70 K20 Suburban

[Rusty burbin]

Clean up and painted the linkage. Also I got rid of the clevis's and used little heim joints instead. Its so much smoother and tighter now, no more slop.

Cross members are painted and installed now

.

Jonah "Rustyburbin" #4084.
5 kids, a wife, dog and a
1970 K20 Suburban

 

[Rusty burbin]

I've been accumulating parts to rebuild and upgrade an old junkyard dana44 axle... Eaton E-locker, disk breaks with wilwood calipers, hy-steer/crossover steering and all new bearings and seals.

I rebuilt the manual hubs, these old spicer hubs are bomb proof! I could downgrade to heavy-duty warn hubs but decided not to. [emoji41] the poison spider diff cover is pretty cool, I've always ran stock covers but went ahead and bought HD cover for the front and rear diffs.

Hy-steer knuckles

Jonah "Rustyburbin" #4084.
5 kids, a wife, dog and a
1970 K20 Suburban

 

[Rusty burbin]

I finally got back to the rig yesterday and roughed in one of my rear shock hoops... man, take a little time away from the welder and yikes! ... Although I've never been very good at welding a radius. I found the king shocks on Craigslist, 2.5x16" rear and 2.5x14" for the front. They're not pretty (I'll deal with that later) but they're in good shape. These things paired up with my Deaver leaf springs should make for a nice ride on the street, some fast desert runs and great articulation in the rocks. Compared to the "stock" (4" skyjacker lift) travel suspension I had it will make a HUGE difference all around.

I'm excited to get it back on the road/trail!

Jonah "Rustyburbin" #4084.
5 kids, a wife, dog and a
1970 K20 Suburban

 

[darthyota]

Are you going to have room to brace your shock hoop? I think you are going to run into issues with it only tied in off those 4 bolts.

 

[Rusty burbin]

Are you going to have room to brace your shock hoop? I think you are going to run into issues with it only tied in off those 4 bolts.

I will if I need to but since they're just shocks (not coilovers) it'll shoud be fine. Infact the kits you can get online and from the offroad shops only have 2 bolts. I'm putting in an extra crossmember right there above the axle to help with any frame twist, if it needs more bracing I'll either drop a kicker down to the new crossmember or add a crossover bar from hoop to hoop.

Sense I'll be driving it a lot of the time and I have a nice interior I'm gonna want to box it all in so I don't have dirt/dust/mud coming into the cab so hopefully I'll be in good shape as it is.

Do you have any experience with this kind of thing that would tell you that I will for sure need more bracing?

Jonah "Rustyburbin" #4084.
5 kids, a wife, dog and a
1970 K20 Suburban

 

[darthyota]

I will if I need to but since they're just shocks (not coilovers) it'll shoud be fine. Infact the kits you can get online and from the offroad shops only have 2 bolts. I'm putting in an extra crossmember right there above the axle to help with any frame twist, if it needs more bracing I'll either drop a kicker down to the new crossmember or add a crossover bar from hoop to hoop.

Sense I'll be driving it a lot of the time and I have a nice interior I'm gonna want to box it all in so I don't have dirt/dust/mud coming into the cab so hopefully I'll be in good shape as it is.

Do you have any experience with this kind of thing that would tell you that I will for sure need more bracing?

Jonah "Rustyburbin" #4084.
5 kids, a wife, dog and a
1970 K20 Suburban

While I do agree they won't see the same forces as if they were coilovers, but the front hoops I originally purchased for my 4Runner and any other front shock hoop kit I've seen sold for early model Toyota trucks/suvs have had at least a plate or tube gusset back to the top of the frame. Also it may not look like it but theres a lot of force placed on a small surface area of your frame with only those 4 bolts into the frame especially with your shocks angled back towards the body. Can you also post more photos that show the back side of the mounting as it looks like the hoops are only bolted on.

 

[Rusty burbin]

While I do agree they won't see the same forces as if they were coilovers, but the front hoops I originally purchased for my 4Runner and any other front shock hoop kit I've seen sold for early model Toyota trucks/suvs have had at least a plate or tube gusset back to the top of the frame. Also it may not look like it but theres a lot of force placed on a small surface area of your frame with only those 4 bolts into the frame especially with your shocks angled back towards the body. Can you also post more photos that show the back side of the mounting as it looks like the hoops are only bolted on.

I can get some pictures soon... I've only done the one side and it still sits just like the pictures show.

It is just the 4 bolts with large thick washers. I could change/add anything at this point to make sure I'll never have to worry about it in the future.

I'd like to not encroach any further into the cab so maybe some gussets to the top of the frame? Also I don't think I'll ever need to remove the hoops themselves so if I were to weld them in it would probably be fine... so long as I can service the shocks.

Jonah "Rustyburbin" #4084.
5 kids, a wife, dog and a
1970 K20 Suburban

 

[gtomike]

Just read through this whole thread and want to say you're doing an awesome job.
I'm impressed

 

[Rusty burbin]

Just read through this whole thread and want to say you're doing an awesome job.
I'm impressed

Thank you!

Jonah "Rustyburbin" #4084.
5 kids, a wife, dog and a
1970 K20 Suburban

 

[Rusty burbin]

While I do agree they won't see the same forces as if they were coilovers, but the front hoops I originally purchased for my 4Runner and any other front shock hoop kit I've seen sold for early model Toyota trucks/suvs have had at least a plate or tube gusset back to the top of the frame. Also it may not look like it but theres a lot of force placed on a small surface area of your frame with only those 4 bolts into the frame especially with your shocks angled back towards the body. Can you also post more photos that show the back side of the mounting as it looks like the hoops are only bolted on.

Here's another thought. I could easily flip the top tabs to the outside of the hoop to make the shocks more vertical... That was my original plan but without wheel spacers I'm pretty sure the tires will rub the shock body. (I will probably get spacers regardless)

Any ideas? Maybe leave the tabs and fab up some gussets that go the top of the frame or both?

Jonah "Rustyburbin" #4084.
5 kids, a wife, dog and a
1970 K20 Suburban

 

[darthyota]

I would leave the shock tabs, but add boxed gussets like this using either all plate or plate and tube, whichever is easier for you to fab up

 

[Rusty burbin]

How does this look? I added a kicker and gusseted the frame.

I'm not totally in love with how they came out but they're functional and will be tucked up inside the wheel well so I'm going with them.

Jonah "Rustyburbin" #4084.
5 kids, a wife, dog and a
1970 K20 Suburban

 

[Rusty burbin]

I thought I'd add a couple videos that kinda show some b4 and afters... this 1st one was actually my submission video for a transmission giveaway so there's some unusual things said. It'll give you an idea of what started on this path.

Jonah "Rustyburbin" #4084.
5 kids, a wife, dog and a
1970 K20 Suburban

 

[darthyota]

That will work, and should be enough support to keeps things where you want em.

 

[Rusty burbin]

I thought I'd add a couple videos that kinda show some b4 and afters... this 1st one was actually my submission video for a transmission giveaway so there's some unusual things said. It'll give you an idea of what started on this path.

Jonah "Rustyburbin" #4084.
5 kids, a wife, dog and a
1970 K20 Suburban

Eh, never mind. I've been thorough enough with this thread. Plus I'm a bit of a tech-tard and can seem to make em work anyways.

Jonah "Rustyburbin" #4084.
5 kids, a wife, dog and a
1970 K20 Suburban

 

[Rusty burbin]

?

 

[4wheelspulling]

What a nice truck! Love how it looks like you have you whole family involved in the build. I'm jealous of your fab. skills too. Benz.

 

[Rusty burbin]

What a nice truck! Love how it looks like you have you whole family involved in the build. I'm jealous of your fab. skills too. Benz.

Thank you! It's been a learning process for sure.

Jonah "Rustyburbin" #4084.
5 kids, a wife, dog and a
1970 K20 Suburban

 

[Rusty burbin]

Armored the fuel tank.
HD diff cover and hardware.
Re-run the break lines.
Shaved all the brackets the off tube for better clearance.

Relocated the breather to the other side of the diff so I could zip tie the break line and breather hose together.

Added tabs for limiter straps in the future.

Jonah "Rustyburbin" #4084.
5 kids, a wife, dog and a
1970 K20 Suburban

 

[adventure_is_necessary]

This build takes the phase "built, not bought" to a whole new level IMHO.