Suburban Convertible

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DoubleDingo

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81-C20 Silverado Camper Special-TH400-4.10s
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Carb'ed Vortec 350
This is a cool build!
 

bucket

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Just the person I needed to see update their thread, lol. Is there any internal bracing incorporated into the C and D pillars? I'm looking at potentially replacing the rear lower body all as one unit, rather than cutting everything loose from the donor body, and welding all the pieces back together again for use on my Burb.

And nice progress too!
 

SpeeedRacer62

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Fredericksburg, VA
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Chris
Truck Year
1986
Truck Model
Suburban C20
Engine Size
454
Just the person I needed to see update their thread, lol. Is there any internal bracing incorporated into the C and D pillars? I'm looking at potentially replacing the rear lower body all as one unit, rather than cutting everything loose from the donor body, and welding all the pieces back together again for use on my Burb.

And nice progress too!

Hey Bucket, Did you ever get to replace that rear cross member yet?

Yes, there is some internal bracing on the C and D pillars, ALOT more on the D. Here are 2 shots for you. If you'd like I'll take some more detailed pics and post them.
 

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bucket

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K5 thru K30
Engine Size
350-454
Thanks for those pictures, that helps me a lot! Looks like my plan will be a little more difficult that I thought.

I never did the rear sill, even though it's still halfway solid, the rest of the body around it is rusting badly. The right wheel housing literally fell out, the floor crossmembers are about gone, there's nothing left of the right lower quarter/rocker area, and the left quarter is rusted up high enough that the tail light is falling out.

There's a '77 C10 parts Burb in Blackstone that I'll be picking up soon, it had GM quarters installed in the late 90's and the entire rear floor area is solid as can be. My plan was to cut along the floor, under the seat area and then cut across the C and D pillars... then install the whole thing as a unit into my '88 Burb. Looks like welding the pillars back together will be a little involved, but doable.
 

Old77

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Engine Size
350/350/454
Ran across this burb vert on CL today. Seems like solid work and similar to what you're doing possibly

http://loz.craigslist.org/cto/5690753026.html

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SpeeedRacer62

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Chris
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1986
Truck Model
Suburban C20
Engine Size
454
Greetings everyone! Long time, no see. Life has been preventing me from working on my convertible over the past 6 months or so. Finally I've made time to work on it. I started by fixing some rust issues in the windshield frame. Had to R&R some metal here.

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SpeeedRacer62

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Chris
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1986
Truck Model
Suburban C20
Engine Size
454
Continued working on the "Bourbon Wagon" this weekend. Busy closing up the B, C and D pillars on the driver side and the top of the doors. Even got my son to finish up a patch panel he had started working on.

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Old77

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350/350/454
For some reason only one pic is showing for me :(
 

SpeeedRacer62

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Chris
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1986
Truck Model
Suburban C20
Engine Size
454
Greeting guys!

So sorry for the previous posts that didn't display the pics properly. I've been busy working on the "Wagon" so haven't had much time to update this blog. Here are some of the pics from my previous posts. Had to cut out a few spots on the windshield frame and refinish them.

PS I like this new forum software, much easier to use. Bravo Admin team!!






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SpeeedRacer62

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Chris
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1986
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Suburban C20
Engine Size
454
Here are shots where we closed up the top of the pillars. We also gutted the doors and tailgate, then welded them shut.

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SpeeedRacer62

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Chris
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1986
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Suburban C20
Engine Size
454
On the tailgate, it looked really ugly at the gate ends on top when the gate was shut. So I fabricated some "caps" to clean up that area.

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SpeeedRacer62

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Chris
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1986
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Suburban C20
Engine Size
454
Past few months we've been busy trying to finish up the metal work. Patches on both quarter panels, rockers, welding up holes in door jambs, etc.

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SpeeedRacer62

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Fredericksburg, VA
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Chris
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1986
Truck Model
Suburban C20
Engine Size
454
The LR door was rusted pretty bad. I looked for a used one, but all I found were bad too. I didn't want to spend $250 on a new shell, so I bought patches for a full size door, cut them down and rebuilt the bottom of the door. I replaced the inner door shell first and used the outer skin as a my reference. Once I tacked into place, I cut off the skin. I had to massage the full size skin patch into place. Doesn't look bad.

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SpeeedRacer62

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Chris
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1986
Truck Model
Suburban C20
Engine Size
454
For some reason the driver side of the wagon was much rustier than the passenger side. After fixing the rear door I tackled the LR quarter. Rust had bubbled out almost the entire length of the upper wheel well, So we decided to put a patch there. Also the area behind the wheel well was rusted bad. After cutting the qtr around the wheel well I found that the wheel well was rusted where the inner and outer wells come together. I did not want to replace these wells!! So I cut out as much bad metal as I could. Then I treated the area with Eastwood rust encapsulator paint. Then I cut out a patch from the roof material I have and welded it into place, tying the two wells back together again from underneath. Then I used seam sealer to ward off any future leaks, hopefully!

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SpeeedRacer62

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Fredericksburg, VA
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Chris
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1986
Truck Model
Suburban C20
Engine Size
454
LR Qtr panel patches. I used a flanging tool to mate the patches to the original sheet metal. Note, don't go as high as I did on the wheel well patch. I didn't leave myself a lot of area to flange.

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