This pretty 1979 Chevrolet C10 pickup is a Bonanza package survivor with just 66,894 miles and seemingly excellent cosmetics. The dark green over mint two-tone is a sharp look, and the chrome all appears to be quite fresh. The Bonanza package was basically a cosmetic dress-up kit like so many others that GM loved to use to bump up the sale price, but it’s not always easy to find one of these old-school C10s in stock condition or that wasn’t used as a workhorse. You’ll find the C10 here on eBay with bidding up to $7,600 and the reserve currently unmet.
I wish this era of two-tone paint jobs would come back, but even if it did, there’s no way it would look as good as it does on a square-body pickup. This Bonanza has the longer bed which isn’t nearly as coveted as the short-bed models, but I wouldn’t write it off just because of that. The bed does have a liner in it, so it’s impossible to say just how well the paint underneath has survived, but the condition of the rest of the truck would seemingly indicate it’s still quite nice underneath. The Chevy wears factory Rally wheels with chrome trim rings and new white-line tires.
The cabin appears to be in excellent shape, and maintains a level of cleanliness not associated with a workhorse. According to a listing I found breaking out the features of the Bonanza package, the carpeting should be color-keyed, which it doesn’t appear to be here. Who knows – that description may be wrong, or the carpeting may have been replaced. The fact that the bench seat has the corresponding green vinyl along the bottoms makes me think it should all be tied together, but I’ll defer to any Bonanza experts in the room to confirm.
The 350 is said to run strong, and obviously the low mileage should indicate there’s years and years of life left in this minty C10. The truck comes with some pretty typical options, including power steering, power brakes, cruise control, tilt wheel, and working A/C. It seems like every week there’s another batch of clean C10s coming up for sale, and while it can seem like an oversupply would diminish interest, it doesn’t seem to be the case. Would you take a swing at this one, or are you a sucker for clean short beds?
Keep ’em coming, although, this one is really clean, and a better choice of words, besides “sucker” could have been used for short box owners. I happen to like the short box, and everybody screams, “you can’t haul any plywood in a short box”. Not that I would, but it’s just as wide as this, so it hangs over the gate a foot. Again, same thing, is it worth this much? Yes and no. To someone like me, no, but for someone that has no other access to these, they’re clearly getting it, so someone is buying them. Nice truck, for sure, all these clean ones lately are.
The “shortys” looked especially nice if you lowered them slightly. These were made for those who wanted a little step up from an El Camino. And who’d want to haul garbage in one anyway?
These trucks used to be a dime a dozen, and were nice if you got around their rust issues, especially above the wheel wells and rockers. I used to have a ’75 SWB with a 6-speed manual, and it resembled Swiss cheese. If I had this particular truck, I’d pull the motor with all its smog equipment and drop in a 383 stroker, “clean”.
Gotta admit that this is a clean rig and with just the right options; nice colors, too. Why does it seem that the biggest complaint against short beds is that 8 foot sheets of plywood or sheetrock won’t fit? Unless you’re a carpenter, how often are you going to have 8 feet of anything in the bed? My recently restored ’95 F150 is a short bed and considering how far the restoration went over budget, I’ll probably only haul sailboat fuel in it. A truck like this C10 probably isn’t going to be taking a load to the dump or cruising the curbs on garbage day for scrap metal. It will be pampered and well looked after and it will probably only haul folding chairs and a cooler to a car show. Short beds look sharp and are preferred in a collector pickup. If you need a long bed for heavy hauling, buy a beater pickup.
Speaking of short beds, I also miss the single cabs. Trucks now have to be four-door double-seated monstrosities that take up a lot of real estate in the parking lots and highways. Even the smaller-bed units are huge! My ’66 Chev C-10 was smaller than today’s Toyota Tacoma!
I love the single cab, however I only own two crew cabs, two carseats, a wife and the dog, so much more practical than a single reg cab.
Would love to have this to use for hauling stuff for the rental properties. It looks good and I would keep it that way.
As a child growing up in the late 1970’s, I believe the carpeting has been replaced with basic black. It has a very fresh appearance. The correct color matched carpet should be readily available. Excellent styling and pitiful power.
Easily remedied by removing that gutless mill and replacing it with a non-smogged factory 383 crate motor.
Never seen this color combo, nice. Personally I would lowered it and add a nice set of wheels.
Looks to be a very nice ’79. I ordered a ’79 Scottsdale package with the Olds diesel 350. The silver truck with red interior was sharp and ran great for 50,000 miles, then the troubles started, new injector pump and cracked head covered by GM warranty. Two more cracked heads NOT covered by GM. I sold it in ’82 with 65,000 miles for $3,500 and was happy to get that for it. The gas 350 motor was much more reliable and workable.
Why does it have a GMC steering wheel?
Not sure if the seats are original either. I believe they should be color coded with the rest of the interior.
Nice looking C-10. A pity that they eliminated the fender emblems during the re-painting, and failed to remove the drip rails as well. They masked them quite poorly, leaving them drenched in overspray. Horn pad would be an easy swap back to correct one with a bow tie.