The Family Truckster- 66 Suburban Build
 

I picked up pretty clean 66 Burb a couple of months ago off my local craigslist. I had been thinking about buying something bigger that I could fit the whole family in and when I saw this suburban pop up I knew I had to go take a look at it. Between my son who was born in June and my stepson who is 4, I wouldn't be able fit everyone in the cab of my 68 C10 so I bought the Suburban and proceeded to part out my C10 which was still a project in the making. I went pretty deep on my C10, Choppin Block/Porterbuilt suspension to lay frame, big wilwood brakes, LQ9/4L80e combo, 20" TTII wheels.

For the Burb, I decided that I didn't want to go that extreme so I sold the suspension and brakes off my 68 as well as the cab, doors, buddy buckets and some other misc. items. As many of you already know, with the birth of my son, the truck funds have dried up significantly :lol: This is the other reason I decided not to use the suspension and brakes off of my 68. I did keep the LQ9/4L80e combo as I plan on putting it in the burb. I also plan on doing a mild bag job front and rear along with Accuair to control it. I'm undecided on the wheels, I still have the 20" TTII wheels from my 68, I may use those or I may go with factory 15" steelies and caps. The burb has the original front seat but is missing the rear seats so I need to figure out what to do for a rear seat. I hope to have the Burb running and and the road this year but we'll see how that goes.

Some pics of the Burb and one of my 68 I sold.

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A couple more pics of the Burb and of my little guy behind the wheel :lol:

Re: The Family Truckster- 66 Suburban Build
 

I also kept the 12 bolt rear out of my 68 as it was already rebuilt with an eaton posi and 3:73 gears along with converted to 5X5 bolt pattern. You can see it in the second pic in the post above. I'm using Captain Fabs D52 rear disc brackets for rear brakes. A pic of the LQ9 going in the Burb. I did a cam swap to a Tick Motorsports SNS Stage 2 along with swapping the intake over to a LS6 car intake with a ported stock throttle body.

Re: The Family Truckster- 66 Suburban Build
 

sub'd. can't wait to see how the burb turn out

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Thanks man, hopefully I finish this one :lol:

Re: The Family Truckster- 66 Suburban Build
 

The past couple of weekends I’ve been busy working on the rear suspension of the Burb. Not an easy job laying underneath it and working on your back, wish I had a lift and some more room lol. I got everything torn down and installed the Deadend Garage C-notch kit I picked up from Travis at Pro Performance. Very nice kit and a easy install. While I was at it, I cleaned up and painted the frame where the notch mounts. Now I have to clean up and paint the rear of the frame rails :lol:

Re: The Family Truckster- 66 Suburban Build
 

Following.

Re: The Family Truckster- 66 Suburban Build
 

I'm sure you will! You have the best motivation factors to do so. I have a suburban as well. when it came up, I hoped on it because of the family and because I refuse to drive a min-van. Mine burb is a 72 C10 Custom Deluxe. It came it a 400 v8, which I plan of ripping out and installing a LS.

Re: The Family Truckster- 66 Suburban Build
 

Great progress Keith! You've got that 6.0 looking nice! Your burb is going to scream with that under the hood. I've been searching high and low for a family hauler myself, and if all goes to plan, this might be the week that the stars align and I get back into a Chevy. Fingers crossed. Look forward to following your updates!

Re: The Family Truckster- 66 Suburban Build
 

Thanks man

Nice, do you have a build thread for it?

Awesome Jason, hopefully it works out for you and you get it.

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Not yet. Im trying to get the 67 as a roller before I start on the burb

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I have been away too long, I had no idea you sold the 68. Get this new ride out on the road as soon as you can and enjoy it brother, its gonna be cool!!!

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Sub'd. I'll be watching Keith... I have an itch for a 1955 Chevy car.

Re: The Family Truckster- 66 Suburban Build
 

Nice score :thumbs: That is a clean and straight Burb you picked up. That drivetrain should make for a nice driver.

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Digging the new project! Looks great Keith!

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sounds like a good idea, one project at a time. I know I would get to sidetracked with multiple projects going at once.

That's the plan, it's almost winter now so I'll be working on it trying to get it ready for next summer.

Nice, I'm a big fan of those as well.

Yeah she is pretty clean and straight but does have some problem areas. Shes got a little bubbling on the lower passenger doors, needs rear cab supports and has some rust spots on the inner fenders. But overall really nice.

Thanks Mike

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Following along for the finished product (if there is such a thing...)

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I'll watch this one. Looks good so far.

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:lol: Thanks for the vote of confidence

Thanks Duane, nice job on your truck, looks good with all the upgrades.

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Just checking in, Subscribed. I want to see where you go with this one. Very nice so far !

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No disrespect meant toward you, Keith. Just meant that are WE ever really finished with a project?

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Thanks Chad, nice to see your almost done with yours.

It's all good buddy, I get what you mean. This truck will be an ongoing driving project for the foreseeable future :lol:

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Got the deadendgarage exhaust cutouts installed in the factory trailing arm crossmember, should have no problem getting the exhaust tucked up in the frame now. Also mounted the slam specialties bags on the notch too. While I was at it I cleaned and painted the frame up to the trailing arm crossmember. Getting it done little by little.

Re: The Family Truckster- 66 Suburban Build
 

nice, one step at a time...

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Looking good Keith! How do you like the Dead End Garage stuff? I was thinking of buying those same pieces for new old family hauler. Are you planning on using the stock control arms for the front? Keep up the good work!

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Cool 'Burb!
They really are a family friendly hot rod. Plus you can still haul quite a bit in back. Heck my Nova is way nicer than my Suburban but I usually take the Sub to cruze night. Its way easier to get in and out of plus I can haul my entire family with room to spare.

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Thanks, I was hoping for more progress at this point but some progress is better than no progress :lol:

I really like the Dead End garage parts, they are well built and install exactly as planned! I do plan on using the stock control arms on the front, I would love a nice set of tubular arms but they are not in the budget right now!

Thanks man, it’s really going to suite the family better than the 68 would have! I can’t wait to get it out of the garage next summer and cruise it!

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Great looking Burb and fun project! We really enjoy our 72 Burb. Tagging along for updates.

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Looking good Keith, going to be a fun driver for sure
Where did you get the exhaust cut outs for the crossmember?

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Thanks for tagging along, it’s been a fun project so far

They are made by Dead End Garage, I got them from Travis at Pro Performance. He has them listed on his website.

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Got the rear end cleaned up and painted over the weekend, turned out pretty good :metal: hope to get the rear suspension back together next weekend!

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Looks good Keith!!!

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Got the rear back under the burb this weekend. I also decided to run the TT2’s I had from the 68 on the Burb. Was worried about them fitting in the rear due to the 5.75” backspacing the wheels have and the narrow rear. My worries were confirmed when I bolted them up, I’m going to have to run a 1/2” spacer so they will clear the inside of the wheel wells. I’m probably going to have to change the wheel studs to run the spacers but I’ll figure that out once the spacers come in. I also got the Wilwood calipers bolted up to the captain fab d52 brackets.

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Nice!

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That looks great! You can never go wrong with TTII's.

I had to run a 3/4" spacer before and I drilled and tapped the axles myself for a 1/2"-20 screw-in stud and used ARP Wheel Studs #100-7704 and never had a problem.

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Looking good man!!!! You just can't go wrong with those wheels....

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Thanks

Awesome, thanks for the info, I'll look into those. I don't like the idea of running a spacer, good to hear you didn't have any issues.

Yeah they look pretty good, I'm resisting the urge for now for some custom wheels :lol:

Re: The Family Truckster- 66 Suburban Build
 

As long as it is a good quality billet spacer you should be fine. Don't use the cheap cast spacers that you can get anywhere, those are the ones that give spacers a bad name.

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I ordered 1/2" Billet Specialties spacers from Summit Racing, just waiting for them to come in. I didn't want to cheap out on the spacers.

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Had some time in the garage this weekend with all the snow we got in Jersey. No better way to spend being stuck in the house then in the garage :lol: I mocked up the front suspension and bolted the front wheels on. Still need to clean and paint the front suspension but I’ll do that when I’ll pull the front clip off and do the motor swap. Will be a lot easier then. For now I wanted to see what the Burb would look like aired out on the 20” TTII’s. The rear will go down another inch or two once I get the spacers on and gain some clearance for those 295 rear tires. The front is as low as it will ever get without doing some modification to the inner fenders, which may happen ;)