The Suburban nameplate originated in 1935 and survives today as the longest continuously used automobile nameplate in production. The third generation appeared in 1947, part of the first post-war vehicles offered and based on the Advance Design series of pickups. That includes this 1950 2-door Carryall which was like a panel van with windows. Believe it or not, this van has only been owned by one family, though it was put out to pasture some time ago. Available in Potosi, Missouri, and here on craigslist, the asking price is $5,000. A nod goes to Gunter Kramer for scouting this tip for us!
Changes to the 1947-54 Suburban Carryall came a year at a time. For example, in 1952, the Suburban could come with either panel doors or a tailgate, the latter being how the seller’s edition was built. Then in 1953, a 4-speed automatic transmission became optional in the GMC models (1954 in the Chevies). But the seller’s Carryall has neither of those, propelled by its original 216 cubic-inch “Stovebolt” inline-6 paired with a “3-on-the-tree” manually shifted transmission.
We’re told this Chevy is mostly complete, though some of the glass is cracked or busted out. Once the odometer got to 50,000 miles, the truck was parked for reasons unknown and left out in the open for many years. The listing says it has an eight-cylinder engine, but that’s incorrect. In addition to hauling cargo, passengers could be included but the rear seats are missing (and all the material on the front seats has disintegrated).
Once dark green and white in color, surface rust is present on most of the vehicle now. And since the tires are flat, the ground underneath the old van has begun to eat away at the floorboards and some holes are apparent. This project truck will take a lot of work (and money) to restore and could be a fine representation of its era when completed. Or you could go the restomod route which means the sky is the limit as to what you could do with the old girl. The seller provides a video clip to help you formulate your plans.
Interesting, but it’s a “pay to haul it off” situation here.
Best solution here is to mount that on a newer chassis and go from there.
junk
sitting on the ground does not multiply the value, as some must think. Shame to see it all stock in this condtion. Would have been nice to fix it up and run it as is, if it were in better shape. I can hear that stovebolt winding up in first gear…..
Cheers
GPC
I wonder what it does from 0 to 60….
Ask Adam !
Same song 2nd verse. These are cool trucks stock or restommod. But if I wanted one and had deep pockes, I would keep looking
Not sure what your complexion has to do with anything.
Longest production nameplate, eh?
After replacing the tran$fer case and the $WD module, my ’99 $uburban tried to kill me by accelerating out-of-control on the downhill side of Monarch Pass, thank$ to a frayed throttle cable. Later, the damned ECM crapped out. But, hey! 12 mile$ per gallon city/ 12 mile$ per gallon highway. They are horrible, expensive anger-making machines of death and destruction. Thank you, sir! May I never have another!
This one seems nice, though.
WoW ! wonder if itsa copy of a fav of mine the plymouth (same name). This 1 hasa G R E A T motor. Ck this and the Wolwo Duette:
https://www.hemmings.com/stories/article/suburban-simplicity-1950-plymouth-suburban
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volvo_Duett
wonderbar !
If…IF it were running,… I would grab this for my painter van… thats a great tailgate for stirring and mixing colors. Alas, those tires look shot, no cup holder or radio.
$5k for this? Does that price include $4,500 in NOS spare parts?
For one thing, that upper tailgate window panel is going to be very difficult to source. We did a restoration to one of these with the tailgate instead of double doors. We had a serious problem locating latch parts for the tailgate, so I can imagine just how hard that window panel will be to find.
I also discovered the likely reason people chose the double door version when they looked at the tailgate version when buying one new; When folded horizontal, it’s damn near impossible to reach anything in the vehicle. You simply cannot grab even the smallest of items without having to climb onto the tailgate or lifting it out from the side [lousy ergonomics here!].
This thing is worth $4K all day. A Carryall is a unicorn. You put $5K into it and you get $30K back. I know because I have one in my driveway that everybody stops and begs me to sell to them. “NOT FOR SALE”. Especially The “G” model which denotes “Tailgate” as apposed to the the “D” model which denotes 2 doors in the back. 3100 pickups are a dime a dozen, 3100 Suburbans are extremely rare.
This thing is worth $4K all day. A Carryall is a unicorn. You put $5K into it and you get $30K back. I know because I have one in my driveway that everybody stops and begs me to sell to them. “NOT FOR SALE”. Especially The “G” model which denotes “Tailgate” as apposed to the the “D” model which denotes 2 doors in the back. 3100 pickups are a dime a dozen, 3100 Suburbans are extremely rare.