Between 1973 and 1987 (1991 if heavy-duty trucks are your thing), General Motors cranked out millions of pickup trucks. Whether you like them or not, you have to hand it to GM for finding a winning recipe for a pickup that lasted through five U.S. Presidents. Over the course of those years you could get a Chevrolet or GMC just about any way you wanted it.
…except as an extended cab. For whatever reason, GM never did hop onto the extended cab idea. Dodge had their Crew Cab, and Ford their SuperCab, but if you wanted a little extra space in the back of your Rounded-Line GM, you would have to come out of pocket several grand on top of the pickup truck you purchased and have a company convert it. Finding one of these conversions is like finding a needle in a haystack, but forum member Maxzillian located this 1985 example while out cruising around. With just over 80,000 miles on the clock and a look that he was unlikely to ever see again, a deal was struck and the Chevy came to his house. Converted by a shop called Custom Vehicles International in Texas, the truck had lived it’s thirty-odd years in fairly decent conditions, with only small touches of cab rot in the low corners betraying the clean look. Then Maxzillian got a little curious about just how much filler there could be at the seam where the cab surely had been cut and reconnected…
So what was a mild freshening is now turning into a full-bore re-engineering. From fixing the side windows that were leaking to building up the B-pillar to a crashworthy specification…a vast improvement over where they were when the project started…the truck is getting a full restoration and re-work so that it will live on for years to come. Pretty neat to see a unicorn like this one getting saved.
BangShift Project File: Extended Cab ’85 C-10
Always wanted a ex-cab with this body style. The conversion though is really butchered, its amazing how its held together!
I saw one in Muleshoe, TX when I was working down there in ’95. It was a much better done conversion, as it looked factory. I took a few pics of it & if I ever find them, I’ll scan them & send them to you, Bryan.
I love this project…My only hope is the back window is replaced with something that doesn’t look like it was plugged in as an after thought…kinda like the bubble heart or teardrop windows on custom vans…..
I mulled over installing windows from an S-10, but the problem is how to blend everything in with the interior plastic. Ultimately I think I’m just going to have to settle on finding some different window gaskets so they don’t stick out so far.
Ive seen three of these, two in central Arizona, both in the Chino Valley area and one outside of Kooski Idaho. Two of them I looked at had very little or no filler in the roof, the one that was near Kooski had very little paint on it and both of these had much more attractive rear windows in them. The only owner I spoke to worked at a junk yard in Chino Valley, he was convinced that Chevy did a run of 425, all 2WD and 3/4 ton with Silverado trim packages. I’ll have to find the pictures of the one in Kooski, it was white with a blue interior.
Odd..I hunted around Chino a few years back and never saw one. That isn’t a large area to search, I wonder where they were hiding?
Bryan: I’m a Ford guy, but went to school with a guy who’s dad ran the local Dodge dealership, and they were called Club Cabs, and I got to ride in his dad’s DD several times back when they first became available…..
Cool. The one thing I think I would change would be that side window. I would suggest taking four doors, to cut the rear part of the window opening out of… this would sink the side windows in like the ones on the door. You might have to get creative with the rubber… but it sure would be a visual improvement…
Sam
They kind of sunk in to begin with, but the rubber stood out from the body a good quarter inch or more. I play to try to find a different window gasket to get more of a flush look and then apply some heavy tint to the windows so they don’t stand out so much. Otherwise any extensive exterior work like you’re suggesting will require a fair bit of work to the interior plastic to make it all match up.
I worked in a Texas shop that did those in the 80’s. We did the Dodge D-50 also.
It kind of hurt a little to start cutting on a new truck when I was driving a beater.
There was another crew there that ended up with that much bondo on their builds. Low budget to blame
Honestly they used a lot of bondo in places it didn’t need it. Like the side of the cab I just exposed; the metal there is actually pretty damn straight and only needed bondo to cover the ledge from where the overlap weld sits. Instead it had about 1/16-1/8″ over the entire face. Kind of baffling.