Change. It’s as inevitable as death and taxes. Nothing stays the same forever. Without an occasional shakeup in the routine, you’re not really living life to the fullest. What does change have to do with CC’s you ask? In this case, everything.
I recently enjoyed a quite fruituitous change in the conditions of my employment. I’ve traded sweltering valley heat for cool ocean breezes, and also shaved roughly an hour off my total daily commute. Both myself and the guy I replaced were ready for a change. We had both grown weary of our respective long drives, and our work relationships with our supervisors by this time were still amicable, but tense. When one of the senior brass offered to let me and the other guy swap locations, we both seized the opportunity without a second thought.
The green 1973 or 1974 Suburban pictured above belongs to the guy I traded places with. It’s remarkably clean, straight, and original. It hasn’t been blinged, Bubba’ed, or totally trashed like so many of these have. And it’s his daily driver.
The grille badge above certainly explains the owner’s large fuel budget. A carbureted, low compression 454-cube big block V8 pushing a 19 foot long, 7 foot wide, 5000 lb. brick down the road isn’t exactly the ideal formula for high MPG’s.
The above photo illustrates these trucks’ main Achilles heel- rust. For all of their legendary toughness, the ’73-’87 C/K trucks have always been particularly vulnerable to the tinworm. The only vehicles that rival these for rust are early 70’s big Fords. This one actually isn’t too bad. I hope the owner addresses it before the condition becomes terminal.
Tailgate party, anyone?
This gorgeous tangerine orange ’71-’73 Camaro belongs to one of the staffers inside. He’s the same guy who owns the lovely blue 1968 Chevelle in the second installment of Workplace Classics.
I have no idea what’s what’s lurking under that hood, but if it’s anything like what’s in his Chevelle, this is what you’re most likely to see if you challenge him:
I can’t look at one of these cars without thinking of my 9th grade biology teacher, Mrs. Watkins. She was a lovely woman in every way, and probably the only lady teacher that I ever had a genuine crush on. She and her husband owned a 1970 Camaro Type LT.
I have a feeling that Mrs. W and her husband were both gearheads. At the time, they owned a successful Suzuki motorcycle dealership in Torrance, California. Her daily driver was an Audi 5000 turbodiesel, but their weekend toy was the Camaro. Their particular Camaro was an odd mixture of musclecar and brougham. It was pale metallic gold with a tan vinyl landau roof, woodgrain dash with full center console, and the ubiquitous 6-hole rally wheels with raised white letter tires. Yeah, I know- an early 2nd gen F-body with a landau roof. Yuck. I’ve seen the car up close, and she filled me in on its mechanical specs. Under its plain flat hood was the holy grail of small blocks- the 350 cube, 370-horse LT1, mated to a four-speed Muncie transmission and 4.11 12-bolt rear end. I’d seen her leaving the school parking lot in it a couple of times, squealing its dinky little 14-inch tires without even trying. She was well aware that I was a total gearhead and a budding mechanic, so she asked me for my help in selling it. Unfortunately, given my youthful lack of experience in business matters, I wasn’t much help. I wonder if she still has it…
When I attended high school and college in the 1980s, these cars were one of the ones that were de rigeur with the rocker and surfer crowd back then. Despite growing up in Inglewood, I spent a great deal of my free time hanging out in Torrance and the neighboring beach cities, and these cars were everywhere.
One final relevant footnote on this blog entry’s “change” theme. As of this writing, the parking lot where I shot the photos in part 1 and 2 of my Workplace Classics series is now long gone. Not long after I posted part 2, that lot was ripped up and a new, fancy, high-tech department building is being built in its place. I attended the groundbreaking ceremony with the rest of my old crew. The deputy mayor, the police chief, and several well-known local media personalities were among the notable guests.
Once the new building is complete and the personnel moved in, the old building will be torn down and a multistory parking garage will be built its place.
Time marches on.
For better or worse the Suburban was indeed a truck and identical to the C-10, C-20 pickup from the front door forward. As with the pickups, every one more than five or so years old seemed to have rusted out wheel wells and fenders. Even so, they were fairly popular as Ford really didn’t have anything to match it until the Expedition, which debuted in 1997. Always wondered why Ford waited so long. Shouldn’t have been too difficult to lengthen the Bronco a bit and make it a 4 door.
Like this? I think a few custom coachbuilders such as Centurion did exactly what you’ve mentioned. Even more impressive are the custom Dodge B-series van “crew-cab” pickups.
Looks a bit like the later Excursion, but wasn’t that the idea? A big, BOF truckster with an optional 460 that would have tackled the Suburban head on.
My cousins lived in Torrance from the 60s to the mid-late 80s. They reluctantly moved up to Oregon when the owner of the mobile home park they lived in sold out so another high rise apartment building could be built.
My uncle had a 73 C series dually used to haul a large travel trailer. His 73 also had a 454.
Daily driving a 1970’s 454 Suburban? I raise a glass of 93 octane to that gentleman……
The advantage of the 454 for those who towed and loaded down their trucks regularly was that the fuel economy was pretty constant, empty, loaded, and towing.
Yep, my brother used to have a 3/4 ton Chevy pickup with the 454; it got 11 mpg whether or not it was only him in the cab, the bed was full of whatever, or he was towing his boat. He kept it well past its “sell by” date purely for boat towing duty; when they sold the boat a few years ago my SIL “suggested” that the truck be sold as well.
That was even possible with the “small” engines, such as the 360 in my old ’87 Dodge 3/4 ton.
Gas is a consistant $10 per gallon here very few petrol powered Suburbans in daily use anything bigger than a 350 is quite rare.
My favorite guise would have been the yellow/white combo with three doors. The strangled 454 is strangely appropriate.
The rust on the roof of that Suburban is unusual in my experience. Here in midwestern rustopia, it was always the lower 1/3 of the bodies that would dissolve. Maybe none of them lived long enough for the roofs to rust through.
I did not appreciate the significance of this Burb when it came out. I just took for granted that this would be a niche vehicle that would sell in steady but unspectacular numbers. I did not see that International would soon kill the Travelall and that the Burb would ride an amazing growth wave with zero competition until fairly recently.
I agree- in the 80s, there were plenty of ’70s Chevy/GMC trucks with large gaps between the top bed rail and the wheelarches- large enough to put your head through, and often mid-panel where it is hard to understand, as there would often not be a weld seam to collect rust. My guess is it is related to rust starting at the waistline trim and working its way around. It was Dodges and Fords that tended to rust on the roof, usually right above the windshield. I think CK’s improved around 1980 or 81 with the facelift. These rusted, but were no longer in competition with Toyota or Datsun pickups for dissolving. These C/K’s also were known for ‘flying nun’ syndrome in states without inspections- where the front fenders rusted around their perimeter and lifted up horizontally at highway speed.
I’m not a design savant, but I see a family resemblance between this generation of Chevy/GM trucks & the Colonnades.
11mpg is about what my dad’s ’70 429 Country Squire got. One of many examples of how Ford always seemed to underperform GM on this front.
There’s currently a *pristine* ’75 454 Suburban in that exact paint scheme on Craigslist in the Seattle area (benefitting from a lack of both constant sunlight and road salt). Never knew I wanted one of those before I saw that one.
This Suburban is a 3/4 ton, isn’t it? I haven’t seen any Suburban of this vintage in ages, let alone a 3/4 ton.
As a kid, I wasn’t particularly enamored with the Suburban until the ’73 came out, I really liked it. This one is a beast with the 454. Always wondered why Ford had nothing similar; the Travelall never sold well and was doomed as were International’s entire light-duty line. The Bronco wasn’t full-sized until ’78 (off topic: why did Chevy not have small ute like the original Bronco which was more like a Jeep or Scout?); but those later 4 door conversions lacked proper proportions somehow, and were only 3/4 ton. I’ve never truly understood the reason for a heavy-duty ‘Burb, you can’t hardly load it with enough weight to justify the increased GVWR, unless hauling batteries; but I guess the larger brakes help stopping a trailer, but if you need bigger brakes to stop your trailer, you need trailer brakes. Suburban got progressively more popular as the eighties progressed and the station wagon faded away. In my opinion, what made the ‘Burb really take off was the total redesign in the early ’90’s, and the death of the Wagoneer. The Wagoneer was always an upper middle class symbol, and the new ‘Burb filled it’s shoes perfectly. Seems like every upwardly mobile family has, or has had one. Need further proof the Wagoneer’s demise was the ‘Burb’s godsend? The Tahoe. More similar in proportion than a Suburban to the Wagoneer. Oh, and Ford finally noticed, introducing the Expediton. The heavy-duty Excursion didn’t last, but they did extend the Expedition to an EL, to go head to head with the Suburban 1500. Very, very few Suburban 2500’s were made in the last decade, and the newly redesigned ’15 model has not introduced a 2500 series yet, after 6 months. Who needs it? With the max trailering package, it’s rated to tow 8500 pounds.
The other thing that saved the Suburban was the downsizing of big cars and wagons. There were lots of well off guys who pulled their Airstream trailers with Cadillacs and Continentals. In the late 70s, the Suburban, when properly fitted out, became the go to alternative, becoming known as the Texas Cadillac.
Here in New England, I haven’t seen a Suburban of that generation on the road in years, even though it was made until 1991! I very occasionally see a C/K pickup of that era, but if I see an SUV, it’s always a 2-door (Blazer).
The Camaro is beautiful and in beautiful condition, though the bumpers are not original (they are RS style, but this car is obviously not an RS).
My father had this bodystyle of Suburban, purchased new in the summer of 1991. I don’t think the folks were too thrilled when the first all-new Suburban in 19 years debuted a few months later. Ha! Despite looking dated almost overnight, the old style had its fans. I can recall his receiving offers for that thing throughout his ownership, and selling it was no issue. Speaking of no issues, it broke 100K (on 9/9/99 no less) without significant ones, although rust bubbles were beginning to appear in that exact, peculiar spot above the rear windows. For the record, the car spent the last four years very near the Gulf of Mexico, which seemed to accelerate any corrosion.
I had a Sub of this generation for a while. That rust pattern along the roof line looks very familiar to me
I remember my first exposure to this vintage Suburban, my grandmothers neighbor, an unmarried, large manish woman owned one of these, (why? I have no idea)similar 2 tone scheme to this Suburban, it was getting rusty after 4 or 5 years and it was replaced by a 2 tone Caprice Classic wagon.
Weird. When I was little, my mom had a coworker who pretty much matched that exact description. Her Suburban (I think it might have actually been the GMC version) was dark blue with light blue trim.
My Dad factory ordered a 1973 Suburban…Same lime green with woodgrain instead of white….The rust started at 3 years old….roof had holes in it at 5 years old…Rocker panels were gone by 6 yrs old…and fenders were rotted out by 6 yrs….The Suburban in this feature at 41 years old looks like my Dad’s when it was 4 or 5 years old.
The featured Suburban is a 20 series so is a 3/4 ton…The trim is Custom Deluxe so this example has the lower trim level….My Dad’s had the Cheyenne Super trim which would be renamed Silverado trim in 1975. His was 2WD with the 350 and automatic…It had 3.73 gears so the engine was spinning high at 60mph but it would get 15mpg highway with the 350. The mirrors on the feature truck look like they were swapped off a newer truck…..The drip rails above the doors were an option in 73…My Dad’s did not have them…so every time you opened the door on a rainy day, water would drip down onto the end of the seats.
Those ’73 ~ ’87 Trucks were IMO the very last real honest to God work trucks made by GM .
Sturdy with nearly bulletproof draivetrains no matter how specc’d out , the only real boo-Boo was GN’s using paper thin , Uber cheap sheet metal that the didn’t bother to rust proof after the bodies were jig welded up , pretty much forcing them to be rust buckets even here in Sunny Southern California , land of little rust .
I had a really nice 1975 GMC 2500 (3/4 ton) long bed pickup in 2000 , it had been special ordered new by North American Van Lines , still had the faded original paint , I rebuilt the entire driveline and electrical system then used it for *one* long haul job (the one I bought it for) before giving it away , a very nice rig indeed but too long for my short little driveway .
Chris , the next time you’re getting fitted for a new vest , drop by Salvage , I’m in there right next to P.D. Supply .
Those odd ball vehicles /Motos/Vintage trucks are all mine .
-Nate
At Piper?
Another thing about that generation of 1973-87 truck is that someone could sit down and factory order a truck the way they wanted…..There were several engine options, transmission options along with various axle ratios and suspension options such as choice of springs, shocks, etc.
Back in the day, I factory ordered a 2000 Chevy 2WD LS Silverado shortbed sportside pickup with the 4.3 6 cylinder, 5 speed manual and 3.08 axle. I was considering an extended cab, but I was told that the 5 speed was not available in an extended cab except with the base work truck trim (rubber floor mats, etc) but the LS or LT trim extended cab required the automatic. This made no sense to me, why a 5 speed was only available in 1 trim level on an extended cab, yet it was available on any trim level on the standard cab.
I wanted the LS trim, so I ended up ordering the standard cab rather than the extended cab in order to get the 5 speed……I doubt very much that a Silverado 1/2 ton pickup is even available with a manual transmission in 2014 models.
Think you’re right about the transmission–in fact I can’t find availability of a manual in any of the big 3 full-size trucks. That seems wrong on so many levels. Even a basic work truck gets a 6-speed (or 8-speed in the case of the RAM) autobox.
Ok. I know I’m a little late with the question…What causes rust to develop at the roofline like that? Evaporation and then internal condensation?