Re: 1969 Burb build-up (Bags, 5.3/4L60E, repaint, interior....)
 

You have been busy! :metal:

Re: 1969 Burb build-up (Bags, 5.3/4L60E, repaint, interior....)
 

It's actually a good thing I did this (:rolleyes: ) because I found some more rust that I was able to fix. The rust inside the tail gate was a shock since the outside of it looked perfect. It was mostly surface rust, but just goes to show you what you can find when you start taking stuff apart. Everything got sandblasted and primered and will hopefully be good for another 38 years, :lol: .

Re: 1969 Burb build-up (Bags, 5.3/4L60E, repaint, interior....)
 

I also fixed a small hole on the inside of the driverside tail light pocket. Sandblast, patch, POR-15.

Re: 1969 Burb build-up (Bags, 5.3/4L60E, repaint, interior....)
 

The back of the suburban quarters curve in, so I had to cut a set of truck quarters (thanks BowTieOgre!) to weld to my bed ends to make everything come together at the bottom. If I were to do it again, I would get more of the truck bedsides and it would have saved some welding (but would have been a bigger pain to fit). Then I started cutting everything in, and yes, I cut off part of the new rear quarter that I welded on about 6 months ago, :crazy: .

Re: 1969 Burb build-up (Bags, 5.3/4L60E, repaint, interior....)
 

Once I got both sides cut in, I started welding everything up.

Re: 1969 Burb build-up (Bags, 5.3/4L60E, repaint, interior....)
 

Last pictures. Drivers side is almost done. Just a little more welding on it and the passenger side. Then all I have left to do is:

rebuild the inner lip where the weather stripping goes
weld up the tailgate skin
install bearclaw latches on the tailgate
integrate the burb rear splash pan with the new tail lights
finish the bottom of the rear quarters (I'll do that when it's on the rotissierre)

Piece of cake! :confused: :crazy:

Re: 1969 Burb build-up (Bags, 5.3/4L60E, repaint, interior....)
 

Rob,

It's lookin good...hopefully next time I'm out your way, I'll be able to stop by and check it out in person...

Hope to hear from ya after the 13th:metal:

keep up the good work...I'd love to have big shop to work inside of...all my works gotta be done outside...that sucks:(

Re: 1969 Burb build-up (Bags, 5.3/4L60E, repaint, interior....)
 

You gonna be done before the move?

The work and ideas you are doing on the burb are great. I'm itching to fire up my welder again.

Re: 1969 Burb build-up (Bags, 5.3/4L60E, repaint, interior....)
 

Look Great so Far! I've always wanted to get a burb and do this exact mod, but had no idea what all is involved. If I ever get done with the step side and the Blazer, I'll have to get me a burb! Great write-up too, you make it look easy.

Re: 1969 Burb build-up (Bags, 5.3/4L60E, repaint, interior....)
 

That is just AWESOME

Re: 1969 Burb build-up (Bags, 5.3/4L60E, repaint, interior....)
 

Not a lot of visible progress, but I did get the back of the back end nearly welded up. The new tailgate skin took the longest, 56" top and bottom, :( . I also started making the new inner lip for the area where I took the curve out of the tailgate.

Re: 1969 Burb build-up (Bags, 5.3/4L60E, repaint, interior....)
 

Good work, Rob. I also got to spend time w/my truck over the weekend all I have left to fire up now is like ... 6 wires, positive battery cable fab and install, setup my oil pressure gauge, and ... tighten the fuel lines I made this weekend :D.

I have a question for you though: What do people do about the weld beads on the inside of the body panel? Obviously, you can't really grind them, or coat them - aren't they more prone to rust after welding them?

This is one of those things I've always wondered, but never asked anyone about.

Re: 1969 Burb build-up (Bags, 5.3/4L60E, repaint, interior....)
 

lookin great man... good work.
that back end looks awesome, looks factory and something alot of people wont even notice at first, but alot cleaner looking than the Burb tail end... good job

Re: 1969 Burb build-up (Bags, 5.3/4L60E, repaint, interior....)
 

If I can get it in paint before I leave, I will be extremely happy. Looks like I'll be Geo-batching for about 8 months while the oldest daughter finishes her Sr. year in high school. Hopefully I'll be able to put it back together during my trips back home.

Good to hear it's close to running. I'll be up your way this weekend picking up a "donor" project for the crew cab. As far as the welds on the inside, when I put it on the rotissierre, we will take a garden sprayer full of POR-15 and try and spray inside all of the nooks and crannies and hopefully coat everything that can possibley rust. I think that is the best that you can do, other than taking it to a place that dips the entire body in a chemical dip.

Thanks and I agree, most people will have no clue that anything has been changed in the back. But like most of us, I'm doing it for myself because I think it will look better.

Re: 1969 Burb build-up (Bags, 5.3/4L60E, repaint, interior....)
 

Looks sweet.

I'm in Savannah this weekend taking care of wedding plans for later this year, or I'd open our house up to you or office a place to crash out for the night. If I can ever get this thing running, then get the clutch taken care of so it's rolling, first trip I'm taking is to see the parents down in FL, and your place is "almost" on the way :D

In all seriousness, do any of the panhandle/FL members get together with the AL and MS members for meets, camping trips or anything like that?

Re: 1969 Burb build-up (Bags, 5.3/4L60E, repaint, interior....)
 

I know you've got time and money invested in your struts and cables, but you should take the whole rear makeover one step further and weld the tailgate to your liftgate and make it one big liftgate like the modern tahoes/burbs. Ditch the lower hinges, use bigger struts (probably at a different geometry), and you can use the original latches and button.

Every time I go to Costco in mine I and have to reach over the tailgate to load/unload I think about doing that (not a fan of barndoors).

Maybe I'll have to be the guinea pig on that one since you pioneered this one :lol:

Re: 1969 Burb build-up (Bags, 5.3/4L60E, repaint, interior....)
 

WOW! That's how they SHOULD have looked from the factory. Great job!

Re: 1969 Burb build-up (Bags, 5.3/4L60E, repaint, interior....)
 

I thought about that, but at this point I don't want to back up. Have you thought about making it open from the side and bottom like the caprice wagons? (pics below) That would be pretty sweet!

Give me a call when you're headed down. There's a weekly cruise in on Sat night at one of the Burger King's, but that's about it.

Thanks, that's what I was going for.

*******

I got the drivers side filler piece made for the tailgate. Should have it welded in tomorrow.....

Re: 1969 Burb build-up (Bags, 5.3/4L60E, repaint, interior....)
 

That back end looks awsome. It's going to look great after paint

Re: 1969 Burb build-up (Bags, 5.3/4L60E, repaint, interior....)
 

I've decided to change my color scheme...................













JK, :D. Just playing around with a can of spray paint.:crazy:

Re: 1969 Burb build-up (Bags, 5.3/4L60E, repaint, interior....)
 

Heh, looks like you're gonna need more body massaging and filler than I thought there, bud :D

Re: 1969 Burb build-up (Bags, 5.3/4L60E, repaint, interior....)
 

Yeah, I got my shrinking disc today, maybe that will help. If not, my buddy, Mr. Bondo, can help, :D. How did the trip to Savannah go? I picked up a project truck to finish my CrewCab this weekend in Augusta. It came with a set of F-body manifolds. Is that what you ended up using? Do you have any pics. OBTW, your truck sounds great! Looking forward to seeing pictures of the fuel system, as I haven't started on that other than my ECE tank.

Re: 1969 Burb build-up (Bags, 5.3/4L60E, repaint, interior....)
 

finalized the menu for food, picked the florist and the arrangements and decided on table/placement stuff (she handled all this), looked at places for rehearsal dinner - overall, got a lot accomplished.

Yup. Manifolds from a '98 f-body. And - btw - stoked that I fired up the truck, thanks! I really don't have too much time invested in the swap, so naturally I'm stoked :D

Tons. See sig for gallery or my buildup thread - in the gallery and buildup thread, you should find the manifold stuff somewhere between pages 5-8, I think. If you need more, let me know.

For the gallery, here are the 2001 manifolds, which I couldn't make fit w/o notching:

http://satellitehead.com/gallery/thu...album=9&page=7

here are the '98 manifolds -

http://satellitehead.com/gallery/thu...album=9&page=8

note that only one has a heat shield, and they fit way better - rear O2 sensor on the stock cat (passenger side) does bump the bellhousing, but it doesn't hurt anything.


Will do. I really, really do NOT like the Vetter FPR/Filter setup, quite honestly. I think it is flimsy at best, and I think I will upgrade to an inline filter and aftermarket FPR in the near future because of it.

There is one small picture of the fuel system from my blackberrry ... I posted it over in my LS1tech thread on page 9 (again - see sig).

If you personally need any help, wiring diagrams, specific pictures....let me know. Hell, if I can, I'll drive down and help out, but you might need to trade for room and board for the night, and it'll need to be on a weekend :D Now that I've been there and done that, hindisght being 20/20, I feel pretty confident I could knock one out the next time around pretty easy.

Are you going to install a fuel pressure gauge on your fuel rail like I did?

Re: 1969 Burb build-up (Bags, 5.3/4L60E, repaint, interior....)
 

HOLY COW!!! I don't know how I missed your photo album (just looked at all 158 pictures!). That's some good stuff, there. I check your LS1 link quite often, but didn't realize you were keeping pictures elsewhere. I plan on running a in-tank pump and an inline fuel filter. Don't the truck LS1's have an internal regulator? Not sure about the fuel pressure gauge. I wanted to put one in the cab, but a 65 PSI wet line guage didn't seem to safe, :crazy: . Did you run the cats for a reason? I'm going to eliminate them if possible. So with the 98 F-Body manifolds (and ECE motor mounts) you don't have to cut the frame? When are you going to do the A/C? Your welcome any time (you have to drive the truck though, :)). Hopefully you can handle 3 kids and a dog, :lol: .

Re: 1969 Burb build-up (Bags, 5.3/4L60E, repaint, interior....)
 

PS -
I believe the truck engines actually have a fuel pressure regulator built into the rail - I had a discussion about this with someone here at the forum recently, but I forgot what years this is true with (2003+?) in the trucks. On the truck intakes (might be specific years) if there are both the feed and return lines on the fuel rail, then there is no need for a fuel pressure regulator because its already built in to the fuel rail itself.

I've been pretty religiously taking pics of the swap, and trying to keep them in my signature everywhere so I don't get 50 requests a week for pics of crap :haha:

I ran the cats for two reasons: a) open headers are too noisy and b) i didn't want to delete my rear O2 sensors (i want all 4 to benefit in the MPG dept.). They'll stay until I figure out something creative for exhaust.

With the ECE mounts and 98 f-body headers, I didn't need to cut the frame - the fitment is like ... so perfect, that it was like it was absolutely meant to be. They are not the prettiest things in the world, but man, ... it's like marrying a chick with a hot body and an ugly face, y'know? :lol:

A/C is the last thing on my mind right now. I keep the truck in covered parking all the time, so it shouldn't be too necessary. Weather up here is nothing like what I had down in Gainesville (damned swamp!) or any other place in FL I'd lived over half my life, so ...

Kids love me. I love dogs. :)

As for the fuel pressure gauge - before you fire up, you need to obviously setup the fuel pump relay and kick the key forward, make sure you have 50psi to the rail (hence the gauge on the rail), and while it's pressurized, check all of your fittings for leaks. This is a good reason to think long and hard about where your fittings will be. I found one at the S&P fitting for the line coming out of the FPR/Filter, tightened it down, but still get a little leak, so I guess I need to remove and teflon tape :(

Anyway, on the topic of safe in-the-cab solutions, read this - someone at LS1tech shared it with me:

http://www.thirdgen.org/fuelgauge

Read on for more info.

Part numbers I used and sources are here:

http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/showth...9&page=1&pp=20

Hope that helps, bud :)