bagged burb project..

[jbjburbs]

got the frame, control arms, dust shield, caliper, rotor, spindle and some other odds and ends painted...tossed the front back together today. put in the mock bags for now, but will be cleaning up cups and putting new slam bags in (Re-7). i will be getting new tirerod ends, shocks and clean up the sway bar in the near future...

[jbjburbs]

working on the rear...cutting out for new tubs and lowering the notch cover to fit the 3rd row again. pulling the axle, too...

[jbjburbs]

old rear tubs completely out and axle removed. will be measuring and doodling for the new tubs to go in later this week and if the weather holds i'll pull the axle from the white burb for paint/install on ole blue... happy wrenching!

[jbjburbs]

one rear tubby, tubby...

[SBTork]

good progress....

[jbjburbs]

Originally Posted by SBTork

good progress....

Thanks...got a present today! mini score was that i got chromes for the pewter price. new re7s are ordered for the front, too.

[jbjburbs]

thanks to my brother's help we have both tubs fitted and only needing on minor adjust before welding them in...sorry no pics..i'll get some later!

[jbjburbs]

well, dropped the gas tank out of big blue and pulled the rear end from the white one...cleared out all the old metal work around the notch to make way for new sheet metal. rebuilding rome here, but at least it will be right..not many pics of this, but will get more once we start fabbing up metal.

[jbjburbs]

4 link mocked up, cantilever mocked up.... decided to add a steel plate similar to the four link mounts for the cantilever. we did this because the frame design on the subs and trucks is different. the cantilever set pretty low using the just the frame, so we're adding a 7X23X1/4" plate to the bolt-on cantilever bracket. We'll weld the two together (like the 4 link bracket) and then run bolts through them both to the frame.

Hopefully, it will be strong enough to hold everything together. The plate will allow us to mount the cantilever more parallel to the ground (or more like the pu truck frame). it allows moves the lowest point of the cantilever up about 3" tucking it further under the sub (less visible).

Slow going, but my dad is a perfectionist and when it comes to suspension that isn't a bad thing.

[19723DR]

Nice work.

That's a good rear set up, It should ride really smooth. Also when you get the Slam-Re-7's in the front, I'm curious to know what Psi your running at drive height.

[jbjburbs]

i'll keep you posted...hopefully the rear will get mocked up this week or weekend, so i can put the slams up front and find out...thanks.

[jbjburbs]

today was a one step forward, two steps back day...we've been tweaking the cantilever portion of the KP kit. We have the plates fitted, drilled and mocked up, so we put the kp parts in (awesome). We brought the rear up and ran into issues with the panhard hitting the C-notch (not surprising). Then the 4-link bars hit the floor after about another inch. Most dissappointing was there is only about 2-3 more inches between the axle and the notch, so even with the floor notch for the bars i'm only about 1 inch lower than when i started...

Plus, we've got alot floor to cut out. I knew all the work would have to happen (floor and panhard), but i was hoping to use notch previously done on the truck even though it's not as tall or wide as one from the KP kit.

I thought i could get away with it.. I'm not sure i can. Moving slowing on the project and continually finding more work sucks...maybe it's the last 14 of 18 days with rain talking...Anyway, a couple pics of the progress below....

We pulled the 2nd row of seats tonight, so we'll start cutting soon.

[jbjburbs]

a little more progess...cleared the 2nd row of seats and started making way for the drive shaft. i didn't have help tonight, so i worked on cleaning up the frame a little, too. I would have painted some, but it was too humid.

[jbjburbs]

well, no pictures but an update...

replaced the front bags with new re7 slam bags and soon to be 4in cups. had to notch the frame just behind the spring pocket, so the ART lower arms would miss and get enough drop. they're straight by design, so it hits before a stock a-arm. i wasn't aware of this, but at least they look good. if i measured right the burb should lay cross member on the 29-30 tall tires i have.

i've also cut out the floor for drive shaft clearance and some small pieces to clear the 4 link so the truck will lay frame out back. after we finished getting clearance, the rear was blown apart and dad used his new torch to remove uneeded brackets from the axle.

I have also decided to call in a metal guy to finish up the floor when we're ready. dad is good friends with a guy that does good work and he has sometime coming up, so in the next week or so we should have the truck rolling again to get to him. I'll have him do the floor, notch cover, and look over the frame to see if we should add anything to support it (prolly close up the cuts made up front for sure).

Anyway, enough babbling. i'll get some pics tomorrow...

[jbjburbs]

for those of you following... as promised, PICTURES! A couple of the axel, one of the floor holes and one of the front frame cut. also, worked on cleaning up and painting the frame along with the 4link and cantilever brackets (after welding them together).

[jbjburbs]

two coast of RUST STOP satin black on the frame, cut the front bag cups 1/2" (4" tall), test fitted with re7's, and finished painting up the 4link/cantilever brackets.

Up front with the wheels and tires mounted i measure 14 1/2" inches from the ground to the bottom of the tire and 14 1/4" from the ground to the cross member. that means we're laying out up front

To recap...the truck laid out when i bought it. I put on 3" taller tires, up and lower control arms, new slam bags (re7), shorted cups (4" tall) and notched the frame to clear the backside of the lower control arms. I'm now resting on the main wiring plug and the cross member when aired out on 29" tall tires. I'll stop there, for now

[jbjburbs]

continued painting some today and worked on cleaning up the axle. dad torched out a bracket to make room for the panhard bar... making progress towards getting it back into moving shape and ready for the metal man

[jbjburbs]

welp, no pics, but got a another present today! new gas tank! I ordered a 85 r20 suburban tank for the truck. i'm losing some fuel, but the new tank is 3+ inches shorter and will not drag like the stock one. with 25gal of fuel it's bigger than most cells, and much cheaper!! I'm hoping the in-tank pump will fit, but if not o'well i saved money on the tank

BTW - i forgot to mention that i got an accuair manifold and new 3/8s line for the truck, too.

I'm currently in the process of blasting the rear axle before sending the burb out to the metal man...making head way!

[Richie]

Looking good!

[96twodoor]

Just read thru this whole thread ,Looking good for sure cant wait to see some completed pics ,

[jbjburbs]

Originally Posted by Richie

Looking good!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by 96twodoor

Just read thru this whole thread ,Looking good for sure cant wait to see some completed pics ,

Thanks... i can't wait either. I'm at a point where getting done (on the road at least) is soo close i want push it, but my dad keeps warning me to be patient.

no pics again...the shop is too crowded with parts and trucks and i've been lazy with my camera.

however, i'm done blasting the axle and got it in primer. dad modified the panhard mount on the kp axle piece. (background - we didn't use the larger notch from KP, so the panhard mount on the axle was hitting the notch when we slammed the rear. dad moved is down 3", removed the original piece and made up a new). i painted the u-bolts and the axle mounts with plans to finish that tomorrow.

hopefully, by saturday we put the rear back together AND the metal man will come to check things out so we can line up when he'll take the truck!! I should have the front and rear T'd so we i can get some on tires with air and laid out...

[jbjburbs]

painted the rear last night, mounted it up with the modified panhard bar mount. everything clears and it's almost centered on the first try!! hoping to pick up some T's for the air and get the drive shaft/brake lines back in so we can have rolling around Sat...

pic 1 = axle paint (it ain't perfect, but is 100 times better than before)
pic 2 = panhard mounted, and the background of everything else in satin black
pic 3 = old panhard mount
pic 4 = bad pic of the new mount welded fast

[jbjburbs]

o yea... forgot the gas tank! here's a quick mock up the new tank compared the stock tank in another burb... more clearance already.

the new tank needs the filler neck moved to actually use the stock gas filler and moving it will get another couple of inches of clearance. I'm sacraficing 17 gallons of capacity, but keeping the tank off the ground and still having enough fuel to get 300+ miles is worth the compromise.

[jbjburbs]

t'd the lines and got the sub on wheels today... unfortunately it was pushed out of the shop, not driven...

I'v got a few laid out (sitting on front crossmember and laying frame). the pics of it air'd up is with about 100psi all around, i didn't too specific since the lines are just temporary.

[19723DR]

Great job, and tons of progress.