Hello all. I figured after lurking for over a year now, I had better do an introduction.
My name is Mike Hudak and I have a problem, I'm addicted to old trucks. Back in the mid 90's, I bought my first truck (1953 3/4-ton) which shortly thereafter led to my next truck: a 1957 original V8. That led me to my next truck: a 1954 and yet one more 1954 (all 1/2-tons).
The '53 stuck around for a only a few months until I realized it was too far gone for my abilities.
The '57 was my pride. I had blown it a part for a full restoration / custom build (fully boxed frame, MII IFS/96 Vette IRS, etc).
One of the '54's was solely a driver and other '54 was waiting its position in the garage for a full original restoration.
As life happens for a young and naive guy, funds dried up and the projects got put away for another day.
After a few years of not touching them, they all ended up getting sold off. As my life started to settle in personally/ financially, I got into Jeeps and rock-crawling, which lasted the past 6-7 years. Initially it was a lot of fun and built my confidence in fabrication / projects, but I always had this "thing" in the back of my mind calling for another old truck.
So about a year and a half ago, with the push by my Father, the hunt was on.
I had a fairly narrow list of trucks I was looking for, a '54-'55.1 or '57, close to stock and a solid driver (no V8's except if the '57 was originally a V8 truck).
The initial search was for a 1-ton truck, but was expanded to Suburbans after my wife saw one for first time and fell in love. After finding a few trucks, moving to slow and missing them I came across a 1955.1 GMC Suburban that was close to fitting the bill (well, it was a '55.1 and drive-able -- that is about as close to my list as it was). Overall the Suburban is in decent shape and with a few maintenance items, it will be a solid driver.
So what I have and my plans. The Suburban as I mentioned is a 1955.1 GMC Hydramatic w/deluxe trim and has all 3 original seats. Somewhere over the past 20 years, one of the previous owners swapped it onto a G-body chassis and put a mild 350 crate engine in it and ditched the original frame and drive-train. (Why, I have no clue.) I know it was drag raced for a while at Darlington, but how long I don't know.
My plans for it are to put it back on an original chassis, swap over the v8 w/a few vintage dress up items make a few other small upgrades and keep it fairly close to original.
For now I'm going to make some necessary changes (wiring harness, pull the fuel cell out of the interior and misc other items) and keep it a driver. There will be no major restoration in the near future beyond putting it back on an original frame.
This past weekend I was able to pick up an original chassis (Thanks Alvin!) and am officially on my way to getting it back on an original chassis. This winter I plan to restore the frame and swap it into the Suburban in the spring. After that, it will be on to replacing the rear wood and the floorboards.
A Picture
http://offcamber4wd.org/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=8206.0;attach=9654;image
Thank you to all in advance!
Last edited by Peggy M; 06/16/2023 9:02 PM. Reason: added more info to the title
One nice ride. Keep us posted.