Suburban Assault Vehicle

Negative on the bling. Any old bucket can get tarted up like a second string cheerleader. This is a bare bones fleet rig with history, and that's what makes it unique and ultimately special. 

Shiny is fine, but sparkly is totally out of character. 

In reply to DarkMonohue :

Yes, I have no problem with chrome but on this thing it seems wrong. I know the mirrors were painted from the factory, not sure about the trim around grill

In reply to loosecannon :

I'm no expert on 67-72 Chevy/GMC but will occasionally loiter at http://www.67-72chevytrucks.com just for fun.  Did a little sniffing around and found almost nothing relevant except for the suggestion that, in 1969, D29 mirrors were tripods (probably similar to the ones on your truck now) - see http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=83289 - but no idea whether that applies to GMC as well as Chevy, nor whether it also applies to Canadian market trucks.  Given that your Suburban had tripods in your first photos, it seems reasonably likely.   And it looks like those mirrors were painted white.  Also, from the handful of photos I can find (including yours), it looks like the eyebrow around the front end of the truck was present and had a bright (polished) finish for all trim levels in '69.  But it also looks like the reveal around the grille, just inside of that eyebrow and (I think) also between the grille bars and bumper, would have been painted black in order to visually "float" the grille inside of the eyebrow and better separate it from the hood and fenders.  That black paint detail would go a long way toward breaking up the mass of yellow paint and will make it look more like a real truck and less like a toy.

The only other input I can offer, for whatever it's worth, is just opinion.  My dad has had a '72 K20 since it was a few years old, painted medium olive green with a white roof.  It's a Custom Deluxe trim level (in other words, fairly basic) and came with white painted tripod mirrors, white wheels, and white front bumper.  Over the years he's replaced the white parts with chrome and bright stainless equivalents.  In my opinion, the white parts looked better.  They suited the era of the truck and the role it was built to play.

With all that, I would give serious thought to shooting some white paint over the mirrors, the front bumper, and anything else that was originally white, and then painting the appropriate reveals on the grille in matte black.  Simple and never wrong. 

There is also a '69 Canadian market brochure here - not much to say, but kind of a fun read anyway: https://www.lov2xlr8.no/brochures/gmc/69gmcp/69gmcp.html

I too think chrome would be out of place, For a second, I thought I would be the only one who thought so!

In reply to DarkMonohue :

I think the bumpers, wheels and mirrors were probably painted white from the factory but I have the big winch bumpers on it and don't think white would work on them and now that they are powdercoated black, I'm not about to experiment with their color.

loosecannon said:

In reply to DarkMonohue :

I think the bumpers, wheels and mirrors were probably painted white from the factory but I have the big winch bumpers on it and don't think white would work on them and now that they are powdercoated black, I'm not about to experiment with their color.

I'd go with black on the mirrors to tie it together. White or chrome would look out of place.

I was going to say white over the gaudy chrome but if the bumpers are black, definitely go black mirrors/grille surround.

The grill surround in chrome (stainless steel is MUCH better imo) is a small tasteful accent, so not tarting it up. Big plus to the black highlights added  behind it!!!

i don’t know if the grill surround is SS or chrome, but if SS, SS mirrors ( definitely NOT cheesy chrome)   Otherwise, black to match the bumper. Definitely not white. 

With the yellow wheels, add some stainless trim rings to the yellow, or some black highlights, as needed 

just my two cents, prolly worth less. 

I think we will wrap the mirrors and grill trim with black vinyl but that decision is down the road. I got the powdercoated bumpers and roof rack back today and they look amazing but you'll have to wait for those pics. Today I spent the whole day installing the white oak floor. In case you didn't know, Suburbans were only available with a plywood floor but I decided to put the floor from a pickup truck in it. It was a big job because the back of a Suburban and a pickup are very different, with different shaped wheel wells and crossmembers in different places but I made it work and love it. Here's the pics.

Does the oak really tuck under the wheel wells? 

In reply to OHSCrifle :

Yes, but is trimmed to clear the tires, the same way the original plywood floor used to be

Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. 

loosecannon said:

In reply to OHSCrifle :

Yes, but is trimmed to clear the tires, the same way the original plywood floor used to be

That's wild. Do you protect the edges of the wood with bed liner or something? 

OHSCrifle said:

loosecannon said:

In reply to OHSCrifle :

Yes, but is trimmed to clear the tires, the same way the original plywood floor used to be

That's wild. Do you protect the edges of the wood with bed liner or something? 

It has 3 coats of varnish and I think we will be adding some seam sealer inside the wheel wells. The factory plywood lasted 50 years without rotting out and it was exposed to all manner of stuff flying up from the rear tires and the underside of the vehicle. We will likely never drive it in any bad weather so I expect it to last at least another 50 years.

I believe it. I love this build. 

loosecannon said:

I think we will wrap the mirrors and grill trim with black vinyl but that decision is down the road. I got the powdercoated bumpers and roof rack back today and they look amazing but you'll have to wait for those pics. Today I spent the whole day installing the white oak floor. In case you didn't know, Suburbans were only available with a plywood floor but I decided to put the floor from a pickup truck in it. It was a big job because the back of a Suburban and a pickup are very different, with different shaped wheel wells and crossmembers in different places but I made it work and love it. Here's the pics.

WOW, just WOW. That is spectacular!! But the entire truck is...... amazing job!!

In reply to HikerDan (Forum Supporter) :

Thank you so much, I hope I can open my business again soon and that we're busy,busy, busy so I can afford to keep it

This thing is so right.  When complete and with the right marketing, $85K+  love it

I can only put the back bumper on for now because I have new marker lights coming for the front and once the bumper is on, they become very difficult to access. 

Wow, we wrestled with the assembly of the passenger rear door for way too long. There is a very particular sequence to get all the parts in that little space and I couldn't find any info online that was Suburban specific. But, we got them both done, the windows go up and down and the passenger side door opens and closes absolutely perfectly. Got the barn door latch on, too

Headlights, tail lights, corner marker lights and horns are wired up and working, but signal lights are not working and I don't know why. All wiring is new Painless harness and as far as I can tell is wired up correctly. Also installed the rear interior panels, with smugglers box on the passenger side.

I figured out the wiring issues. I got the harness from Painless and it's supposed to be specifically for the 67-72 Chevy/GMC trucks. The connector that plugs into the steering column was all wired up already so I just plugged it in. Today I took a closer look at it and discovered that 10 of the 12 wires were in the wrong slot. The manual shows the correct spots so I un-pinned them and plugged them into the right spots and this fixed all the problems. The dash lights, signals and even the gas gauge now all work perfectly. The gas pedal that was in the Suburban was from a new model and had new holes drilled into the firewall. I didn't want to drill holes in the new firewall so I had to build a new pedal mount from scratch and it looks and works like factory. With the throttle working, I was able to start the Suburban up and drive it a little (only a little because I have no brakes). I also used vinyl paint to color the sunvisors black and I bolted those on, too.

I'd go with white or black paint over chrome.   

You are a Suburban God

This thing is so cherry mint, I'd be terrified to drive the damn thing.  Bravo.