Technical 5th Gen Suburban ('60-'66) - Buyers Guide

Where can I find some info regarding these? Been a dream car for years and I finally have the means to get one. While there aren't exactly a million to chose from, any place I can start to learn what to look for? Ideally I'd want a '63...

I know '60-'62 had the torsion bar suspension, and '63 and later had coils. '64 and on lost the wrap around windshield. Shares most/a lot with the C10...

Problem areas?

 

Have fun trying to find one, getting more difficult to find good ones. They are a great vehicle, short wheelbase and handles well in traffic.
Engine bay open for anything.
Problem areas are rockers (which are the same as Pickup.) Also look at rear valance by rear doors, rear wheel kick up packed with garbage and always damp.
Rear quarters are unique as they use short wheelbase wheel openings. Looks like you can use the 6 ft bed sides but wont work.

 

Awesome ride.

"Also look at rear valance by rear doors, rear wheel kick up packed with garbage and always damp."​

Sorry, I don't quite understand what area that is...

If it matters, I'm finding my budget means I'll be doing (learning) some work on it. Hoping to find a solid driver for under $15k. Realistically expecting to to fix some rot at that price range. What engine comes in it isn't super important to me.

Any real reason to stay away from the torsion beam? Right now I'm thinking to avoid it, just because it's limited production time and the better availability of parts for the coil design.

 

The ugly hood ones are my favorite.
Good ones ain’t cheap. Some parts are hard to locate that are specific to the sub. But there’s ton of aftermarket support for the chassis and most sheet metal.
Check for rust above the windshield. The piece above the windshield is common and available. Bottom of A posts where the glass curves on the 60-63. Most have rocker issues. Easy fix.
The torsion bar set up rides great. Parts are more expensive than the coil spring suspension. Front X-members are super easy to swap between the 2.

 

I bought my 66 in 1990 for $2000, 283/PG, was a daily driver for a bit then got the itch to build it into a hot rod, I've probably put nearly $20,0000 in it since.


It's still a project.........it could be yours.



Not cheap but all the heavy lifting is done.

 

The rear doors or tailgate have piece under them, sometimes called a "valance", which can get rusty.

I guess I should have hung on to my 66 for another 20 years...but I found that 57 and sold it. Then after putting 50k miles on the 57, I got tired of the utilitarian nature of the thing and sold it too.

 

Easy enough.

Any advantage/disadvantage to barn doors vs tailgate? Barn doors seem cooler, because, well, you don't see them around on anything besides work vans these days.

 

I agree with the admiration of these Suburbans and would love to have one as well. I have had several of the pickups of this generation, but never a Suburban. That reminds me I do know where one is sitting that I should check on someday. I’m sure it isn’t for sale, but you never know.

Good luck finding a good one! They are definitely cool!

 

The doors are more convenient. I had tailgate on mine, and switched it over. The upper gate with the glass in it is HEAVY, and it's a pain to find working supports for them.

But you can't have tailgate parties with doors

 

I've always thought "true" Suburbans' should have tailgates, besides, surfboards look funny with barn doors!

 

Great trucks. Had a '65 that I bought in the mid '70's for $1500.00. spent three months in Mexico, towed a trailer out to Detroit (from Calif) and back with a car on it, towed my Baja race car to Baja numerous times, etc, etc, etc. Ended up giving it to an employee who probably trashed it.....always wanted another one but now they are worth stupid money. But what old vehicle isn't ?

 

I've almost always had a Suburban, and my first was a '57 with 389 Pontiac. Then a '60, '62, and finally a '64. Then I sold the '64 when I got a company truck and bought a OT import 4x4 as a driver when I was off work. Owned that for 25 years, and after I retired I wanted another old Suburban, and wanted it to be a '66 or older 2 door version.
Everything I found was garbage, and was still expensive. I didn't want a project, but I did want at least a solid body, so after over 2 years of looking I gave up. Then shortly after giving up I stumbled onto a '69 Suburban that was really nice, and really cheap! I really didn't want the longer 3 door version, but couldn't pass up the $2k price tag for a very clean, solid Burb.
I'd still love to have a 50's or early 60's Suburban, butt the longer I look, the higher the prices go.

 

How hard is the swap? Couldn't come up with anything on Google...

 

you need all the parts, including the valence, which is hard to remove/replace (you can use the tailgate one with doors, but there's a couple hinge holes that look funny, but you could also just weld patches over them)

this one has been converted, you can tell....



this is how they're supposed to look

 

You can also tell by those two wide hinge "bumps" on the drip rail over the doors, caused by people raising the original upper gate too far, mine have the same ones.

 

I tweak out when I get a new vehicle, look up EVERYTHING I can find about it (parts included). I've always had Panels (didn't want to deal with the windows of a 'burb). A lot of parts cross from the panels except the side windows and seats. I had a '64 panel so my knowledge is mostly from '64 on to '66 (1/2 ton).

-1963 had the previous year windshield the "new" front suspension and a 1 yr off grille.
-1964-66 had the same windshield and the same grille.
-Look for rust in the lower 1/4 panels below the rear side glass, above the front windshield (on the over hang), all around the drip channel and lower front fenders.
-1966 was the only year that had a different parking brake cable setup, it didn't have a parking brake crossmember to get in the way for a later transmission.
-The REALLY expensive stuff to make sure is included in the sale are the stock 3 rows of seats ($1500+ needing upholstery), the rear doors (clam or barn) (barn doors $1000 needing work), "custom" trim (Chevy has an aluminum grille $350, windshield trim and a 6 piece side trim $1000) (GMC has it around the side glass) and the rear bumper (it's Suburban and Panel ONLY).
-Factory a/c is always nice but pricey to find the stock controls.

The biggest thing I can tell you is to buy NOS parts or at least NORS, stay away from repo crap.

A couple of other places for info:
https://www.chevytalk.org/fusionbb/index.php
https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/forumdisplay.php?f=6

Custom side trim:

Custom trim windshield and grille:

 

Tail gate are great and if the rear valance area is good the lower hinges are supported there.
Gate is heavy. Upper gate with window is heavy and with some extra creative engineering lift struts can be used.
Yes the area above the windshield is a issue with all 60-66 chevy trucks as there is no Primer to protectant on the metal.
The roof section is different curve than the pickup. Bigger crown. Or curve.
Wood rear floor i cant believe lasted so long and i have heard is a Pain to replace as body has to be lifted to fit under wheel wells and over Floor supports.
Add a rear sway bar to the rear and makes a big difference.
We did a write up on Summit Racing site about install.

 

barn door subs are generally cheaper and more available. the downside is the blind spot is atrocious.

 

5th gen and earlier are way easier to convert than later '67 and newer. It's all bolt on for the earlier Burbs like shown, unless you want to fill in the old clamshell recesses as Jim showed in the conversions he pictured. Later Burbs take major bodywork and welding just to do the switch to barn doors. I hate the clam shell doors, but barn doors are tough to find, even for early '66 and older Burbs.

 

https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=727741 FB market place has w a y more listings.

 

I really dig this 63.

 

Yep, that’s about perfect.

 

I've been kind of half heartedly looking on and off for one of these too. The 60-66 bodies are super cool but the prices are all over the place. 5 or 10 grand for rotbox garbage and 50 thousand for really nice examples. Hard to find decent ones priced in the lower end. Put me in the barn door column, never a fan of the tailgate hatch although I wouldn't let it stop a good deal.

 

Are you ready to deal?

 

Looks like a great project you have there but I'm already buried in my current Chevy. Not to mention that with the current gas prices, paying to ship a car cross country will be like financing a space shuttle mission.

 

That's what I'm finding. I'm going about this all wrong and looking for a driver, which further limits my search pool.

One just popped up on Facebook about 45 min away from me (first one I've seen come up locally in over a year) so I'm gonna go check it out. Minimal photos, clearly a huge mass of bondo on a rear quarter panel.

Which, crunched rear corners seem to be pretty common on these things. Like, bad enough that it's beyond my ability to fabricate a new panel to fix. Anywhere to source rear panels for these things? LMC ain't got nothing. Goodmark has an extremely limited selection. C.I. doesn't have anything. I'm starting to think they are commonly simply because the fix is difficult...

 

Yeah, they get banged up (you can't see where you're backing up), and rusted out (lousy drain holes, and very susceptible to salt). No new parts available, as the demand is too small to make new tooling worth the cost.

And getting someone who's capable of making needed parts and having it come out nice, can be expensive.

One solution is to just leave it as a beater, and concentrate on making it work nice, not look nice. Unfortunately this is getting to be a "thing", so prices for crappy looking ones are also really high.

 

Sounds like I may be making a lot of practice panels. Body work ain't my specialty, but I'm willing to learn.

I'm not looking for a show-queen. My final goal is a solid driver I can put miles on during the summer, yet still take out if the weather gets nasty--though, it'll be tucked away once salt hits the roads.

 

If you live where the roads are salty, I'd be really surprised if you could find a solid truck for a reasonable price. Good luck in your search... hope you do find something you can fix up. They're neat family haulers.