New suburban owner
 

Hello, all! For my first post I would like to introduce you to my new to me 1971 suburban. I would also like to share the back story as to how we acquired it. Back in 1996 when my wife was 7 years old her father purchased this suburban in stock form with the inline 6 and manual transmission. He tore into it and purchased a donor truck to do a v8 auto swap. The engine is .40 over with camel hump heads, edelbrock intake and carb, high compression, rv cam, full headers and true dual exhaust. He built this truck to haul the family to the river with their boat and other fun things they did together. My wife learned to drive in this when she was a kid as well. Fast forward to 09 and new haulers were in the family and the suburban got parked where it sat for the past 8 years. It was brought up if we would like to take suburban into our young family and we of course jumped on it! We grauciously took delivery of the truck about 2 weeks ago and are exited to start new memories with our family as my wife did with hers. She loved the suburban as a kid and now our kids get to experience the same.
So after sitting so long I cleaned and drained the old fuel out and cleaned the carb real good. The fuel had turned to molasses. Fresh fluids and a few repairs, one shock mount was broken and the panhard bar bushing was gone somehow. I upgraded to cpp shock reloacte and adjustable panahrd for support of future suspension modifications. The plans are a buff and polish and a mild drop with a change in wheels and tires and drive the wheels off making memories. Sorry for the long post but we will update as time goes on!

Re: New suburban owner
 

Great story. The truck belongs with you. Good luck with it and keep the updates coming.

Nick

Re: New suburban owner
 

Awesome story! Keeping it in the family is very cool. Nice looking old sub too!

Re: New suburban owner
 

Great story. Congrats. Nice ride!!!

Re: New suburban owner
 

Wonderful story!! Glad the Burb is staying in the family.:metal:

Re: New suburban owner
 

X2!!!

Cool Vdub too!

Re: New suburban owner
 

Figured I would update my original post here. So far I have replaced the tires which was unfortunate since the old ones were put on before and only had a few hundred miles on them but were pretty dry rotted. I have begun the paint correcting process and it is going well. The single stage is beginning to shine up while keeping the original state. I had to weld up a broken door latch, re wire the stereo, clean up some engine wiring and I removed the seized ac compressor. The good hinges have been replaced as one buckled and broke, new fuel pump and lines to replace rotted ones and all new brakes. I have put about 500 miles on it since we got it and have been loving it. Next up is fixing the most annoying belt squeel ever! The belt drive is not set up correctly because the engine has a long water pump and the power steering, water pump and alternator are running off 1 belt. Problem is the heads do not have mounting holes for brackets to mount the alternator on the pass side. So I am going to go back to a short water pump and figure out how to make the belt drive workbench correctly. Problem now is figuring how it is all mounted and sourcing the parts. None of the junkyards in my area have any c10 trucks and I am a total visual learner so I need to see it in front of me..

Re: New suburban owner
 

All her glory

Re: New suburban owner
 

Great story and congrats on the truck. Looks a lot like my '72.

Re: New suburban owner
 

Watch the parts board for what you need. And check out the main 67-72 truck side of the board. Everything from the back of front doors doors forward is the same as the truck. Seems like I just read a thread there with someone having the same pulley issues as you with several good ideas to remedy. And you can also do a search over there and I bet you will find a lot of good solutions. Pulley stuff is a popular subject.

Re: New suburban owner
 

Love the story. Passing it down to the next generation. Good for your in-laws. Doing the right thing never goes out of style. Now to start making memories with your kids/family going on adventures or even to car shows, cruises, Friday night burger gatherings. You are starting on your journey that a lot of us started on many years ago.
Congratulations. :metal:

Re: New suburban owner
 

Wow your so lucky to have gotten your Burban this way and in such good shape. No PO disasters to deal with. I wish I could have been so lucky. We would love to hear more of your adventures with it.

Re: New suburban owner
 

So I managed to fix my belt mess today! I searched around and found an alternator mount for a long water pump with no accessory mounting holes in my heads. I got the kit from ict billet and it worked out great. The only disappointment was they were no help in determining the belt size to use so I had to figure that out, but it worked out. I had to extend the alternator harness to mount it in the passenger side also. Took it for a spin and it doesn't squeel anymore! After installing I noticed the alternator was charging at close to 16v so I replaced the regulator with a vr715 and all is well now. I started working on cleaning the interior mats up but came to the conclusion I need to pull the seats because it is so filthy. Starting to think about suspension next. I would really like to be able to tow still so thinking of bags in the rear but I'm having a tough time deciding. I have had several very low daily drivers and am not sure I want to go that route with this one. The work continues :)

Re: New suburban owner
 

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Good deal on the alternator. Nothing worse than a squealing belt, they drive me nuts.....

LockDoc

Re: New suburban owner
 

Nice work on the alternator.

IMO you cant go wrong with bags in the back. They are basically a bolt in deal.
I run 2600 Dominators on the rear of my '67. I just add air when im towing and lower it down when im not. Serious improvement in stability when towing over springs.