This past year on Hot Rod Power Tour, my wife and I started to look at station wagons, thinking this would be a fun family hauler vs our current 78 K5. And every time we walked passed a 67-72 body Suburban she would mention how she liked them. I was pretty focused on a Chevelle Wagon. I listed the K5 and started hunting, and as we all know you find tons of things when your current ride isn't sold yet... lol
Well K5 is still not sold, but we found a Suburban on Craigslist when I had gotten sick of seeing the same 15 overpriced or to far away Chevelle Wagons. This Suburban fit the bill, solid, visually clean, and updated interior, at least the seats. Was a factory air truck. Was a Nebraska State or County Municipality vehicle, can still see the original orange on the inside of the fenders and lower fire wall.
Its a 402/400 with rear air that looks to be out of a mid 70's sub. Seats from a 2000's Avalanche, floors are all truck bed lined. It has had some panels replaced and has some visual bond spots, but it is a very solid starting point and was priced pretty good for us. We jumped on it, even though K5 isn't gone yet...
Planning a simple 5.3/60E swap, tinted windows, add a third row seat, drop it a few inches all the way around and install some family creature comforts! This thing is going to be the family vacation vehicle. I plan to set it up inside to have all the nice things you would have in a newer body suburban, DVD, aux 12v ports, maybe an iPad based audio system etc.
What do you think? Any chance anyone knows some history? On a side note, the 14 GMC did a FANTASTIC job towing the big pig back. The 6.2 just played with it, 11.6 mpg running 73 all the way home from Cedar Rapids!
