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| | Garage find Suburban | |
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+3toomanytoyz Cadet57 Matt Trakker 7 posters | Author | Message |
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Matt Trakker
Posts : 5093 Join date : 2009-07-30 Age : 42 Location : Reading, MA
| Subject: Garage find Suburban Mon Nov 21, 2011 9:55 pm | |
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| | | Matt Trakker
Posts : 5093 Join date : 2009-07-30 Age : 42 Location : Reading, MA
| | | | Cadet57
Posts : 4481 Join date : 2010-03-14 Age : 36 Location : Chicopee, MA
| | | | Matt Trakker
Posts : 5093 Join date : 2009-07-30 Age : 42 Location : Reading, MA
| Subject: Re: Garage find Suburban Mon Nov 21, 2011 10:27 pm | |
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| | | toomanytoyz Club President
Posts : 6876 Join date : 2009-01-20 Age : 47 Location : East Hampstead, NH USA
| Subject: Re: Garage find Suburban Mon Nov 21, 2011 10:38 pm | |
| Wow. That thing looks to be in unbelievable shape! Wow! | |
| | | Matt Trakker
Posts : 5093 Join date : 2009-07-30 Age : 42 Location : Reading, MA
| Subject: Re: Garage find Suburban Mon Nov 21, 2011 11:00 pm | |
| Yeah man, it was a buy of the century for sure...it's not 4wd but who cares, it's a time capsule and ain't gettin' driven in the snow!
It's a 350 4bbl, TH400, 14 bolt, 8 lug w/4.10 ratio. 80K miles. It has A/C (no rear A/C) but manual windows and locks. Radio doesn't work, piece of molding fell off but is in the truck, has some vintage add-on "Silver Stirrups" running boards, a Deflecta-Shield red bug deflector (not on the truck) that is wicked 80s, trailer brakes, some kind of a trailer stabilizing system that alternated the brakes I guess and helped with swaying...it also has the rare full 16: wheel covers like my old Suburban had.
It was on CL for a while, cheap, my friend looked at it because it was one town over and I went along to meet him there because he knew I had one before and wanted me to see it. I was driving up to hang out anyway. When I pulled up to the guy's house and saw that truck, I almost soiled myself. It needs to be detailed bad, but it's super original. I'm shocked.
My friend has an '88 that he got from his grandfather, but it has a bunch of rust problems and some hack body shop in Peabody messed it all up when his grandfather owned it. They charged him three grand to hang a quarter on the truck crooked, spray great stuff foam, and set it on fire. The thing would cost thousands to restore, but it had sentimental value. My friend saw this one on CL and remembered that I kind of needed the nice beige '74 Impala to get away from my distressed green '74 Impala, and figured it would be a better deal to buy this for about 1/10th the cost. LOL
It was sold new in Malden, MA at Davidson Chevrolet, the guy worked for Eastern Airlines at Logan back in the day and must have seen it driving home to Route 93 or something. It was in Fremont NH it's whole life in that garage, it came with all the old license plates including the 20 day paper plate as well as some paperwork.
The truck runs nice considering but needs a tune up, it idles a little low. Needs tires BAD too, they're all cupped for some reason and just old. It hasn't been driven much for the past decade or so.
As for the instrument cluster, diesel trucks of this vintage have a "WATER IN FUEL/GLOW PLUGS" lamp at the top center of the bezel, that little rectangular thing. This has a gas engine, so I was like "wtf?" when my friend sent me the CL ad in an email and saw that in the pic. When you turn the key, a CHECK ENGINE light comes on in there and goes off, and this truck also has a CHOKE light at the bottom of the speedometer where the SERVICE ENGINE SOON lamp would normally be on a newer TBI truck like this. It also has AIR system tubing and some weird plastic things with hoses going into them on each side of the engine, as well as strange exhaust manifolds that don't look cast, but more like pipes welded together. Yet, it has no cats and straight duals all the way back with mufflers. Looks factory. I think this may be "California emissions", and maybe since MA uses the same requirements, it was sold this way in MA??? The check engine light looks almost like an afterthought, and every GM of that vintage I ever saw said "Service Engine Soon" if anything.
I feel really bad for the guy who owned this truck, just like how I felt bad for the old lady who had my Caprice. He got it new and had fun, but his age got to him, and it was depressing seeing how his signature was on the old original paperwork in a normal state, but on the registration for this year in the glove compartment, he had signed the paperwork and could barely scribble his name. I'm surprised his son, the seller, wasn't keeping it. At least this truck is being preserved the way it should be and not assed up or run into the ground by some knuckledragger that would have used it as a work truck. I'm helping my friend polish/clean it (along with a detailing guy who works at my friends' dealership), I convinced him to leave the stickers on it, and use it as a cool tow vehicle/take it to shows in the summertime.
After this whole ordeal I want another 80s Suburban (in this condition)!
Last edited by Matt Trakker on Sun Apr 08, 2012 9:28 pm; edited 1 time in total | |
| | | 1984twodoor
Posts : 4068 Join date : 2010-03-30 Age : 30 Location : Wilmington/Wakefield/Andover
| Subject: Re: Garage find Suburban Mon Nov 21, 2011 11:31 pm | |
| - toomanytoyz wrote:
- Wow. That thing looks to be in unbelievable shape! Wow!
That was living in NH!? Must have never seen the road! | |
| | | Matt Trakker
Posts : 5093 Join date : 2009-07-30 Age : 42 Location : Reading, MA
| Subject: Re: Garage find Suburban Tue Nov 22, 2011 7:52 pm | |
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| | | Matt Trakker
Posts : 5093 Join date : 2009-07-30 Age : 42 Location : Reading, MA
| | | | toomanytoyz Club President
Posts : 6876 Join date : 2009-01-20 Age : 47 Location : East Hampstead, NH USA
| Subject: Re: Garage find Suburban Wed Nov 23, 2011 7:17 am | |
| Can you decode the VIN? Maybe it was originally a diesel and they swapped in a gas motor? I don't know that GM ever offered a true dual exhaust on yhat body style? | |
| | | mikiehews
Posts : 372 Join date : 2011-02-03 Age : 48 Location : brockton
| Subject: Re: Garage find Suburban Wed Nov 23, 2011 8:56 am | |
| - toomanytoyz wrote:
- Can you decode the VIN? Maybe it was originally a diesel and they swapped in a gas motor? I don't know that GM ever offered a true dual exhaust on yhat body style?
if the engine code is "M" yeah its a true duel. Judging by the exhaust manifolds I'd say yes. Either way there should be a field for "epic finds" and that should be the first. What a nice rig. | |
| | | mikiehews
Posts : 372 Join date : 2011-02-03 Age : 48 Location : brockton
| Subject: Re: Garage find Suburban Wed Nov 23, 2011 9:01 am | |
| - mikiehews wrote:
- toomanytoyz wrote:
- Can you decode the VIN? Maybe it was originally a diesel and they swapped in a gas motor? I don't know that GM ever offered a true dual exhaust on yhat body style?
if the engine code is "M" yeah its a true duel. Judging by the exhaust manifolds I'd say yes. Either way there should be a field for "epic finds" and that should be the first. What a nice rig. I forgot to metion the "m" engine code if a 4bolt main block also used in P30's and RV's. I also bet it has "H5D" emissions code. Stainless steel exhaust manifolds. | |
| | | Ironfistdog
Posts : 2141 Join date : 2011-01-11 Age : 42 Location : Warren, MA
| Subject: Re: Garage find Suburban Wed Nov 23, 2011 12:27 pm | |
| That's the stock gauge cluster for the truck, my 86 looked just like it and it had a gasoline 454. It has something to do with adding a check engine light for california emmissions testing. I've only seen suburbans with it like this. It also could be a Canadian built truck. I have a billet grille for this style truck in pretty good shape if he decides to scrap that broken grille.
Last edited by Ironfistdog on Wed Nov 23, 2011 1:30 pm; edited 1 time in total | |
| | | 95brmw
Posts : 1434 Join date : 2009-11-10 Age : 39 Location : Connecticut
| Subject: Re: Garage find Suburban Wed Nov 23, 2011 12:51 pm | |
| I don't think I have ever seen one of these in that good of shape! I have always liked these body style Chevys. I had an 85 C20 dually that I sold in April and still regret it. These things ride real nice for a truck, I actually enjoyed driving it more than my Ram. Mine was a base work truck that had just vinyl seats and nothing for the interior. I never knew these could look so good with all the trim in place and dash that's not a cracked mess. Make sure he preserves that one, its a keeper for sure! | |
| | | Matt Trakker
Posts : 5093 Join date : 2009-07-30 Age : 42 Location : Reading, MA
| Subject: Re: Garage find Suburban Wed Nov 23, 2011 5:57 pm | |
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| | | Matt Trakker
Posts : 5093 Join date : 2009-07-30 Age : 42 Location : Reading, MA
| Subject: Re: Garage find Suburban Wed Nov 23, 2011 6:11 pm | |
| Thanks for the compliments by the way, I will pass them along...I figured people would want to get a load of this thing so I took plenty of pics that day. Here's some other randoms from the same day Ancient Craftsman air compressor that was next to the truck in that garage This is about 40-50 years old Helped put some fiberglass insulation in a friends garage. Remind me to not do that again, we had no masks, um, yeah... Anyway, '67 Caddy. Motorcyclist tried to pass when car was turning into a driveway and whacked the side of it, ins. company actually didn't total the car... | |
| | | Matt Trakker
Posts : 5093 Join date : 2009-07-30 Age : 42 Location : Reading, MA
| Subject: Re: Garage find Suburban Sun Apr 08, 2012 9:39 pm | |
| My friend managed to find my old 88 'Burban on CL a week or two ago, and bought it for parts. He put the BFGs I'd put on it back in like 2003 or 04 on the red Suburban to replace the cupped tires. It needs shocks bad, which I'd say is what wrecked the tires, he's doing them next. While he was breaking down the tires at work, the detail guy went over the truck with one pass of the polisher real quick and here is the result, no more dusty almost pink Suburban! [You can see my old blue one over behind my Tahoe in the background. I'll have to take pics of that one and post them so you can see how trashed it is now. ] I think once it's polished one more time, cleaned up, waxed, and the tires scrubbed/white letters cleaned, this truck will blind people. I personally drove this red one from Deerfield to Rochester on Saturday and what a blast that was. When you're in a 1980s Suburban that still clearly has the 2-tone paint and tape stripes people tend to stare at it! Especially when it's bright red! So many of those trucks were repainted and a lot of the time when the shop did it, they put the 2-tone and stripes on wrong where they are supposed to curve down toward the leading end of the front fenders. They'd make the line go straight instead of following the body line! After seeing this truck polished, I REALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLY want another one. | |
| | | 1984twodoor
Posts : 4068 Join date : 2010-03-30 Age : 30 Location : Wilmington/Wakefield/Andover
| Subject: Re: Garage find Suburban Sun Apr 08, 2012 10:48 pm | |
| This truck has become my DREAM suburban! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGnao2QZ9TQ&list=FLdIxDGj4wxWAVagfaKYDe5A&index=41&feature=plpp_video | |
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