Jalopnik has a dark green 1972 Suburban in their “Down on the Street” feature, which got us thinking how much we like that era of Chevrolet truck design. It also reminded us about Richard Griot’s resto-mod orange and white 1972 Suburban.
Griot, of Garage fame, started with a tired but original 72, with nearly every factory option. A complete restoration was undertaken, with a few very nice updates. We particularly like the orange and black houndstooth inserts on the modern Suburban seats – a fun mix of period and current. Both the green and the orange truck are the “Custom Deluxe” trim level, with the C/10 indicating that the green one is a half ton, and the C/20 indicating that the orange ‘burban is a heavier duty three quarter ton. One visibile mechanical difference is the heavy duty full floating rear axle on Griot’s C/20 Suburban.
We grew up riding in 73-91 Sururbans, variously belonging to a summer camp or a friend’s parent, so we are nostalgic for that bodystyle. But it makes the 72 and earlier version seem particularly exotic and attractive. Our exposure to that era of Chevrolet truck is limited to driving a longbed, stepside, straight six, three on the tree 71 Chevrolet pickup. This was a very basic spec farm truck – wouldn’t a fairly high option one be an interesting ride? Smart money on this vehicle is to find one that’s already restored. When you do run across a 72 or earlier Suburban / Blazer /Jimmy, they don’t seem to bring astronomical prices at the auctions, even in already fixed up condition.
Compare to a Jeep Wagoneer – Jeep built the same basic truck in more and more tarted up form until 1991. GM built this version from 67 to 72, then begining with the 73 redesign followed Jeep’s method – retrofit more modern luxuries to the same basic platform. The Suburban and its sistership, the full sized Chevrolet Blazer and GMC Jimmy twins, even outlived their pickup truck counterparts. All were redesigned in 1973 into a form that the pickups maintained until 1987. The Blazer, Jimmy, and Surburban didn’t migrate to a new platform until 1992.
Jalopnik Link: http://jalopnik.com/5421208/1972-chevrolet-suburban
Griot’s Blog Post http://www.inmygarage.com/?p=1336
Griot’s Flickr Page http://www.flickr.com/photos/griots/sets/72157619646160694/
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