I have recently started a 1975 Dually project. I bought the truck a couple of miles from the house in Lubbock, TX. The truck had no motor or transmission, but was in great shape with no rust!!! The next weekend I went and purchased a 1989 Suburban which only had 53K miles. The 454 and the turbo 400 were in excellent shape. Drove that bad boy home and started to tear it apart and transplant it into the dually.
First thing was the engine and trans. A fairly straight forward swap. Then bit by bit I have been taking items such as the power brakes, wiring harness, the front clip and the doors off the Suburban and putting them on the dually. The doors have power windows and locks which is a must have on my rides. You can see a picture of the donor Suburban, man it is looking pretty thin now that everything has been pulled off it.
Don't get me wrong but I like the front ends of the 89 GMC/Chevy's better than the older 75 front end. So the old parts had to go and the new ones grafted on. Not as easy as bolting them on and calling it a day. The hinges are different and needed to have some fab work done on the cowl. Check out the picture and see what had to be done just to fit the hinges.
My future plans for this truck is to convert it over to 22" Alcoas, and bag it. I already have the air ride stuff from a former project. So that is just waiting to get installed. I may do 22's on the front and 24's on the rear, not sure yet, but I want this thing to have a very mean rake. I have only had this truck for the past 2 months and the project has moved right along. Next on the front end is to take the 3/4 ton brakes and spindles off the Suburban and replace the 1 ton units. That way the tires and rims don't rub the fender wells. Once I get everything done in the cab and the front end I will then turn the truck around and start on the fab work on the rear end. That will be a ton of fun! Can't wait to start the fabrication!
I hope you like the pictures. My wife has been telling me that I should be taking a lot more photos and posting them for others to see. Seeing that I do all my own work I get so deep into what I am doing that I forget. I just want the work done so I can go take this bad boy out and run it around! I forget that others might like to see what other hot rodders are up to. I am allways looking around for ideas on what might make my rides unique that I forget to put out there what I have done. I have built a lot of cars over the years, but wished I would have taken more photos of the builds. I am going to try and keep up on this project so you can see my progress.
If you think of cool ideas let me know!
I will post more photos as I progress along.