Re: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban: Project "Beach Wagon"
 

Oooh, looking very promising so far. Nice choice on the paint.

Re: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban: Project "Beach Wagon"
 

Perfect color choice!

Re: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban: Project "Beach Wagon"
 

I love that color! I had 1968 SS Chevelle Convertible that color. I sold it about 10 years ago and have regretted every since.

Re: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban: Project "Beach Wagon"
 

X2!!

Keep the updates coming...

Re: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban: Project "Beach Wagon"
 

Lookin good!

Re: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban: Project "Beach Wagon"
 

Currently in a holding pattern waiting for the engine to ship. So no updates to post unfortunately.

What i have been working on are the seats, and i still cant find a reasonable solution. I've had to abandon the Camaro bucket seat idea. As I suspected at the start, this is the most complicated (and potentially costly) part of the restoration. 1970 era look, headrests and passenger side seats that fold completely flat (front and rear).

Re: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban: Project "Beach Wagon"
 

its an idea and not sure how it'll work out or look for that matter... but what about rear (middle row) mini van seats? use 4 of them or 6 if you want a 3rd row. just have them redone in whatever material you like

Re: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban: Project "Beach Wagon"
 

71 - thanks for the idea. As a matter of background, my thinking on the seats was based on three objectives: 1) increased safety by raising the shoulder line and including a headrest, 2) passenger seats that fold completely flat for practical purposes, and 3) aesthetics (when completed, the seats have to look like late 60's / early 70's seats).

Using modern seats certainly covers points 1 and 2, but not point 3. To shape of the seat gives it that period look. The seats were lightly bolstered, headrests were low, wide and deep with a center stem. So modifying period seats seemed a better starting place than modern seats.

I wanted to mount these seats to a budy bucket frame up front and a custom bucket seat setup in the rear (eactly as Hart_Rod has done). So now I'm thinking of copying Hart_Rod's set exactly but modifying the passenger seat frames to accept a current reclining mechanism, adding a headrest but skipping the shoulder raising exercise. That would simplify the project, but with these modifications I start to worry about the seats providing the necessary support in the event of an accident.

Re: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban: Project "Beach Wagon"
 

Guage cluster from Classic Instruments has arrived:

Re: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban: Project "Beach Wagon"
 

Love that cluster! How much was that if you don't mind my asking?
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Re: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban: Project "Beach Wagon"
 

Thanks rjsdad - this was my treat in the build. It's set up inspired by Eric's "Second Chance 67" project. But I think it looks right for the period, has enough of my personality and has a few features not noticeable in the picture. The gauges have beveled lenses, the center clock has integrated halo LED's to indicate fog lights, high beams and roof marker lights.

Re: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban: Project "Beach Wagon"
 

Lookin' Great so far.

Would it be too much to ask to see a pic of the bottom of the body?

I need to mount mine to the rotisserie but have this fear of the roof buckling without the frame attached.

Re: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban: Project "Beach Wagon"
 

Bigdav160 - I hope these are helpful. I dont have a close up picture of the tail mount from under tail pan. You can see the reinforcing rib that runs the full length of the pan; the rotisserie was centered on that rib.

Re: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban: Project "Beach Wagon"
 

this thing is going to be awesome

Re: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban: Project "Beach Wagon"
 

Very nice build so far , is that rotisserie made or bought?

Keep up the good work.

Re: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban: Project "Beach Wagon"
 

Crew Cab, the rotisserie is a Roto 2000: http://www.theroto2000.com/

Re: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban: Project "Beach Wagon"
 

Can , you spin the body by your self or does it take couple other guys?

Thanks for the link.

Re: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban: Project "Beach Wagon"
 

If you balance the body correctly you can do it on your own but it's a big tub for sure!

Re: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban: Project "Beach Wagon"
 

Hey all! Just wanted to chime in and say hello. I've been doin all of the work on the ol Burban and figured I would give a little update on the ol girl! Just to answer some questions I saw that were asked in the thread here and there, the rotiserie we use is actually a "Auto Twirler", not a roto 2000 like Phil had indicated. They are very similar in design but the Auto Twirler has a few designs we liked better. This particular tub was slightly difficult to mount up so I actually put a couple tack welds to the rear body panel where it bolted so it didnt want to twist it with the weight of the body. I had a couple brackets I made for a previous project that we had on the rotiserie that worked out pretty well. I kept it slightly bottom heavy so the thing didnt want to flip over whenever we loosened the locking bolts. We always had two or three people controlling the body for the purpose of safety. I recently saw the new auto twirler at carlisle and its a gorgeous peice! It uses roller bearings in the pivot point and makes it very easy to rotate!

I got the body all mocked up so I can start body work soon. Yesterday I mocked up the new rear tailgate and lift gate and installed the gas struts. What a difference it made! It really modernized the feel of the tailgate instead of having those deadly ratchet style supports. I used the struts from a 85 Volvo 740 wagon from the thread I saw on this forum. I also worked on evening up the gap on the tailgate by adding some weld to the edge, laying tape down and grinding back to the tape edge. It looks much much better and is nice an consistent. I really want this thing to have nice consistent gaps around the entire truck cause we all know how well these trucks lined up from the factory......... haha You can see in a previous set of pictures that the gap between the front and rear door was gigantic so I used the same method to close the gap. I'm beginning body work shortly to it so we can get it in prime! Then we will work on getting the mechanical work all squared away once the engine comes in. (We will show our secret for mating a certain trans/bell housing to a certain engine) Anyway, were glad to see that there is alot of interest in Londoncallings project! Here's a few pics of the tailgate mock up and strut "conversion". I will continue to post picture as progress continues!
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...g/DSCN6019.jpg
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...g/DSCN6020.jpg
You can see the gap is much larger towards the top then the bottom. This is where I added weld to close it up and make it more consistent from top to bottom.
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...g/DSCN6021.jpg
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...g/DSCN6028.jpg
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...g/DSCN6029.jpg

Re: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban: Project "Beach Wagon"
 

Looks nice!

Re: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban: Project "Beach Wagon"
 

That Burb looks SWEET!

Re: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban: Project "Beach Wagon"
 

yea, it was a super super clean "survivor" truck. We just found some spots that had been previously "repaired" by the previous owner but they were all simple patches.

Re: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban: Project "Beach Wagon"
 

Nice work.

Subscribing. :metal:

Re: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban: Project "Beach Wagon"
 

Very cool build on your 'burb.

Hope to do mine one of these days.

Re: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban: Project "Beach Wagon"
 

That is one nice rig bud!