These pages chronicle my 1955 1st Series GMC Suburban.  She is a Deluxe model and came with 
an original Hydra-Matic and a lot of original accessories/options.  I came across this Suburban on 
the Internet.  It was for sale at a used car lot in Arizona.  I requested and received info and 
photos but I was not prepared to buy it at the time.  Six months later, I was prepared, but the 
Suburban was sold!  I inquired about the new owner and found out that another used car dealer 
had purchased it.  I got the phone number and called that dealer.  A bit of wrangling and the 
Suburban was on a transport truck to California.  About a week later she arrived at my home.  I 
was in love!

 

It didn't take long into the 
relationship for me to realize 
she had a few problems.  Here 
are the major ones...

 

1)  The interior, or what's left of it.

2)  The transmission, it had notes in the glove box stating fluid consumption of two quarts every 20-30 miles!!

3)  Numerous engine problems including an oil pump intake that was clogged and had a hole in it.  A broken lifter.  Badly scored rod bearings including one that was hammered to the point of being a quarter inch wider than the rest.  And head gasket leaks between four cylinders.

4)  All four fenders had been hideously radiused about four inches to clear big tires!  This required the purchase of three parts cars just to get all four decent fenders.

5)  And the kicker was, The Crack.  The crack was a surgically straight and clean break through the frame.  That part wasn't so bad though.  What was bad was the way it was repaired by the previous owner.  The frame rails were not clamped together level and a  scab patch was welded to the frame AND the leaf spring perch!!  This would definitely require a serious repair.

 

On November 20th 2005 I had my fill of NOS problems.  My wife said I would never be happy with a restored Suburban.  She was right.  I was trying to go against my grain again.  I have always been a hot-rodder at heart. I rolled the Suburban out to my home shop and got 'stubborn!'  I suspended the entire body from the rafters of the shop and lifted away.  I rolled the stock frame out from under the Suburban.

WARNING:  This was stupid and unsafe!  As I said, 'stubborn!'  

 

Stupid is suspending a very rare vehicle from rafters that could let go and collapse the whole shop roof, as well as destroy the Suburban.Unsafe is doing it all by yourself!!  Oh yeah, that part is stupid also!!

 

The motto of my shop at home is "I ALWAYS WIN!" And win I did.  Within four hours of walking out to the shop, I had removed the stock frame, did a four wheel swap from a spare frame and swapped in a rolling S10 frame with some of our S10 frame swap kit installed.  This one still had a 350 mockup motor and TH350 tranny installed.

 

The next weekend was engine swap time.  I borrowed my wife's 2005 5.3 liter Displacement on Demand aluminum V8 and set that baby into place.  I built the engine and transmission mounts and got ready for steering and brake fabrication.

 

By mid-March I had the engine back out and all the steering, foot brakes, parking brakes and electronic throttle engineered.  I installed a set of two-inch billet wheel  adapters to go from the S10 5x4.75" bolt pattern to the stock Suburban 6x5.50" bolt pattern.  I did this because I decided to go with a completely stock look, inside and out, with a totally late model running gear and drivetrain.

 

This is the look I'm at as of April 2nd 2005.  I rattle canned the wheels, snapped on some stock hubcaps and put on a set of temporary tires.

I've brought the wife's yellow truck back into the shop for steering, brakes and throttle engineering.  Since it will be nearly the same as the Suburban I will only be 
adding to those pages when I get some of the wiring, axle swap and permanent radiator support modifications done.

 

Next on the agenda for the Suburban are master cylinder and power booster install and permanent radiator support modifications.