Going into this, we knew there was always the chance that once Speedy started cutting into the truck, they’d find much more rust than any of us had expected. After all, it has the nasty habit of getting out of control rather quickly and even if an outer panel looks rather sorry for itself, it could still be hiding something even worse.

I’m very happy to report though that this was not the case with the ‘burb.

Having seen some promising updates from the team via text message, we were eager to take a look in person and see how the old workhorse was shaping up. It was also time that I grabbed some photos not just for the site, but for the truck’s records. Just like all of those oil change receipts dating back to 1993, these photos will be good to keep in the truck’s folder for future reference.

Sitting in amongst all of the convertibles (there are a lot of Calgary vehicles still receiving new roof skins after this year’s monster hail storm) was the old Suburban, with a few pieces missing and a few patches of filler scattered around. The obvious absentee up front was the grille, while out back the scrap metal (AKA original bumper) had been removed.

I’d mentioned in the previous post that when Speedy took off the grille they found a bit of hidden damage from the tap the truck had received a few years back, and I made sure to get a photo of it. You can also see some scratches in the fender’s paint from where things were shoved around, but all of this will be addressed as part of the refresh.

One thing I was very happy to see was that the team was able to save the truck’s original door. My Grand Prix had experienced very similar rust in its driver’s door about a decade ago, but it had spread to such an extent that I ended up just replacing the entire shell with a brand new piece. The truck will instead be able to keep all of its original panels (bumpers don’t count), albeit with a little bit of new metal grafted in.

The other nice surprise was how clean the fenders and quarters were underneath the arch trim. None of this had ever been removed so I was concerned that rust may have started around the screw holes, but everything was actually in rather good shape!

It wasn’t perfect, but close enough.

The biggest sections needing attention were still the bottoms of the quarter panels though, and both were well on their way to looking like new once again. There was still lots of detail work to do here to straighten everything out perfectly, but even with just the initial repair and filler in place there was a significant improvement over what the truck had before: paint that was one pothole away from falling off.

That’s all I have for today, but I should have another update on the truck before too long since the guys are making great progress on it. Hopefully it’s not too much longer before we see some paint go on!

-Bill