I wanted another old shop truck, but needed more room than a truck offered, so I found a nearly rust-free 53 Suburban to do. It will be our family truckster, an all-around cruiser, pull our old Shasta camper etc. My wife will drive it often. So...First. I bought a new hub-to-hub MII unit from Vaphead(thanks Eric), and I really do want this thing low. Lower than a MII offers, but don't want bags up front. Anyone ever sink a MII crossmember into the front frame to gain extra drop but have full suspension? If so, talk to me Next, I've talked to too many locals with different opinions on the front brakes. It'll have 11" discs, but do I need a power brake booster, or will it be fine with non-power disc? The camper doesn't weight more than 1800 lbs. and will only be pulled 4-5 times a summer. The rear will be bagged, because I want it low, but need the adjustability for when the camper is outback, and when it's loaded with 4 peoples junk for a weekend trip. I've been told all I need to do is remove all leafs but the main, to act as locaters, and just use the rearend housing and brackets off the frame for the bags? Does that make sense? I know, much of this isn't "trad" , but oh well. I'm even going with a tilt column, because at 366 lbs., I need all the room I can get Talk to me Thanks
Go with the hammered MII... I love those suburbans... If you go with an aftermarket MII kit, I think fatman makes a slammed crossmember for it, I had it in my wagon... that gives an extra 2 inch drop and more cross member clearance to the ground. The set up you are asking about is very similar to what I had in that wagon... MII on coil springs in front, bags out back... I prefer power brakes.. Do not leave only the main spring as you will get axle wrap and eventually break the spring. leave the shortest, longest and second longest if possible (to support the longest spring). there are plenty of airbag brackets available to either mount the bags on top of the axle or infront or behind
Thanks Boones I'll be the first to admit I cannot do structure welding. I'm not equipped So it's at a guys house, whom I've known since I was a kid, who's been building cars for 40 years. His idea is to raise the front c/m up into the frame to gain extra clearance, and be that much lower. He says it will to fully boxed, plenty of gussets etc. He says he did something similar a couple years ago, and it turned out great. That car has 60,000 miles with no troubles, and is really low. The guy who's doing it owns a cool 36 Ford truck, that he's had since 1960, and a channeled, sectioned 39 Ford convetible that was built in 58. He's been around, but thought I'd ask here for opinions.
You have any pics of the '53 that we can see? I love them old suburbans. Got a '53 Plymouth myself. Thanx. KNUX!
haha, yeah. Here it is in all it's ugly tu-tone green glory. Other than a dent on the pass. side rear fender, it's 99% rust-free And here's the 39 Ford 'vert of the guy doing my chassis work on my burb.
I got a 46 GMC one ton with a Heitz MII and 11 inch power brakes with the M/C mounted on the firewall. I also had 2" drop spindles, but with the dropped spindles it was too low and had to go back to stock spindles. First time I took it out had to get the front end aligned. The left front fender got christened on the maiden voyage. The parking space had a little 3-4" step to the sidewalk. This is how it looks after going back to the stock spindles.
raising the c/m is the way to go. this requires c notching the frame for the steering rack. you can only go so high with the c/m before the lower control bottoms out on the frame. dont use dropped spindles as this lets the c/m hang down. does your c/m have slotted and angled rack mtg brks, this lets you use the t bird rack and tilts the rack to improve the stg shaft route. I have used the must II on quite a few pickups but am going w/Ind chassis dakota on my 55 ist burb I like the controll arms a lot like camaro, nice and wide for good controll, no struts needed.
I put a Heidts MI on my '40 Chevy about 15-16 years go. I took 2" out of the crossmember and added 2" to the hats, small notch for the rack. It's borderline too low at times but it has worked great. I'm also running Pro-shock coilovers. Wore them out and had to get new shock bodies last spring after 70,000 miiles or so. Charlie
Hey Grumpy, you know I hate you, right........? In the rear you can go with what Airirde calls "Air Over Leaf". you go down to one or two leafs, simply for mounting your rear end, then you place your bag between your frame and the leafs. You can't get very low, but it easier that four linking it. It's basically like helper bag's which is what you really want anyway. On the front you might want to consider shockwaves.
I'm not so concerned with the rear right now. It's jig'd up level so he can set the correct degree's and all, but he's already done the deed. No going back now. He said after much thought, measure'n, writng it down, staring at it, assembling the whole frontend on the floor, and having another grey beard local builder weight in on it, he did it. He c-notched the frame to the top frame plate(top of the "C"), everything is heavily boxed, etc. It'll drop it another 4 1/4" right there. I may need to go with stock spindles instead of the 2" dropped I have now. I have all the confidence in the world in him. So I'll update as it goes along. Back to the rearend real quick, I had the rear loose, and I need it to sit on the snubbers to be where I want it, minimum. So we'll play with that after the fronts done, and motor/tranny are in.
Tim, I put a Classic Performance Products firewall mounted booster on your old truck. Works very well and it was a bolt-on affair. Made a HUGE difference in how the brakes feel, even though those G-Body discs are a little undersized. With a power booster, your 11" brakes will feel great. Were I to do it again though.... I'd try to keep it under the floor and use one of those hydroboost power boosters that you can get from Summit Racing. They're a lot smaller than even a 7" booster so I'm sure you could sneak one between the frame rails and an auto trans. Only problem would be that the M/C fill would be under the driver's seat, but I'm sure you could figure that out. Hope this helps, Ed
Hey Grumpy, I've got a burb thats about 75% done and a couple panels. Love both and always eager to see new ones being done. Keep us posted on your progress and if I can help in anyway just send me a note...........Brent
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