No kidding, the new ones don't even come close. But I've always been partial to it's ugly sibling the Panel Truck .
It's your lucky day if anyone has a craving for a suburban, I have (2) 1946's well lets just call it 1-1/2 as the 2nd. one is a body & frame only, the better of the pair is a tailgate version while the 2 nd. has cargo doors. Optional n.o.s .rear fenders & n.o.s. hood sides available. These are rollers without drive trains. also have a pickup cab.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/suburbans-carryalls-panel-trucks-whatcha-got.1022609/#post-12589438 Hello, Back when we were young, on those long family road trips, we stayed in various motels and upscale hotels when we could. The motels were great for the two kids, but my mom always wanted to stay in those larger hotels. A couple of them had these suburbans as transportation for the clientele. Drive to downtown, go to the beach, a short jaunt to the local attractions, they were used at the discretion of the resorts and hotels. We never got to ride in one, but saw plenty of people get in one for a short jaunt somewhere. People movers…a resort, courtesy service for all. Jnaki We went on a recent road trip to Newport Beach for some specific shopping on Lido Isle. We had a great lunch at a restaurant called Woody’s, a 50’s-60’s diner. When we were driving out of the parking lot, we noticed in the adjacent block, a new resort popped up over the last year. What is the form of transportation for the customer service for the clientele? A 46-48 Ford woody, of course. Since the Suburban is much larger, the old ones are not as popular as the smaller more nimble Woody Wagons. But in our books, anything older like the Suburban, similar to the black one in So Cal above, would be a lot nicer. Besides, the all black, new Suburbans, are a common sight in So Cal and is usually associated with government agencies or little blond women drivers. A 1946-48 Ford Woody at the new, Newport Beach Lido House Hotel. This stock Ford Woody was part of the new resort “feeling” shown to guests at this newly created hotel complex. The new, Lido House Hotel at the Lido Isle section of Newport Beach replaced the old Newport City Hall. It can be seen while driving down the main drag that leads into the Newport Pier beach area and the Balboa Peninsula. “The hotel’s design and iconic architecture celebrates Newport Beach’s Cape Cod aesthetic with elegant twists on a variety of nautical themes. Sitting on the site of former City Hall, Lido House is the old-new centerpiece of Newport Beach.”
The chevy HHR is modeled after the PT Cruiser......lol the same Person engineered both of them, PT first then HHR. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Nesbitt
Hello, There were the times when being caught dead in such a road plodding huge vehicle was the worse thing that could happen. Luckily, our memories from those times were of being herded into the huge road hog and taken to functions with other pre teen kids. Our youth group had access to one and it was the only way to transport a large number of kids from one place to another. But, there were also, the "hiding out" moments as we sat in those hard seats. Jump up to the teenage surfing time period and a different beach scene was in the works. at first, we used what was available in our family. When we were looking for a replacement cool car for going to our surf adventures, the car we were replacing was the black 58 Impala with two long boards sticking out of the trunk, with the rear seatback removed. My brother was in his burn recovery stages and had decided to get back into surfing as a way to start his activities again. The black Impala was just sitting there and we figured out a way to load up two longboards and go to our favorite surf spots in the OC area. What a site that was, a pristine 58 Impala with two big guys and two colorful longboards sticking out of the trunk. But, our discussions about the Impala not being the best choice for daily beach forays began to creep into conversations quite often. The salt encrusted surfaces, and gritty sand everywhere was not the best thing for the fast, pristine Impala back in the cruising scene. After a hard day of surfing and beach relaxing days, we had to totally clean out the Impala back to its show appearing condition for daily use and Friday/Saturday night cruises. We knew that the salt air environment was not our friend and took care of the Impala every time we got home. Jnaki So, we began to talk about a station wagon. But, we would still have to lower the back seat and only have room for a thin camping mattress and cooler. So, a larger station wagon, ala a Suburban was mentioned. Then those memories of being transported inside of the huge road hog was brought up, again... Our local private school had them for transporting their students to and from their campus. Businesses had them due to the fact that they could hold plenty of goods for the stores. Our local school district had a couple of bland looking Suburbans for class field trips and maintenance purposes. It was looming large,(pun) in our choices. My brother had designed a way to have a flip out panel when the rear seat was taken out and now there was room for two comfortably on our long surfing spot road trips. There was plenty of space underneath the wooden floor panel for storage, like a two burner stove and other necessities, keeping the above floor pristine as a sitting, resting between surf sessions and of course, taking naps. Being hot rod teens, we had plenty of ways to make it look custom and still have this large, “Green Giant” size of a rolling station wagon taking us down into Baja for plenty of week long surf/camping adventures. The water droplet flames had not been invented as yet during the early 1961 time period. It was a late 70s and early 80s option for designing and painting different styles of flames. Water droplet flames, surfing…ahh the connection is there if you can see it. The Suburban will always be a part of our whole family driving scene, even if you are not in the FBI, CIA, or running a drug cartel. But, hot rod/custom car/van/truck building and designing was in our blood and convenience and substance was stronger than we realized. A custom, old Suburban is one cool looking form of transportation for all aspects of our lives. A Dave Bell inspired, weird art form of a highly modified Suburban for extreme conditions, to continually look for the real secret spots in surfing.
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