[vectorit]

Well, I feel like I should start a build thread for my Suburban. Even though I consider my restoration done for the most part, but like everyone else our projects are never really done.
Being that I often get questions on where is my "Build thread", and frequently asked questions being PM'd to me I figure I need to do something to further assist my fellow Suburban fanatics.

The thread is going to start out kind of shallow on content, but that is only so that I can create place holders for future updates on past projects during my restoration. I will try to post the most common questions, and my answers/experiences to those answers.

When it comes to vendors, and where I got everything.. I can tell you I started with a relatively complete Suburban, and what ever I needed was usually scrounged by word of mouth. Later, after I discovered this forum and became more savvy with online research. I basically do business with the same vendors all of you do business with.

Unfortunately I do not have many pictures of the early stages of my restoration, since when I started my project it was pre digital cameras so I was using Kodak 110 "insta-matic" and borrowed 35mm SLR cameras.

I really didn't even think about documenting my restoration for something like this, since I didn't even know about resources like this forum to share and learn from. Heck, I didn't even have a computer until 1996? Even then most everyone was on dial up AOL, and Google didn't even come around until 1998 for someone like me to do searches on for forums & parts resources. I was busy scrounging parts from salvage yards, Trader papers at 7-11, and phone calls to Brothers Trucks and Golden State when they were at their 1st locations.

Anyways.. You get the idea.

So as many of you already know, my Suburban was handed down to me by my Dad. I grew up in this truck, going on everything from camping trips in the Sierra Nevada to being picked up from school by my Mom. When I was driving age, I drove the Suburban to high school everyday and did small trips with it and friends. It still belonged to my Dad, so I had to treat it as such. Eventually I got my own cars & trucks, and my Dad used the truck off and on but eventually was parked and later in so much disrepair that it was no longer seen as an option for usefulness to my Dad.
I later became concerned that the Suburban was going to rot a slow death, and asked if I could barrow it to go on a road trip and camping trip. I got the green light, and began cleaning it up and repairing everything I could. I ended up putting a new exhaust system, suspension, and tires on it before going on my trip. When the trip was over, and I brought it back to Dad it was then he handed me the title and said that I could take better care of it than he could at the time.
So, it was at this time I continued to drive it on trips. I never realized that it was "cool", only that it meant a lot to me as a tough solid truck that was handed down to me. I didn't really realize what I had, until I was told by the guys at Golden State Trucks when they were in SoCal to enter it at their truck show at Magic Mountain. It was there I became hooked on the idea of doing a full restoration, seeing all of the other trucks and hearing everyone give me words of encouragement to restore my Suburban.

Once I did the rough math, and thought about what kind of commitment this restoration was going to be for me. I went about moving forward, and found a shop that would work on my old truck for body & paint.

I pulled the trigger around 1996 and started the disassembly, bagging, tagging, boxing, documenting, and sending the transmission and engine out to a professional builder. At this time in my life I am making less than 20k a year, and living in an apartment with my GF plus renting a storage unit for all of the boxes of truck parts.

Fast forward a bit, and the GF is gone and I am making even less money. I asked the shop to hold all work on the body until I figure out what to do, thankfully this was a busy shop and liked the idea of my truck being there for work when work slowed down. By this time is 2002ish and I have a new job making much better money, and the body work is all done but still not enough resources to be able to put everything together yet. So I moved to a larger storage unit big enough for the Suburban, it's parts, my tools, and all of the new parts I was buying and hoarding.

2005 The Suburban is starting to come together, little by little working in a storage unit and being told to close up at 5:00pm every time so the yard can close.
2007 I move to my own house with it's own garage, and I discovered this forum where my enthusiasm to finish my truck skyrocketed. This is where the project comes together, but I spend lots of time sorting through years of boxes, bags, and coffee cans of parts that I later learn were next to impossible to replace at this time.
2009 is when the Suburban started to get insured and registered.
2013 is when I started to show the Suburban, and the Brothers truck show was it's first official show.

Now a days I am still working on "little projects" one at a time, all the while trying to keep the Suburban road worthy at a moments notice.

That's the basic story for those of you new to my Suburban. I will update the above as I remember details, but I wanted to start this with a brief history so everyone can understand what my history is with my Suburban.