A certain 1972 Chevy has had my attention for the past few months. I’m not in a position to get one, but damn I think about it all the time. I really love all of those 1970s Chevy trucks, especially the C10s and the late 70s Suburbans a la Bad Blake. The film Crazy Heart had me up late on the internet looking for 1978 Suburbans in that perfect two-tone rust colorway. Try as I did, a good photo of that particular truck proved elusive, but I did manage to find the nice wood grain Suburban below and a whole bunch of old Chevy truck ads from the 1960s. What really strikes me are those egg shell blue and green colors – that’s pretty much as American as it gets. For more old truck imagery check out this gent’s Flickr and enjoy the old Chevys below. In the mean time, I’ll try to figure out what I want to spend my imaginary 20K on, a British milspec Rollie or a 1972 C10 two-tone.
All images via Aldenjewell on Flickr. (Except that top one, that’s from Wired.com)
Wood paneling that makes Clark Griswald proud!
When I was a kid in Maine I painted one of the Rockefeller homes, and in the barn they had a pristene ’64 3/4 ton GMC they used to plow snow with. I was always envious of that truck as it seemed (because of the road salt) there were never any vehicles older than about 10 or 15 years. They also had a twin engine Piper Apache airplane next to it…
Notice all except one are two door. How about a nice 1965 Land Rover Series lla station wagon with alpine windows painted in limestone? I have loved them since I was a tyke on a trike, and now I have my own. Gets alot of attention.
Old Polo — let’s see some pictures. Sounds amazing.
Growing up, my dad had three silverados, consecutively. I think they were 78′-86′ models but man they were sweet. That suburban sparked some good memories. I own a new silverado, sometimes not as cool (figuratively), but sometimes cooler (literally). Hope I can get one of those older ones someday.
In high school I played water polo. For the away games our team would pile into two identical white with red trim carryalls just like the one marked “police” about halfway down. Good memories. Thanks.
I also played water polo in high school. Not a single story relates to this post… or is appropriate to the discussion.
Example – we scrimmaged the girls water polo team mainly as an excuse to touch the boobs we weren’t touching in real social life.
my family a two toned suburban when i was a teenager. gray on top, black on bottom, two thin orange racing stripes in the middle. my dad would refer to it as the family truckster and we’d roll our eyes of course.
Those trucks are great, but every time I think about the “Like A Rock” campaign I cringe. One of the worst ever, living in Detroit I’m sure I was pummeled with it more than in other parts of the country. Featuring one of the worst Bob Seger songs ever. His early stuff was pure garage and in comparison was gold.
Cannot beat a ‘Fly El Camino Rollin’ Key Lo G’…..
True true, old school trucks are cool as hell, much better than the plastic phony half ass trucks of the present, with the exception of the Rover Defender. C10s and Suburbans are cool, but I think late ’60s Land Cruisers, FJ55s, and FJ40s, are waaaay more awesome.
Other than the pick up I think all those trucks are ugly as sin
Someday, when I have my own trout camp, I am going to get one of these to drive around.
a few months ago i bought a beastly 77 jeep J-10, i was in the market for a pick-up , and my girlfriend’s dad has owned roughly 6. So i decided to join the club, so far it has been quite a little journey to get it where it is now, but i still have far to go before it is restored to its original bad ass self.
my first car in high school was a 72 el camino. almost got a reckless driving ticket on the first night of having my license because of that car. officer felt bad since i had my license for only 4 hours…my dad has always been a chevy man. he owned a 48 panel truck for 27 years as i was growing up. he has felt the heartbeat for a long time
I wish car advertising/photography would look like this these days. I am really sick of all those cgi rendered cars with perfect reflections. I wanna see the happy family with their dog, the delivery man, the farmer, etc. next to their car again! I really like these old catalogues.
Great images … Gotta love classic American metal!
Cheers!
The late ’80s, early Æ90s Jeep Wagoneers with the true wood paneling are pretty killer as well. In HS I worked at a Garden Center and the boss had one, he asked me to go out to a farm to pick up strawberries in it, I took the long route. Thing was like driving on a cloud.
Well, I’d be proud to own any of those Chevy/GMC trucks pictured here.
Don’t forget about the full size K5 Blazer!
Full convertible hardtop, 350 Power plant, tailgate, 8-12 MPG. Give it a lift, some KC Day Lighters and a roll bar. The textbook for summer fun.
I bought one a few months back and It’s like I just fell out of an episode of “The Fall Guy” when I’m driving it.
Best thing ever.
Not that you care but did you know that the “Suburban” is the longest running title for an automobile? It started back in the early days as ‘Suburban’ and ‘Carryall’ and almost all the auto brands used the name, including GMC/ Chevy. The name Suburban was officialy a registered trademark to General Motors for motor vehicles on May 31st, 1988. Random I know…. Like the pics you shared.
Cheers.
Bought a two-tone ’78 Suburban a few months ago for $800. I may never get rid of it!
Fantastic cars, especially first photo