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I purchased my '69 Suburban almost two years ago. It was fairly straight, but pretty neglected interior wise, and lots of little issues that required work. We were looking for a replacement for the 1984 Toyota 4x4 that we'd had for over 20 yrs, and found the '69 by chance on the local Craigslist when looking for newer Suburbans. A quick look and test drive, and it was our's.
This was when we first purchased it in April 2011:
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First thing on the list was to get things working, so I bought a repair kit to get the heater and vent controls working, plus a new fan switch. The radio was scabbed in, and not hooked up, nor were there speakers, so I got a new radio/CD player, and speakers and installed them. The rear cargo area had no side panels, so I made cardboard templates and then transferred them to masonite and cut them out with a jigsaw. Once they fit I covered them with black naugahyde, and mounted the speakers in the rear:
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As you can see in the pictures, the carpet was a faded out dark blue, but in good shape, so I pulled all the carpet and dyed it black. While the carpet was out I decided to replace the tired old bucket seats someone had put in, plus the original fixed bench rear seat that was well worn.
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Looking around the ads, I located a complete electric leather buckets and folding bench setup from a 2001 Durango, and purchased them. I also located a decent early Blazer console, and got it. I had to fabricate mounts for the buckets and the folding bench, but a little welding and they fit right in:
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One of the sill plates was missing, and the other was trash, so I got two new stainless steel sill plates:
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The Burb had a new engine, TH400 trans, and conversion to 5 lug power discs, plus HD swaybars front and rear, so it didn't need much beyond a good cleaning and polishing under the hood:
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The grille above and below the center bar was pretty broke up, and I found an old tube grille for it at the swap meet for $5. It was fpr a later Chevy C10, so I cut the center tubes out, and reworked it to sit behind the grille slightly:
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We've been using the Burb as our daily driver for nearly two years, and recently found some bigger tires and wheels at the local swap meet. Went from the pitted old 15x7 spokes with 205-70-15 tires, to powder coated ralley sports 15x10 with 275-50-15 in back, and 15x8 with 235-60-15 up front.
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I still want to lower the Burb all around, with probably 3" in the rear, and 2" up front.
This was when we first purchased it in April 2011:
First thing on the list was to get things working, so I bought a repair kit to get the heater and vent controls working, plus a new fan switch. The radio was scabbed in, and not hooked up, nor were there speakers, so I got a new radio/CD player, and speakers and installed them. The rear cargo area had no side panels, so I made cardboard templates and then transferred them to masonite and cut them out with a jigsaw. Once they fit I covered them with black naugahyde, and mounted the speakers in the rear:
As you can see in the pictures, the carpet was a faded out dark blue, but in good shape, so I pulled all the carpet and dyed it black. While the carpet was out I decided to replace the tired old bucket seats someone had put in, plus the original fixed bench rear seat that was well worn.
Looking around the ads, I located a complete electric leather buckets and folding bench setup from a 2001 Durango, and purchased them. I also located a decent early Blazer console, and got it. I had to fabricate mounts for the buckets and the folding bench, but a little welding and they fit right in:
One of the sill plates was missing, and the other was trash, so I got two new stainless steel sill plates:
The Burb had a new engine, TH400 trans, and conversion to 5 lug power discs, plus HD swaybars front and rear, so it didn't need much beyond a good cleaning and polishing under the hood:
The grille above and below the center bar was pretty broke up, and I found an old tube grille for it at the swap meet for $5. It was fpr a later Chevy C10, so I cut the center tubes out, and reworked it to sit behind the grille slightly:
We've been using the Burb as our daily driver for nearly two years, and recently found some bigger tires and wheels at the local swap meet. Went from the pitted old 15x7 spokes with 205-70-15 tires, to powder coated ralley sports 15x10 with 275-50-15 in back, and 15x8 with 235-60-15 up front.
I still want to lower the Burb all around, with probably 3" in the rear, and 2" up front.
