Over the years, significant events have led to America’s car and truck manufacturers to deploy special editions designed to memorialize those happenings. From Haley’s Comet to the Indianapolis 500, there’s no shortage of reasons to issue yet another special model designed to entice shoppers into the showroom. Chevy did just that to celebrate America’s Bicentennial with the aptly named “Bicentennial Edition” C10 pickup. This example is listed here on the Barn Finds Classifieds and has been substantially restored, albeit without the iconic stripes and graphics that made the red, white, and blue a permanent part of the paint scheme. The seller is asking $28,000 and says the price is negotiable.
The body looks quite nice on this C10, with no evidence of dents, dings, or significant rust. I’m not sure what the origins of the lettering on the bumper is in terms of the shout-out to Albuquerque, New Mexico, but perhaps it’s a reference to where this truck spent most of its life. If that’s the case, it should be quite solid underneath, given the desert climate is typically very accommodating of vintage tin. The seller claims this truck has been restored back to factory specs and that it looks, drives, and even smells, like new. The only update I’d make is to source the original graphics, if still available, to make this one as patriotic as possible.
The 350 appears to be beautifully detailed, with new parts galore (or at least, components restored to look new). The paint on the firewall looks just as clean as the outside, which makes you wonder if the entire truck was stripped down and repainted. At the very least, the attention to detail seems high, with the cosmetics freshened up to a fairly high level (paint quality assessment would require an in-person inspection.) The hoses also look new, along with the air cleaner, so hopefully this means the next owner will benefit from what amounts to a near-turnkey example in terms of mechanical health and reliability.
Underneath certainly supports the New Mexico born-and-raised assumption, as few cars or trucks of this age can look this good underneath without receiving a completely new floorpan. These are the types of undersides you can eat off of, and someone has already installed a new exhaust and possibly a refreshed driveshaft, too, based on how it looks to have been recently painted. The seller doesn’t provide any specifics about the restoration, but from what we can see here, it’s obvious he at least started with a solid foundation. The listing mentions the seller is also open to trades, so it’s worthy of a discussion with the owner if this rare Bicentennial Edition catches your eye.
This is a beautiful truck! Many hours in labor to get it to look this way, I’ll bet!
Thanks for listing it on Barn Finds! As a member, I think it is important to support this site. This crew does their due diligence, and if they are misinformed, they will admit it, and correct it.
Thanks again, and Good Luck!
Insanely clean!
Please allow me to explain to you, Jeff, the story of the rear bumper.
Until the late 1980s a rear bumper was an optional extra on pickup trucks. (Some states required them by law, and then a bumper became a “mandatory option”). Where bumpers were not mandatory, some truck buyers did not want them, especially on basic work trucks or farm trucks, so the dealers ordered trucks without bumpers from the factory. If a buyer *did* want a bumper, the dealer would source an aftermarket bumper locally, and install it for the buyer.
That was often cheaper than the factory bumper, anyhow.
Some dealers who sold and installed aftermarket bumpers had them custom-stamped with the dealer’s name and city. The dealer thus got advertising, and the buyer was happy to do so in exchange for a cheaper bumper.
So now you know, Jeff.
Also – and even cheaper then – some would install a 2×6 from their own lumber pile.
This is what most truck bumpers looked like when I was young. I would love to source such a bumper from the city where I grew up.
I bought a fixer-upper house in the city of Nashville years ago. The vacant lot next to mine had a few years prior been cleared for new house construction. Anyway, when mowing my lawn I kept running across the tip of something buried in the earth. I finally got a shovel to clear the item out of my mower’s path and found it to be a twisted 1950s-1970s truck step bumper buried vertically into the ground with a local defunct dealer and city stamped in it. I figured it must have been pushed over to my land when the adjoining lot was being graded. That bumper was mounted in my garage for years after that.
Stamping it was the expensive option, paint and stencils happened too. My dad bought a ’79 Sierra whose only options were the 8′ box, AM radio and step bumper; I, who was just learning to read, distinctly remember seeing FITZPATRICK’S GMC on the left and BURLINGTON, VT on the right.
The downside of paint stencils from the dealer’s point of view is that the painted step bumpers needed regular repainting (annually in fact) and no owner ever redid the stencils.
I was waiting for this rig to be featured…
The restoration job appears to be high quality. However, top dollar goes to shortbed trucks with 4WD and premium trim. This example, obviously, is a longbed with 2WD and base trim. Probably the only way it could be less desirable is if it had a stepside bed. And this is not the craziest asking price I’ve seen for a square-body truck lately.
If the seller gets anywhere near that price, I’ll be looking to acquire a decent square-body with a long stepside bed before their prices go through the roof…
Plop,,,just passed out,,,keep ’em coming BF’s. Nice job, but a pretty basic truck, compared to mine, sorry, it just is. No P/B, rubber floor mat, plain interior and not to be rude, but what’s “bicentennial” about it? Can someone tell me, are these really that collectible? To me, mine is just a mid 70’s pickup truck.
Solid shortbed C10s are hot right now Howard.
Nice truck, but it appears to be a longbed…
If completely restored to factory spec it would have the original grill, A/C compressor, air cleaner snorkel, and bicentennial paint.
Taken to this level, the price seems a touch high.
This is a longbed LOL
This is what the original paint job looked like.
Not all 1976s had the bicentennial paint.
Overpriced for what this is. This is just a base model with a 350. Obviously not all original, but given some TLC. I just don’t see $28K worth here at all. Maybe $15k, but even that’s a stretch.
It’s a frame off full restoration every nut and bolt is new all rubber all everything is new as built from the factory and it’s got Vintage air condition. Seller says negotiable or trade. If you’re interested make an offer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMKk5FLMIlc
Nothing on SPID label denotes a Bicentenial edition. It did, in fact have two tone paint originally, but not any more. Grille is incorrect for a ’76, but correct for ’77-’78. The restorer should have changed over to power brakes while it was under the knife.
Builder wanted it same as it was born with except the vintage a/c
It wouldn’t be hard to find a nicer optioned squarebody for the money, or perhaps even less.
Dealer Name – _-_-_-_-_-_-City & State
I really like this Chevy, it’s pretty much the way I would have bought it. The rear bumper was very common from one coast to the other.
I like base trucks, too. However, I prefer a manual transmission and, in this case, a stepside bed.
What a beautiful truck, absolutely immaculate. I had a 76 ,same colors in and out but it was a 6 cyl with dirt and dings.
I agree that the price seems high, but It’s basically a new truck.
If you really liked and wanted one of these and this was THE truck for you, could you find one cheaper and make it this nice for less than 28k? Probably not. Also your driving it tomorrow.
I love these trucks and if this was 4wd and a darker color it would be worth it to me. And yes I do realize I’m getting more for my buck adding the 4wd but It’s just an observation
Woa! 28k for 2wd, basic truck w/out its bicentenial paint, even restored is way overboard. These trucks aren’t rare. They were very prone to rust, so hopefully that was addressed in it’s resto. Parts are aplenty, and these trucks could be very well optioned, but this one isn’t. You guys sound like dealers, when they have an old truck, is a collector, trade one in and it’s just an old truck, hardly worth anything. Sorry, but overvalues don’t help the hobby, just keeps many out!
Actually it is the correct 2 tone paint. The “conventional two-tone” meant it has a white top which this truck has. The body is Santa Fe tan. The DELUXE two-tone features the roof color in the middle of the body outlined by chrome trim. Useless info bonus-all squarebodys except 1977 had chrome with a black stripe. 1977 was yellow and chrome