My new project truck: '99 K2500 Suburban

[Dravec]

So, I've had a very interesting, frustrating and oddly fun time helping my coworker repair and rebuild the front of his '13 Dodge Journey over the course of about 2 weeks. He hydroplaned on a wet road at 5:30 in the morning and managed to impact the retaining wall 3 times. Front, rear, front again.

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Good news is, no injuries, no airbag deployment. A couple of days after this, we started pulling his front frame section straight, using a heavy chain, a 4k lb comealong, a 6-7' long, 1 3/4" diameter bar of 17-4 stainless that we borrowed from the scrap bin at work, and my old Burb as the anchor point. And yes, that is my dumb ass in the most dangerous area, happily putting tons of stress on a steel cable.

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After we went from a nearly 45° bend on the passenger side frame rail, we got that down to only about 2°. And then proceded to fight to bend everything into line just enough to make things bolt back together, with tons of cross-threading, but he didn't particularly care. Final result of structural reconstruction is actually fairly decent.

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Finished product? Drives surprisingly straight, doesn't over heat, and most importantly, does what it's supposed to do. Get him to work, and his family where they need to go. Total investment was under $1000 to get it squared away and driveable, including tool costs, parts and the copious amounts of beer he fed me to do this for him.

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[Stumpy]

Nice job!
For ***** and giggles, you should do the zip tie stitches on that crack, like the cool kids do.

 

[Dravec]

Nice job!
For ***** and giggles, you should do the zip tie stitches on that crack, like the cool kids do.

I was seriously contemplating doing just that!

 

[Dravec]

So. In the past 2 months, I've lost both my grandad and grandma on one side of my family. But I got to hold onto a piece of them.
I inherited a pair of 1962 Studebaker Larks from them.
One is a 2 door sedan, 289 V8 (Stude not Ford) with a Borg Warner three on the tree with overdrive.
The other is a 4 doorwagon with a 259 V8 and a Borg Warner automatic.

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[OutlawDrifter]

My condolences on your loss, thoughts and prayers for you and your family.

We had a 61 4 door Lark sedan, it ended up out in CA at my aunt's house.

 

[SUBURBAN5]

I'm sorry for your loss.. Both those vehicles will be an awesome project though. Both look like solid bodys

 

[Dravec]

The wagon is a complete unkown. The 2 door, I at least know that the floorpan is gone, seats are gone, and the hood has a hole punched through it from a fan blade that came apart. But the rest is surprisingly there and solid. It also has the engine that my grandad raced with back when he was a young man

 

[SUBURBAN5]

Well in one put a 500 and the other a 572 lol

 

[Dravec]

Well in one put a 500 and the other a 572 lol

My goal is to stay with the Studebaker engines. Guess we'll see how that goes.

 

[SUBURBAN5]

My goal is to stay with the slStudebaker engines. Guess we'll see how that goes.

Keep us posted. I'm curious how they look under the hood