Projects 1951 Chevy Suburban Mild Kustom Build Thread

So after a few years of owning and driving my Suburban, I decided to take it off the road and build it the way I had pictured it in my head. This is my first real thread so bare with me as I am new to the whole picture posting process. I wasn't even going to do this but decided that my HAMB friends should know what I have been up to for the past two years.

My friend and I did the air suspension a couple of years ago and installed the Airlift kit from Kustombuilder here on the HAMB. This is how it turned out.

 

Looks good now... You've got a good starting place

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Well... I wasn't a real big fan of the baby blue primer and the East coast Florida weather started to take its toll on the body with surface rust starting to show all over. I loved driving this truck but once I started tearing it down, it was going to be a long time before I got to drive it again. My first thing was to start striping everything off the truck and see what hidden sins were lying beneath.

 

Looks bad ass!! I'm subscribed! Do you have pics of your air ride set up?

 

Thanks Guys. I do have pics somewhere of the air ride.

 

Here are some of the air ride installed. The front had a Camaro clip in it when I purchased the truck so I just removed the coils in place for bags and relocated the shock to the outside of the frame. The rear was done with 4'' drop leafs and blocks and notched the frame for clearance. I didn't want to come through the floor at all but had to cut a hole for the pumpkin to clear. The rear is heavier than the pickup so the "air over leaf" design worked out well.

 

Nice.. id love to find one in decent shape.. that way i can ditch my current ride ('05 volvo.. not the chieftain) and still be "back seat baby" compliant for my wife. What a great looking daily driver!

Luke

 

The cowl had some repair done at one time and not a very good one at that. The window channel needed some repair work also. Time to freshen up on my welding skills. Notice the gap at the bottom of the A pillar. That showed up after I removed the quarter inch thick bondo. I ordered a new cowl panel and trimed it to fit where the cowl hood seal goes. The reason being it had three layers of sheet metal where it meets the side cowl and firewall. These areas were fine and lead seamed from the factory so it wasn't necessary to disturb this. Also, it was my first time doing thin sheet metal work and lacked the balls to do it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66453382@N02/8720998991/in/set-72157633428235881
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/66453382@N02/8721002875/in/set-72157633428235881

 

nice burb, id love to have one

my50chevy

 

Thanks Luke. This one came from California so it was in great shape as far as rust went. Dings and dents, well... not so good but I will get to that later. I to have a kid and actually was building a Camaro when I bought this to drive while the car was down. I found out quick I could only afford one so I sold the car before it was finished. I always wanted a panel truck and when I discovered they made a Suburban I was hooked.

 

So after the cowl was done it was time to replace the front floor pans. They were bandaid over with some heavy gauge steel that could have suppressed a bomb blast. Huh. Maybe I should have left it in there. They weren't real bad but I made the decision to move the master cylinder off the firewall and back under the floor so I wanted to have an access door there. I purchased some aftermarket pans and began cutting the floor.


The stock battery access was still good so I cut around it and cut out the door opening of the new pan to use on the drivers side.

Pans installed

 

Sweet ride...even with the bondo

 

I always find it a little shocking someone starts a project like this and the "before" pictures look pretty good. Then the tear-down pictures are posted and all the little (and not so little) hidden flaws start showing up. Kind of like last call at the bar... a little bit of make-up and beer goggles and things look pretty good but, the next morning in the light of day and the make-up off well, that's another story.

I really like your truck. It should be killer when you're finished with it. Any thoughts on what color it might end up with?

Doc

 

That is a great analogy Mike. A sad but true one at that. It wasn't so bad and i did buy it from a thousand miles away so i cant bitch too much. I had a long and lengthy conversation with the previous owner and asked a lot of questions. The guy actually had two of them for sale. The other had the clam shell back and all the seats and in black primer. That one was my first choice. They both had small block chevys but the black one had the worst body. You could kinda tell in the photos but i asked him which one had the better body and he said the blue one. He was a car guy just like most of us and was straight up about everything. He even offered me both trucks for $10,000.00. I wish i had the money to ship them both at that time. I tried to get a friend to buy the other one but he wouldnt bite.

As for the color you ask? Black, Lime Time Green, and Tangelo Pearl. Black being the main base color and the Tangelo scallops with Lime time outlines. I'll be getting to those pics as I have two years worth of photos to post.

Kerry

 

I always thought the headlights on these trucks lacked a little luster compared to the waterfall grill. So I tossed around some ideas and others ideas and decided the 56 olds bezels were way past my expertise, so I went with my second favorite, the 53 buick headlight bezel. Don't be too harsh on my welding. Its been 20yrs since I even used one and it was a Stick Arc welder. I picked up a nice little Miller 120 wire feed from work just to do this truck.

 

Once the headlights were done it was off to balance out the front bumper, brackets, and splash pan. I had an original splash pan in there but I didn't care for how it fell short on the ends with the new bumper. Well I guess i'll make my own then.

 

I filled the doors and installed the Lincoln push buttons. The truck door handles in 51 had the swing handles and they changed to push buttons in 52. I got the claw latches from Trique and ordered the latch for a 52 and the catch plate for the 51. Don't be fooled, they are different from the two years.

 

I also took advantage to dress up the running boards where the exhaust tips exit. Originally when we did the air ride we laid out the exhaust and coped the metal to fit over the tip. I didn't care for just the sharp edge of the cut and welded in a piece of quarter inch steel rod to smooth it out.

 

During this time I had taken the hood over to my friend Woody's house for him to fill and peak the hood. Quarter inch round bar was used for this also and then built up with filler and primed. He had built a few customs in his day and said he wouldn't want to do a hood like that again anytime soon. This reassured me that I was not ready to do that on my own.

 

Now it was time to strip the front end again to work on cleaning up the frame.

 

Since I don't have a means of pulling the body off for this, I had to work around and under the truck to strip the frame. I also met my quota of dirt intake and crap in my eyes. Yes I wore all of the safety equipment but somehow that stuff made it through. A strip disc makes quick work of this but if you have under coating anywhere like I did, a torch and a scraper are your best friend.





Ready to start painting. I used POR 15 on the frame and Raptor liner under the floor.






Canopies make great paint booths with a box fan at one end to pull the overspray.




Best thing I found to use for masking off large areas from paint or the bed liner was tin foil. Its cheap and takes less time to cover everything. $6.00 for two rolls and I only used one. Try buying masking tape and painters paper for that.






Now with the shiny black frame covered, it was time to spray the Raptor. This stuff was easy to use and mix and highly recommend it.

 

Time for some reassembly.







With the brake pedal assembly move under the floor I ran into a problem with the trans cross member not clearing the booster. A little more modification.

 

Now with the frame looking good, the firewall looks like crap with all of those holes.



Had my helper hold the panels while I tacked them.

 

Now it was time to throw the seats and the 59 chevy dash for final fitting.

 

Hell yes. I've only glanced at the pictures so far, but I can't wait to come back later and give this a read through. Looks awesome!


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With the truck moved from my garage over to the painters shop, it was time to start sanding her down.








You cant see the ladder marks in the roof but they were there. This was a work truck at one time with gate latch padlocks screwed into the body on the passenger and rear doors. And a quite of bit of damage to the rear doors.










I built this whole rear taillight assembly from scratch out of plastic,aluminum sheet, and plate from work. It helps to be the CNC programmer.

 

Body work and Skim coat time...








Final fit for the scallops to be laid out.



Lime Time laid down for the stripe base. I know it was a waste of paint but you never know where that scallop will end up once they are laid out how you want them.




Our own Sonny Depalma laying out the fine line. Thanks Sonny!



Nothing says detail like a jewelers glasses!

 

Time for Tangelo...and more masking.

 

More Masking...and final color.
















Clear Coat...



















This is where it is at today. Waiting for another coat of clear on the body before it comes back home for assembly. I still have a long road ahead but I can see light at the end of the tunnel...but my luck it would be a train.

 

Thanks! Please do.