I realize it may seem that I spend an inordinate amount of time in the parking lots outside of junkyards, however that’s not really the case. Sometimes the best finds at any show are in the lot though…and today was such a day as I caught this wonderful three-door Suburban just as it was being hauled in. While the driver was getting the gate opened I made a quick walkaround, sometime within the next few weeks it’ll be processed by St. Peter and his buddies in the prep shed and then eventually join the general population in the yard but may well be picked over by the time I get back to it.
At first glance I thought it was an IH Travelall, but then noticed it looked a little off, at which time I realized this is the first three-door Chevy Suburban (also known as Carryall back then) that I can recall seeing in the metal. You guys all grew up with these but I didn’t, by the time we moved to LA in the early 1980’s these just weren’t around down there, or at least I wasn’t looking for them. Produced from 1967 through 1972, I’m kind of guessing/hoping that this is in fact a ’72 as everything seems to match up with the brochure I found for that year.
The big news for this generation of course was the three doors, one on the driver’s side and two more on the passenger side, not until the next generation would there be two on each side. But even bigger news (and what really got the format going) was that the Suburban was finally on the longbed pickup platform, giving much more room in the back.
It would take another half-decade for GM to realize that a fourth door is a no-brainer, intro’d for the 1973 next generation, and another two decades to figure out that a Suburban back on the shorter platform but with more than two doors might also be fairly desirable, and thus eventually the four-door Tahoe was born, to great commercial success.
Of all the different configurations, this is the lightest chassis, being the C-10. The five-lug wheels give away the facts that it’s neither four wheel drive (6-lug) nor the 3/4 ton version (8-lug). This one is also the Deluxe version though, so someone got a pretty fancy rig with lots of niceties while still keeping it civilized and more comfortable to (daily) drive.
The barn doors were an option, alternately the other configuration was the standard tailgate with upper glass as with this one. The brochure above shows the more basic trims and discusses the advantages of the Suburban in regard to towing.
Engine-wise the Suburban was available with everything from a 250 Six to the 307 V8 along with of course the 350 V8 and then progressing up to the 400 V8. Transmissions were a 3-speed manual, 4-speed manual, or the 3-speed Turbo Hydra-matic.
The tag on the front fender gives away that this one is powered by the 350 V8, producing 175hp@4,000rpm and 290lb-ft of torque @2,400rpm. I didn’t try to climb on the truck to see what the transmission was but I’d guess it had the automatic, being a relatively refined RWD upper trim level truck.
The blue truck in the brochure looks to be the same trim level as ours, with the white roof, trim just below the windows and side molding along with the chrome bumpers. No engine callout on the brochure truck though although it has the tow mirrors whereas ours has the “below eye-line mirrors”, apparently an option if I am understanding things correctly.
No badges on the rear, and I can’t tell what’s inside beside seeing what appears to be a dipstick through the rear window, so perhaps there is an engine being carried in the rear for whatever reason. Maybe this was a good day to clear out everything sitting in the barn, who knows.
To continue our license plate discussion from the Citation post the other day, this one’s prefix is RU, which indicates it came from Jefferson County (Golden, CO is in Jeffco for example, just on the northwest side of Denver proper) and is only a few miles from this particular location so the Suburban is a lifelong local.
It’s a shame to see the truck here although there does seem to be significant rust around the bottom at least, still, the heyday of these types and era of rigs is really right about now. Someone fitted wider tires and different hubcaps from stock, and the patina (besides the body damage up front), is wonderful.
The Custom Deluxe was fairly swanky inside, with cloth seats, and there was even a dual A/C system available. Seating numbered enough for nine and while the marketing firm made sure there weren’t more than nine individuals pictured next to it in this picture, I’m sure people crammed at least a dozen or more kids into these. Safety third, kids! The available tilt steering wheel had a total of seven positions to choose from, isn’t that more than usual for a GM? I seem to recall both of my Buicks only having five positions, but could be shortchanging the General here.
I’m quite sure the color of this one is Grapefruit Yellow and wish I knew the inside color. Grapefruit seems like a great color for an older truck and the sheer number of color options is magnificent.
I think the black and white are the only two colors from above seen on the 2021 Suburban (edit: I checked and there is a red and a blue as well). Still, what variety! I’d have trouble choosing, they ALL look quite good. But it wouldn’t be black or white, that’s for sure. White roofs are making a bit of a comeback and some bright metallic colors are as well, at least on smaller crossovers, so perhaps there is hope yet.
Back in the early ’70’s, this would have been a great truck for heading up into the High Rockies for the weekend but also civilized enough to make the trip to the office in Denver, to say nothing of cross-country voyages with the whole family aboard.
Who knows if that’s how it was actually used or not, but the Suburban has long been a truck used exactly for those very different types of excursions and been able to do all of them very competently. It looks like this one has lived the last almost fifty years to the fullest, a shame that it’s time to punch the ticket, but I’ll bet it’s seen a lot in its life. See ya on the other side, big fella!
Related Reading:
Curbside Classic: 1970 Chevrolet Suburban – Third Door On The Right by PN
I live in the Great Lakes salt/rust belt, and this is how one of these might have looked by the late 1980s or so. Actually, driver’s side struck me as “not bad,” but then I saw rust on the other side, so it looks less and less likely to be revived by someone with the love and pocketbook. Thanks for the writeup and photos!
Kind of striking to be reminded of when vehicles had so much _flat_ glass on them—another thing that’s changed!
I agree, I live in New England. All the trucks this style were gone by the late 80’s basically due to rusting out
I have vague recollections of riding to preschool (we called it “Nursery School” back in those days) in a ’67 or ’68 version of this. The lack of a 4th door made sense in that application. And obviously, the 3rd door was a great improvement over the 2 doors of the previous generation. But I’ve always wondered what the thinking was regarding not adding the 4th door. I can’t believe it saved a significant chunk of money in development costs.
My question exactly. Was there some engineering reason for only 3 doors – structural rigidity, maybe, he asked dubiously – or was it strictly a cost decision?
or was it strictly a cost decision?
Yes.
Chevrolet didn’t have a factory crew-cab truck at the time to share rear doors with, and doors are one of the most expensive elements of a body.
And one curbside door was really quite adequate. Minivans got along just fine with a single rear door for a long time. And full size vans still do.
About full-size vans: the Chevrolet Express DID have optional extra doors on the driver’s side (along with all-wheel drive) beginning in 2003, but only the hinged type & ONLY on the 1500 models which were discontinued after 2014.
You can get a driver slider on the Ford Transit as long as it’s a cargo or crew van in addition to being a Medium-or-High-Roof model; I think you run into an issue with the passenger version b/c of the side-curtain airbag system. The odd thing about this though is that the outline for a potential extra door remains imprinted in the sheetmetal even on the Low-Roof version (cargo OR passenger).
Yes, it’s optional on the Promaster too. My point is that it’s quite uncommon. I said “full size vans get along quite fine with just the passenger side door”. And the overwhelming percentage do just that.
First a speculative observation… the door frame and glass were engineered anyway. Granted, flat glass may have been a “flip” of PS pieces. I believe that the LR glass was moveable, thus a regulator was “expensed” anyway; I believe. The RR door shell may have been a clever thrifty rework of one of the front doors, which of course could be repeated.
So it doesn’t seem like cost of the door itself would have been that prohibiive. Was it lost structural rigidity with another door opening? Not sure on any of this speculation, but next a first-hand experience.
I bought a front-wrecked ’71 style G Van that had been modified for airport use. Besides the usual RH door, it was modified for a LH door and a lift-up hatch door behind the LH door. After I had the front damage repaired well enough to make the van driveable I drove it a bit while trying to decide how to proceed with the project. Body structure was found to be flimsy due to the extra door cuts. With a door slam the body did not have the expected solid feel. Between that concern and a couple of other strikes I decided not to continue with the repair, despite the van’s extremely low mileage.
Anyway, no doubt GM would have the know-how to build a 4-door Suburban, but there might have been more issues than just cobbling up an extra door to “afterthought” engineering for a fourth door opening.
Sorry, but not buying it. It takes a lot more time (and money) to build/assemble a door (and its opening and hang the door in it) than a flat sheet panel and insert a window.
Back in the early-mid 60s, fleets were a primary buyer of Suburbans. The University of Iowa had a fleet of them, for various departments as well as for the motor pool. Cheapest way to transport 9 students and their gear.
Pricing for these stripper Suburbans needed to be very competitive. Hence the three doors. Worked just fine for the intended purpose.
There clearly was no structural issue, given that these sat on a full ladder pickup frame.
Suburbans only started to become more common as family haulers towards the end of the 60s, by which time it wasn’t worth adding the fourth door. But they certainly did for the next generation, which really took off as a more upscale family truckster.
This is coming from the same company that left off the $4 stabilizer bar on the ’60 Corvair!
That’s okay, we can disagree, it’s your site. Lol
To me, GM wasn’t lacking much in hardware that would make a fourth door cost prohibited. Almost everything needed was already being built.
As to body-on-frame construction making the two’s strengths independent… every BOF convertible had a beefed chassis and extra pieces in the body’s back seat area, even when a near identical 2dht was available in the lineup. And, convertibles weren’t expected to stray far from the boulevard. With light vehicles body strength is an integral part of even BOF design.
This same platform’s Blazer version 1.0 was a much lighter and shorter vehicle. Despite that, the Blazer suffered badly from body twist and bind. Blazer underscores that GM’s chassis by itself was not robust enough for “anything goes” body construction. Doubters are invited to casually “finger” a Blazer’s door gap while riding along.
Let’s revisit the early ’60s unitized Ford pickup problem for a moment. The Fords had a chassis, complete cab and complete box, yet still flexed too much.
Who hasn’t been crawling along off-road and looked in the mirror to see that their pickup’s box was “wound up” opposite of the cab?
With the 3-door Suburban build the back of the pickup cab was already completely carved out. It’s my belief that testing showed that without significant reinforcement another door opening would take the heart out of a vehicle that was likely to see off road use.
Door tooling cost? Chief carryall competitor, International, with their comparatively meager volume and resources managed to a amortize the cost of a fourth door. At GM it had to sting the pride a bit to be unable to “answer” until ’73.
Therefore I believe that it wasn’t the cost of a LH door itself; the door itself could’ve been easily “cobbled up” of existing components just as the RH door had been. To me, it seems the real cost and engineering problem would’ve been in replacing the strength that a fourth door opening would “gut” out of the body.
With ’73’s redesign it was finally possible to plan from the start for a fourth door on Carryall and of course 4-door pickups.
I was always told it was for safety, all passengers would be loaded from the curbside and not out in the road like some would be if there was the left hand rear door. GM must have said the hell with safety and went for convivence and went with a true four door on the 73 Suburban.
But… what you were told didn’t address why station wagon passengers were free to exit into the roadway?
That is why dad bought a two door wagon, when they were available.
A guy told me once they were built for the state workers to get back and forth working on the highways. Years later I was getting gas one Saturday morning, and an older man came up and commented on my 70 model sub and said he had ” rode a many a miles in one of those”. I ask when? He said he worked for the state and the driver would pull up and stop in the road and they would unload on the ditch side instead of getting out in the road. Made since to me. I’ve had mine 35 years. heard a lot of stories.
Regarding the third door, it’s interesting to see the promotion literature from this era advertising how it was such a neat feature.
Below is a 1967 ad — on the right-hand side there’s this text:
“And here’s the big news!
Third door for easy entry.
Rear passengers have their own right side door. Makes it easier to load packages and equipment, too.”
A fan of this generation. Especially the ’71-’72 egg crate grille, which is unfortunately MIA here.
I certainly didn’t grow up with these around either (not a big thing in Philadelphia back then), but I do remember seeing a handful of three-door Suburbans. After that, I always did a double-take on any old Suburbans I saw, just to see if they were these old three-door models. For me they had the same curiosity factor that three-door minivans do today – just looks odd without that extra door.
Great find — hopefully its parts find several good homes.
I love the old ‘Burbans, and it’s sad to see one that made it this long meet its inevitable end.
My first real job was as a camp counselor that used (the subsequent generation) suburbans to ferry the kids around to campouts. We had a ’75, an ’85, and a ’91. Driving the ’75 on the backroads was glorious. I can remember packing it full of kids and blasting Hall and Oates on cassette. It was big and floaty, with extremely vague steering reminiscent of playing Pole Position in the arcades. We beat the Jesus out of that Suburban, but it was a good sport and might still be ticking somewhere.
Just think, there might someone out there who was a kid from your camp back then, who now hates Suburbans because of the loud Hall and Oats.;-)
Haha, or the opposite! Music cranked up loud with no parents and wild, sloppy driving over unpaved dirt roads was probably a pretty great memory!
If that were within 100 miles of NAS Alameda, and cheap, Randall would have saved that and put it in his line of vehicles seen here before.
I would have bet that this never existed.
I don’t recall these being around in decent numbers until after the 1973 re-do. Of course I lived in Fort Wayne during the era of peak Travelall, which was probably over-represented because of the big IH Scout and truck plant in town.
I’ll give GM credit for sticking with the Suburban through thick and (mostly) thin for decades before the things finally took off.
A nice Christmas find!
In the early 1970’s, my Dad was interested in buying a Suburban…..He looked at the 72’s but heard that they were getting a redo in 1973 so he waited and factory ordered a ’73 Lime green with woodgrain Cheyenne Super Suburban…..
He said that if he had went ahead and bought a ’72, he would have traded it in on a ’73.
The problem with his ’73 is that the body rotted to pieces within a few years.
Wow I saw that rig parked on the street in an industrial area of Broomfield just last week! It was pretty far gone. Still suprised to see it u pull and pay, someone could have parted it out. Of course I was also surprised to see a 1975 GMC 2wd high option big block truck at LKQ last weekend. But was happy to pull very cheap parts off it it!
I could see a pre 1969 non locking GM steering column having 7 tilt positions….
Due to difference in life experiences, I can happily state I have seen a three-door Suburban. Once. It had been converted into an ambulance and was used to shuttle patients between the heliport and entrance at Southeast Missouri hospital in Cape Girardeau. My sighting(s) of it were in the early 1990s.
It being a three-door intrigued me. At the time I imagined it to be an ambulance related thing. Only later did I truly learn.
I wonder how popular then this Suburban was. We all now convince the SUV:CUV, a tall station wagon, is the vehicle we need for daily commuting and hauling passengers and stuff while we feel safe and strong inside one. But it took for a while until early 90s to get popular. Jeep had its Grand Wagoner in early 70s, and introduced the small one in early 80s. By 80s all four large Japanese automakers then (Honda then was relatively small, and had no Jeep type of vehicle) had two or four doors of Jeep in their products. The SUV really became popular when Ford Explorer came in the market. Toyota then jumped in with its car based RAV4 CUV in mid 90s even though it had been selling Land Cruiser since 50s and Four Runner in 80s in US. Now we see a lot of large SUV like Suburban as main family vehicle, three-row CUV is also very popular. The small and compact CUVs are regular vehicle for everyone who does not want to drive a car. I guess the customer taste is hard to predict for the company product planner.
As for deficiency of the three-door design on this feature vehicle. I saw the same mistake on the early minivan. When Chrysler introduced the first generation of minivan, it had three side doors. The second generation had 4 side doors but kept this design in secret during the development stage. All those rivalry minivans including Toyota and Nissan were only following the three-door design — GM got away by dump luck because its minivan was designed for North America, Europe and British, its structure could accommodate the rear door for both side. The real sad fact fro the Japanese automakers is their cab forward minivans have been able to open both rear doors since 1970s. Therefore, this Suburban with three-door is not the only mistake for GM planer. I think the creative design only becomes clear after you realize it.
Being able to select the right piece of equipment to do the job is a real luxury. Many of us have to cobble something together, compromise, or just do the best we can with what we’ve got. The Suburban was/is the right tool for a lot of people. If you don’t have a big family, or any kids at all it, then you might see it as overkill. The same if you don’t need to haul a lot of cargo, or pull a boat or a trailer. But if your activities include those things, then they can make a lot of sense. Cramming four kids in the back seat of a four door sedan, or using the cargo area of a station wagon to hold a few more, was commonly done, but it wasn’t safe or comfortable, but you do the best with what you’ve got.
Yesterday, my niece and her husband rolled up in a new GMC Denali XL. The first response that came to my mind was WOW! But they had just made a 250 mile trip up with their three kids,( two teen agers and a grade schooler) and their dog, and a cargo of Christmas presents, and road tripping gear. This was quite a change from their previous big Lexus sedan. But it made a lot of sense, and they still had another 250 miles ahead on the drive home. When my kids were smaller, I had a big Chrysler Town and Country van, with captain’s chairs and rear air. It sure made for comfortable family trips. The right tool for the job.
I sold new Chevies from 2004-2016. While most of the colors available were pretty standard for the times, one could special order a Silverado in a huge range of special colors, including both Tangier Orange and Wheatland Yellow which are both depicted on the above chart. While most buyers of those colors were ordered by fleets (highway workers, for example, who wanted highly visible vehicles), we would order a loaded V8 short box in Tangier orange, tint the windows, put a nice set of rims on it, and make it into a nice little hot rod truck! A quick check of the interwebs shows quite a few newer Silverados and Sierras in that color as well. And the cost, if i remember correctly, was like $395. What a bargain!
Nice to see this and read your story.
I love all the comments from everyone. I had no idea there were so many people still having an interest in this generation of Suburbans.
I was lucky to find a running 72 3/4 4×4 350/350 with barn doors, rear air and 3rd seat out in AZ a few years back. This thing is mint, dried out a bit though. I’m planning a full mechanical rebuild soon but keeping the patina outside.
I have a 72 C10 3 door Burb second owner in Seattle just finished a rebuild motor trans and rear end . Patina look right now but love the old girl .
I’m looking for an upper liftgate for my ’72. I’m in Vermont. Are parts from this carcass still available?
Sadly this one is long gone now, best of luck finding one…
Anyone know where I can score an upper liftgate in good condition for a ’72 (or 68-71) ? I’d pay good $$ for one, and a finders fee. I know there is one out there somewhere.
Hey Brian…try the message board 67-72vhevytrucka.com you might have a better chance there.
Hey Brian…you might want to have a look over at the message board 67-72chevytrucks.com
I just ran across this link and I haven’t read all the comments yet. I have a 69/70 door says 11-69 but I’ve always called it a 70. I’ve owned it since 1987 drive it weekly to keep it rolling. Looking forward to retirement in a few years to start tinkering again. Of all the cars, trucks, I’ve owned this one still gets more ooos and hell yeahs then all the rest.