Suburban Assault Vehicle

How much actual original sheet metal is left on this bad larry, honestly?

golfduke said:

How much actual original sheet metal is left on this bad larry, honestly?

 

 

Best guess, 40% original metal and 60% new. I also have new front fenders, doors and hood coming

Crazy, but only in the best way... 

The mid floor is now attached to the front floor and the sides, it looks fantastic and as long as I keep looking forward, I can trick myself into thinking I own a rust free Suburban

loosecannon said: I'm really cooking now!!

Yes, Yes you are. Looks Great! 

I finally welded on an exterior panel and it was really tricky getting the new panel lined up with the old. 

I used to have an 80's burb and am enjoying your project!

If you have a whizz wheel of death, try this (if you haven't already):

1) prep seam to be welded by removing paint - typically with a flapper wheel.

2) weld seam with whatever distortion prevention tricks you are comfortable with.

3) once you are done welding a "section" (short or long), use the whizz wheel on edge and carefully dress the top of the weld down to flush-ish with the surface. Once you get the hang of it, you will be able to do this quickly and will have a very narrow grind mark where there used to be an "outie" of weld there will now be a flush or innie.

4) flapper disk the 2" wide zone to your satisfaction. It should end up looking almost like you just scuffed a virgin piece of metal with the flapper - there will be occasional noogies of course but very little of the weld seam hump will be left.

In reply to Sparkydog :

Great advice. I think I'm going to get an Eastwood Drum flapper because they do an amazing job of prepping a surface Eastwood Surface Conditioning tool

The whole drivers side is now rust free!! The rear lower panel had a different profile on the corner than the factory curve so it took a lot of massaging, and the panel gap to the rear door was also off so I had to cut and weld that, too. I attached pics of all that.

The hood, doors and fenders arrived this weekend and I had a chance to mount the doors today. They fit pretty good out of the box but I still have some fine tuning to do

parking lot snow shot please.....

Here's one from when I drove the Suburban into the track to work on it

I had to begin the repair of the passenger side rear of the old girl, it isn't pretty.

I have been working on the passenger side all week. The process is this: I use a variety of clamps to hold all 4 panels in exactly the right place while I carefully measure and cut a piece I need to rebuild the structure behind the panels. Then the panels come off and the piece is tack welded in and the panels are then put back on to test for fitment. If the new piece looks good then the panels come off so the piece can be welded in properly. Then the panels go back on so the next piece can be cut and fitted, and so on. It takes a long time. I managed to get the rear passenger side rocker welded in and some of the structure behind that is also finished. I am now working on the pieces behind the black panels in the the top picture. The bottom picture is the rocker panel

• how's business? (kart track)
•  is Pink set for next season?
•  what is your plan for rust prevention on all this new 'TIN'?

759NRNG said:

• how's business? (kart track)
•  is Pink set for next season?
•  what is your plan for rust prevention on all this new 'TIN'?

We need more customers to offset our cost increase this year. The Pink Panther is ready to go but I will be bringing it into the shop to do some updates. I'll be installing an aluminum diff yoke and a new splitter because the rules changed this year. The Suburban will get a coating of bedliner underneath and several coats of fresh paint inside and out, that should be enough.

Been working on the passenger side panels for days now. I had to rebuild all the structure behind it and the whole process has been very time consuming.

So....where does this fit into the 'truck' stable' once completed?

In reply to 759NRNG :

Let's see what happens when it's finished. I worked on it all day today and only managed to get one panel on the inside done and the passenger side tail light panel tacked on

loosecannon said:

In reply to 759NRNG :

Let's see what happens when it's finished. I worked on it all day today and only managed to get one panel on the inside done and the passenger side tail light panel tacked on

Me thinks you've got a plan.........just not one all can see.....just yet..(as he sat mulling over all the pertinent details completed thus far.....)

Your work on this beast is outstanding!

The virus has put a halt on work on the Suburban because I'm not allowed to cross the border to get parts and I need to save money, but I did manage to get the body back on the chassis and get the fenders and hood sorta mounted. Before and after pics

Can't travel to the USA to get more parts and have no money anyways so I pulled it out of the track and took it home. It has no brakes and clutch isn't hooked up so getting it out of the building was tricky and stressful

loosecannon said:

 tricky and stressful

!!! 

Looks great. I love the color.

Please tell me the color and fish are staying......