Searching for My Dad's 1979 Chevy Suburban

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TheHoundsman

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West Deptford NJ
First Name
Brian
Truck Year
1979
Truck Model
Chevy Suburban
Engine Size
350 V8
I’d dive in and fix it. Gonna be a long expensive project if something little like this requires a tow truck and $150/hr to diagnose and repair.
Can help you start diagnosing if you’d rather spare the tow.
Knowing this is an old running driving vehicle where basically everything is either original, unverified or of questionable age and competency, start with the easy stuff.
See if the starter is drawing any power. Not likely if you didn’t hear the solenoid click. Lights will dim when you turn the key of the starter is pulling power.
If not, first jump the solenoid on the starter with a screwdriver. If no big sparks and no crank or at least click then no power to starter.
Inspect/wiggle/or just replace battery cables if they’re old and crusty.
Check for 12V at solenoid when turning key to crank.
While it’s possible it’s the ignition switch (jumping the starter with a screwdriver will allow it to crank w a bad ignition switch), or associated wiring from the steering column to the starter, it’s much more likely something under the hood.
Bad cables bad ground, bad solenoid trigger wire, bad starter solenoid, bad starter motor.
For the cost of the tow and the shop for just a couple hours, you could buy all new components and the tools to test and fix it.
Tryin to help.
I feel bad for folks like the guy I bought my C10 from who handed me a stack of over $15k in receipts, not including the purchase price of the truck when he bought it (although I think his dad gave it to him).
Then I handed him $7k and drove away with it.
Idk your budget or how you plan on distributing that budget. But The difference between diy and someone else doing the work is orders of magnitude different. Plus while this is a sentimental build, the ROI in Suburbans is far less than pickups. Many things cost twice as much or more like restoration things, interior, paint and body, because there’s more to replace or paint. Mechanical and drivetrain is the same $.
But apples to apples, Burbs are worth considerably less than a comparable pickup.
Only hope of not being waaay upside down is at least doing the simple stuff yourself.
Best news is, you have a plethora of old squarebody mechanics and fanatics here to get help from.
Now go get ‘er running!
I absolutely love this post and thank you for taking the time to write it. Full disclosure I am heading out for work for a week and already had it scheduled to go to the shop to have them look over the transmission and the engine to tell me what is working what needs work and what needs to be replaced. I asked them if they would give me a playbook for everything they see and then I can decide what things I think I can tackle myself and what will be out of my skill set. My son’s hockey buddy’s dad owns a tow shop only 3 miles from my house so he took it over there for me for just a tip to his driver. I had watched a bunch of videos on how to replace a starter and if I was not leaving tomorrow would have given it a try myself. I love the idea of doing as much of the work as I can because well that’s a big part of this journey right. You absolutely might be on to something with respect to the wiring it is a hot mess under the hood. I’ll try to get some pictures and would be happy for any advice. I know what you’re saying about the value difference between the pickups and Burbs but I have to tell you when I wake up in the morning and look out and see that big old brown thing in front of the house I love it!! Thanks again for the advice and so long as you don’t mind I’ll definitely be back for more.
 

TheHoundsman

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Chevy Suburban
Engine Size
350 V8
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Good morning, guys. I am back from a work trip that was longer than I intended. The Burb is in the shop now. If you remember, I couldn't start it and assumed it was the starter. They have not been able to crack it open yet, but they quickly looked at it and told me they think it "might" have something to do with the flywheel, which I understand would be a more significant issue. I will keep you all posted on that part.

On another note, could you tell me what the actual GM color of the headliner is? My research leads me to believe that it is "Mystic." Does that make sense, or does anyone have other thoughts?
 

TheHoundsman

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West Deptford NJ
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Brian
Truck Year
1979
Truck Model
Chevy Suburban
Engine Size
350 V8
Good morning all,

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted any updates. As I said last time I was having the Burb towed to a shop to have them complete what they were calling a “safety check” (basically a once over to let me know where I stood with the overall condition). If you remember it would not start and although I was pretty sure it was the starter I was leaving for a work trip and didn’t have time to try to confirm that and/or try to fix that myself. Admittedly apart from normal oil changes I have never really done any work on my cars. This is something I want to change and I am looking forward to learning how to do many of the needed repairs and future “upgrades” myself. With all that said I still don’t have the actual truck back yet. They probably didn’t look at it for about two weeks (frustrating) but I was away for work so not the end of the world. Once he did he called me with a laundry list of things that needed to be done however despite me trying to write them down as he was talking I know I missed a bunch of them. When he gives me the itemized list I will share it and get your opinions on what has been done and what you guys might recommend as next logical steps. With respect to the actual work on the Burb I have been watching as many YouTube videos as I can find on job like upgrading front disk brakes and swapping out the rear drum breaks for disks. That has proven educational but I guess until you actually try to physically do something you don’t really know if you can. Any suggestions on the best way to educate myself on Square body repairs would also be greatly appreciated.

I have been working on the simple things that I can figure out myself while I am waiting for the truck to come back. Things like tearing the seats out sanding and repainting them. Cleaning and repaint the interior trim pieces. Frankly things that I can’t really mess up but give me something to do while I wait. They are all window dressing items and don’t really impact the more important things like how the truck actually runs and functions but it is stuff that at the moment I can figure out on my own.

Ultimately my goal is to get this one as close to my Dad’s original as I can while learning how to do as much as I can for the future. I have three grandsons and between myself and their other grandfather (who is an absolute paint and body shop expert) I would love to be able to gain enough knowledge so that he the grandsons and I can someday buy restore and get them all up and enjoying their own Square body body trucks.

Sorry for rambling. I’ll post some pick of the stuff I have been doing since my last post.
 

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TheHoundsman

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Location
West Deptford NJ
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Brian
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1979
Truck Model
Chevy Suburban
Engine Size
350 V8
A few more pics and also one more question. I have been looking at replacing the wheels on this truck at some point with some white wagon wheels and the question that keeps coming up is what offset do I need. The truck has what I am pretty sure is at least a 4 inch rough country lift on it and at the moment has 33x12.5r15 tires on it. (I’ll post some pics of them as well. Any advice on offset.
 

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TheHoundsman

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Location
West Deptford NJ
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Brian
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1979
Truck Model
Chevy Suburban
Engine Size
350 V8
Seats and interior trim pieces
 

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TheHoundsman

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Location
West Deptford NJ
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Brian
Truck Year
1979
Truck Model
Chevy Suburban
Engine Size
350 V8
Wheels, Tires and Lift kit
 

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bucket

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Your stock wheels are zero offset, or about 4" backspacing. If you go with a wider wheel, you will want to stick to right around 4" backspacing.
 

TheHoundsman

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Location
West Deptford NJ
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Brian
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1979
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Chevy Suburban
Engine Size
350 V8
And yeah, that looks to be a 4" lift.
Your stock wheels are zero offset, or about 4" backspacing. If you go with a wider wheel, you will want to stick to right around 4" backspacing.
The more I looked at them they seem to be 10 slot rally wheels. I am think I will just get that black paint off them repaint them with some Eastwood silver wheel paint add some rims and 4x4 hubs and call it a day.
 

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bucket

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@TheHoundsman if you buy new trim rings, DO NOT get chrome ones. Make sure to get stainless steel like the original GM trim rings. If you get the cheap chrome ones, the steel ones will rust in short order and the plastic ones will chip and/or turn green-ish after a while.
 

TheHoundsman

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West Deptford NJ
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Brian
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1979
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Chevy Suburban
Engine Size
350 V8
@TheHoundsman if you buy new trim rings, DO NOT get chrome ones. Make sure to get stainless steel like the original GM trim rings. If you get the cheap chrome ones, the steel ones will rust in short order and the plastic ones will chip and/or turn green-ish after a while.
The ones I saw on Summit say they are Chromed Stainless Steel. Is that the ones you would recommend
 

bucket

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The ones I saw on Summit say they are Chromed Stainless Steel. Is that the ones you would recommend

That may be a listing error? The usual polished stainless rings look like chrome to most people.
 

TheHoundsman

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West Deptford NJ
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Brian
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1979
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Chevy Suburban
Engine Size
350 V8
That may be a listing error? The usual polished stainless rings look like chrome to most people.
I’ll give them a call in the morning to confirm. Thanks for the heads up.
 

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