Project Penicillin~ 68 crewcab build up!

[Palf70Step]

Excellent. Love to watch your builds.

[matthufham]

DONE ALREADY??? wow close though. that's just amazing and i can't find ANY flaws since you seem to be a quick thinker, and a good engineer. looks great!

[onetoncrewcab]

This is impressive.

Nice work Kevin!

Mike

[boundstaffpress]

You are a Freak'n Magician!

Hot Damn! that looks good. I can't believe how fast you work and how good it looks. Amazing. Freak'n Amazing.

[matthufham]

when do you want your 1st place trophy? i thought you had very little time to work during the week.

[sixty8c10]

wow!!!....

[67shortie]

WOW, nice work and quick as well...

I can't wait to see this done, going to be a one of a kind that's for sure.

And to think it took me 3 days to put 2 rockers on my truck, sheesh

[Jim_PA]

Thanks for all your efforts in taking/posting pictures -- Looks great!

[Rokcrln]

To start off I marked out my cut line to work from center of the buldge to the front bolt hole of the door handle. Then I cut the line, worked the body to where I wanted it and re-cut the overlap + 1/16". Then I started tacking it slowly and working the seam with the hammer and doly to keep things where I wanted it. Once it is all welded up I ground down the final tacks ( I like to use a .035" thick cut off wheel on my 4 1/2" grinder for grinding welds). Then I took a felt marker and covered the hole seam and broke out the body file to find high and low spots. Worked those abit and it is ready for some high build primer and blocking. The hole thing took about 2hr start to finish so I think it was faster then re-skinning half the door with a burb panel.


Kevin

[Rokcrln]

Next is finishing up the B post cover and then the rocker. All the time is in the detail work. The Post cover adds the needed strenght for the hinge points as well as matching the pass side in looks. If you look at a Burb passinger B post you will notice that the outer cover laps over the leading edge at the front. The rocker was made from 3 different ones.

Lunch time

Kevin

[72CREWCAB]

Lookin good man! Do you do this for a livin or just for fame and fortune??!

Jamie

[tlcruiser]

Well I'm new to this site and happened across this project.

I have been working towards doing a crew cab out of a suburban for several years. I have cut down several rusted out 'burbs to learn how they were assembled. And I have already done many hours of dreaming along with that. And after looking at all of your pictures from your project there has been nothing that you have shown me that I already have not planned for. Though I was not looking at changing the 'burb roof line I was going to redefine the rear cab panel to match. I'm still mixed about which way to go now. The lower roof line looks better (like it should be done).

I do have a couple of questions:
1) How did you work the roof line down did you cut the roof off at the drip rail and work it out or did you cut and splice it in middle?
2) I noticed that when you cut out for the 4th door that you removed the vin plate. I have been working with a local TXDot officer and he will not accept it with the vin plate tampered with. He looks at it like it is unidentifiable and considers it to be stolen. So do you have a plan about how it will be identified?

Thanks for any input Brian

'72 Chevy Cheynne L/B 1/2 ton (daily driver)
'72 Chevy C/10 s/b, 1/2 ton (for sale)
'72 Chevy Custom Deluxe 'burb, 3/4 ton
'72 Chevy Cheynne 'burb, 1/2 ton (soon to be crew'd)
'70 Chevy C/10, 1 ton, flat bed (shop truck)
'72 Chevy Custom Deluxe 3/4 ton l/b (project)
'66 Toyota Landcruiser
'64 Olds Dynamic 88 (for sale)
'67 chevy 3/4 ton, 4X4 l/b not running (for sale)
many 69-72 parts trucks

[onetoncrewcab]

[67chevemall]

Where did you get all those glorious doors! Nice project...
Should make ya proud!

[extd56]

I am glad that we had the extra Suburban doors for donor pieces and the rear hinges came in handy too from the Suburban.

[da-burb]

I love it! How many of my suburbans can I send to you for conversion? I will be saving all of you pictures for future dream sequences. Move over Charleze, I'm dreaming about a 4 door suburban now. At least there is still room for her in back......

[extd56]

I think Kevin is going to need a bigger shop

[Long Roof]

Will you use the inside steel door section from the false fourth door of the burb? I figured (in my dreaming) that you could take that section and the window regulator for use in the new door. If you wanted a stock door panel then that would work too.

Just wait untill the first person says, 'my grandpa had a truck just like that.'

Aaron

[Rokcrln]

I still have alot more sectioning to the fourth door but that does include using the original inner skin (just where the door panel covers) and a standard burb door panel. The owner is considering 4 door power windows other wise we will use the standard regulator that came out of that side.

Kevin

[72CREWCAB]

Absolutely amazing! Where were you when I convinced myself that a fourth door would just be too much work!!!!!
That's as factory looking as I've ever seen. Any plans as to what the inside of the roof (headliner) will look like?
Awsome craftsmanship Kevin.
Jamie

[Rokcrln]

I belive the headliner will be like the burb's. The owner has all the roof bow's and molding strips out of a burb. Although he very well may have a custom set up done? Trust me I have probly made it look easier than it is. Remember I have the camera so you only see what I want you to see It really has not been to bad up to this piont but now the fun stuff will start with the fourth door. I have alot of shrinking, sectioning, grafting and chopping on the door to get things just right. I am hopping by the end of this week end to be finished with the drivers side and move accross the shop and start tearing apart the pass side and see what we find. Stay tuned and I will reviel all the secrets with the fourth door built it self!

Kevin

Kevin

[Sonny's at Work]

Make this thread a sticky please! It has me inspired to get cracking on my truck. Incredible fab skills dude!

[Rokcrln]

Well today the fun has started with finishing the fourth door. First thing that I am doing is addressing the body line/shape at the front of the fourth door. Since this is a reular cab front door the body shape is slightly different that the drivers door. When looking at your trucks it is hard to tell but the door shape is not the same from front to back. So what I am doing is removing the rear of a passinger door jamb area and grafting the skin support on to the hinge area of this door. Next I am restructuring the hinge supports inside the door. Tha factory did a good job of adding reinforcement to the hinge side of the door. Because I am changing the door shape and I lowered the top hinge I had to cut into alot of the support. So now inorder to fix it all I have to add metal back where I removed it as well as reconect to the new door skin support. In doing this you need to tack all of your fupports and re-hang the door to make sure nothing moved on you before welding everything in place. Also while I had the door hung I decided to remove all the built up paint so I can start reworking the body like to match the front door. In doing so I found a few bondo spots that I will need to addres before starting the body line work. Looks like the door was side swipped just a bit and instead of fixing the correct way they just filled it all in with bondo. Well this is were things are at this time, I will post some more tonight after I finish up for the day. Now it's lunch time

Kevin

[Long Roof]

Would it be worth reskinning the front half of the door with the skin from the suburban?

Aaron

[Rokcrln]

Originally Posted by Long Roof

Would it be worth reskinning the front half of the door with the skin from the suburban?

Aaron

I think it might be a bit less work re-shaping this one. I got most of the main damage out of the skin today and I will start on the body line in the morning. I also finished up the reinforcing of the hinge are today and should weld the door together soon.

Kevin