thee HAMbulance

[ac/bc]

well, here I go. hopefully I can make a long story short, but I started visiting the burb forum about 10 yrs ago, when I first got my 71 4x4 suburban. not much original about that one, but it was mechanically ok just needed lots of tlc cosmetically. im in florida near the beach, and the rust and the years got away from me. I own my own framing/carpentry company and it seems like I either had money or time but never both for working on the truck. I grabbed up a 2wd carcass with barn doors (which I liked better anyway) for the body, original seats, and mostly intact but ratty doorskins for $200. and started taking it apart at a friends shop for what I thought was gonna be a body swap, frame off restoration of the green 4x4. life happened, and I ended up with 2 rusty trucks and a lot of parts and boxes of parts all over my yard, storage unit, garage.... The last couple of years construction came back, and we got a new poker room nearby, so I've had some extra money to get the body work done professionally. after asking around for estimates, I found out that I couldn't give my money away, either because the project was just too much or something but 4 outta five restoration guys never called back. and the guy that guesstimated close to my budget never followed up. so much for a short story, huh? so my buddy up in Vermont, whose also a burb fan, knew I was back in action on project progress sent me a picture of a suburban ambulance that his friend just bought as a two-fer deal with a k-5. he put the ambulance immediately on ebay so he didn't have to ship it from cali to Vermont. He sent me some more pics and details and I said I WANT IT. for about half as much as I was thinking about paying for body work, I ended up with a 1970 suburban ambulance with 47k original miles, some cool options and lots of interesting paperwork and bill of sales, tags from the ambulance company... enough talk for now, heres some pics from the ebay ad...

[vectorit]

Glad to read you are back in gear to get a burb on the road, and I for sure will be following your progress!

[tlcrz1972]

How about a shot of the interior, especially how the headliner was done.

To cool a ride.

[ac/bc]

oh yes, I have more pics and posts to come. getting ahold of a truck this nice inspired me enough to get my stepson to show me how to transfer and find pictures for the post. so ill be updating it often. my stepson inherited my old green 4x4, by the way, so that story isn't over yet. he's had his eyes on that one since he was about 13, and he s 20 and in college now. we'll probably do a cool low budget rat job on it and make it a beach cruiser. as far as the ambulance interior goes, the old equipment is gutted, cheesy home depot carpet in the bed. immaculate door skins which seem to be original, and a recovered front seat with a crooked bowtie stitched in. I think the headliner in the front part of the cab is original, but warped and saggy. I haven't had it long enough to tell you what the rear headliner is like. ill get some pics this week when I go down to the shop to check on the suspension/4x4 conversion. the pics here are of that progress after I got the 15" rallys powder coated flat white and mounted with 31x10.50 bfg at's.

[ac/bc]

the "project" as I see it right now:
-UN-lower it (im a fan of function over form, and dragging bottom for six feet on speed bumps at the beer store is not function in my eyes)\

-since it already had a pretty nice ride with 4 coil suspension, im sticking with that. I was torn between getting this near original platform back to original, and getting what I wanted out of my first 71 suburban, which was have a 4x4 with a factory or near factory stance for cruising and camping. so function won out, and im putting the floating 205 transfer case in it leaving the original 50k mile 350/350 combo intact.

-seats and carpet are not original so the carpets coming out and im probably do some sort of seat reconfiguring and reupholstering. ive got a thread looking for the second row 3/4 seat, and id like to put that in combo with the third row(mounted with quick release for function) that I already had from the parts truck. im a carpenter, so I think im gonna do a rough sawn cherry bed in the back, with some wood I milled from a giant black cherry that fell in my yard years ago. ive got some 16"-20" wide planks that im dying to use on something. the front floor will probably go back to rubber or something easy to clean florida sand out.

-maybe, if it lines up, put some of the original ambulance lights and siren back. not a priority, but if it fell into place, and cost was right, it would be fun. same for interior ambulance equipment.

-ive also got a thread for work/utility bumpers so if that lines up I would like to go back with something that might have been on the ambulance originally

as you all know its a work in progress and I haven't had it long enough to know what the project "needs". im looking forward to the process, and learning along the way. I can build just about anything out of wood, but I haven't even scratched the surface on working on cars and trucks. I feel like a little kid sometimes when I read and see what some of you are doing on your projects. when I started taking apart the 2wd parts truck, years ago, I was absolutely amazed at the fact that I could take that rolling chassis apart down to the frame with about 3 sockets in a matter of days. easy right? putting it back together is another story. any dummy can demo a house with some basic tools, but building it back, not so easy.

[72k5zl1]

hows it running? Bato made it home in one piece.

[ac/bc]

HA!! running good. I was hoping to have it back from the 4x4 conversion in time to drive it right back up there for bato's party next weekend. would you happen to be his friend who I got it from?

[72k5zl1]

yes sir!

[Hart_Rod]

Cool build.

[ac/bc]

thanks, I notice you're in fl also. any groups or events or any thing around for chevy truckers?

[Hart_Rod]

Originally Posted by ac/bc

thanks, I notice you're in fl also. any groups or events or any thing around for chevy truckers?

I'm in Pensacola. There's a weekly car show at one of the Burger Kings and some other sporadic car shows throughout the summer, but that's about it over here.

[mcbassin]

Looks like a real cool ambulance/burb. Subscribed.