A new polystyrene divinylbenzene-based chelating resin was synthesized by functionalizing Amberlite XAD-4 with N,N′-bis(o-vanillinidene)ethylenediamine. This resin was capable of preconcentrating Cu(II), Cd(II) and Pb(II) in water samples prior to FAAS determination. Various parameters, such as the pH, eluent type and concentration, volume of the eluent and the sample, and diverse ion effects have been studied. The recoveries for the analytes under the optimum working conditions were higher than 95%. The accuracy of the method was tested with standard reference materials (MBH-C31XB20, GBW-02703 and CRM BCR-32) and Cd(II), Cu(II) and Pb(II) standard solutions. The method was successfully applied to water samples.