1972 White Suburban - the family toy

[72c10suburban]

Figured I would post some pics of my newest toy. With our first youngin on the way, and a Great Dane puppy, it was time to sell the VW and upgrade to a little larger weekend cruiser. I found this one locally, and after doing a pretty wide search, decided it was my best option. Its mostly solid with a few bubbles starting behind the rear wheels. The rockers have been replaced, but may get revisited as well as the large hole in the roof that will need welded up.



















My nephews and the pup checking out the new ride.

[Tropical Snowstorm]

Kept seeing that on CL here in Atlanta, glad a forum member ended up with it. I was tempted but never had the time to go look. Seems like a great starting point.

[DouglasRaymond]

Nice suburban. Lots of potential for a good truck. 350?

[budnikguy]

Great looking burb! Love the Dane too...I have 2 dames that are sisters that look very similar to yours.
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[Number98]

Glad to see another Burb joining the board! Welcome from a fellow Georgia Member...

[72c10suburban]

Thanks for the welcomes. I was looking for a station wagon when i came across the suburban. After I saw the ad, there was no turning back. Nice to have a fullsize toy after about a dozen VWs.

Norris, well Chuck Norris is 9 months old and already 31 inches tall. The lady we got her from had an accidental litter and was going to let her kids keep her but decided 3 Danes was too many. Her youngins named her Chuck Norris since she was the biggest out of the litter.

Turns out the 350 as advertised is as I expected a 307. Really wasnt an issue with me as long as it ran good. The burban was built in 10/71 and the engine code is V1018TDL, so it was made in Flint on October 18 and its a 135 HP for a C10-C20. Eventually I would like to do a 5.3/4L60 swap, but that will be a bit.



This was the last project that had to find a new home. Norris would ride in the back seat, but that didn't leave enough room for a car seat.

[72c10suburban]

New plugs, wires, wipers and an oil change today. Also removed the headlights shades. One thing at a time. I need to run down some trim for the drivers fenders and order mirrors and the deluxe marker lights next.

[Bigdav160]

You're lucky on the lower trim. That piece is the same as a truck.

I'm missing a couple pieces and they are on the passenger side (Suburban only)

[72c10suburban]

special thanks goes out to the person who did the last oil change. what started as a 20 minute job turned into 3 hours. A lack of oil on the seal, and tightening it until the seal was completely crushed made for a interesting job. Two filter wrenches, a couple screwdrivers, a hammer and some well deserved profanity just to change the oil.

[Tropical Snowstorm]

Been there, done that... Seems as if the old wipe the o-ring with oil and tighten to a 1/4 turn past contact with the mating surface just isn't common knowledge anymore. Hopefully it's still a good find and serving you well.

[72c10suburban]

I'm doing a seperate thread on the 5.3/4L60E swap in the lsx swap area, but figured i would post a few pics of the progress here as well to keep this thread up to date.

Bought a '05 L59 and 4L60E with 85,000.



I'm doing the harness myself


And I've ordered a few parts


TBSS manifolds

[Average Joe]

LS with go fast goodies you have my attention sir. Sweet Burb btw.

[72c10suburban]

Many Thanks. Cam is a Comp XR275HR 222/224 .566/.568 lift on a 112*LSA. Lunati spring kit, Comp Hi-Tech pushrods and TBSS manifolds.

[72c10suburban]

Most of the LS swap stuff will be in my separate tread, but figured i would post some progress pics. Got inspired to go ahead and pull the front end and old drivetrain out. Going to do a test fit of the 5.3 and tranny tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will warm up enough to clean the frame in the next few days and we can start some real reassembly soon.

[tommys72]

That sir is a cool burb! I'd love to get ahold of one

[see ten]

Cool Burb. You'll love the LS!
I'll be keeping an eye out for you when cruise-in season starts up.

[72c10suburban]

So I've been a little hesitant to post lately due to some problems with the swap. The more time i've spent working on it, the more issues i've found with the frame. Looks like the front end has been knocked to one side pretty hard at some point. The drivers side rail has been ripped and poorly welded and the passenger rail is still bent. There is a kink in front of the tranny crossmember and the front suspension crossmember is welded to the frame on the DS as well as the wheel being back an inch.

So I found another 72 Suburban here in the classifieds and picked it up from member "uncle." The frame looks good and the parts burban has front and rear air as well as most of the headliner parts. I've got the body unbolted and i hope to get it off the frame tomorrow.

[Average Joe]

Crazy how a project snowballs. Its great that your fixing it right though. Keep up the good work!

[72c10suburban]

Joe, you aint kidding. This project has gotten a little out of hand in a hurry.

I've managed to get the body unbolted on both suburbans as well as undoing the park brake cables on both from the pedal.



These are the body mounts off of the 'good' suburban.

[72c10suburban]

Whew. Got the body off the replacement frame. Definitely one of those situations where a 2 post lift would be very nice.

Moving it to the back yard.



a little wood here.



a little more here.



some rail road jacks and a 10' 4x4.



Then the frame is out.


Okay, instead of worrying about taking pics, here is where you should consider more wood.



we had blocks in place on the front and rear, and then came the miscommunication when my father in law dropped the back a little soon. Oh well, least its the parts truck.



forgot to take a pic of the frame, but I started the clean up and removed the old fuel lines.

[wrager]

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[72c10suburban]

I ground the rivets out of the rearmost cross member since it looked like someone had used it to pull the burb out of the weeds at some point. I also have to grind whats left of a homemade trailer hitch off also then wirebrush, pressure wash, and paint the frame.

[wrager]

Sent you a PM last weekend. I know you must be busy!

[72c10suburban]

whew. got the frame swapped finally. 7 hours of work. Ended up using the entire original suspension on the donor frame and in stalled new Energy Suspension trailing arm and panard bar bushing. Also used Energy Suspension body mount bushings. Now we can get back to doing and Ls swap finally.















I used a cherry picker to lift the front and rear of the body hih enough to get the 4x4x10 up under it. Then, we used the 10 ton rail road jacks to lift the body high enough to roll the frame out.

[Average Joe]

That is a very creative way to lift the body. I dont know if I would have thought of that. Great work!