Should a Post '73 Suburban Be Classed as a Wagon?

Interesting story on this one. The Chevy Suburban/Carryall, from 1936 all the way to 1966, had always been a two-door vehicle. General Motors wanted a four-door Suburban for the all-new 1967 model year, but there was one roadblock in GM's way - the International TravelAll. It was on a truck chassis and had four doors, AND IH had a copyright to the whole four-door truck wagon concept...really! The Jeep Wagoneer at that time was considered a station wagon, but the IH TravelAll was not. IH held a design right to the four-door truck wagon concept - notice NO ONE else was building one then??? International wanted "$X" from GM for every four-door 'Burb that GM wanted to build, but GM would not pat the amount that IH wanted, and IH wasn't budging. So, the Suburban became a three-door vehicle, with two doors curbside and one on the driver's side! If you look inside any '67 - '72 Suburban, you will see that GM designed the 'Burb to actually HAVE a fourth door, but it was never put into production. A skilled metal man actually could make that a fourth door!

In the next major restyle in the 1973 model year, GM desided to pay IH "$X" per four-door Suburban made, and the rest is history. International quit building the TravelAll in 1978, and I believe that GM continued to pay a royalty to IH until the next Suburban redesign in 1992.

It's funny to see the '67-'72 Suburbans advertised as a "rare three-door" by the unknowing, but would really be rare would be a FOUR-door '67-'72 'Burb!!! One prototype four door was built in February 1966, to my knowledge. Three-doors are the norm on these particular Suburbans!

 

I believe I saw one some time ago in a 'Custom Truck magazine (forget which one). It was something like a '70 Suburban, and the owner fabricated a left rear door from a cut down left front door. Hardest part was probably fabricating the rear door lock post attached to the quarter panel.

 

wow, there was a guy on my way to work that has a late 60's early 70's sub. i noticed it was only a 3 door .. i always thought it was a pupose built job...

 

Very interesting indeed! I never knew. I always thought it was quite odd that they did not make it the 4-door... now I know why. Thanks for that info!

 

Thanks for the info about the '67-73 Suburbans, that was quite interesting.