Suburban Assault Vehicle

golfduke said:

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

 

 

Funny you should say that. The painter said that the paint he used is so tough that we could go off roading in it and I said "You think this is going to see anything other than parking lots and car shows?"

loosecannon said:

Funny you should say that. The painter said that the paint he used is so tough that we could go off roading in it and I said "You think this is going to see anything other than parking lots and car shows?"

What's this super strong paint?

TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) said:

loosecannon said:

Funny you should say that. The painter said that the paint he used is so tough that we could go off roading in it and I said "You think this is going to see anything other than parking lots and car shows?"

What's this super strong paint?

It's the paint they use on semi trucks and is commercial grade. The  SPID tag on my glove compartment was badly damaged and there's a company called Vintage Correct that will reproduce them accurately, mine just arrived today 

For the sake of conformity...I'm thinkin'  gun metal grayish type of appearance bumpers ,grille,mirrors,etc might look KOOL... but there's that $$$ thing again.....talkin' out loud.....sorry

In reply to 759NRNG (Forum Partidario) :

Everything has already been powdercoated or painted so the color ship has sailed, except for wheels and hubcaps, which we are undecided on

I restored the old running light housings (should have taken pics, they were a mess) and added new lenses then bolted the bumper back on and even got the winch and fog lights working. I built both bumpers myself from scratch while in welding school. Those little flip down steps are from a semi-truck and are wonderful for checking the oil.

Definitely black grille trim and mirrors now that i see the bumper. Maybe black out all the chrome but the wheels and emblems like i dod on the elky.

There are def. folks on here better at this than me ( I just use Paint!) But just to see it, that is black headlight trim and grill surround ( I think brushed stainless would look best for both) Black mirror (trying to leave the chrome or SS hardware look) and black powder coated trim rings on the yellow wheels.

The black trom rings are a look I've thought of for a long long time, but have not followed through with yet!

I "softened" the grill surround and headlights a bit with some grey, but Paint will not let me do the brushed stainless look I would like to see for those.

Thinking about all the yellow that will be there with the hood on, I think black there would be a bit to sharp a contrast... unless there are some black highlights on the hood - stripe, scoop, something?

Love the truck. Great work.

In reply to 03Panther :

Thanks for the photoshop, that will assist in the decision making

Get us one with the hood on!

There is a guy on here... cant remember his handle, but it starts wit an "O"... is is REAL good. Does renderings in the Foose style. Seen others that do good work with photoshop; i just put color over the picture using MS Paint. Very unsophisticated, and my ability with shading sucks! But the same goes for my "art" I can draw a mechanical sketch, and even get some perspective and depth, but no curves or shading. No clue how artists do it!!!

Is the hood painted yet? Even if not, close the hinges, and just set it on it for a picture op!

In reply to 03Panther : 

I'm liking the little bit of flash from the chrome and polished trim.  

In reply to wawazat :

We are leaning towards keeping the chrome strip and mirrors because the emblems are chrome and the door handles are all chrome and to black those all out seems excessive and difficult

loosecannon said:

In reply to wawazat :

We are leaning towards keeping the chrome strip and mirrors because the emblems are chrome and the door handles are all chrome and to black those all out seems excessive and difficult

Looks like wawazat and I think you ore thinkin' right!

Add the chrome trim rings to the yellow rims, and maybe a brighter silver on the bumper accessories, and the blend of chrome and black highlights have a very nice balance.

The hood didnt quite fit on the picture with the bumper and headlights, but a little streaching got it close enough for me to see I like it as is!

For whatever it's worth, classic vehicles lose a lot of their classic charm when people play fast and loose with things like surface finishes, powertrains, and wheel choice. Slather fifty different builds in color-of-the-month paint and big wheels and LS swaps, and eventually they're all same-same.

Maybe (not really maybe) I'm a bit of a luddite, but I like to be able to see some of the original personality intact. That is just a convoluted way of saying it might look better the way the factory built it, bright trim and all.

I still maintain that the eyebrow looks heavier than expected because the front end hasn't been broken up and toned down with the black accent paint it would have had from la factoria. Easy to mock up with electrical tape if you're on the fence. If the gloss is still too much, the piece is probably aluminum and might respond well to a little elbow grease and a Scotchbrite pad or fine steel wool to take some of the sparkle off.

And matte black finish on the mirrors to complement the bumpers and enhance the basemodelness of the whole affair.

Hard pass on the black trom rongs. Body color wheels and white caps, or matte black if you must, are just right IMO. Or no caps at all. Nothing wrong with that. 

In reply to DarkMonohue :

I agree on the more classic look... and agree with the black accent paint behind the grill surround. My skill at modding pictures will not allow me to ad that. Course you call that factory, but his did not come from the factory with that, so it'd kinda be playing fast and loose to add it. I do think it would look good, but with the hood on picture, I also don't think it looks heavy at all. The black trom rongs were only if more was going black with the chrome staying, they are out (for my tastes anyway.) I think the white dog dish caps and bleck mirrors would clash horribly. White mirrors and caps would work with factory bumpers, but not the fab'd ones.

I doubt that grill trim is aluminum; and the chrome will not dull that way... brushed SS would be nice, but hard to do, with what he has. And wouldn't be factory, at that.

03Panther said:

In reply to DarkMonohue :

I agree on the more classic look... and agree with the black accent paint behind the grill surround. My skill at modding pictures will not allow me to ad that. Course you call that factory, but his did not come from the factory with that, so it'd kinda be playing fast and loose to add it. I do think it would look good, but with the hood on picture, I also don't think it looks heavy at all. The black trom rongs were only if more was going black with the chrome staying, they are out (for my tastes anyway.) I think the white dog dish caps and bleck mirrors would clash horribly. White mirrors and caps would work with factory bumpers, but not the fab'd ones.

I doubt that grill trim is aluminum; and the chrome will not dull that way... brushed SS would be nice, but hard to do, with what he has. And wouldn't be factory, at that.

You know, anything is possible given the age and history, but it sure looks like this unit had blackout treatment applied in strategic locations around the grille.  Possibly also around the headlight doors.  It really is hard to tell.  But here's the first pic where it looks like there was a blackout treatment, which may just be the scabby bedliner product OP subsequently mentioned.

And now a later pic with the grille painted all yellow:

Wait a second!  Look how much skinnier that eyebrow is than the one that's currently installed.  That skinny one is the '67-'68 (maybe '69 Canada) type.  The new eyebrow is the broader '69-'72 style.  And the hood shown in the old pics was also the early "low angle" type, whereas the new hood is late model.  No wonder it looks so different now...it was purchased dressed as a '68.  Unless Canadian '69 models carried over with '68 styling.  But now it looks like a '69 US model or maybe '70 Canada.

OK, I give up.  I'm starting to go cross-eyed figuring this out, and these ketchup chips are doing my head in.  I'm going to go lay down for a while.

In reply to DarkMonohue :

I never have been able to "see" the early photos from my work computer, and the ones in your post are not "there" either. Out of curiosity, I'd love to see 'em. I was only going by what I THOUGHT had been said

I don't know the 67 to 72 chebby trucks that well, and including canada changes, I'm sure there are some unknowns!

OK, I give up.  I'm starting to go cross-eyed figuring this out, and these ketchup chips are doing my head in.  I'm going to go lay down for a while.

gotta agree with ya there... (cept I don't know what a ketchup chip is?)

03Panther said:

In reply to DarkMonohue :

I never have been able to "see" the early photos from my work computer, and the ones in your post are not "there" either. Out of curiosity, I'd love to see 'em. I was only going by what I THOUGHT had been said

I don't know the 67 to 72 chebby trucks that well, and including canada changes, I'm sure there are some unknowns!

OK, I give up.  I'm starting to go cross-eyed figuring this out, and these ketchup chips are doing my head in.  I'm going to go lay down for a while.

gotta agree with ya there... (cept I don't know what a ketchup chip is?)

Oh...of course!  That's because they were hosted on Photobucket, and Photobucket only allows hotlinking if the account holder pays them an exorbitant fee, or if the viewer uses unauthorized methods to get to the images anyway.  The less said about that, the better.  Anyway, I have rehosted the images elsewhere to make them visible and edited that change into my last post above.  Loosecannon, please let me know if that is a problem for you, and I'll unwind it.

Ketchup flavored potato chips are popular in Canada.  It was a feeble joke.

Here's a pic from when I first got the Suburban. As far as I could tell, the hood and grill and fenders were all original. The right color was hiding underneath brackets and bolts. However, the keen eyed observer will see that they are all 67-68 parts and my only explanation is that GM used leftover parts to finish this run of 10 Suburbans for Atomic Energy of Canada. I have the build sheet for it and it was shipped from the factory on March 15, 1969 and one of the listed options was "Painted mirrors". I assume they were painted white from the factory but I don't know. The grill had some black on it (visible in picture) but that was definitely done after because where the black is chipped off, yellow is underneath. I needed to replace the hood and fenders anyway so I decided to go with the 69 stuff because I knew I would sell it some day and didn't want to deal with all the comments over the "incorrect for 69" fenders, hood and trim. This was never going to be a restoration because the Suburban was simply too far gone for that so we wanted it to be period correct and save the character of how it left the factory. It was built to pound around the Canadian bush collecting blueberries and wood ticks and today it looks like it could still do that. 

I needed switches for the interior lights, fog lights and eventually the lights on the roof rack. When I got it, holes had been randomly drilled in the dash for extra switches and it took me quite a few hours to fix those holes. I made a switch panel out of aluminum and gave it a spritz of semi gloss and attached it using the bolts that hold the heater controls on. The front seat upholstery kit I got turned out to be for a truck, not a Suburban and it had no back on it. Briget bought some black vinyl and sewed up a back for it and honestly, you can't tell it's not factory. The pics are before and after her repairs.

I got all the door window mechanisms, door latches, door seals and door panels installed. The doors did not want to close at first but some tweaks, heat and time have allowed them to now close with only a firm shut. I am told this is normal and that with time, they will loosen up.

During the tear down process of the restoration, I found heaps of dried leaves down in the bowels of the cowl. They land up blocking the drains and holding onto moisture. So, I added stainless steel guards under the cowl vents so that will never happen again. I painted them semi-gloss black so they are hard to see but you'll have to trust me, they are there.