squirrel's 57 Suburban

[Deaf Bob]

Oughta keep you occupied!.
Judging by what you have done.. This will be cool too!

[JOES66FURY]

I am excited to see you back to work on the 'burban. Are you gonna finish it up this time or you gonna get it together as a roller and turn it?

[Beagle]

it's for sale - 5k ... kinda wish I had it, although I have to admit I'm more interested in the camper.

I wonder if the Camaro clip would hold a v8 diesel? A 4BT is about the same weight as a dressed BBC, probably get 20ish highway and be pretty unique. You just don't see much of this cool old stuff any more and damn sure not in this condition for the money.

[squirrel]

If I keep working on it the price will go up....

Now I'm working on the front end. I'm putting on some 56 fenders I had off another parts truck. They're decent fenders, one needs a lower rear corner, they both need some rust repair near the top rear retaining bolt (strange but common rust spot). The old fenders off the 57 were mostly rust free, but were hammered really bad at the top front, so they're not really usable except as patch panel donors. I got the front frame horns figured out, I'm mocking up the front end to make sure they're right before welding them on this time.

[squirrel]

I did the rust repair on the driver side fender, so I could bolt it on. It fits ok.

[oletrux4evr]

Looks great, Jim!

[squirrel]

Thanks! The more I work on it, the more I don't want to sell it....hmmmm....

got the inside of the doors ready for paint. Still need to do bodywork on the inside of the body, but not much, mostly just finish the pass side wheel well (where I widened it) and a few misc dents and rust pits. Then sand the whole thing, mask off the floor, and prime it...then I can hang the doors, put some of the trim pieces back in, sand it all, and paint.

[JOES66FURY]

I would love to see you finish this truck up....Its so freaking cool and I cant say I have ever seen another on the road...in this area anyway...

[squirrel]

Thanks, I might just do that. There's a 58 in Tucson that I see at shows, it's mostly stock and painted boring beige with brown trim. I also saw a nice green GMC at the reunion meet at the drags last month in Tucson.

[JOES66FURY]

Thanks, I might just do that. There's a 58 in Tucson that I see at shows, it's mostly stock and painted boring beige with brown trim. I also saw a nice green GMC at the reunion meet at the drags last month in Tucson.

Now that you mention it I think I recall the beige one....

[squirrel]

I spend the day sanding, mostly. Also threw on a little bit of filler. The inside is almost ready to prime...there's a lot of square feets inside a Suburban! and most of it gets painted, not upholstered.

[squirrel]

Finally got done sanding. The only parts of the body shell I didn't sand were the roof and the lower half of the left quarter, both of them have a decent coat of primer already that are ready for paint. I masked the floor, because the original linoleum is going to stay as-is, and I sort of masked off the firewall. I ended up using over half a gallon of primer to put two coats on inside and out.

Now I'm thinking about paint....I want to go back to the original colors inside and out, the Indian Turquoise and inside a light beige gray with charcoal for the floor and top of the dashboard, as well as the steering column and a few other parts. I'm also considering adding white to either the top of the roof, or around the side and rear windows, or both.

[NewEnglandRaceFan]

white top no sides, the sides make it look like a bus..
maybe white top with blue peril if you can find some blue peril powder that go with that shade blue on the rest of the truck..

[squirrel]

No pearl, sorry....but yeah, I'm leaning towards just the white top. You're right about the bus thing.

I'm also thinking about changing it to a 56 front end, instead of a 57. I like the clean simple grille of the 56, which is what these pictures are. I have all the parts, and they're actually in a little bit better condition than the 57 stuff I have.

[NewEnglandRaceFan]

is the grill chrome or paint? maybe white grill to match the top