Features Surburban’s !

My friend Phil's 48

 

When all the later model SUVs tend to look alike, this one stands out tall and proud. And there's kind of a Nomad vibe going on with it.

 

My wifes 52, it used to be the worst rustbucket ever had in the pleasure to work on

 

I remember driving GMC, or Chevrolet Suburbans like yours when I was in the U.S. Army. We called them Carry-alls.

 

I "had" one. It was cool, I drove it to Bowling Green once.

 

I've always had a Suburban since I bought my first one in 1971. It was a 1957 Suburban fitted with a 389 Pontiac, and TH400 trans. That lead to a 1964, 1960, and 1962. Unfortunately I don't have images of any of them.
My current Suburban is a 1969 I've owned for 12 years, but since it's too new for this site I wont post an image. It's my tow rig, and daily driver and hauls my Austin gasser to the drags.

 

This belonged to a great friend. Unfortunately both he and the Suburban are gone.

 

I love Suburbans. I’ve had 3, unfortunately they were all Squarebodies and too new. I will have another, someday.

 

Definitely a cool chick magnet. My son’s pink Edsel was similar. Only problem was that he was 16 and most of the chicks were in their 60’s.

 

sold several years ago...it was great, but after putting close to 50k miles on it, the utility of it (lack of comfort) got to me.

 

I used to have a 72 about 20 years ago. Could fit so many people that my daughter called it the “school bus”. It was slightly lowered and had a rumbly exhaust. Got about eight miles to the gallon.

 

My 66 stock height.




Four inch drop.



Then things went crazy, here are some build shots.








I haven't found the side shots of the new front frame build yet, a combination of rectangular tube rails with a pretty creative stepped graft (thanks Bob) onto the original main rails(partially shown above) to accomplish the final six inch drop.
Original rear rails were heavily notched, truck has four corner coilover suspension, four wheel disc brakes, the original truck twelve bolt rearend was narrowed twelve inches. Halibrand rear wheels are twelve inches wide, had to custom order large swedged aluminum sprint car four bars, also has an adjustable panhard bar.


Added six inches to the rear wheel tubs, also needed to make a riser/cover to clear rear suspension and panhard bar.

 

GM started them as carry alls. Then went to suburbans in 67.

 

The 1936 Chevy truck information shows the Suburban name....




so I don't think they adopted the name in 1967.

I expect looking back through old ads and brochures, you'll find a mix of reference to CarryAll and Suburban names, over the years.

Have fun researching it!

here's a start...1953 Chevy Truck brochure. Both names boldly in use at that time.

 

Seen this one today

 

A friends one recently completed, has an immaculate engine bay still running the 6

 

My suburban is a Travelall by Cornbinder

 

Carryalls……they will always be Carryalls….

 

IIRC, Plymouth station wagons in the early 1950's were Suburbans

 

So was the GMC version of the Cameo Carrier, but we're not talking about either of them in this thread