This Squarebody Chevy Avalanche Build Hits Some Right Notes, Many Wrong Ones
It’s the answer to the question no one was asking: What if Chevy made the Avalanche back in the 1980s?
Remember the Chevy Avalanche? Of course, you do. The new Silverado EV looks just like it! All right, maybe that's a stretch, but the weirdly shaped pickup with a midgate has its own cult following. Apparently, someone loves the discontinued pickup so much that they turned a 1975 Chevy Suburban into a throwback Avalanche of sorts. Now it's for sale.
That takes real determination considering the Suburban has a whole lot of metal aft of the rear doors to cut off. They went through the trouble of sloping the roof down at an angle like you'd find on the regular Avalanche, and it even has a third set of windows back there. A makeshift bed ensures pickup utility and rather than making it pretty with paintwork, they went the simpler route of spraying it with bedliner. I don't blame them one bit.
It's hard to tell due to the black paint and rainy weather in the listing photos, but it looks like the seam on the hacked C-pillar is visible. Not necessarily a dealbreaker but maybe there's something you could do to integrate it a little more cleanly. I can't speak for the metalwork underneath but the end result speaks for itself.
Inside the Squarebody, you'll find front captain's chairs and a 60/40 split bench in the back. The seller says they bought a second bench seat to put up front for an old-school feel but it hasn't been installed yet. Either way, the interior looks pretty OK for being 47 years old. There's some staining on the carpet and headliner while the sliding back glass mechanism is exposed, but it's a project car that's clearly presented as such.
The Suburba-lanche gets its go power from a 454-cubic-inch big block V8 that's mated to a Turbo 400 automatic. This tried-and-true combo allegedly runs and drives, which is always better than nothing. Even if you wanted to swap something else under the hood, it's nice to have a rig you can use in the meantime.
It's listed on Facebook Marketplace in Gadsden, Alabama, for $7,000. For that money, you can get it on 22-inch wheels or the "wide Cragars," both of which are pictured in the listing. I'd go with the Cragars, personally. You might find something better for the money, but I doubt you're likely to find anything else more... extraordinary. Yeah, I like that word. Extraordinary.
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