Rich it took the owners over 6 months to pick out a color, must have changed their minds a dozen times but in the end it looks good.. it's a '36 ford color believe it or not..Quote:
Originally Posted by RichB
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Rich it took the owners over 6 months to pick out a color, must have changed their minds a dozen times but in the end it looks good.. it's a '36 ford color believe it or not..Quote:
Originally Posted by RichB
Mate, you nailed it with the sun visor and I just struggle to visualize the bus without it. I chuckled to myself reading and looking at all those pictures of the door alignment. When I was a apprentice panelbeater I was taught all those fine adjustment skills by an elderly craftsman who I thought was been a bit anal on the finishing but when all done and dusted with a good paint job, you appreciate the extra time it takes. You tell the owners that they did absolutely brilliantly with the choice of colour too please.
Anal it is Mark for sure, I'm glad you got taught by a old timer with skills... someday you'll pass all that along and it will never get lost.. Glad you also liked the visor and now i could see it without it.. I'll be sure and let them know what you said about the color..Quote:
Originally Posted by Whiplash23T
The part that really scared me the most were the two rear lower corners of the body. Both sides looked the same all rusted out and at the time i couldn't find anyone who made an after market sheet metal part to repair them.. surfing on stove bolts.com one night and there was a man back east who was making them for his suburban, and as luck would have it i was able to get a hold of him and he sold me a pair... whew!!
Trying to repair some rust holes that went both inside and outside ... where the sliding windows drain somewhere in it's life got plugged up and this what happened... not sure why i rolled a bead on it to match as no one but you guys will every see it as it got covered up with foam and leather... but i did get to buy a new tool, a bead roller...
We got rid of stock gas tank which filled on the pass side and put an alum tank under the frame in the back. The fill on it came out on the drivers side so a fill door had to be put in the fender. The bad thing about this is here in california with the big black rubber recover thing on the gas hose makes it a lot of fun putting gas in this girl... didn't know this until we made our first trip to the gas station...
Well as you see the front fender on the pass side did not line up with the hood as good as it did on the drivers side.. we went as far as buying a cherry fender and getting it sand blasted and it fit worse than the one that came on the burb. It looked like something crushed the peak of the fender and took some of sharp peak out of it.. so i just cut it close to the hood where i thought the new peak should be and welded it up.. in the end it came out nice.
Well when it come to trying to hide some of the wiring and radio along with the air ride brain and all the relays that go with it we had fun.. Lucky for us there is a hole under the drivers seat because it sits up on a raised part for some reason and gave us just enough room to cram and the stuff in there... under the dash was pretty much filled up with fuse block and a/c unit..
It seemed like the old factory lead was cracking and starting to lift so i talked to the guy who was going to do the paint and body work and he wanted all the lead removed and patch metal welded in so no bondo would be 1/2" thick, so that what we it. It was cracked and the water has gotten under it and started to rust and that was pushing the lead out.. would have been a bad deal if it would have pushed out that $$$$$$ paint job..
Well we're getting close, a trip to the muffler shop for some pipes and then the break down for a trip to the power coater for some parts and get the frame all welded up and cleaned up so it can get some power too...
Frame and parts back from the coater and starting to go back together so the body can get off to the painter.. wrapped up and packed for the trip south to get some paint of it..
While the body was in so. calif. for paint and body work the motor and trans got painted.. The car was gone for 6 months for paint and body work and the real fun begins when we get it back.. Will tell the story and lies told a little later...
HMmmmmmm... can't wait! :LOL::LOL::LOL:Quote:
Originally Posted by parkwood
Just read through the entire thread. Sounds familiar:) As I'm a lone wolf, so I'm not quite that far along. Nice to get a forecast of some of the issues (wiring) that I've yet to encounter:HMMM:
Nice work!!
Just a few pictures the owners took while it was in the body shop in So.Calif. My friend down there wood grained the dash and window moldings while it was getting painted and then it was all cleared over.. turned out great.. it also had about 6 gals. of Lizard skin sprayed in side..
This first picture of the suburban getting unloaded was taken on Oct. 11th 2010.. the lying and false hopes started almost a year early. Our little group of friends were sitting around at the Goodguys show in Del Mar Ca. at the end of the year '09 and i put out the idea that i would like to put the suburban in the Grand National Roadster Show in Jan of 2011, but i didn't want the owners to know anything about it.. At that time they kept asking how much longer it would take to get it done and i kept telling them that with a little luck they could drive it to the GG's show at Del Mar '11 around April.. So me and the guy who helps me got to work on the sub full time the first of '10 and got it to the paint shop in April of '10.. like i said it was at the paint shop for 6 months and we got it back in Oct. '10 which gave us 3 months to put it completely together.. from the day we unloaded it we worked 7 days a week 8 or more hours a day.. of all the time we had it was at the glass shop 2 weeks getting the glass installed, and at the interior shop for 3 weeks so that didn't leave us but about 2 months to get it running.. everything went good but for the transmission which the owner had built in So. Calif. and they put the wrong torque converter, when we got it running and put in gear it wanted to die because of the stall speed of the converter... it spent two days at the transmission shop getting that replaced.. tell you more as the pictures come out..
Like i said before the sub has air ride and this kit came with two tanks and two pumps. On the sub between the frame and the rockers is a lot of wasted space so that is were we mounted the tanks and pumps, one on each side and hooked them together so both pumps could fill the tanks together... we also but the metering block for the bags under the frame on a flip down panel just it case it need to be worked on.. while this was going on we shipped the seat frames off the the power coater for some color.. We installed power windows using the switch's that you can use a window handles on making it look like you have roll up windows.
It had to go to the interior shop for 3 days to have the head liner installed before we could put the glass in.. to round out the top Shawn screwed thin plywood to the roof and rounded the corners out with sheet metal, after that glued foam to it and sanded it all down to make it smooth and the corners flow nice... he called it a one piece head liner but the thing was so big it's seamed in the middle and comes all the way down to the bottoms of the side windows... lot of work in just head liner.. then it set 2 weeks at the glass shop getting the glass installed... mean while we were pacing the floor...
The first picture taken of the motor was taken on Dec 10th which left us about 5 weeks to get this thing done and it still need the interior installed... had to paint a few parts that didn't get painted by the body shop, steering wheel and the parts for the grill. also complete the wiring so it would run...
Getting the sun visor installed without screwing anything up... made it...
Getting the front sheet metal on the week before Christmas '10. The last picture outside was taken Christmas eve and was start up day and the day we knew something was wrong with the trans....
Trying to get a lot of the little things done before it goes off to get interior.. head lights in, caps and rings on, hood on. and get it loaded in the trailer... trailer picture taken Dec. 30th less that 4 weeks to go..
These shots were taken on Jan 2nd '11 and i took it on the 6th to have the front end alignment done and then back to the shop to finish up the seats and carpet..
The last picture was taken on Jan 21st the day we got it back to my shop.. Our set up day in So. Calif. for the GNRS was the 27th and we still had a few things to complete.. at this point it had maybe 10 miles on it... I'm still telling the owners we're still 3 months away from having it done... nose wasn't growing much at this point because it was on the grind stone...
Just a few pictures of the completed suburban before it's loaded in the trailer for the trip south.. These were taken on Jan. 25th with about 60 miles on it... It ran great, was quite inside and all was good.... still telling lies... told the owners we would meet them at the show and look at cars together... little did they know..
First stop was at my buddy's shop in Santa Ana to get the sign he made for us.. and then off to set up day on Thur. the 27th..
And this brings me to almost the end, but at least i don't have to lie anymore... They had no clue that the suburban was in the show. We meet them outside of one of the builds and the plan was to just walk around and look at a few cars and i was going to get a call from one of my friends to come over to another building and look at what he had found. As i'm walking with the wife into the building ahead of everyone else she looks around and the first thing she says to me "hey there's a car painted the same color as ours" she could only see the top at this point, we walk around the corner and down the middle toward the suburban and the next thing she says is "they got the same wheels as we do" and in almost the same breath knew it was theirs. She started crying and hugging everybody that would hold still...For some reason the husband didn't know it was his until he walked up and read his name on the sign.. With a lot of hard work and a lot of good help from some friends we got to pull off the surprise of the year.. They went on to win first in their class and first in every show they put it in for the rest of the year...whew i'm tired...
WOW, that was an amazing journey! Thanks for letting us share the ride... Congrats to you and your crew for an outstanding job. Those final pics of the owners makes it all worth it! They look so happy it makes all the hard work worth every moment.
Again, thanks for sharing the pics and the build!
Wow! Great story and beautiful work on that '51!!! Like the others, I'm lovin' that color choice, too. Nice to have a little splash of "Ford" on it!!:LOL::LOL:
Really excellent work! Thanks for sharing the process!
Great story,:D great work,:3dSMILE: great people.:3dSMILE: What else can I say.:)
Jack.
What a great vision for the finished product, the owners have to
be thrilled!
your retired my A#% ! LOL
Love the steering wheel, looks like the original except the center
hub is shaped different ?
Rich
Great story and great coverage (pictures) Every one should be happy with the results..
Wow.... you bloody liar.... how the hell did you sleep straight in bed at night..... Congratulations on not only an amazing build..... but in pulling off a grand surprise for the unexpected owners.... That vehicle sets the standard very high for others to meet and also shows that a ugly duckling can be turned into a very beautiful swan for all others the enjoy looking at. On a another note, proves to others that you can operate a small Hot Rod business in a small off the beaten track village and still turn out an outstanding show winning vehicle. Yes I did a goggle earth search to see where Shingle Springs is and was interested to find you ain't to far from where a friend of mine lives at Eldorado Valley. Thank you so much for the story and the photos of the build, I really appreciated and enjoyed the journey.
Thank you and glad you like the story... i've got a great short video made by her daughter if i can get it down loaded i'll post it, it really shows how they feel..Quote:
Originally Posted by 34_40
Thanks a lot and yes the ford color is a big hit with people...Quote:
Originally Posted by randyr
Thanks Jack, glad you liked it all... they were a nice couple to build for, known they for years as Dave and me worked together for many years...Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack F
Ha Ha, I am retired but it seems i work more now than i did when i "worked"... but working at something you really love isn't work i guess... The steer wheel came about because we had did some work on a '56 chevy truck putting in Mll front end and new steering column and the steering wheel came off the '56 and when the owner of the suburban saw it he liked it better than the stock one that came on the '51 so i just bought a new one and painted it to match the body color... i like it a lot better too..the center is a stock '56 pieceQuote:
Originally Posted by RichB
Thanks so much, glad you liked it and no one was more thrilled than me...Quote:
Originally Posted by cffisher
Mark, i didn't sleep well kept waking up in cold sweats.. and yes for an ugly duckling it came out much, much better than i had hoped for... It just kind of took on a life of it's own.. i've seen some great cars and truck come out of one car garages before, it's not have you have to build in it's how you go about it and have a vision for whats at the end... course a money doesn't hurt either... now go back and look at google earth and find sparrow lane third house on right ... your friend does he live in El Dorado Hills CA. Eldorado valley is a road in NV. also do you know a hot rod builder there in New Zealand by the name of Geoff Mitford Taylor?? I've know him for a long time meet him when he worked for Dan Fink in Hunt. Beach Ca. Just saw him again in June at the L.A. Roadster Shows, he was over check in on some old friends... had been years since i had seen him last...Quote:
Originally Posted by Whiplash23T
Wayne, sorry I did get it wrong and now that I have looked again, heck he doesn't live far from you. His name is Bob and lives just off highway 49 south of ElDorado Village and he drives a 427 cu.in, SBC '23 T Track Roadster. He, like me is a full time care giver to his elderly Father, me, my Mum, so only manages to get out briefly for the occasional drive in at local eateries as far as Placerville. I personally don't know Geoff but he is well known and respected rodder here in NZ. He has set up home again in his home city of Napier which is approximately a 6 hour drive from home here. His club organize a excellent weekend run once a year where they have managed to get several well known American Rodders over for the weekend party, Billy Gibbon from ZZ top one of them. He has produced some awesome cars and I know I should be able to tell you his latest but the old grey matter in my head refuses to work at the moment.
Again, thanks for taking the time to post the story and all the pictures of a very nice vehicle and I'm sure the satisfaction you got from seeing the owners faces at that first sho was well worth all that work, congratulations on a fine build Wayne.