Be honest, you never expected old T87’s first stand-alone post of the year to be anything like this. I was surprised too, but here we are. I found Curious Orange here in southern France and on Christmas eve. My, how Santa’s sled has changed over the years.
Of course, this C10 is pretty much terra incognita to me. Luckily, this era of heavy Chevys has been covered pretty extensively on CC, most notably in a comprehensive post on the 1960-66 generation (links at the end of this post). However, it seems the ’64s had not yet been granted their own entry, so I’m happy to provide this modest addition to the CCannon.
Judging by my customary (and cursory) Google image search, it looks like many Chevy trucks from this era have been given a silly paint job, huge dorky wheels and a road-scraping suspension. The one we have here is only halfway ruined, therefore. It’s not scraping anything and the wheels, though far from stock, are not overly ridiculous. But that paint job… Ugh…
I do like that this is a small window / short bed truck. The proportions look really good that way. And the “fleetside” look is also quite attractive. It was kind of the owner to spell out the year and model on the back window. Maybe he’s tired of being asked about it.
At least, the interior matches the outside to a tee. I do like that the dash and steering wheel look unrestored, it kind of makes up for the rest. That shifter is suspicious, though. Wrong shape… Who knows what is lurking under the hood – could be a stock 6- or 8-cyl. and 4-speed, could be a Peugeot Diesel, for all I know. Stranger things have happened.
Setting aside the colour, the wheels and other niggles though, this is a very attractive vehicle. The early years of that generation of C10s were difficult ones, esthetically, with that weird ’59 Chevy-inspired “big eyebrow” hood line. They did a fine job of correcting this course from 1962 onward. Facelifts, be they automotive or otherwise, are rarely successful, but in this case, it worked.
The other appreciable aspect of this pickup are its dimensions. Older pickups were much taller and truck-like. Then these happened, turning the light duty truck into a sort of car-like vehicle (the IFS helped, no doubt). This lasted until the end of the previous century, but the American pickup has now gone back to the size and weight of yore – albeit now sporting monstruous Minecraft-like mugs, full of LEDs and plastic. Just look at our CC’s contemporary equivalent above. I hardly ever see these behemoths, being in Japan – and you don’t find many squeezing through European streets, either.
But a ‘60s C10 is only slightly taller and wider than the contemporary European or Japanese traffic. And unlike the 2020 Silverado, it doesn’t look like it might eat you if you looked at it funny. It has more of a startled expression, with those high-set turn signals.
Of course, this pickup is not going back to hauling mulch or gravel for a living, assuming it ever did. It’s a show truck, a triumph of form over function, down to the fat tyres and the mock California plates. Fair enough, not everyone shares our Editor’s disposition towards the abuse of ancient trucks (just kidding, Paul – we all know it’s tough love), but this one goes too far in the other direction. This generation of C10s is about as iconic as it gets, but this one is just too orange, too modded and too clean to pass the smell test.
Related posts:
Automotive History: 1960-66 Chevrolet Pick-up Trucks – The First Modern Pick-up, by VinceC
Curbside Classic Capsule: 1962 Chevy C10 Pickup – Saint Patina of Goodwill, by PN
CC Capsule: Margie, The Chevrolet C10 Pickup, by Jason Shafer
CC Outtake: 1966 Chevrolet C10 – Mini Stake-Bed Truck, by PN
It looks a lot better than most we see in the US. The wheels are not horrible and have a little bit of period charm to them. I am no Chevy truck expert and cannot add anything on the 4 speed shifter.
If you were going to find an American truck in France, what better name for it to wear than “Chevrolet” ?
Interesting connection. Louis was French, and his first car for Durant was French-flavored. But GM never returned to France at all, unless maybe Opel had a branch plant there.
Actually, Louis Chevrolet was Swiss. He spoke French, so there’s that….
The shift lever and boot looks like its from a NV4500 transmission conversion, almost certainly behind a Chevy V8. That’s a modern 5 speed box, and a popular swap into older trucks to enhance their gearing substantially. Since this truck doesn’t show signs of a column shift, it almost certainly had the HD 4 speed, which was really a three-speed and a super low stump puller.
As to the “two tonnes” in your title, that equals 4,408 lbs. This C10 originally weighed only 3,495 lbs, so it’s missing about 4/10ths a tonne. Needs something heavy in its bed to get up to two tonnes.
Folks started doing this to pickups a very long time ago, as in the early-mid 50s. It was just the same treatment given to cars, by owners who were into that sort of thing: a flashy paint job, fancy rims, etc.
This seems to prove there are people the world over who don’t care to find the twin to their car in the grocery store parking lot. Bravo to that owner.
Oddly, the orange interior does work. But I also painted part of my basement orange.
Incidentally, Jim Klein put me onto a company who makes wallets out of old stocks of automotive upholstery. In turn, my wife bought me a wallet from them with material produced for an early ’60s GMC or Chevrolet pickup. Who knows, it could have matched what was in this one originally.
As one who feels the inexplicable urge to defend newer pickups, I shan’t this time. Those new Chevrolets are proof everybody makes mistakes for which they should be forgiven.
couchguitarstraps.com/wallets – Glad to hear you have one now too. (No affiliation).
I still have and use the green Volkswagen seat vinyl wallet, love it. It’s actually holding up better than the red MB-Tex one did, whose claim to fame was that after having it in your pocket for hours, when you pulled it out, would suffuse the air with that intoxicating warm MB-Tex aroma. Excellent quality overall though, my wallets tend to look like George Costanza’s, just vastly overfilled beyond the design spec.
I’ll defend that Silverado, the one as pictured is probably my favorite spec, base with the steelies, and I actually like the front end with the Chevrolet all spelled out like that. It beats a ginormous tacky brass bow tie every day.
Nice find. I’ve seen (newer) full-size American trucks in France, as tow trucks, but this seems like it might be literally unique. I like the color scheme, but then I also don’t object to the new Chevy truck styling. Better than the heavy chrome front ends on Ford SD and GMC, in particular. Not to not-pick your invariably erudite vocabulary, but I would have picked the word faux, not mock, to describe the license plates. As a Californian, they looked wrong even in a small mobile image. I presume the numbers/letters reflect an actual French plate?
Faux would be “le mot juste”, for sure. French word, fits better!
Since 2009, French license plates have switched to a completely new system (2 letters / 3 numbers / 2 letters). The plate is associated to the car for life. The previous system (3-4 numbers / 2-3 letters / departement number), which dates back to 1950, is still seen regularly, but every time a car changes hands or relocates to a different departement, it gets a new fangled plate.
Take a look at my Singles post from yesterday, which has other cars I caught in the same area as the C10.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-outtakes/cc-outtakes-t87s-singles-collection-december-2020-part-3-a-week-in-provence/#comment-1077418
New plates are “EU style” and include a surrounding blue frame that includes the country and departement number (in the post, many 26, which is Drôme). Vintage vehicles (“vehicule de collection”) can opt for the old style black plate, albeit with the new numbering system. The C10’s plate is an unusual design, borderline legal. But it’s an older vehicle, so plenty of leeway. French cops are usually pretty cool with older cars, as they know their owners are far more careful drivers than average.
I love seeing these trucks show up. The white cab over orange color scheme is OK. Not Working-Joe’s truck anymore as the cargo bed doesn’t have stake pockets, though you can see what used to be one in the right front corner.
That’s the year and model of the pickup my Dad bought when we moved to a farm. A real working truck — longbed, wooden floor cargo bay, white cab over a sort of faded-beige fleetside body, three-on-the-tree transmission hooked up to an inline 6-cylinder ( I don’t remember the displacement ). Painted bumpers. Lap belts. Extra-large ashtray in the middle of the dash. Just be careful when you light up that Marlboro — the gas tank is in the cab, right behind the seat.
I spent many an hour “holding the light” as Dad made various repairs to keep it running — to include replacing the clutch, a feat he accomplished without removing the engine (don’t ask me how he did this). It was cold and dark under the truck, and I was pretty well contorted trying to stay out of Dad’s way while keeping the light shining in the right spot. I guess the payoff came a few decades later when I had to change the clutch in my own car and I remembered what I had learned watching Dad.
Dad sold the truck for a ‘78 F250, and the Chevy’s new owners gave it chrome wheels and introduced it to Turtle Wax, a substance not found in my Dad’s garage. I wish I could say I got misty-eyed when I would see it around town, but at the time I didn’t appreciate the beautiful simplicity of the ‘64 Chevy pickup.
While the truck has certainly been repainted it certainly could have been orange from the factory.
It does look more or less like a version of one of the Omaha Oranges which appears to have been on the retail color list in 1964. Even if it wasn’t on the retail color list in any given year it was on the fleet color list across all brands since the 50’s. A local city still has Omaha Orange on at least some of their street department trucks from pickups to big dump trucks.
The white top is common to help keep the cab cooler back before AC was something you found in trucks. Even when they left the factory with a solid color it wasn’t uncommon for someone to add the white paint later. That in fact happened to my 73 Scout II pickup which coincidentally is Omaha Orange.
This truck looks as much out of place in France as the classic Citroen 2CV I noticed parked at Yellowstone lake about ten years ago. I can’t imagine it exceeded 20 mph at 8-10,000 feet except downhill. I busted out laughing when I saw it. Even in Yellowstone unless they pulled over every mile to let traffic pass they likely had a mile long backup behind them. Kind of a French way of saying DILLIGAF!
best not to make such assumptions about the 2CV; it’s not quite as slow and feeble as you might think. France and other parts of Europe have mountain roads that are a lot steeper. Actually, Yellowstone isn’t very mountainous and the roads mostly aren’t steep at all. 2CVs are capable of much steeper terrain, and they can roll right along at those altitudes.
There is a name for this particular hue of orange; pretty sure it’s called “Vol” orange, as in “Volunteers,” as in the nickname of the University of Tennessee football team. This C-10 wears their colors, too – arrest-me orange and white. Very easy to spot on the field when you’re one of 95,000 screaming fans at Neyland stadium in Knoxville. Looks like that was the intent here, too.
I saw that the faux California license plate advertises the website jfauto.com , so I looked it up. Turns out that JF Auto is a used/classic car dealer and hot rod shop in Jonquières (they have an interesting inventory… where else can you pick from a Lincoln Town Car, an F350 Lariat, and Dacia, for example?).
Anyway, I happened to notice that their logo (as well as their signage on their building) is orange. I wonder if this orange truck belongs to the dealer and is painted in that color as a promotional piece? One would think it would have more obvious signage if that’s the case, but it’s just an idea.
Regardless, it sure is neat to see.
Well it looks like I just got schooled on 2CV capabilities. Had I looked up that early models weight just 1200 pounds then things would have made more sense. They look to be scooting along pretty well. 2CV specs are not too far from my 1989 Toyota Tercel’s 1600 pounds, 60hp, single carb with manual transmission. I recall spending more time in the passing lane than the slow lane going up Beartooth pass Wyoming.
Nice find, love the color combo! Is it possible that the Lada Niva’s front end styling (that you showed the other day) was inspired by this era of Chevy pickups?
Hello hello everyone, browsing the net I came across this post by chance.
It is indeed my 64 Chevy pick-up, imported from California fifteen years ago through the JF auto garage. It was orange and white, originally? I don’t know, but I repeated it in the same shade. The rims were already mounted on the truck, the engine is an original 327ci v8, the 4-speed gearbox. I am from the south of France in the village where we were taking the photos, Buis les Baronnies.
I really love this truck.