The Stovebolt Site Forums Welcome! Welcome Centre 1969 Suburban -- (Oregon)

Just discovered this site on a recommendation by a friend. I've been into old Chevys since before I started driving in 1966. Have a couple old Chevy cars and trucks, plus a Chevy powered Austin gasser. Looking forward to learning some more here.

Welcome to Stovebolt. Please tell us about your "old Chevy...trucks". Would love to see some pictures and the story of how they became yours and whatever has gone on since you acquired.

BTW - Lost of 'Bolters in the PNW. You might want to introduce yourself to the crew in the Whole Wild West area forum. Perhaps you have a Stovebolt neighbor just around the bend?

Well my only truck is a 1969 Suburban. Mostly original 2wd with 350 V8 and TH400. Just upgraded interior. My '39 Chev coupe is an old gasser from the 1960's that I found rotting away and restored back to a gasser again.

Welcome to the Stovebolt Truck site. We do love pictures of Trucks! And most won’t complain if the other vehicles just happen to end up in the same picture.
Also, generic questions pertaining to systems that are shared between different types of vehicles are acceptable. However, once the “car” part is known, that post typically goes to the Greasy Spoon.

Welcome to the ‘Bolt! Nice truck! We would love it, if you could tell us a bit about your truck, its history, your goals and what you have already accomplished on restoring your truck.

And of course we bolters love pictures so include a few. Here’s a link to instructions on how to add pictures to a post.

Again, welcome to. the ‘Bolt!

Welcome from n.e. Oregon, good to have another PNW member!

Thanks!
I bought my '69 Suburban back in 2013 a few years after I retired. I've had a '57, '60, '62, and '64 Burbs before this '69 and really wanted another short wheelbase, but this one came up for sale on a local ad for $2000 and I rushed over and bought it. It had great bones, and good mechanically, but interior was trashed everywhere. Seats were junk, dash had bad heater controls, and radio was gone, and dash cut up for a later radio. Carpets were filthy, but all there and not worn out.
I totally redid the interior, fixed all the dash issues, and installed a new radio. The back side panels were gone or never there, so I built them and covered them in black vinyl and installed the speakers for the new radio back there. It had good tires, but wheels were rusty chrome spokes, so replaced them later with rally wheels from a Corvette. 10" rear and 7" front.



Earlier picture with the old wheels. I painted the centers to get rid of the rust.

My parents had a 67 ‘burb that color when I was in high school. We had a lot of fun running around in it.

'39 Chevy - Just a short note to say the posts with the non-working imgur links have been cleaned out, since you got your pics to post in the "Attachment Manager", as they weren't needed any longer.

Looking forward to seeing and hearing more on your Suburban story.

In the first image where I was hauling my old British Austin Gasser to the drags I had the original wheels on the Suburban. I sanded the centers and sprayed them with Duplicolor metallic graphite color paint to hide the rust. I also found some Marina Blue paint at the local parts store and sanded and painted the tailgate as it was a non metallic darker blue. Used some to touch up the dash also after welding up the cuts someone made to install a larger stereo. Fortunately whoever cut the dash didn't remove the metal, they just bent it back and up to make room. So I bent it back down and welded the two cuts closed. Smoothed them out and shot the area with more Marina Blue paint.
The Suburban has been a daily driver for most of the 13 years I've owned it, but doesn't get used much the last few years. I have to fire it up occasionally for a short drive just to keep the battery charged and fluids circulated.

My nephew just told me last week he bought a 1967 K20 long bed 4x4 with a 292 Chev six in it for $1500! Runs and drives great, but needs some rust repair in rockers, and few small places in the floor. He plans to pull the 292 six to do a V8 swap, and I called dibs on it! Nothing to use it in yet, but I'm keeping my eyes open for an older truck project to install the 292 into once he pulls it.

Our 5 kids all spent time in Suburbans since we've owned a number of them. I didn't like the fixed rear seats in any of them since they hinder how much you can haul. On my shorter 1960's Suburbans I took the backseats out. The backseat was trashed on this '69, as were the two buckets. I bought buckets and a folding bench from a Durango and installed the electric leather buckets, and folding rear seat in this '69. I can fold the seats down, and release them to fold forward and get a 4'x8' sheet of plywood in the back now. Then return them quickly to allow for people to sit in the back.