In addition to old cars, there’s also a smattering of old trucks in mu neighborhood. This Chevy C50, whose year is easy to peg due to the lack of side reflectors, is of course of the new generation of pickups and light-medium duty trucks that arrived in 1967.
Engine choices started with the 250 six, with the more preferable 292 next, and then some variation(s) of small block V8s, as well as the big block 366 V8. Diesels were also available, including the 4-53 two stroke four and the DH-478 four stroke V6. Needless to say, quite a few of these ended up with a 350 swapped in to replace the tired engine they came with.
The paint job on this one looks to be courtesy of several cans of green spray paint, and not all the same color. But I rather like the effect, especially the way the C50 badge pops out due to the white around it.
I rather like the paint color and effect too. It’s kinda like “eco-friendly camouflage”. Somehow that seems fitting for Eugene.
The 67-72s remain an all-time favorite.
Yes and school buses built on Chevrolet/GMC chassis stayed with the 1967-72 front end until 1982-83.
Never understood why they did that, I assume there must have been some good reason, but God knows what. Step vans also used this front end design for years.
At the start of the run, there were still a few flat-cowl chassis made for milk trucks and export, but surely by 1973 95% would be used for either school buses or armored cars…it can’t possibly be an image problem for customers to pick up people’s money and/or kids in an “old” truck, could it?
I was going to mention that. When I was in elementary and middle school (1985-93) our bus fleet was full of Chevy buses with this front clip. The vast majority of those buses were late 70’s models, well after the rest of the trucks had switched over to the newer styling. Always found that a bit confusing.
Look how many old school buses are still in service in South Carolina THESE days! When school is in session, the old Blue Bird Internationals from the 1980s are a common sight 5 days a week. And you can hear their diesel engines from a mile away.
Okay, now that’s an oldie. We had a couple of those at the same time as the older Chevy buses, so it’s pretty amazing to see one still in service (as something other than a Church bus, which all seem to be rather ancient).
North Carolina at the time had a rule where buses had to be retired once they reached a certain age–I think 15 years. So the last of these old-style Chevy buses aged out around the time when I started high school (1994). They were replaced by Thomas Internationals that used the “snub nose” version of the International S-series bus chassis.
The “halo” around the C50 badge, and the unpainted A-pllar and upper door frame, look like the result of Desire Not To Mask. But who cares? This is an honorable vehicle that works hard to put food on someone’s table.
I had a ’53 Buick Special with a similar looking paint job once. Not a spray can job. Looked more like the paint had been applied with a broom. I always considered the paint quality quite fitting for that particular car.
For some odd reason, broom paint jobs are surprisingly rare. I wonder if one could improve the looks of a Rolls Camargue discussed in another post.
Brilliant. That’s it! A bit of creative “distressing” might be one of the few treatments that could effectively soften the rather harsh and unforgiving angles of the Camargue’s unfortunate body. Someone with a good grasp of Photoshop should take this on as a challenge.
This is why I love CC! We can be looking at a Rolls Royce one minute, and a beautiful old work truck the next! These are some of my favorite trucks also.
I’ve had a lot of seat time in old rigs like this. Tough as nails. I’ve found that many of them didn’t actually die but just got parked and never quite got started again. There are still quite a few just sitting on the farms in my area. It always surprised me that they weren’t scrapped when the price was up a few years ago.
I’ve noticed that out here as well. There are still quite a few still used only once a year. Harvest time is when they all suddenly flood the streets.
You never know what’ll pop up come harvest time. I know one watermelon farm that used a sixties Toyota truck, a big 5 ton-ish job.
Nice rig .
I was in Maine burying Pops when I chanced upon one of these with a homemade house on the back, a nice Musician Hippie and his Wife living in it .
As mentioned he’d seen it sitting idle in a farm, bought it cheaply and built his own house on the flat bed .
-Nate
This series of trucks and pickups were so handsome, modern and timeless – great piece of design….still see their influence in the more recent Ford pickups….
The 67-72 GM truck design is still my favourite design, as I started working for a GMC truck dealer first as a snot-nosed punk used truck lot-boy, then into the parts department, which was a good start to my career. Although brain dead until I was about 25, I did learn enough to get me through….In Canada, the 50 [or 950 GMC] may have had different specs from the US, as I remember the 292 being the standard 6 and a 327 the base V8. Although an option, there were very few of the DH diesels in our area and even less of the 4-53’s and the 478 gas V6. There was a few concrete pumper trucks that did run these light chassis’ with the DH diesels though. I loved the 64-66 GM trucks too with the 348-409’s, but in 67 the bar was really raised with the intro of the 366 in the medium duty!
**I think in the 40 Series Chev [940 GMC] the base engine was the 250, -292 opt. and the 283 an option as well in 1967.
My first pickup was this type, ’71 C10 short bed, 250ci six and three speed. Loved the style, inside and out. It came green from the factory.
Chevy medium duty conventional trucks in the 40 through 60 series used a modified light duty pickup truck style cab, as seen on this truck. From ’67 to ’69 GMC for some strange reason decided to use their larger (but similarly styled) heavy duty truck cab on their corresponding 4500 through 6500 series medium duty trucks. These GMC ‘E’ series trucks used the GMC V-6 gasoline engines instead of the Chevy 2883 and 327, but did offer the same 250 and 292 straight 6’s as the Chevy’s:
http://6066gmcguy.com/Hmodel.html
In 1970, GMC dropped the ‘E’ series mediums and replaced them with versions of the Chevy C series. GMC also began to offer Chevy V-8’s as an option at this time, and Chevy picked up the GMC V-6’s as an option in their medium duty trucks.
Made sense to someone.
How have I gone this long without ever hearing of a “366”? Is it it’s own thing, or an enlarged 350, or a smaller…. something else? I’ve heard of the 360’s that some Fords had, that were smaller 390’s (a buddy took a 360 out of a grain truck from a relative’s farm to put it in his “shoebox Ford”) Was the 366 something similar?
It’s a truck-only version of the big block. It and the truck 427 had a raised deck block, to accommodate longer pistons with four rings. It was built from the mid 60s until the early 90s and used commonly in medium duty trucks and school buses. It had a smaller bore (3.935″) than the 396, but the same size stroke (3.760″).
” It was built from the mid 60s until the early 90s”
Boy, nothing gets by me, huh? 🙂 Thanks, I learned something today!
This truck reminds me of my first visit to the Pacific Northwest 27 years ago. I was amazed at all the old but well-kept trucks and equipment in daily use.
I drove a similar truck a few times in the past. Don’t know which engine it had, possibly a 350, with full-synch 4 speed and 2 speed axle, but it performed well. The steering seemed a lot lighter than a Ford F600 of similar vintage.