Welcome from Poland!

[mibars]

Hi!

After years of watching american car videos and over a year of looking around what to buy I got myself my first US made vehicle, a 1990 Chevy Suburban V1500. I secretly fallen in love with those things about a decade ago watching Roadkill, with Muscle Truck, Macho Grande and a ramp truck being all square bodies and frequent stars of this show.

Square bodies are a rare sight in Poland, I recall seeing just a single crew cab pickup on a road and couple more on car shows. They are just so out-of-place here with their size, gas mileage and overall design

The Suburban I got is a bit of a compromise between that good old square body, but with "modern" touches like a 4 speed transmission and a fuel injection, which is a good thing as it only burns 3 cars worth of gas instead of 4 cars-worth It is also in relatively good shape with almost no rust, good running engine, transmission and transfer case, however it is far from showroom condition. It has been repainted from red with gray stripe to black with most of the trim removed. It is also registerd as a "historic vehicle" for legal reasons (can be driven without modification to meet EU requirements), but it also means that I can't "ruin this museum piece" by going crazy with mods.

Anyway I think I have a good starting point and I'll spend long afternoons working on that beast.

I wonder how many people we have here from Europe?

 

[dvdswan]

Welcome to the site.

 

[Raider L]

@mibars,
Man, welcome to the site!!! It looks to me that you've found a good vehicle. Where in the world did you find it?? In Poland no less! And yes, registering it as a "historic vehicle" does present some drawbacks. I know about that sort of thin in that real old houses here in the U.S. that are listed as "historic" can't be up dated at all. You have to keep it like it was built, like a hundred years ago. That mean's no central air conditioning, or anything that could be seen from the outside at least. But you could update a lot of things on the vehicle that can't be seen like engine and trans, suspension, etc. The photo you've got with your sign in name, is that it? So what does the "historic" part mean you can't do? Adding body contour panels and whatnot that changes the shape mainly?
Well, what do the parts availability look like in Poland? Cost? The internet may be your only choice for parts, but how dependable are your delivery services?

 

[WFO]

Welcome from the Texas Panhandle.

 

[animal]

 

[89Suburban]

Sweet lookin Burby!

 

[410 John]

Welcome from Maryland, USA! My great grandparents came to Pennsylvania from Poland.

 

[Corvette Ed]

Welcome aboard from East Tennessee U.S.A.

 

[Shorty81]

Welcome from Ohio. Nice truck!

 

[Gardendelite]

Welcome aboard Poland. Good looking burb, much better than my 90.

 

[mibars]

@mibars,
So what does the "historic" part mean you can't do? Adding body contour panels and whatnot that changes the shape mainly?
Well, what do the parts availability look like in Poland? Cost? The internet may be your only choice for parts, but how dependable are your delivery services?

The "historic" part is tricky: One of the benefits of "yellow plates" (our regular plates are white) is that there are no yearly technical inspections needed, so there is no direct control of what you've done to the vehicle. However you need to report to the "regional register of historic artifacts" (I can't find a better translation) any significant changes you do to the vehicle. For example mine had some body work done and was repainted couple of years ago and it was reported via the e-mail to the register... And that's it. I know that I should not swap the engine and transmission to a different type, in my region they don't allow installing of LPG (would cut the fuel cost by half) and I should keep it in an overall good condition. To summarize it's my duty to inform the register that I did something that they won't agree to, because otherwise they cannot learn that I did something that they won't agree to

Parts are mostly unavailable in Europe. They need to be imported from US, there are couple of companies that import parts and have some basic ones in stock. There are some companies specialized in shipping stuff from US and that's a preferred option as customs agency can be problematic if you are not experienced how to deal with import taxes, duties, etc.

 

[ali_c20]

Welcome from Austria. Nice burb, looks great and doesn't need modifications imho.

 

[mibars]

doesn't need modifications imho.

I don't want to go crazy with anything, however this thing could have a little bit more power out of that 350 cubic inches.

 

[410 John]

Those 350 tbi engines run good. But, are not power houses in stock form. Please don’t base your judgement of American muscle on it. Lol.

 

[Soundmound]

Welcome from the PNW!