I was in Roann, pop. 479, in northern Indiana to visit the town’s covered bridge and operating grist mill. I didn’t know until I arrived that it was the weekend of Roann’s annual festival, with carnival rides and food and even a tractor pull in progress. Big doings in small-town Indiana! Cars were parked along every inch of curb on all of Roann’s dozen or so streets. It looked to me, though, like this old Chevy truck was there first, and all the other cars parked around it. Could this parking spot be its home?
Chevy (and GMC) trucks from this era are mostly gone here in the Midwest, as they were natural born rusters. You see these 1973-87 trucks every great once in a while out here, but almost always from the later rectangular-headlight years, and seldom in condition this good.
This one hasn’t entirely escaped body cancer, but its owner has clearly done some work to keep it well in check.
And he’s left it original. This would have been a very common truck in 1977, to the point of being almost invisible on the road. In its Scottsdale trim, it was a step above the basic Custom Deluxe, but probably not by much. I’m betting that it took stepping up to the tonier Cheyenne to upgrade from those dog-dish hubcaps and get a contrasting color within that reverse-C trim strip. Those upgrades would have turned something invisible into “hey, nice truck,” at least in 1977.
This truck has a name, obvious but fitting. Here’s hoping Old Blue keeps getting good care.
That’s the vintage truck I’d jump on if I ran across one not all rusted out. My favorite style – when the marker lights were still vertical and the headlights were still round. A nice, honest pick-up truck – nothing like the bloated monstrosities on the market today. I wouldn’t need a step ladder to reach over the side of the bed to get something out of the back.
You gotta compare apples to apples. This is a 4×2, like 90% of pickups sold at the time, but 95% of today’s pickups are 4×4. The bed sides are taller now, though. I’m sorry, Ford, I love ya, but you’re the ones to blame for the taller bed sides in ’04 and now Ram is the only one to have kept more-or-less the same bed height since the 90’s.
Comment heard. Will take into consideration.
My fav comment in quite a while.
This is a 4×2, like 90% of pickups sold at the time, but 95% of today’s pickups are 4×4
In the South and Southwest the vast majority of pickups sold (even high-end models) are still 2WD. Go to any big dealership in someplace like Houston or Atlanta and you’ll find a reasonable selection of 4WD trucks on the lot, but they’re surrounded by an ocean of 2WD models as far as one can see. Same goes for many models of SUVs/CUVs.
Here in the Midwest and in the Northeast that 95% number isn’t too far off! Based on what I see locally (STL metro) it’s probably about 75% 4WD among newer trucks and pushing 100% for SUVs/CUVs.
Yeah, that’s probably true. Traveling from San Diego north last year, it seems like the only 4WDs I saw were Raptors.
2WD SUVs seem to be slightly more common, and I really can’t tell the difference between a FWD CUV and an AWD at a glance.
A lot of the SUV/CUVs don’t have any kind of AWD/4WD badging on them as they seemingly all did at one time. Some have wheels that are only available on the 4WD/AWD models making them easy to spot.
Upon further thought there is one SUV model of which 2WD versions are fairly common around here – 1st and 2nd gen Ford Escapes.
Nice looking truck and even in Portland they are not terribly common since FoMoCos, Dodges, and various similar vintage Asian pickups are more common to be seen puttering about.
New York State seems to send their oldest vehicles from Downstate to Upstate where they will rack up higher mileage and rust faster so the oldest vehicles can be flushed out. That is how New York State Parks Recreation & Historic Preservation as well as the New York State Department of Transportation ended up with a few of these Chevies/GMCs in the late 2000s early 2010s.
Nice find. Yes, those things rust around here as bad as about anything GM ever made, short of the Vega. Cannot tell you when I saw the last one of these in anything approaching this condition. I did see a really rough one still in service a week or two ago. For a long time, this was sort of the official vehicle of central Indiana.
I bought a ’76 GMC 2500 long bed in 2011 , re built it for one hauling trip to Wa. State and back again , it was a nice truck and an easy trip, these are the very last real trucks GM ever made even if they have tin foil bodies that rust out even in the California Deserts .
-Nate
Very nice looking truck! Also like more those with round headlights. Me and my sister just finished fixing up our project 1980 diesel C10. Ha!
I always thought these were so much more luxurious and car like then my own 70 C10. Really liked the dash setup. Too bad about the rust, though in Southern California they seemed to hold up for quite a while. Nice to see that rust country survivor. I don’t think they were as well built as the 67-72, and that era of emission controls took it’s toll.
Still see a few of these out here, seem like the last generation sold in any numbers. A friend had one with two lpg tanks in the bed so he could cover 600 miles doing OD escort work.
Very nice. Good color, too.
We had a ’77 with a straight 6 and a manual trans in the eighties that my dad bought for $600. In ’89 Hurricane Hugo swept in and submerged it under 10 feet of salt water. Three days later we pulled the spark plugs, cranked it over. Water came shooting out of the cylinders. Within a few hours we had it running. With jerry rigged wiring, an oil change we drove it for six months until the brakes and wheel bearings gave out. The engine never did quit.
Nice find in great shape! I still see a few of these knocking around Richmond (at least two in my neighborhood) but both are pretty rough–glad to see this one taken care of. I suppose these are one of the vehicles that rusted even in the relatively benign mid-atlantic and southern climates, as I used to see them all the time as a youngster, but they’re pretty rare now. ’67 to ’79 F-series, on the other hand, are still all over the place–superior rustproofing, I suppose.
The color on the featured truck is the same as the ’79 C10 that one of the leaders of my boy scout troop drove. His was garaged, dressed up with color-matched cap, running boards, and the fancier slotted steel wheels with trim rings. Looked showroom new, even the last time I saw it in the mid 90’s. I wonder if it’s still around today, much like its comrade in paint color here?
More than one or two of these in the Montpelier/Bumpass/Louisa area. And while battered, they’re usually taken care of.
It’s notable how neat we think this is today, but how in the 70s, 80s, and even well into the 90s, a two-wheel-drive, regular cab long bed pickup with a topper was almost literally the most anonymous vehicle on the road short of a van. Dodge really did the segment a favor when they went to that handsome seperate-fender styling in ’94.
Nice. My dad had a ’79 GMC in a darker blue with white top but now way would he have sprung for this one’s chrome trim.
Two repaints in seven years to try to keep it from dissolving…
In the South, the ’73-87’s are still quite numerous. Mine is an ’83, my Dad has a rough ’78, and there are at least three of various ages that I see around my neighborhood frequently. Unfortunately, the shortbed versions of these are the latest “old School” vehicles to have been commandeered and subjected to beautiful paint jobs, HORRID 22-24″+ wheels and jacked up to project the “Hot Wheels” toy image!!
Owned a 3/4 ton in that colour. Great mechanically with a small block and Turbo 400. Nice to drive compared to a Dodge or Ford of the era. My Fiat 128 had as much rust resistance though. Still a few around here but only as show vehicles it seems. I think there are more 67 to 72s GMs left as drivers and definitely more Fords which I don’t think I would have predicted at the time.
I see lots of these here, mostly the 80s models.
I’ve been digging these lately! I saw a cool, cool puke green ’73 or ’74 at the salvage yard a few weeks ago, and it looked OK for Michigan. It wasn’t parked with the junk cars, so maybe there’s hope for it.
We had a red 76 Cheyenne, 350 automatic with a short wide box. I found some take-off rally wheels at the dealer so put those on the truck – it was a sharp-looking rig. The only really irritating thing about it was that between the gas mileage and the size of the gas tank, I was getting it filled every 200 miles or so; I had to stoop to reach the filler pipe, and stand there stooped over and put the gas in slowly so the pump didn’t click off. I think that truck may be where our daughter got her love of red trucks; she’s had two different bright red F150’s.