These three-door Suburbans (1967-1972) are getting a bit scarce on the ground, and are quite collectible. Unfortunately, this one seems to have had an interaction with a pole of some sort. And the pole seems to have won.
Of course it could have been something else too, but I’m indulging in speculation. To bad; but I’m quite confident it’ll get fixed up, at some point.This one is in pretty decent shape otherwise.
Here’s the single door side, for those of you not familiar with them. No, exports to RHD countries was not part of the game plan.
My neighbor had one of these, fit our entire little league team! Please post more about the history of this gem.
On that note in the past 24 hours I’ve seen three SUVs (Jeep Liberty, Toyota RAV4, and Ford Explorer) with frontal damage on one side, all missing giant chunks our of their grilles on just one side.
Like the “Camry dent”!
The first school bus that I rode right after we moved to Dallas from Germany in 1974 was the same as one in the article. It wasn’t kitted out as a school bus with flashing lights and large SCHOOL BUS labels. The school district had a fleet of those three-door Suburbans for transporting the deaf students who usually lived further away from the schools.
Certainly, that was when I, at the tender age of eight, discovered where I stood on the pecking order and who was the ultimate boss. I usually bagged the front seat next to the bus driver when I boarded at the elementary school and held the space for my older brother who attended the middle high school. If my brother didn’t show up first, the older kid at the middle school, the ultimate bully, would grab me and pull me from the front seat so he could have the half of front seat to himself. The bus driver didn’t give a hoot when that happened.
That happened too often. I wasn’t having it other way, period. One day, I had enough and bashed his head with my metal Superman lunch box so hard. That broke the handle and warped the lunchbox badly. Of course, the older boy was too stunned to react and bleeding a lot. So were the driver and other kids. They gingerly moved away from me and my ‘club weapon’.
I didn’t get suspended from the school nor the replacement for the lunchbox: things were swept under the proverbial rug. That was only time in my life I had committed the blatant violence against other.
The new rule was no more riding the shotgun. The kids, including the bully, left me alone for the rest of school year. I ended up bringing the brown bag and a dime for milk at school cafeteria. No Superman lunch box as my ultimate weapon anymore.
Great story! Yes I too rode numerous miles in these as school buses. Prior to these as small school buses, were the previous generation of 2door suburbans and a few IH Travelalls. By the mid-late 70’s they were all replaced with actual small bus conversions on cutaway van cabs.
Oof! Lucky the aftermarket and salvage markets for these trucks is genuinely massive. I bet the owner could even find used sheet metal in that same color from a salvage yard without trying too hard.
Such a common color in the 70s. Visible on everything from Mustang IIs to Volares.
Dad had a ’60 International Travelall with the 3-door configuration. I don’t recall if they CAME any other way.
And yeah, this color was common as dirt for a long time.
In 60 the Traveall came only in that 3dr configuration, in 1961 however they added that 4th door a good decade before the Suburban got its 4th dr. Heck the Suburban didn’t get its 3rd door until 67.
My neighbors, just down the street, bought new, a ’72 Suburban and Impala at the same time in a package deal. They still have them, been garage kept all their life, and still look like new. The sad part? The Suburban is just a wimpy half ton…
There’s nothing sad or wimpy about the half ton!
Wow, that’s quite a package – is that the largest Chevy truck and the largest Chevy car for that year? Glad they still have them and they are in great shape, as both of those vehicles are becoming very collectable!
I don’t know, did anybody see what the pole looked like after the collision?
I’m betting it became firewood.
The popularity of ’67-’72 GM light duty trucks is so strong that all the parts to repair that Suburban are still available brand new.
My parents bought this exact truck in 1972 to replace a VW bus as the family car (the bus had the flip out doors on the side and not the slider, and the doors would unexpectedly open routinely, unnerving my parents). Our suburban was this exact color, 2WD with positraction, 3 rows of seating. Every one of us drove that car at some point – I’m the youngest of five and it was my daily driver in high school in the mid 80s, until the transmission finally went at 190k, and my father sold it to a friend of mine for $50. My friend put a used powerglide transmission in it and kept driving it for several more years. It was a great truck – I always have an eye out for them – and indeed they are getting harder to find
Interesting remarks. Speaking of automatic transmissions failing: I used to have my auto trans serviced every thirty thousand miles. However, for the past twenty years, on t advice o GMC dealer, I service t transmission every fifty thousand miles. This is how one avoids a major transmission repair and the desire to dispose of the vehicle.