Searching for My Dad's 1979 Chevy Suburban

[TheHoundsman]

dmv cant give out registered owners info unless it was a business that owned the vehicle. I've never done a car fax and always thought my vehicle is too old for that but maybe that would give something?? Or have you tried?

Tried a CARFAX But with it only having a 13 digit vin I can’t seem to get it to submit it.

 

[TheHoundsman]

Do you all have any thoughts on the best places to look for classic Square Bodies to buy/sell

 

[squaredeal91]

I don't know of any by name but there are some. I wonder if there's somehow a way to find out if it's been dismantled or not by vin. That way you're search will either stop or continue on.

 

[TheHoundsman]

I don't know of any by name but there are some. I wonder if there's somehow a way to find out if it's been dismantled or not by vin. That way you're search will either stop or continue on.

Yeah if I can come to a resolution and confirm that it is gone I will just begin the search for the closet possiable one and get it a close as I can.

 

[ChuckN]

The NJ MVC has the name of the person the last time it was titled in NJ (2003) as the very helpful (not being sarcastic) person on the phone told me. She just also explained that she is prohibited to give that information out.

Yeah, not surprised by that. But, I just have a feeling that if you got to the right person in the MVC, you could at least find out what city/town it was last located in- was she staunch in not giving any info at all? I feel like that if you played the sympathy card with the history, you might be able to eke out of them no personal information, but the last location. Maybe I’m too hopeful tho.

Best of luck in your search!

 

[ChuckN]

Do you all have any thoughts on the best places to look for classic Square Bodies to buy/sell

Looking on Facebook Marketplace in the south or southwest would be your best bet these days. You can also check out Bring A Trailer (auction website). Craigslist these days in my experience is mostly dead.

On Facebook you can join the group “Squarebody Syndicate Classifieds”- they tend toward having some of the nicer finds out there. They have a good part of the lowered street trucks on there for sale, but they also have a bunch of stock C20s, Burbs etc that cycle through. Of course, buyer beware- lots of scams out there but if you’re savvy you can see them a mile away.

 

[TheHoundsman]

Yeah, not surprised by that. But, I just have a feeling that if you got to the right person in the MVC, you could at least find out what city/town it was last located in- was she staunch in not giving any info at all? I feel like that if you played the sympathy card with the history, you might be able to eke out of them no personal information, but the last location. Maybe I’m too hopeful tho.

Best of luck in your search!

She was not anything but helpful just said she couldn’t. At that point I didn’t want to push anything but I agree I might call back and see if there is something I can find out. Even if I knew last town which would be great it was in 2003 so still a tall task.

 

[Grit dog]

This doesn't help find it - but since you are sentimental:

You could contact the GM Heritage Center archive and order up the original invoice for your dad's truck.

It would show build timing, selling dealership info, pricing and any applicable discounts, and all the original RPO content.

Your dad's name might even appear on the document since he special ordered it.

It was $50 last I knew.

K

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Do this. Closest youre gonna get to finding what is left of the pile of rust that used to be a daily driver 70s car in the rust belt for at least 25years. Sorry for the bad news.
Beautiful condition Square-body burbs are cheap compared to pickups. May even find the same color pretty common color scheme. If not, dad’s truck is only a paint gun away from reappearing.
Seriously unless dad hid a bag of diamonds in the heater core box, that’s a good motivation to find it. Lol
But they’d be gone because the heater core would have probably been replaced and the treasure found!
Lol
Pardon the sarcasm, but the chances that that rig is alive and its remnants haven’t been laid to rest in a junkyard or someone’s field are about the same as winning the Powerball.

 

[ChuckN]

She was not anything but helpful just said she couldn’t. At that point I didn’t want to push anything but I agree I might call back and see if there is something I can find out. Even if I knew last town which would be great it was in 2003 so still a tall task.

I hear ya- sounds like a needle in the haystack kind of thing, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you.

 

[TheHoundsman]

Do this. Closest youre gonna get to finding what is left of the pile of rust that used to be a daily driver 70s car in the rust belt for at least 25years. Sorry for the bad news.
Beautiful condition Square-body burbs are cheap compared to pickups. May even find the same color pretty common color scheme. If not, dad’s truck is only a paint gun away from reappearing.
Seriously unless dad hid a bag of diamonds in the heater core box, that’s a good motivation to find it. Lol
But they’d be gone because the heater core would have probably been replaced and the treasure found!
Lol
Pardon the sarcasm, but the chances that that rig is alive and its remnants haven’t been laid to rest in a junkyard or someone’s field are about the same as winning the Powerball.

I don’t think you are wrong as a matter of fact i would bet you’re right. The challenge with finding a Replacement is that in all my searching I don’t think I have come across one 1979. Scottsdale 4x4 with a manual transmission. Even that is going to be a hard find. I am however more confident that I can find that than the original

 

[mxer147]

Just buy one that is close, tape some pics on the inside of your family’s old square and then build some more memories, I’m sure your family would be honored with that plan. After a few years of driving old metal, you will wonder why you were so driven to do what you did and realize it was mostly to reconnect with your dad. Many of us are driven to these old trucks for similar reasons, ….respectfully!

 

[Strick]

Sorry

Grit is even salty... but definitely leaning on the law of averages though. The odds are slim on finding that specific vehicle.
BUT...I just recently sold one of my '74 Z28 Camaros. I got a message from one of the previous owners that another PO was looking for it. He later contacted me & was more than excited to have located it.
I enjoyed his story so much that I sold it back to him for what I had invested. I'm glad he got the opportunity to reunite the car with his family.
I still wish you well on your hunt. Keep the faith!

HS

 

[Grit dog]

Do you all have any thoughts on the best places to look for classic Square Bodies to buy/sell

Geographically or website?
I’ll give you both.
Search the wet side of the PNW Seattle down to Sanfran for best overall average condition in general. And still decent in the mountain west and southwest. But being back east there’s some nice vehicles down south closer that the opposite coast. But arguably far more of them not rusted west of the Mississippi.
I’d check CL and FB. Unless you’re looking for an overpriced one from a classic car place.
Out here $10k would get you a pretty cherry clean K series. Of course the search will be harder if you’re trying to match it exactly as said above. But the beauty of it is these trucks aren’t rare at all yet.
I was being a little sarcastic trying to be a little funny but mostly honest w my first post.
It would be cool if you found it, but even if that somehow came to fruition, the chances of it being what you’d even consider diving into to restor or rebuild are also slim.

 

[TheHoundsman]

Geographically or website?
I’ll give you both.
Search the wet side of the PNW Seattle down to Sanfran for best overall average condition in general. And still decent in the mountain west and southwest. But being back east there’s some nice vehicles down south closer that the opposite coast. But arguably far more of them not rusted west of the Mississippi.
I’d check CL and FB. Unless you’re looking for an overpriced one from a classic car place.
Out here $10k would get you a pretty cherry clean K series. Of course the search will be harder if you’re trying to match it exactly as said above. But the beauty of it is these trucks aren’t rare at all yet.
I was being a little sarcastic trying to be a little funny but mostly honest w my first post.
It would be cool if you found it, but even if that somehow came to fruition, the chances of it being what you’d even consider diving into to restor or rebuild are also slim.

I had never been on FB before. Signed up as someone had recommended and was posting the same post to a few group and somehow managed to get myself blocked. I have appealed but I guess that takes time. I starting to find some on there especially in the areas you were recommending.

 

[Tonimus]

There's several '79 Suburbans available in the southwest. Didn't see any MT 4x4s, but it was a brief search within like 200 miles of Phoenix.