You can be forgiven for thinking that the crew cab pickup phenomenon is a relatively recent thing, with most new pickup trucks sold now able to carry a second row of passengers. But the need to transport more workers to and from a job site has been around a lot longer than that! This converted Chevrolet C20 Crew Cab is listed for sale here in our own BF Classifieds section and is currently available through the online auction site Bid Fast and Last. The high bid is $4,900 as I write and you can pick up the truck in High Desert, California. You might want to check out their other desert finds as well.
As you can see, the truck still has a useful amount of bed left even after the cab extension. The wooden bed floor is somewhat deteriorated, though, so plan on replacing it if this vintage truck appeals to you.
After learning that most of the converted four-door Chevrolets from this era were completed by Stageway, a manufacturer of limousines and ambulances that I’m aware of (click here to see a beautiful custom Stageway four-door 1965 Chevy truck for inspiration), I spent some time researching Pacific Truck Body & Equipment and found the following, mostly from this site. Apparently Pacific opened in 1945 and produced bookmobiles, ambulances, and other custom truck bodies, and by 1964 was written about in a Eugene, Oregon paper as expanding to Eugene. The article also explained that Pacific “specialized in the construction of crew bus and van bodies for the forest industry and other custom truck equipment.” Unfortunately, it appears the company sunk without a trace, although there is another similarly-named truck customization firm that was founded in the early 1980s.
This truck actually looks like it uses two front doors on each side, and apart from the awkwardly-shaped panel between the door windows comes across well. As far as the general condition of the truck, it’s obvious that you are paying quite a premium over what a similar-condition standard truck would cost, but if what you want is a crew cab truck from the 1960s, apart from these rare conversions and the occasional International Travelette, you won’t have a lot of choices!
The grafting on of the rear cab section is a little more evident from this angle. Apparently the second cab structure didn’t get as good a paint job as the original!
As you can see here, factory doors must have been used for the conversion and there’s plenty of room in the back for real people. The legroom reminds me of my current tow vehicle, a 2010 Ram 1500 Crew Cab that my 14-year old can ride in the back and stretch out comfortably without contacting the back of the front seat. And with all kinds of modern GM drivetrains as swap possibilities, towing whatever you want wouldn’t be an issue if that’s the direction you wanted to go.
Plenty of room in the front as well. Have you ever seen a longer shift lever? I’m thinking second gear would be almost in the driver’s pants pocket! Since the truck appears to be largely stock at this point, the direction you take it as a buyer would be wide open — anything from a wild custom to dead stock work vehicle. Either of those would get you plenty of attention at a truck show!
Currently, the truck is powered by a ubiquitous Chevrolet small-block V-8; we have no idea whether it is the original engine or not. And, honestly, unless you are trying to restore this former work truck to stock, does it really matter? I think I’d follow the lead of the custom Stageway four-door and personalize this truck a bit on the way to making it as comfortable and reliable as possible. How about you?
I’ve never seen one of these up close and personal. It looks like a good candidate for restoration; you sure wouldn’t see another one for many miles unless there was a convention for these. Definitely a newer engine. I’d guess a 350 from the early 70s. That would be OK to continue using. No shortage of power…
geomechs: There’s a COE in the yard there too and this! :
https://www.bidfastandlast.com/auctions/detail/huge-car-auction-bw49067
That yard should be called A Damn Shame!
That should show a 1960 Plymouth Fury 2 door hardtop! Have to click through the listing to find it sorry
If I had a boneyard like that I’d think I died and went to heaven…
Fun! I particularly liked the, “1957 Austin Healey FX3 Taxi Cab with Meter.” Donald Healey would be amazed.
CJinSD At least the auction house was close in that taxi description…they could have written Austin Martin taxicab with meter. Or Aston Healey.
I’d rather have the Falcon Ranchero in the background!
RGSmith1 — Did you notice in the auction listing a FOUR passenger Ranchero for sale? Looks like a home made job, the roof reminds me of an English Ford Zephyr or Triumph Herald. Could be a real unicorn if custom made like this Chevy crew cab. Go on, you know you wanna look it up!
Odd animal
The gutter and seam tell me this is not custom fabrication
Better count those doors again!
beat me to it mayor
Jamie:
How many fingers am I holding up? LOL…Its ok.
Its almost a trick of the mind. You WANT there to be a fourth door…….and voila you see one. Interesting configuration for sure . I’ve seen other 3 door conversions from the mid sixties more than I’ve seen 4 door conversions.
I wonder what the logic for 3 doors was. If you were all in, this would be a heck of a project…but once done you’d be the King of The Suburban Truckster crowd who would cower in your presence as you yelled out the window: NO HEATED SEATS!
Ok, kudos to everyone that caught me on this one! I’m certainly due for new glasses!!
Jamie, thanks for the link to our 65 stageway…we have had a blast with it!! It always starts a conversation…Did Chevy really do that?? If you ever need more info on ours I have all the paperwork from day one order sheet to delivery paperwork….thanks roger
“This truck actually looks like it uses two front doors on each side”
The pictures I see don’t have a left-rear door. This truck appears to be a 3-door, like the Suburbans of the same era. And I’m kind of curious why they didn’t use a Suburban door for the RR. It would have made more sense and looked better.
Suburban’s didn’t have a 3rd door until 1967, and a 4th door until 1973. Hence the front door used as the rear door on this conversion.
The workmanship of the roof seam has not aged well. I do love those oarlock/tie downs from the hardware store gracing the bed. I’d be a buyer if this was closer and did more than yard drive. I believe I ‘ve seen that gearshift knob somewhere before…oh yeah, on my John Deere riding lawnmower!
Yep it’s a 3 door
I would want to see the underside of the roof.
Good observation, Geomechs. Looks solid and may have gotten dented up in the junkyard, price seems a little high even for a rare conversion like this. Anyhoo, if you go for it, good luck. Any small block with do!! Stay safe.
Cheers
GPC
Small world – that was me who was looking for information
about my ’60 Chevy Apache.
I would redo the doors at the b-pillar area. Make them straight up and down. That would make it look better. JMHO.
Funny how they just re-used a front door for the rear. Saved a lot of money that way. Pull those dents, clean it up, restore mechanically and drive.
I have another observation. I believe the designer didn’t allow for the filler neck and cap for the fuel tank behind the rear seat and had to eliminate the driver side rear door. Don’t see any other reason, not to have a 4th door. Cars had them.
Being the doors were the same on the one side and the roof looks like a patch job, I also believe an after market vendor put this truck together, so it can’t be classified as a Chevy Stock truck, just a custom one at best.
The logic to 3 doors were to keep Kids in the back from exiting out into traffic.
No kids in these trucks. Probably not even sold to consumers through a dealer network. Nope, designed to haul full sized adults to work sites. Hell, mommy vans had only one big side door typically on a slider all through the 80s and 90s. Nothing surprising here. Other than how poorly the roof on this conversion fared in the desert sun.
Brian, your logic makes sense, but there were cars as I mentioned, that have 4 doors, that are designed for families and trucks in those days were for work and adults.
It was a logical thought. If You had to drop the little ones off on Your way to work. My Dad did. I rode in His work trucks when I was small.
SURPRISE SURPRISE SURPRISE ! ! !
This big ol’ honkin’ beast is a 1ton (C30),as indicated by the front hub. I have a ’65 C20 ,had a ’66 C10,and have been in love with these trucks for my lifetime. This is indeed a rare monster,and worthy of the care and feeding of someone new.And yes,if I,too were closer,I’d be scoping it out.
1st Gear, Chevy C20’s that had a HD rear, came with the 8 lug pattern. The odd thing with this truck is the dually front rims and the single, standard wheel on the rear, with no room for two wheels under the bed fender, unless the 6′ bed was added during the aftermarket construction, from a 8′ one. It is a “COOL” truck, but with lots of questions.
You’d never find room for dual wheels under the fenders of a truck of this vintage. Dually pickups were still more than a decade away when this one was built, although factory dual rear wheel cab/chassis models could be had.
Even today, Dodge has 8-bolt drive trains, that are 1/2 ton. Mega Cabs
Really cool find and not a rust bucket from what you can see!! I sure would not mind walking through this guys yard lots of interesting stuff in the background!!!
That’s a lot of legroom in the back seat area. Everybody wants a short bed, but this is short bed in a long bed size.
Cowl badges and VIN say this is a 3/4 ton C20. Someone somewhere swapped out the 1 ton spindle assembly.
What year was the first year for production (not custom) Crew cabs for Ford and Chevrolet? Anyone?
Super cab was all the rage for Ford until about 1990 or so.
My guess would be Ford in about 1992? But that is just a guess.
Only trucks like this that I ever saw was on the Railroad. Not sure about the exact door arrangement, (if they were reused front doors) but The former New York Central had these type of trucks. I know where one is somewhat locally, here on the top of NY state.
I can imagine a cool custom conversion in its future.
I like the 60s Clark Cortez motorhome.