Are these factory Suburban roof rack parts

[jlmerie]

I was at the junk yard today and saw a 1983 Suburban Silverado with a roof rack and wind deflector. I am not an expert on these, but they sure looked like the factory style. Unfortunately the SPID was gone so I could not check that way. I know there is a lot of expertise on the site. Thanks

[SilverMiner]

Yes, as far as I know those are the factory/dealer installed items. I've been scouring my local area for roof racks lately and have looked at a large number of them. From what I've seen in the junk yards, there are two basic styles of roof rack that I've identified so far - an earlier 70's style which is what your pictures show and a later 80's style that is much more angular and spare and not quite as desirable to my eye as the swoopy 70's version. I have no idea what year the changeover might have occurred, best guess right now is maybe 85.

I've been trying to spot them installed on actual rigs as well, but there seems to be far more of them in the junkyard than operating on the street sad to say. In the junkyards it seems that quite a few of them were not installed by the dealer but rather installed later. I say that because of how many I've seen installed with mere sheet metal screws, versus what I suspect was the official dealer-approved method which involved well nuts and stainless T-20 torx head bolts.

I see yours has the woodgrain trim inlet on the side rails, which is one of my favorite features that not all appear to have had (or perhaps rarely survives). I like the station wagon accent that it gives to the big square Suburban.