My new 1971 Burb 4x4

[POS1]

About six months ago, I fell into the purchase of a rare and very driveable 1965 Chevy C20 longbed stepside.



I started breaking it down for a 'restoration'. Well, really I was going to redo the chassis, the engine bay, and the interior and leave the exterior alone. I'm not a rat-rod guy, I just thought that the 50 years of Texas sunburn looked cool. Anyways, I finally came to realization (before getting too deep into the restoration), that I really don't want to spend all that time and money to end up with a project that's kinda cool to me.

So I started searching for another Chevy to do. I was going to do a Blazer or something like that, but then I started looking at the 67-72 Suburbans and and just loved the clean lines (I own a 2009 and a 2011 Suburban now - love them) more than the 63-66 pickups. Plus, with my two boys, I can really make an old Suburban interesting whereas a pickup only half-way does it for me.

I found this one up in Oregon. Restored nine years ago by a nice man who loved his old Suburban, and then finally sold when he moved to Portland to live in the city. It needs WAY less work than my old C20 does. I received it yesterday - 95% rust-free. Shiny paint with lots of little flaws, but hey - it's a truck! No need to be perfect. Runs and drives very well. I'm going to restore the chassis to beautiful and new and get all the mechanicals working top-notch. Then I'll work on making the interior more comfortable.

I drove it to Cars N Coffee Houston this morning, and I'm very, very happy with my purchase. I bought it sight-unseen, and I got lucky to get a good one. I've owned lots of old classics over the past ten years, so I do know how to mitigate the risks of buying sight-unseen, but it's still one helluva risk. In this case, all is great. Engine idles very well, there is no rust to worry about, and someone already spent the money on the body and interior. Redoing the mechanicals ought to be easy!

I'll keep adding to this thread as time goes by - progress notes of sorts.









First up - new starter, new battery, new lenses/bulbs, and a side-view mirror so I can get it inspected and registered into Texas.

PS - I really need a stock air cleaner assembly that's in very good shape - anyone got one?