When Gm First Launched The Chevrolet Suburban, The Owner Of This Truck Was Just 8 Years Old!
At 78 years young, retired Southaven, Mississippi, truck parts salesman Bill Hardy is enjoying the sweet life driving his 1935 Chevrolet Suburban street rod. And when we say "drive," we really mean it. Would you believe Bill made the 1,050-mile trek from Southaven all the way to the Rocky Mountain Street Rod Nationals and back all by himself?
Of course, few can lay claim to the fact that they were around when the General first introduced his do-all, carry all Chevrolet/GMC Suburban in 1935, but Bill Hardy was. In fact, he was just 8 years old at the time. Just old enough to have possibly ridden in the back seat of one!
"I have owned and driven quite a few Chevrolet Suburbans since around 1971," commented Hardy. "Then after I saw that 'Horse Farm' commercial featuring that 1935 Chevrolet Suburban on TV, I absolutely had to have one!"
In 2003, Hardy began looking through the want ads, and came across an ad listing a one-owner, 1935 Chevrolet Suburban in the NSRA's Street Scene magazine. Without hesitation, Bill telephoned the seller.
"The truck was torn all apart, and some parts were missing. But I had to have it anyway!" he said. Of course, the real storyline here is that Bill and friend Owen Geist built the entire truck themselves, an arduous task for many folks in their 40s to 60s, much less a senior citizen a few years over the three-quarters-of-a-century mark. But with street rods like a 1932 Ford roadster, a 1940 Ford coupe, a 1947 Ford coupe, and a 1940 Buick to Bill's credit, the Suburban was simply just another street rod-building exercise for the likable Mississippi hot rodder.
Beginning with the 1935 Chevrolet Suburban chassis, Hardy and company installed a Fatman Fabrications tubular front crossmember and Mustang II-inspired Fatman IFS complete with a pair of Fatman Fabrications 2-inch dropped front spindles, Fatman/Mustang II 10-inch front disc brakes, a set of Pete & Jake's coilover front shocks, and Fatman Fabrications/Mustang II rack-and-pinion steering.
Out back, Hardy installed a set of Eaton Detroit Muscle Car Series leaf springs bolted up to a 3.73:1-geared GM 10-bolt drum brake rearend dampened by a pair of Pete & Jake's rear shocks. When it came to selecting just the right rolling stock, Hardy settled on a set of 14x7-inch American Racing Salt Flats wheels wrapped with P205/65R17-inch front and P215/75R15-inch rear Uniroyal radial rubber.
Powering Bill's 'Burban is a 9.4:1 compression, GM Performance Parts 2003 Ram Jet 350 PFI small-block, which in stock form is rated by the factory at 350 hp @ 5,200 rpm, and produces 400 lb-ft torque at 3,500 rpm. Nonetheless, some minor mechanical upgrades have been performed to the engine, like the addition of a set of Zoop's underdrive engine pulleys, a K&N lifetime filter, and Sanderson Block Hugger headers dumping back through a 2 1/2-inch thermal coated exhaust system outfitted with a set of Flowmaster three-chamber mufflers.
A GM Performance Parts 700-R4 automatic spinning a stock GM 2,000 stall speed torque converter with a B&M shift kit handles that smooth transmission of power. Gear changes are accomplished via a late-model GM six-way tilt column shifter. The final link in the Sub's powertrain is a 48-inch Fleet Pride custom-abricated driveshaft.
Hardy and paint and bodyman Owen Geist prepared and repaired the Suburban's 80-year-old sheetmetal. In the process, the dynamic duo welded the rear doors of the panel together to form one single door. Then the boys welded in a Chevrolet van top skin and replaced all the truck's interior wood with the skeletal uprights of the aforementioned Chevrolet van. Then the two sprayed the old hauler in House of Kolor Sunset Pearl over a white basecoat. Other additions include a pair of Juliano's tri-bar halogen headlights in the original '35 Chevy buckets, along with a pair of '37 Ford taillights.
On the inside, Bill installed a pair of Dodge minivan front bucket seats along with the stock Suburban back seat, and commissioned local stitcher Billy Tunnell to cover them and the stock Suburban bench seat in Butterscotch vinyl and tan wool carpeting. Other interior upgrades include tinted power windows, the aforementioned GM six-way tilt steering column and wheel, a set of Haneline Teleflex GT liquid-filled gauges, and an Alpine audio system. Completed at a cost of $75,000, Bill Hardy is having the time of his life driving his Gen-I Suburban!