I try not to indulge my tendency of negative feelings about “resto-mods”; they may not be my preferred cup of tea, but to each their own. But it does help explain why I’m at a loss to explain something very unusual about this GMC Suburban from the ’50 – ’53 “Advance Design” era: it has a third door on this side. And I can’t figure out if that was a recent modification or whether it came that way, from a coach works or such. If the truck had been more original, I would have felt warmer to it, and introduced myself to the owner sitting behind the wheel. Instead, I let those horrible wheels turn me off, and I just peeled off a couple of quick shots. And now I have a mystery on my hands that I can’t solve.
Here’s a crop of my other shot. I’m really stumped. It would have taken a lot of work to create this now; look at the complex parts, and how they all fit together. It’s looking more like something done back then, by a proper coachworks. And there’s another issue:
They didn’t just convert that middle window into a door; note how the middle window in the production version extends further back, well beyond the leading edge of the rear fender. The one I found has a shorter middle window, and a correspondingly longer rear-most side window. That’s some serious bodywork. But then there’s no door handle on this black oddball. Weird.
I almost convinced myself it was a recent modification when I stumbled into this Chevy version. It’s a resto-mod too, and has gotten two suicide rear doors as part of the makeover. Aha!
But then I realized that new door was created around the existing windows. Still a lot of work, but much more obvious and logical than the one I found.
Who would go to the trouble of lengthening the rear-most window, and moving its front pillar just so that a shorter door could be created? I’m really stumped with this one. Oh, and one more thing, when he drove off, it was clear that the other side was “normal”, without a door. What I didn’t look for was whether the window spacing was normal, which it almost undoubtedly was.
My guess is that a coach works offered this conversion for some special purpose back in the day, but if so, where’s the door handle?
One thing is for certain; if I run into it again, I’m going to ask, or take a much closer look. It just goes to show that resto-mods deserve a closer look too, especially if they’re sporting some very unusual body mods.
Not factory but a good idea and nicely done. I imagine it is much easier to access the rear seats and the door is on the “curb side” of the vehicle. Interestingly the 1967-1972 Suburban did have a third door on the right side but not until the 1973 models and later was a fourth door added.
A family (mom, dad, and six children) in my neighborhood acquired a new 1973 nine-passenger Suburban and it was ideal for them. It was nicely trimmed and even had the Di-Noc “wood grain” on the sides.
Later that year the first oil embargo hit. Since the oldest child had recently obtained her driver’s license they bought twin Toyota Corollas (very basic but serviceable) for day-to-day use. They kept the Suburban for family trips etc.
Maybe the door latch/handle is hidden on the face of the door and you have to open the front door to get at it, like most vans? Good question on a baffling rig.
It could also be an electric release like on a car with “shaved” door handles.
An interesting concept, looks well done to me .
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Too bad they followed the B.S. fake patina craze and used wheels that in no way match the rest of the truck .
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-Nate
Faux patina is really annoying to me as well, and this one is just not a well thought out or executed version. The idea was to emulate years of real wear on the paint, which would mean sunburn from the top and any areas that would receive direct sun. In this case, it looks like a bad camo paint job with the splotches just applied “willy-nilly”. Somehow, a true patina does not bother me so much, I guess because it is honest and earned. It is funny that the guy probably spent more money on a paint job that looks like it was done badly over the cost of a nice regular paint job.
And on top of that it’s super glossy, completely defeating the purpose. I’ve seen a few patina craze trucks with actual legit pretty patina horribly ruined with thick clear. And when chearcoats deteriorate(which they most certainly will applied over rust) it won’t even age well like the original single stage color did.
I agree though, that doesn’t negate the stupidness of faking of patina. This execution reminds me of brand new torn jeans or new “road worn” guitar finishes. I get the appeal of the real deal if it’s not full blown trashed, but isn’t kind of the point not caring about how it looks? With a glossy patina, or even a well thought out/well executed fake patina, you’d be worrying about dings dents and peeling just like anyone with perfect paint does. ” oh man, someone scratched my airbrushed rust, time to call hagerty!”
I’m guessing they may have converted a panel truck. Weird, not how I’d have done it…mine would’ve been more like the Chevy. THAT looks plausible to me.
That said, I’m going to guess they used an Envoy chassis, it would have had to be narrowed a bit to fit the wheels under the fenders like that, but bonus points if that’s what they actually did.
I’m a big fan of restomods IF they’re done in a way to make them as practical/reliable as a typical modern ride.
The Envoy frame swap seems likely, given that those are Envoy wheels.
You can see a brake caliper, too. Almost certainly an Envoy.
The Chevy version has a B-pillar between the doors, the GMC doesn’t appear to have one. The rear door would only be opened while the front door is open, for safety reasons, so no outside handle required.
Was it coincidental that an RX8 appears in the background, which shares the same arrangement, but on both sides ?
Is the side door possibly a repurposed rear door?
Wow, what a find indeed! A few Advanced Design Pickups exist in Portland, but no Suburbans. Pretty sure this is the only one I have seen since moving here in 2013.
Interesting find you have there and too sometimes pass over classic vehicles if they are not modified to my liking.
The hood has been modified too, looks like a hood within a hood. Some real talent went into building this.
Notice also theres a fuel filler right there on the passenger side of the 2-door models. That’s not completely unchangeable (obviously) but I doubt that’s a coach job. If the resto’s are using modern GM rollers then the fuel tank is already in a different spot.
And youre right…those 6-spoke molten chrome looking wheels are HIDEOUS. While a nice set of slots, Cragars, torq thrusts etc would have been a FAR better choice, Id have probably gone with one of the lumpteen gajillion of GM’s really sharp looking factory wheels. A set of widened steel rally wheels from an early-mid 80’s C-10 would have set this off perfectly.
The problem with resto-mods is the value. If one resto-mod a car of 50s with ideas and hardware of say ’90s. Why would anyone pay big bucks for that in say 2017 for a car that looked 50s but packed with mechanics of ’90s?
I may buy a 64 thunderbird for a taste of what it was like in early 60s, smelly carburetors and all. But I may not buy the same car with 4.6 SOHC job cause if I want a modernized ’64 tbird, I would prefer it to have hardware of 2017 not 2000.
I was in day camp during Woodstock in the
summer of 1969. I remember the camp had
a fleet of Suburbans used to pick the kids
up every morning.
Some were from the early 60’s with a 3-on-the-tree
transmission. I think they had a third door – curb side
only- for us to use. Wish I could confirm but your post
made me think of this.
I once read somewhere that Hudson would build prototypes with one door on one side, two on the other. The idea was be able to let people see what the 2- and 4-door versions of the car would look, just by viewing the car from one side or the other. Hudson chief engineer Millard Toncray sometimes used these cars temporarily as daily drivers. I don’t know if they built any such prototypes of the step-down Hudsons.
Interesting custom and extremely well done, Similar cars were built in OZ by GMH for ambulance duty for certain states they used a panelvan pressing on the drivers side and a station wagon pressing on the passenger side giving kerbside access to the rear, I ve seen several 70s cars done this way and one restored Tasmanian 63 EH Holden in this configuration and a couple of Valiants more recently F100 Fords were used but they have an entire body transplanted behind the driving seat.
Peekskill, N.Y. City School District had a small school bus conversion using the “Advanced-Design” body nearly intact. Your photo suggests my recollection of what they used to pick-up the special ed students in the mid 50’s back when I was a student at Oakside here. I’ll post a photo if I can find it. The GMC dealer here was Jim Reed, famous NASCAR racer. Dealership is still there. No more GMC.
Saw in a movie once a Caddy hearse ejecting (slowly) a casket from the side like that. Obviously it carried that burden while underway parallel to the length of the hearse, and spun it 90 degrees for removal. Possibly not large enough for a full-size casket so one for a midget or even a pet.
This is how I think. 🙂
Edit- the dark paint scheme and tinted windows re-enforce this idea.