via Mobile Device

I was talking about the big yellow horns in the 1st pages.

Anyway, you are fearless and not afraid to tackle anything.
Mine is in about the same shape with rust. I haven't jumped off the cliff yet.
I was born in Ottumwa, so tell your Dad hi.

Keep up the good work

[hemifalcon]

Originally Posted by GVDobler

I was talking about the big yellow horns in the 1st pages.

Anyway, you are fearless and not afraid to tackle anything.
Mine is in about the same shape with rust. I haven't jumped off the cliff yet.
I was born in Ottumwa, so tell your Dad hi.

Keep up the good work

Ahh yess--those lovely yellow horns.. they MAY or may NOT end up back in the truck.. if they return, they will NOT be in the engine compartment--

[hemifalcon]

Alright--so I'm here to bring you guys up to speed on the rust repair.. The driver's side corner is almost wrapped up.. In the pictures you'll see the rocker set onto the truck, but it's only held on with clamps.. I haven't welded it as it will need a little "massaging" to get it to fit nicely.. And--I'm going to apply some sort of coating to the inside of the rocker panel to make it a little less likely to rust in the future should some moisture get caught up in there..

Here you can see the full kick panel that I "re-created" using the upper portion from the '65 truck cab donor part. The lower part was a regular patch panel that I grafted in..



Here's the lower pillar portion that was damned-near perfect from the truck cab.. I severed what I needed.. And the pic following is for comparison to what it's replacing. (yes-I need to weld a sqare nut on it still..)



This is the first of a bunch of mock-ups to see how everything was fitting.. Having those four bolt holes and that fender mount made a great way of getting things all lined up..



THIS is the finished version minus the outer rocker still..










And, today's product... I finally took myself out for THIS challenge and so far so good.. I was expecting much worse performation in the overhead roof area, but the roof panel is actually in very good shape.. (thank goodness). I guess that the roof top is actually a double sheet pressed?? Can anyone confirm this?? I guess maybe that's why it's fairly strong? Anyway--I got the front lower eyebrow portion removed and it's gonna take some work for me to get this part right.. I don't want to cobble it back together--but there's some inner structure details that I'm going to try and make right.. Here's the detail pictures..









AND more "ugly" over top of the driver's door. I ran the wire brush on my grinder over this area and found all the holes.. I think this part is going to be a pain in the arse to fix as well.. Just a curiosity for anyone reading along. Where can I get a rivet similar to thse which secure the VIN and TRIM tags?





Anyone see anything like this before?? It's a strange cracking on the passenger side floor board that I finally noticed today.. strange???





NOTE::: I really am starting to feel like I should do the right thing and have the whole shell blasted when I have all the rust repair done.... ugghhh...

[hemifalcon]

Just side-stepping the welding work for a bit by knocking out a couple small jobs..

Here's the original gauge cluster before disassembly, cleaning and general re-furb. I had to wet-sand and polish the lens as there was some sort of chemical "burn" or damage over the left side of the odometer.. It came out pretty good.. Thankfully the internals just needed a good cleaning.. I was lucky enough to find some nice little black nylon bushings at the local Ace Hardware that were a near perfect fit for the rotted rubber bushings on the screws for the back of the odometer. I was able to cut them down to the same length as the rubber ones--and they worked perfect.

[hemifalcon]

Here's the finished steering wheel.. The original horn button has some slight pitting, but I'm going to keep this one anyway...

[Nobby]

Nice work man....How much for the wheel ? LOL

[hemifalcon]

Originally Posted by Nobby

Nice work man....How much for the wheel ? LOL

Hah funny man!!!! Send me yours and the paint and I'll make yours pretty too!
Posted via Mobile Device

[hemifalcon]

and... the heater and controls come apart..

[hemifalcon]

Did some more dissecting today of the driver's door opening.. Getting rid of the rot slowly.. I pulled the last donor section from the '65 Truck Cab scraps.. Now I'll get rid of that heap of steel-- Unfortunately, the only real way to get the upper door opening part in "correctly" is to completely dissassemble the A pillar, and then pop all the spot welds from the roof perimeter.. THAT is one thing that I don't feel the need to do. I'll place the new (old) part in where the rotten one came out from and will then smooth the seams. (please excuse the "haze" in the photos, that's from grinding dust still floating around in the air)

[hemifalcon]

And.. here is the re-installed eyebrow scavenged from the '65 Truck cab.. It went on really well--but filling all the spot weld holes with weld was a pain in the ass. It ended it fitting really nice, but I am definitely not interested in doing all the grinding... I HATE grinding.. (I know--I know--if I was a better welder then there would be less grinding here--). I made the new filler pieces as well which were made from some scrap that I had laying around.. I will permanently affix them with a single weld as original after all the welds are smoothed out.









The driver's upper door piece is back in place as well. I ended up welding two small nuts in place so that I can use screws to install the body tag instead of riveting it. I also replaced the inner A-Pillar piece which I had fixed a few weeks ago. I have to replace the lower portion of the driver's upper-inner header panel due to some rot-through as well. The dash is pictured just after cleaning all the surfast rust off the back and treating it with the rust-converter.

[likaroc13]

It's definitely gotta suck having to replace all that metal, especially in those areas. However, I'd say you're doing a nice job! Keep up the good work.

[hemifalcon]

Originally Posted by likaroc13

It's definitely gotta suck having to replace all that metal, especially in those areas. However, I'd say you're doing a nice job! Keep up the good work.

Thanks brother.... I really never suspected that I would have to do so much metal replacement--but that's the nature of things.. You just never know what you'll be having to do until you start tearing things down.. the surface is sometimes nothing but an illusion, but like I said earlier--it's a truck--not a Duesenberg.. I get to practice and get my confidence up before I get back to this...




Unfortunately--it was started as a project between me and my dad--and I took it over after he wanted to charge me for the labor.. So--I will finish it as I don't charge myself for the labor costs..

[likaroc13]

Originally Posted by hemifalcon

Thanks brother.... I really never suspected that I would have to do so much metal replacement--but that's the nature of things.. You just never know what you'll be having to do until you start tearing things down.. the surface is sometimes nothing but an illusion, but like I said earlier--it's a truck--not a Duesenberg.. I get to practice and get my confidence up before I get back to this

That's gonna be sweet as well!

Unfortunately--it was started as a project between me and my dad--and I took it over after he wanted to charge me for the labor.. So--I will finish it as I don't charge myself for the labor costs..

I can understand that! Hope my dad isn't secretly charging me for labor on my '66, but I don't think it's quite as involved as that project. It too was supposed to be a project between the two of us. I was able to help some, until my wife & I made a sudden move to SC. For now I just keep him supplied with parts & any valuable info he might need. Luckily the 60-66's are his favorites, so I don't think he minds tinkering with it for me.

[hemifalcon]

Here's where it's at today.. I spent some time knocking down all the plug-welds after this point.. Gonna spend a little more time with that over the next week.. The dash will go back in and I'll hopefully get done with the driver's side metal replacement... (hopefully). I was glad how everything lined up when I slapped the cowl pieces back on...

[notsolo]

Nice detailed work putting metal back into the Burb.The dash bezel looks great....in recent post.. .Modge's 66 just did some heater control make over... 67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=512904&page=12......Chassis looks awesome too...is the original trans a 4 speed.....back in post 93... trans hanging off of the bell housing. Mine is also like that, not original but a retro fit (3 speed out of a 69 Nova with floor shift) it has a 1 piece drive shaft, with slip yoke in the trans. It works very well... synchromesh is a nice bonus.

[hemifalcon]

Notsolo...
Thanks--still have a long ways to go.. Little at a time..

[Modges'66]

Huh, a Falcon with a small-block Chevy?
You should make that a driver with a factory type EFI set-up. My dad has a TPI in his pro-street, and gets 20+mpg with 4.56 gears & a 700R4. Fun & reliable.
I like the build a lot...Had a '66 Burb in high school, which influenced me to do my current build.
Keep up the quality work!

[hemifalcon]

When it comes to be time to put the falcon back on the floor to start working on it---getting it running and moving around on it's own will be an obvious priority.. HOW it moves--that still is not fully determined.. Small Block CHEVY power will be what does it for sure..

[hemifalcon]

Here's what I did today.. Gonna re-attach this and the vertical part (behind the door) tomorrow and work on getting the door mounted and the rocker panel fitted.. Should be really "fun".. I painted the inner parts of the door opening and the back sides of these parts.. (don't need photos of that though..)

Started with this...



and here's it all solid once again..

[Dinos63]

nice skills and a ton of nice work

[hemifalcon]

Thanks Dino.. Every now and again I please myself with the outcome of a part of this project..

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by hemifalcon

Every now and again I please myself with the outcome of a part of this project..

Man do I ever know that feeling !!
Hear Hear !!

[hemifalcon]

And.. here's some more for today.. I actually met a goal that I set!!! I had said I wanted to get the driver's side done during my "weekend"--and I did.. It's not finished--but the outer rocker is attached with it's final fitment. I used #10 sheetmetal screws to hold everything in place temporarily and each hole will also serve as a hole for a plug weld. I took a little "massaging" to get it to fit well--but from everyone elses posts about rocker repair--that's the norm. All in all--it only took a little trimming/tweaking to get it to fit nicely. I also decided to cut down on the number of weld spots in comparison to the rocker that I pulled off of the burb. I also fitted the door and finally got to take a good hard look at the door bottoms.. Yup--gonna have to replace the door bottoms.. yay.. Along with the outer skins--the full doors will be re-worked.. I also photographed some odd damage on the inner door jamb near the latch mechanism.. Hard to figure what the heck had ever happened to cause the damage..I only hope when I get to the passenger side that the rocker works as well as this one did.. I think in all--I only had it on/off maybe 10 times..

Dash back in..



Here's the inner panels all put back where they belong...





Here's the door damage..



Initial fit..





Here's the end result for the day..



(here's the one cut/chop)

[northern 85]

Im in for the rest of this build! Great work