Suburban Assault Vehicle

That's beautiful!

759NRNG (Forum Partidario) said:

Okay the burb,.......goes what's you're number?

My plan was to finish and put on BringATrailer with a reserve of $40,000 but after putting all the work into it, my wife will not let me sell it and now I have secured an LS motor to swap into it so it looks like I'm keeping it

and the pwrwagn stayz????.......uh Brigit ROCKS  bro 

In reply to 759NRNG (Forum Partidario) :

Yes, she is the best. She did all the fine bodywork on the Suburban and it's almost flawless, even the painter couldn't believe a couple of newbs like us got all that sheet metal so straight. Pics of her doing bodywork

Hawtest woman I've ever seen.  

My wife races cars with me.  My wife doesn't do bodywork....

Hawt.

Truck looks amazing. Congratulations!

Hey, I made a video about it 1969 GMC Suburban Transformation

I have spent the last few days cleaning every square inch of the frame and axles of dirt and rust left behind by the sandblaster and today I was finally able to paint the axles. 

loosecannon said:

759NRNG (Forum Partidario) said:

Okay the burb,.......goes what's you're number?

My plan was to finish and put on BringATrailer with a reserve of $40,000 but after putting all the work into it, my wife will not let me sell it and now I have secured an LS motor to swap into it so it looks like I'm keeping it

What motor did you get? 

In reply to yupididit :

I have an LS1 out of a Camaro SS. It's got some bits in it and has won an SCCA National Championship. I can't get it until May at the earliest so I'll have to make do with the old school 350 4bbl until I can swap it

In reply to loosecannon :

In case you did not see it in another post, you, and your excellent job of rust removal on this project are now GRM famous! You were mentioned to the effect of not having to to do a "loosecannon" repair, but could just do "good enough" instead.  ( I thought it was a great compliment! )

In reply to 03Panther :

I did not see that but getting respect on this forum is a great compliment. I feel the wealth of knowledge and experience of the GRMers is very high and to be praised by them is amazing

What paint are you using and the same for frame??

loosecannon said:

We spent all day yesterday and today sanding, cleaning and seam sealing the Suburban then we transported it over to the paint shop. I wish I had pictures of it, the thing is meant for semi-trucks and is the biggest, nicest booth I've ever seen. It's all ready for epoxy sealer tomorrow, I'll try to get more pics. We also picked up the chassis from blasting so the work on that will begin soon.

How much was involved in getting all the residual sand removed or was that in the price you paid?

759NRNG (Forum Partidario) said:

What paint are you using and the same for frame??  

The axles are just good old fashioned rattle can Tremclad semi-gloss but the frame is going to be black Raptorliner

In reply to 759NRNG (Forum Partidario) :

I paid $250 to get it blasted and there wasn't much sand to blow off. I should have removed the engine first but the Suburban body was sitting in the spot I needed to remove the engine so once the body went to the booth, I pulled the engine and cleaned under there manually. The worst part was when I pulled the motor, the power steering box kept oozing fluid all over the bits I needed to paint. The bumpers and roof rack are currently at powdercoaters, they will look spectacular!!

you should probably pick up a raised steering arm, or dropped pitman arm, your steering gear looks to be at a pretty terrible angle from here.

https://www.offroaddesign.com/steering/stock-steering-correction.html

Most of their stuff says 73-91, depending on your gear, it may work, if you call them, they may have another solution, they're great people to work with. I have their crossover steering setup on the Pig Rig, and I love it, turns like a dream, and WAY tighter than stock. The downside when I bought the kit, there wasn't a front swaybar option, it doesn't bother me, but others who have driven the truck seemed to think it was a little floaty feeling. 

Edit: I would also highly recommend a stearing box brace.
 

In reply to ejs262 :

Thanks for the link. There's lots of stuff I want to do to improve the old girl but I'm jobless and all this is going on my formerly empty credit card, so until the Covid numbers go down and I can open my business again, I have to only do stuff that need to be done now.

In reply to loosecannon :

no prob on the link, good luck with the covid issues and getting your buisness back up and running, this has been such a crazy E36 M3show, hopefully it's over soon. 

I just want to take a break from lurking to say what an impressive build this has been.  I literally got goose bumps when I heard that you were going to keep it.  Well done!!!

I painted the diffs and steering stuff black then taped them off and hit the rest of the frame with Raptorliner. It all looks pretty good and should be really robust. Can't wait to get the body back on the frame but I have to get engine back in there, first.

My Suburban is not a powerhouse but even so, if I hammered the throttle in a lower gear or while towing, the rear springs would twist so much that the tires would dig into the front edge of the wheel opening. I got an anti-wrap kit from TMR Custom and welded it all up and it's awesome, and surprisingly cheap ($210.00). I used 2"x.250 wall DOM tubing and TIG welded the entire thing. Note: I am getting rid of the 6" lift blocks you see in the pics.

Seems silly but the engine, transmission and transfer case are all made by different companies and each has their own colors. Cleaning all of them took days and was a huge pita but I finally was able to hit them with their original colors.

getting rid of the blocks will make a huge difference for the axle wrap. Paint's looking great!

Nice welding on the anti-wrap bars.  That's a tricky inside corner between the two main tubes.