One Ton Suburban

[Funky61]

Great History Ed and those back seats still look fantastic!

[Ed Snyder]

Doug -- although Dad was not a welder or a body & fender man, he did as much of the work as he could on the conversion. I helped him with a lot of it. He cut out the openings for the windows with a saber saw and installed the windows. He gave me the two special hand tools for slipping the windows into the rubber extrusions and inserting the locking bead into the rubber. He installed the supports between the windows after having flat plates welded to the tops and bottoms of those square tubes.

Since the half ton panel and regular Suburban share the same body shell, they're both equipped for installation of either the "barn doors" or the liftgate/tailgate. However, the one ton panel was equipped only for the doors. Since Dad wanted the liftgate/tailgate combo, he had to do a lot of modifications like creating the hinge pockets for the tailgate hinges. Darryl Starbird did the welding on that part of the project. For anyone unfamiliar with Darryl, check out http://www.darrylstarbird.com/starbird.htm. He got his start as a body shop owner in Wichita. I found Darryl's quote from 1968 when Dad took the Suburban back to him for enlarging the rear wheel openings -- $300 -- what a bargain!

Henry -- I was pretty surprised at the condition of those three rear seats. What helped was that Dad stored them in the basement one by one as us kids grew up and moved away. I think the last one went down in the basement about 30 years ago. Two of my brothers helped me carry them up the steps, clean them, and reinstall them the day before the Wichita Mini-Meet.

Here's a photo of my parents. Dad will be 90 on Pearl Harbor Day and Mom will be 87 on New Years Day. Their daily drivers are a 2005 turbocharged Subaru Outback that Dad calls his "closet WRX" and a 2012 Fiat 500, both with 5 speed manual transmissions. Great role models for us kids!

[FetchMeAPepsi]

How did I miss this thread for TWO pages? Ed these are great pictures and a really fantastic story. Five star thread!

[Ed Snyder]

Thanks for the "thumbs-up", Fetch. Too bad you couldn't make it to the Wichita mini-meet to see it. I'm afraid you're going to have to travel to Oregon to see it in person now!

If anybody out there wants to see photos of anything in particular on this truck, let me know.

I might try scanning some of the documentation on it and posting it here. The print may be too small to read for those with small screens though.

[FetchMeAPepsi]

It might be asking much but maybe run her out to some old historic houses or buildings and take some pics like Jolly does from time to time. I'd like to see that

[6066gmcguy]

Me too, pics of GMCs in by old historic houses or buildings are fun to take, Most of the time I do it on the way to ro from a show, but some times I just go out for a drive to take photos.

[GMCNUT]

Originally Posted by Ed Snyder

The 351C has had nothing but high-zinc Amsoil 10W40 in it since about 1973. Amsoil gear lube in the trans, Watson, and rear end too. I had to add a quart after 1200 miles on the road. 600 miles later, after I got home, it's now down a half quart. I didn't think that rate of consumption was too bad for having 154,000 miles on it.

Here are a couple of engine photos. Note the chrome plated air cleaner and valve covers. They were on a demonstrator at the dealer. At the end of the model year one of the salesmen gave them to Dad -- no charge! I've got the originals too, along with other miscellaneous parts like two original hubcaps.

So, as a Suburban lover, this truck is like the holy grail its so cool and has such great history, but I have to question the chrome valve covers and oil bath because if they were on a demonstrator truck which was a new vehicle on the lot for sale at the time, then it would seem there would have to be evidence of other chrome sets somewhere else in the truck world if they were available in chrome plate finish as a GM manufactured part vs something the dealer sent out and had plated - so if no one has ever seen a set or knows anyone who has ever seen another set aside from these then does it stand to reason this was a strange one-off plating job by the dealer?

[Ed Snyder]

I'm pretty sure the GMC dealer in Wichita (Sauder-Lygrisse) had those valve covers and air cleaner chrome plated at a local shop.

[GMCNUT]

Originally Posted by Ed Snyder

I'm pretty sure the GMC dealer in Wichita (Sauder-Lygrisse) had those valve covers and air cleaner chrome plated at a local shop.

Thats what I thought - love the odd ball stuff dealers could and would do back then. Lots of special cool things to like about your dad's suburban

[Ed Snyder]

Dad spent lots of time doing things to his Suburban that aren't readily apparent. The 3-way valve in the floor to the left of the driver's seat (like a lot of trucks with auxiliary fuel tanks have) besides switching fuel supply from one tank to the other, also simultaneously switches electrically from the sender in one tank to the sender in the other tank. And when you pull out the big knob on the dash to shift the Watson box into overdrive, it also switches a little box in the speedometer cable so that the speedometer is still accurate. Dad also installed a transistorized ignition unit which he hid behind one of the triangular "wings" in front of the top of the core support.