'55 Suburban Second Series Survivor

[Second Series]

I looked for a suburban for about a year before I found one that was close enough to home. I bought this 1955.2 a year ago. As I was driving off, I heard the seller holler " we don't even know if the tires hold air"! I wasn't too concerned about that as my attention was on the tight steering. I really had to work to get around that first corner and I had to work harder to straighten out after the turn before going off the side of the road. I drove slow and never put it in Fourth gear. At one point there were a half dozen cars behind me. And then a police car joined the procession. One by one the cars peeled off until the police were right behind. The plates were Twelve years expired and there were no functioning lights. I used my hand to signal turns and stops and the police eventually peeled off too. I made the Seven mile journey home no trouble at all.
My first task was to get the Title in my name and get new plates. I didn't know how that would go as it had been awhile since it was registered last. No red flags at the title agency, I just had to wait for the state to send the document. I waited a month and a half before calling the title agent to ask what had happened. It seems the title was undeliverable and they would need to issue another one because they destroyed the first when it was returned to them. I waited some more and my title finally arrived in the mail.
I wasn't sure what I would do with this vehicle, but I did know that I wanted to get it from "keep it out of the junkyard" status to "keep it on the road" status. I would start it up and run it almost every weekend, sometimes I would drive it a few feet move it from one parking place to another. It started every time right away to my amazement, and I wanted to keep it that way. I put new battery cables on and cleaned the contacts. I replaced the sparkplugs and wires. New cap and rotor, condenser and points. I had a struggle with the nut and bolt that goes through the side of the distributor. The inner nut was rusted onto the bolt and it was in a recess in the housing. I saw two holes in the nut so I put the tips of a small needle nose pliers in the holes. I had to hold the bolt with small visegrips. I got it out with some penetrating oil and brute force without damage. I decided to reuse the nut and bolt but I replaced the wire that goes between the distributor and coil.
One day it would not start. I replaced the coil and the wire between coil and ballast resistor. I even tried bypassing the ballast resistor, but it wouldn't run. I replaced the metal fuel filter with a clear plastic one and tried to get fuel into it with a suction, but no luck. I removed the fuel line from the pump and ran a hose into a gas can, primed the carb and got it running. I had a full tank when I bought it but the tank was empty now. I put five gallons in and all was good except I didn't think enough fuel was in the filter now that I could see. I replaced the fuel pump. I read about repairing the fuel pump, but when I looked, it was pressed together. When the new fuel pump arrived at the auto parts store, I found it to be serviceable, so I was happy that it looked original. New fuel pump with crusty and mangled fuel lines, I might want to replace those, but they work for now. The level of fuel in the filter didn't seem to change, but I know the pump is good and the engine runs fine so that's just the way it is.
Leaky Radiator, took it to the radiator shop. They replaced the V-cell core with Tube and Fin and made it look nice. A new V-cell core would cost another hundred. I didn't want to flush rust from the old radiator into the block, and I didn't want rust from the block getting into the new radiator. While the radiator was out I ran a hose into the block to flush it out. I held my hand over the lower pipe and filled the jacket up and released my hand and let it all run out. I did this several times until the water was clear. I found a lower hose that works from the auto parts store, but no upper. I installed the rebuilt radiator and filled it up to the thermostat housing before putting a new thermostat in. I thought that would get most of the air out. I let it run for awhile and the thermostat opened when it got hot enough. The radiator overflow trickled onto the ground. I'll have to put an overflow reservoir on it, unfortunately the new tube runs to the bottom. I may have to cut it near the top unless the reservoir works as is.
Before I drive, I'll need to be able to steer and stop. The brakes work good, but I want to see the condition and the parking brake doesn't work. I put it on jack stands and removed the wheels. Disconnected the pitman arm and could not turn the wheels. I couldn't grease Three of the kingpin Zerks so I sprayed penetrating oil on the kingpins everyday for a week. I can now grease the tops, so still spraying to loosen the bottoms. I'm ready to buy new Zerks for the bottoms. I reconnected the pitman arm and I can hit the steering wheel and it spins from one end to the other, still on jack stands. I removed the brake drums. The rear look ok, the front driver's side is groovy, so off to the machine shop. Not enough meat on the bone, the shoes look ok, so I greased the bearings and put the drums back on for now. I found the intermediate parking brake cable is frayed. I'll replace that and see how the rear cables function. I removed the access cover for the brake master cylinder. The cap is metal so I sprayed it with penetrating oil, I'll try to open the master cylinder to check the fluid level and bleed the system.