Working Man's Burbon

[HO455]

I bought this Suburban because I needed to haul sheet goods (plywood and such) and my S10 Blazer wasn't cutting it when it rained. Which in my part of Oregon is fairly frequent. It fit my prerequisites: pre 1975 no DEQ, Presentable from the outside, interior must not be too nice (I don't want to send all my time worrying about when I was going to screw it up.), reliable enough to be a daily driver. After several months I settled on this one.
The pros: starts and stops well, has been converted to disc brakes, every thing is there except the windshield washer tank. Low amount of rust for the price, I like the wheels.
The con's: Leaks inside (PO said it didn't) has a 305 (PO said it was a 350), PURPLE, (PO painted it), terrible exhaust system (looks as if it came off the PO's Chevelle racecar. Short Flow Masters 90ed down in front of the swing arm cross member. IT IS LOUD! I'm good with loud if it's fast. This not. Plus they torched the frame to get the headers to fit.). Window felts and rear gate seals are all shot. When your coasting it sounds like riding in the dump box of a gravel truck. The handling is terrible. It has front and rear air bags tee-ed to single valves. Had a 1980\90's? Covette steering column with the key knocked out so the wheel would move in and out 3 to 4 inches. The dash has been hacked for a DIN radio, &$%#%%$ kids!!
After some looking and parking in the rain we have determined that drip rail seal has failed (after only 49 YEARS). So one thing lead to another and now I'm deep into Project Waterproof. Ah yes, waterproofing, something people with lesser cars, in brighter places never think about.
At this point I must confess that this is the first time I have ever shared a project with the world. I humbly beg for your patience and forgiveness as this is a new trick for an old dog.

[LockDoc]

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Looks good. Sealing up one of these old rigs can be a daunting task for sure. I just went through the same thing with the '67 Panel Truck.... I had to weld in some patches in the bottom corners of the windshield opening.

LockDoc

[HO455]

As you can see now I've got in the steering wheel and column replaced. I scored the wheel off Craigs list. This lady liked the shape of it, had it hand painted and it had been hanging on the wall of her art gallery for the last 30 plus years since. Perfect condition GMC! Score 40 bucks. I got the column without the upper bearing, but a good signal switch from a nice guy in Vancouver. New bearing and slid it in and then the trouble started. The shifter was very stiff so out it came. It took me 5 hours to beat it back into submission. The slide bearing on the lower end had rusted badly underneath and caused the bearing to swell and with no clearance it couldn't move. It's like butter now. Plus the wheel doesn't move in and out. Man talk about disconcerting. I never realized how often I pull on the wheel.

[HO455]

Originally Posted by LockDoc

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Looks good. Sealing up one of these old rigs can be a daunting task for sure. I just went through the same thing with the '67 Panel Truck.... I had to weld in some patches in the bottom corners of the windshield opening.

LockDoc

Thanks LockDoc. I was surprised that with the streams I had running out of the kick panels that the windshield channel is in as good of shape as it is. Some small holes I'll fix with long strand, then renew the seam sealer and the windshield will be good to go.

[Advanced Design]

HO455, welcome to the board! Looking forward to the updates on your Suburban.

[rocknss]

[mdw]

Iam out in Molalla and in the process of redoing my burb if you need help or parts

[HO455]

Originally Posted by mdw

Iam out in Molalla and in the process of redoing my burb if you need help or parts

Cool! I have a 67 grille for it but I need some driver grade surrounds for it if you have a pair? The current grille is pretty hacked up. It looks OK from 50 feet but not so good up close.
It has been a busy couple days working on the WMB. I drilled 1 inch holes to allow me to spray Por15 into the sills and other void spaces in an attempt to slow the rust. The drip rail sealant had failed so long ago that the panel above the windshield had rust holes into the cab. I drilled two holes by the mirror and one on the passenger side A pillar. I was able to get the spray wand down the driver side A pillar with the wires for the taillights, but not the passenger side with no wires??? The holes felt the same size, but the angles were different and the spray nozzle just would not go down the inside of the pillar. Basically it was 3 days of prep for 3 hours of spraying. I don't believe that I have achieved the 100% coverage that I would like but hopefully that I have cover the worst areas. I'm pretty sure I will be putting a second coat on just for some more peace of mind. This is the first time I have tried this process and it generally went as expected. I haven't been able to get a good close look at it yet and that will have to wait until later this week. But a quick look into the rear hatch showed pretty fair coverage. Obviously there are some areas that I will never be able to inspect. I am hoping that the Por15 will run down to the places the water ran to and give those areas protection. The photos show some of the holes if you look closely.

[HO455]

In addition I have traded the raised cowl hood for a stocker that fits the way it is supposed to. The cowl hood was a real mess. The line along the fenders had a 3/8" bow on each side. Both sides were bowed to the passenger side. The front edge of the drivers side was 1/2" farther out than it was supposed to be. And the body line along the top was at least a 1/4" low on the drivers side but OK on the passenger side. The stocker has some surface rust and was the victim of a carb fire in the past. Plus I had to remove the hood ornament, but it was delivered for free.

[HO455]

The WMB got a second coat of Por15 and is ready for some scuffing and then putty. I used a Chemcar undercoating gun and their 360* spray wand. It was $88 with shipping and 2 wands. I got second wand as I didn't know how well they would clean up. Using the Por15 solvent they clean up well and I didn't need the second one. The wands came rolled up and would not stay straight. Maybe with some experimentation you could use some heat to straighten them. I experimented with some water to get a feel for how well the gun would work. The wand sprays well, but the permanent curve meant that I had to use a piece of PVC pipe to hold it straight when needed. I wound tape around the wand so I would be able to tell when the tip was close to the hole. This kept me from having too many over spray issues. I had to put a second bit of tape on to allow me to use the wand in the PVC and know that the spray tip was just protruding.
http://www.chemicar.com/tools_spraygun_uc.php
Chemcar also sells a pressure pot version of this ($250) and if you were going to do this on a regular basis I think it would be worth it. There were times I struggled to hold the gun at the correct angle to get good flow to the wand.
Time for safety guy. This type of job poses many hazards which you need to make yourself familiar with. I used a respirator, safety glasses, a face mask, Tyvex suit, nitrol gloves taped to the sleeves, and a head sock. I found I needed to have extra gloves handy to put on over the first pair when they got torn on some sharp piece of sheet metal. I bought a disposable flashlight just for this.
The second photo is looking up into the void behind the taillights with the spray tip coming down from above via the hole where the hinge bolts are on a barn door rig. This was after the first coat. I had missed going down from the hinge holes. But it does show what got painted and what didn't.
The last photo. Is looking down into the void under the drivers side 2nd row roll down window it is hard to see in the photo (it is the best picture I could get.) But it is well covered in paint from end to end.

[HO455]

Just pictures of the mess of Por15 that ran out of the drain holes after the first coat. I just can't believe that even though there is no way to be sure of 100% coverage this has got to help.

[mdw]

Is this the burb that was out in Gresham?

[HO455]

Yes it was from Gresham. Please don't tell me there are two purple with green interior Suburbans. Thanks for the offer on the front end. But I have already found the grill and bezels.

[HO455]

When I put the WMB on jack stands I discovered that the passenger side upper front shock mount was broken out of the frame. The PO must have just pushed back in the hole after it broke and left it. It looked like it had been broken for some time. When I jacked the front up it just poped out. My guess is that it broke due to the bump stops being torched off and when the air bags are all the way down the shock becomes the bump stop. I will have find some way of adding a bump stop and mounting some raised shock mounts. But for now it's just been welded back in place. Took advantage of the welder being out and installed exhaust pipe passages in the cross member. I also noticed the idler arm was very worn, so replaced it. In addition I saw grease running out from under the center cap on one of the front wheels. Probably not a good sign.

[HO455]

Before spraying the Por15 I taped off many areas of the WMB to limit the mess. I have found out that was some what of a mistake. In several areas the paint flowed into the tape gaps and then dried leaving a large build up of paint that seems to have a lot of porosity. It looks as the paint was trapped so were a lot of air bubbles. The areas that I didn't tape up to keep the paint from running out look much better. I tried to photograph this build up but I am unable to be able to get a good close up photo. Please forgive my photography. Next time I will let the Por15 just run out and avoid having to remove this build up. I was unable to get a picture of the inside of the rear gates. I had some pin hole in the bottom of the upper gate and was worried about how long it was going to be before it was going to turn into junk. From every angle I can see inside the Por15 coverage looks to be complete. I drilled two holes in each end and removed the hinges from the door. These 4 access points have worked well. It would be interesting to spray one and then cut it apart for inspection. The last photo showes the 1" hole drilled. I plan on using the factory style plug to cover the holes. The guys at Dan's Classic Chevrolet didn't quite understand why I wanted to order 10 of those plugs.

[HO455]

Another day another delema. I noticed the driver's side seam where the roof meets the A pillar is misaligned. It could have been like this since new. It sure seems like one more place for water to get in around the windshield seal, so somethings got to change. After staring at it awhile I got my favorite hammer and went to town. First I made a template of the other side, flipped it and compared how far off it was and proceeded to beat it into submission. I held a body working dolly on the offending area and hit it with a 3 lb hammer. Thirty minutes later I was happier. Not that it was now perfect but much better than before. The last photo is shows the end result. You may not be able to tell the difference from the pictures. It certainly looked as if the pieces were never clamped down correctly during assembly. But after this many years who knows. I haven't found any evidence the the WMB was ever wrecked, but the upper gate is black under the original green color.

[HO455]

Yesterday and today's project was to replace the body mount rubber bushings. I purchased the same as original set from Classic Heartbeat. This set doesn't come with any hardware. I searched the forum and found a thread with a this link. http://static.summitracing.com/globa.../ens-17332.pdf
Which is a PDF from Energy Suspension showing the bolt specs and locations. I took notes and headed to Winks Hardware, where I purchased the new bolts and a fresh can of anti-sieze. First step was to crawl around and spray penetrating oil on the bolts again, )
(I had already sprayed them twice before since the project started.) I then losened all the nuts, which to my surprise went much easier than expected. Starting with the core support bolts. I removed the bolts for the upper radiator brackets and pulled the radiator up one side at a time and held it up with a small block of wood while I replaced the bolt, washers, rubber spacers, and locking tab. The kit for the core support was complete with all hardware and instructions while the rest had no instructions or hardware. Starting at the back on the passenger side I carefully raised the body with a floor jack. Using a 4x4 block I had placed under the body brace that was farthest back. I was carefull not to lift the body by lifting on the plywood or its bracing. Once lifted I was able to remove the 2 rear most mount bolts on the passenger side. In order remove the bolts I had to use a punch to pound them up from below. To keep the punch from slipping off I threaded one of the old nuts on a couple of turns and that kept the punched trapped. After removing the nut, the bolt pulled up from above without much trouble. Sorry no pictures of the removal, but the first photo shows how crusty they were. My plan was to keep the drivers side attached loosely to the frame in hopes that I would be able to avoid a crisis where the body slides off the frame. After removal I used a needle gun to remove as much rust as I could get to and the relied on sandpaper and a wire brush to clean up the other spots. I placed the new upper blocks on frame and set the body back down. Moving towards the front I placed the 4x4 under the brace between the forward body mount and the second mount the raised the body with the floor jack. Once up I removed the second third and forth mount old bushings and cleaned up the mounts like I did on the rear ones. I set the body back down on the upper bushings and took stock of what else I needed to finish the job. The first issue is that most of the bolts I bought won't work. DOhh!!
The ones specificied on the link were meant to be used with different bushings. See second photo. I have laid them out so you can see the differences in size. (Note that I have mislabeled the size of the bolt pair on the right side that should be 6" not 5 1/4") The carriage bolts that were too long I just cut to length, but I had to buy longer bolts for the first and third mounts (counting front to rear). The second issue is the mounts do not come with the steel sleeve that is in the center of the rubber blocks nor do they come with the washers that are on the bottom of the mount. Quickly dashing across town to Winks for parts. The steel sleeves are 2 different sizes, the first mount is 7/8" OD, and the rest are 1" OD. At the hardware store they have 7/8" spacers, but all are too short. I so get a 6" 1/2" pipe galvanized nipple as it is 7/8" OD. They do have 1" steel spacers but all are too long and will have to be cut down. I was able to get the washers for the bottom of back 4 mounts but the front set calls for a thicker washer they didn't have in stock. With the new hardware and sleeve material I'm off. An hour later the sleeves are cut to size and we are ready for day two. The 7/8" sleeves are 1 7/8" long and the 1" sleeves are 1 1/8" long. The ID's are in the second photo. In addition my Suburban has thick washers between the top rubber and the body. I don't know if they are stock or not. I am sure that the front bushing set has been replaced at some time.

[HO455]

With my hardware in hand I assemble the mounts on the passenger side. First mount ISSUE!
The new longer bolt I purchased won't work as the threads are not high enough on the bolt and I bottom out the but long before I get to 50 ft lbs. If you look at the first picture you can see the difference in thread length. Fortunately the old bolts are in pretty good shape so I cleaned them up and reused them. (I will make a post of just the hardware list). All the rest go well with the exception of the back two on the passenger side. They were pulled down tight before disassembly but now they have a gap. The worst being 5/16". Now I get to make some spacers. The third mount on that side was tweaked and I persuaded it back into shape and that may have caused some of this gap. Finished the day sanding the hood and applying Rustmort. And wondering where will I ever find a NOS hood ornament. The last photo is all the wasted old mounts. The cool part is all the parts that are black from the Por15 spray episode.

[Average Joe]

Nice work! Thanks for the detailed write up.

[HO455]

Originally Posted by Average Joe

Nice work! Thanks for the detailed write up.

Thank you sir.

Here is the hardware list from the WMB. Your results may vary.
Front mount: Times two
Bolt is 9/16"-12 x 6" with 2" of threaded area. I included the tapered area in the 2" measurement.
Under the head of the bolt in the cab was a flat washer 19/32" ID 1" OD 1/8" thick.
Under the body on top of the upper bushing was a flat washer 3 3/8" OD 5/8" ID 1/4" thick
On the bottom of the lower bushing next to the nut a flat washer 2 3/4" OD 5/8" ID 3/16" thick
2nd mount: Times two
Bolt is 3/8"-16 x 4" carriage head with 1 1/8" of threads.
Under the body on top of the upper bushing a flat washer 2 3/8" OD 1/2" ID 3/16" thick.
On the bottom of the lower bushing next to the nut a flat washer 1 7/8" OD 1/2" ID 1/8" thick.
This size is used on all the rest of the body mounts I will call it the Bottom flat. (8 total)
3rd mount: Times two
Bolt is 3/8"-16 x 2 1/2" hex head with 1 1/8" of threads. With the Bottom flat.
4th mount: Times two
Bolt is 3/8"-16 x 5 1/4" carriage head with what I believe to be 1 1/8" of threads. The bolts are so wasted I can't be 100% sure. With the Bottom flat.
5th mount: Times two
Bolt is 3/8"-16 x 6" carriage head again not certain but believe 1 1/8" of threads. With the Bottom flat.
I used Nyloc nuts for all the mounts.

Just to make the list complete here is the core support bolts. Times two.
7/16-14 x 2 1/2" carriage head with 1 3/4" of threads. I didn't measure any of the rest of the core support hardware as it is easy and cheap to get.
Photo from end of day one showing the old and the new. I would have more photos, but apparently the camera ran out of room, or space, or film, or something like that.

[BaggedBurban]

Originally Posted by mdw

Is this the burb that was out in Gresham?

Pretty sure I bought the Burb in Gresham you are referring too. Black/Silver w/ air ride. Was in the golf course parking lot.

[HO455]

I was referring to the WMB. I found it on Craigslist in all it's purple glory out in Gresham near the old downtown area. Sorry I have no parts to sell.

[BaggedBurban]

Originally Posted by HO455

I was referring to the WMB. I found it on Craigslist in all it's purple glory out in Gresham near the old downtown area. Sorry I have no parts to sell.

I was telling this info to mdw since I just bought a 72 Burb I think he was referring to.

[HO455]

To finish the body mount replacement I found some spacer plates at a big box store. They were in the framing hardware and the concrete departments. Under $5.00 for the pair and they fix almost perfectly. Plus no labor on my part. I also grabbed new bolts for the mounts with the spacers as the ones I had cut to match the OE are now too short. All bolted together well, but I question the 20 ft lbs torque spec. Using a torque wrench I noticed that going to 20 was causing the bottom of the mount to deform ( last photo). I backed it off and then did the rest by sight and feel. I have to wonder if the factory used 20 ft lbs as the spec to prevent the bolts from being twisted off on the assembly line. My old ones did look as if the nut was bottomed out on end of the threads. As I used bolts with a much longer threaded area the mount distorted long before I got to 20 ft lbs. Or the torque wrench I borrowed was way out of whack. I will have to check them after a couple of hundred miles and I will use a different wrench. The mounts look silver from the anti-seize I used on the bolts and metal to metal contact points. Hopefully to slow the rust and to prevent squeaks.

[Average Joe]

Nice work!