Restoration of the Old Girl, 1976 Suburban

[AbramJ]

AbramJ submitted a new Build:

Restoration of the Old Girl, 1976 Suburban

Well I've finally gotten a chance to start working on my 1976 Suburban today. This truck was bought by my parents in 1984 and has been in the family since. I've owned it since about 2005 and it was my DD until 2011. My oldest brother owned the truck for a little while and unfortunately was not very kind to it. All of the body damage (except for the rust) was caused by him. I've always had plans to restore the truck to a stock condition and have slowly been collecting parts and information over the years. Now that I have my own place and the weekends more or less free I can finally work on the truck.

Today I took everything out of the truck that I had been storing in there, that's what the first few pictures are of. Everything in the garage (I was using the truck as a storage place for all the parts I've collected. The rest of the pictures are of the removal of the interior. I still need to clean the floor boards, but they look pretty solid with only a couple spots of rust. Now enough of my yapping, on to the pics.

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Read more about this build here...

View attachment 230769

 

[AbramJ]

The rust

My little helper

 

[magik235]

Looks like a great project

 

[AbramJ]

Got some more done today. I scrubbed the passenger area floor and got it cleaned up. The rust spots all look and feel solid, I'll have to sand them down and see how they look. I then started to take the front end apart. I always forget how many bolts hold the fenders on! I only got part way done before it got just to hot to work. Now for the pics:

The interior:

The front end:

Rusted out fender:

Anyone have advice on the best way to protect the bottom of the fender so it doesn't rust out like that? I've always thought about spraying under coating in there and also possibly that spray foam insulation. Thoughts? Ideas?

 

[kgblazerfive]

make sure the drain holes are clear and dont let stuff get packed in there that will hold the water.

Burb not from AZ ?

 

[TheBeast_88K5]

That's that sitting in the rain rust...

 

[AbramJ]

From what I remember my parents said they bought it from a guy who had owned it in New Mexico. I'm not really sure of the history of the truck from before my parents bought it in 1984

 

[AbramJ]

Well it's been a long time since I posted anything. Was g going to try starting the truck last week but got hit by some pretty good storms and had to help family clean up trees. The storms also destroyed my covers over the truck so I had to put the front end back together sooner than I wanted. After several hours on Saturday I got the fenders and hood back on.

For anyone interested the made in Taiwan fenders are pretty garbage. Holes don't line up and I wasn't able to get them to line up just right with the other body panels. Now getting them to line up might be because I have no experience hanging body panels, but with the holes not lining up correctly it was hard. They look OK, but the bottom of the driver's side door catches on the fender, this is also the side I had the most problems with in general. Guess I'll keep looking for original parts. For now they're good enough to keep stuff out of my engine compartment.

 

[82355]

Going to keep it 2wd?

Martin

 

[AbramJ]

Going to keep it 2wd?

Martin

That's the plan for now. That may change in the future when I have more time/money

 

[Greg Ducato]

I like it!

 

[Big Ray]

I enjoy seeing the old round eye rigs being given another lease on life. Good for you Sir! The 70's sure had some funky seat material!

 

[campfire]

Lookin' good!

What do the engine compartment and interior regions look like now?

 

[AbramJ]

Lookin' good!

What do the engine compartment and interior regions look like now?

Thanks.

Unfortunately thanks to the heavy storms we had destroying my cover thus necessitating putting the front end together it doesn't look much different. I also put the interior back together. Gonna try to get the truck running again and driving. I just missed driving it so much. I'll keep working on it though. I realized I just don't have the space/time/money right now to do a frame off.

 

[AbramJ]

Got the truck started today after sitting for over three years. Checked all the fluids, put a fresh battery in, turned the key, and she fired right up!

 

[AbramJ]

Guess I celebrated to early. Went out this morning to just drive the truck around the block. She fired up, but wouldn't stay on, idled for little bit then would just shut off. Even if I pressed the gas pedal it'd stay on a little longer but then sputter and die.

On top of that I couldn't get the truck to shift into any gears. I can move the gear selector on the column, but I can't hear or feel it actually engaging any of the gears.

Time to do some troubleshooting I guess.

 

[Greg Ducato]

Being that the truck has sat for so long it would not be unusual for the torque converter to have drained back and emptied. It will take sometimes a couple of minutes for it to refill, depending on the state of drain and trans pressure.