1968 GMC 1500 Super Custom pickup, by robadr at the Cohort.
Cohort Pic(k) Of The Day: ’68-’70 GMC 1500 – Memories In Green
– Posted on June 17, 2023
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Curbside Classics Archives
1968 GMC 1500 Super Custom pickup, by robadr at the Cohort.
The hubcaps remind me of how they’d typically be repainted later in the ’70s and into the early ’80s. All white without the black accents applied at the factory. These have “GMC” picked out in turquoise to match the main body which is a step further than most got without spoiling the effect.
Subtle difference, but the raised leading edge of the hood makes this a ’69 or later.
Rich and I were just saying to each other while finalising today’s posts that if it’s not a ’68, someone would quickly pipe up about it in the comments!
If it’s wearing the correct grille, we can narrow it down to 1969 or 1970. From there, if it has lighted side markers, it’s probably a 1970 (lighted ones were available in 1968-69, but few ponied up the few extra bucks for that; I don’t remember the RPO). The front ones weren’t wired to flash with the turn signals until 1971… and I’m straying from the topic at hand.
The GMC’s in this ’67 to ’72 generation are harder for me to identify model year compared to the Chevy as Chevy changed the grill design on theirs as time went on.
Excellent pics! The cheerful teal green is such a great colour choice, nicely framed photographically, by the light brown tree fallout/mulch. Another vehicle that used to be extremely common.
It was nice to come across a truck like this in a nostalgic, Hollywood-perfect ‘working class’ setting on a sunny afternoon. The property values are now of course anything but working class.
Great work. You have been creating, and sharing, much outstanding imagery. Thank you. Vancouver, makes Ottawa’s prices seem reasonable.
So nice to see a pick-up truck that isn’t seven stories high.
Oh yes! You are so correct! Pickups these days are too high, and too big. Pickup trucks today seem to sit about as high as my dad’s F600 Ford did in the 60’s. Bring back trucks like this GM, and Ford. instead of these outlandish overpriced things we have now!!
I agree! If current trucks were this size I might buy one.
A friend of mine had the Chevrolet version of this, only in dark blue in place of the green. Still a sharp looking truck, in spite of being a buy here pay here special. It had a 350, but I can’t remember whether it was automatic or manual.
Not long after the purchase, rust polished off whatever was left of the exhaust pipes & muffler. Wanting dual exhaust and having a minuscule budget, a “Big Toob“ dual exhaust kit and bargain basement round mufflers were selected. The installation went pretty well but the end result gave new meaning to the word LOUD! I’m not exaggerating much when I say it might’ve been possible to hear him coming a county away. 😉
Fortunately for everyone’s eardrums he got bored with the truck not long after and it was sold off to the next owner.
This truly was *the* transitional generation of trucks for GM. They had a more carlike chassis and suspension, IFS (2WD) and I believe these also had the trailing arm/coil sprung rear axle, at least on some versions. More and more carlike luxury items and trims could be ordered as well.
This is the generation that trucks switched from something you *had* to drive to being vehicles you *wanted* to drive.
This generation is really just a restyle of the 1960 revolutionary one with IFS and lowered stance. GMC retained rear leaf springs while the Chevy had the coil spring rear suspension.
The color really makes this truck, which would be nice in almost any color. I like long beds but I don’t like the standard cab. I know that this was the rule during my younger years. My Dad had a ’75 Chevy. I later had a ’66 F250 that somehow had a better seating position, even with a standard cab. Now crew cabs rule the Earth, but I find my ’07 Ford Access Cab to be just perfect. A bench seat with a big armrest and space behind the seat to stow stuff. This also makes it possible to lean the seats back. This preserves the “personal car” aspect of the old time pickups.
The nicest-styled generation of Chevy and GMC trucks, followed at some distance by the trucks which followed afterwards. They are instantly recognizable as either Chevy’s or GMC’s (not as true of the earlier designs which were relatively mid-1950’s generic) and not boxy as the later ones or overwrought as just about everything since the 1990’s.
There’s a ’68 Chevy in my neighborhood that has exactly the same rocker-panel rust. It’s still running daily.
The interior shot shows a surprisingly “intact setting”! Wonder if the seat is a “transplant”?
I took this pic in Vermont about eight years ago – same color I believe. I was trying for the Old Truck in Vermont artsy thing.
Sorry – can’t get pic to post!
I’ll always have a sentimental spot for a 1968 GMC pickup. My father’s last purchased vehicle (and the first one in my life) was 1968 GMC CS1500 8-foot Wideside pickup. It was a barebone truck, pale yellow, argent silver grille, bumper and hubcaps and light grey vinyl seat. The only options were the 292 inline 6, 4-speed wide-ratio manual transmission, gauge package, wood bed floor and rear step bumper. Wish I still had it.
But the featured truck is not a 1968. The hood slope, side molding trim, hubcaps, chrome front grille and chrome trim around headlight and grille , headlight bezel and taillight and backup light trim bezel and the two-spoke steering wheel, seat trim and the lack of a manual choke knob and foot-operated parking brake suggests and interior rearview mirror directly affixed to the windshield suggests a 1969 or later.
The 1968 had a more sloping hood, the optional chrome trim around the wheel arches and along the lower body panel between the wheel arches and chrome trim around the outer edges of the tailight/backup lights (no chrome insert between the taillight and backup light). On the instrument cluster there were two knobs on the left (headlight and windshield wiper) and one knob on the right (manual choke) and a hand-operated parking brake.
Nice truck and nice to see one completely “stock, unmolested and unmodified”.