Text by Patrick Bell.
Today we have a bunch of ’68 Chevrolets heading to market with a few GMCs for good measure. The images consist of full size cars and trucks for the most part, so let’s take a look.
Our lead image is a GMC 9500 with a Stuart seven car trailer hauling for Complete Auto Transit out of St. Louis. The load consisted of one C10 Fleetside long wheelbase and six Impalas. The Impalas I can see are two Custom Coupes; the nearest one on the upper deck and the white one on the lower. The two nearest on the mid deck were 4 door sedans, and the two furthest away I cannot determine the body style.
The gang was checking out the new arrivals at Enyeart Chevrolet in Michigan City, Indiana. Complete Auto Transit was the hauler of these four loads as well. On the closest trailer upper deck a Impala Sport Coupe and Custom Coupe with fender skirts with a Bel Air 4 door sedan on the far right. Mid deck started with a Bel Air 4 door sedan, an Impala next, and a Caprice Custom Coupe. The one on the lower deck was an Impala Sport Coupe. The second trailer was showing two Impalas; a wagon and a Sport Coupe. Third trailer a Bel Air Wagon and an Impala Sport Sedan, and the fourth an Impala Sport Sedan on the upper with an Impala sedan or wagon on the lower.
A ’63-’65 GMC 4000? was hauling mostly GMCs in this load. Three long wheelbase vans were on the upper deck with two Chevrolets; a gold and white Chevy Van and a green Sportvan. On the right was a blue GMC Handi-Van. On the lower deck were two GMC 1500 Wideside pickups; a green Deluxe short wheelbase and a red Custom long wheelbase.
Another GMC 9500 from Complete Auto Transit’s fleet, this time with a load of identical six cylinder Biscayne 4 door sedans. I am sure they were bound for some sort of fleet duty.
This load was all GMC with a 9500 tractor with four pickups and a Handi-Van along for the ride. All of the pickups appear to be 1500 series long wheelbase Widesides, with three in Custom trim and one basic Deluxe trim.
Our final shot today appears to be all Chevrolet trucks, with a C90? tractor up front and a ’62 C80? in the rear. The first trailer load was all C10s with one Stepside and six Fleetsides. There was a mixture of short and long wheelbase, and they all were the standard cab trim with the exception of the center unit on the lower deck, which had at least some optional chrome trim on the front. On the second trailer all I can really see were the first three on the upper deck. They all looked like C10s with Fleetside beds, the first one was a standard cab with the other two Custom Cabs with two tone paint.
Thanks for joining us and have a great day!
Nice Chevy and GMC pickups for some reason these are much more appealing to me than new ones, the step side in the last picture would do me fine.
I picked the same truck! I’m hoping it has the 292 I-6, with the 3+OD transmission and the 3.73:1 axle.
My first pickup was that style, a ’71 C10. Still one of my favorites. Interior styling was as clean as outside.
The Impala Custom Coupe at the top center in the first photo appears identical to the one my father bought new. As for me, my ’68 company car was a bottom of the barrel Biscayne two door with an el cheapo interior and no power steering. Thankfully, I had a car for personal use….a ’65 GTO 4 speed convertible.
Enyeart Chevrolet in Michigan City, IN was at 3502 E Michigan Ave. It was still a Chevy dealer as recently as 2007. Probably in the 2009 GM bankruptcy, it ether took a buyout or just lost its franchise. Various parts of the building have been leased variety of tenants, including car repair, body shop, and used car sales.
I took this load of cars down to New Orleans from Los Angeles a few years ago for a movie.
…. and another load.
What a sight that collection must have been
Great looking Pete!
Often wondered how the movie industry comes up with vehicles like these.
The Volvo wagon in the first shot, and the 5mph-bumper Maverick in the second, considerably newer than the other vehicles. I wonder if filmmakers usually reject any car that’s newer than when it is set, or if they figure only a few gearheads will notice that’s a ’72 Volvo or ’71 VW in a movie that’s set in 1969.
I think mostly the latter. Movies and TV shows are made on a tight schedule, and period pieces are usually dependent on what they can rent on the timetable they need for the shoot. They aren’t going to scour the earth for perfectly chosen background cars. Even if a particular car is prominently featured, they may need several backups or doubles they can wreck, some of which might be a couple years off or not quite the same model.
Great photos. Trying to speculate what plants those trucks are from, if they were not coming from a railyard. The first photo could have been from Janesville WI., they ran full size Chevy’s and light trucks. The red GMC’s full of Handi-Vans and pickups was likely from Pontiac, the only place the Handi-Vans were built and the source of many GMC pickups.
I like that load with the vans up-top and the pickups below.
If I could choose, I’d take that green Sportvan in the middle.
Chevrolet should have used this body style as inspiration for one of the generation of mid size Colorado pickup.
I’m intrigued by the gaggle of white Biscaynes. I’d like to take one home, preferably with the I6 and PG.
last picture, I’ll take that first truck load, all seven, one for each day of the week. I noticed the trucks on top have small mirrors and the three on the bottom have west coast style mirrors all folded in to fit on the hauler. Thanks for the nice pictures.
Truck full of “spartan, Biscayne’s” made me chuckle. They appear to be copies of ours.
Spotted out neighbors “Impala” on one of trucks in “Michigan City, IN”.
Rich,
The red hauler in the third pic is a ’64 or ’65. The 63’s still had the wraparound windshields.
Yes, you are correct. A little typo.
Thanks for your comment.
I’d take any of the haulers with a load of pickups….the Action Line Chevys and GMCs were such a clean, modern design. When I was a little kid, Dad had a ’67 C10 stepside in light yellow with a white top, had a 250 straight six and three on the tree, and aftermarket AC under the dashboard. That hang on air unit would spit on me, since I was little I rode in the center of the bench seat. When he got his new ’75 GMC Sierra Classic, he didn’t need the older truck. So my aunt and uncle bought it, she drove it all over Austin.
I love these pictures .
For me, the second truck top level of the last image .
I love me some stepsides .
-Nate
To put things in context:
https://i0.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/tumblr_ozzzgxdBGq1qcdxvpo1_1280.jpg?quality=75&ssl=1
Today’s sedans and few remaining station wagons would be ….
2-3ft shorter length overall
6-12″ narrower between door molding extremes
Weigh 500-800lbs less, and…
stand 3-4″ TALLER than any sedan or wagon on those haulers!
That last item fascinates me.
Was the greater height of modern cars (excluding SUVs, minivans) over a 50 year timespan the product of people being taller on average, the public’s preference for sliding INTO the drivers seat and not dropping down into it, or a combination of the two?
I was bemused by how my 2010 Honda Accord ‘towered’ over a 1971 DeVille I happened to park the Accord next to, as I was renting an apartment at the time across from a detailing spa that did everything from ceramics to wraps and tinting.
I don’t know if I still have the photo I took, from 100′ away and zoomed in, showing the passenger flank of the Caddy, with the curved roof of the Honda peeking above the straight, long roof of that DeVille.