This Chevy C20 looks absolutely fantastic and is said to need nothing! It’s packing a 454 V8, air conditioning and just about every other option you could want in a truck. The odometer is showing just 69k miles, but given that it’s already had a repaint, it’s hard to say whether that’s accurate or not. If it’s been completely restored, it was well done, as the entire truck looks superb. It’s a Trailering Special and with the 454, it should be more than capable of towing a camper anywhere you might want to go. You can find it here on eBay in Anderson, California with a current bid of $2k.
I’m quite surprised with just how nice this truck looks. I see quite a few of this era of truck still on the roads here in Idaho, but most of the time they are extremely worn and tired looking. Granted, most of those trucks probably have well over 150k miles. The interior is has either already been restored or was extremely well cared for, it doesn’t even need the classic saddle blanket seat covers! Even more amazingly, the plastic bits don’t look to be in bad shape. For whatever reason, the plastics, especially the door panels, tend to break down and crumble.
The 454 looks nice and the engine bay is tidy. The engine is said to run well and is ready to go. I imagine it consumes a fair amount of fuel, but thankfully it has dual tanks. The A/C system has already been converted to R134a and should keep you nice and comfortable on long trips or in the worse of the summer heat!
If this truck is as clean in person as it looks to be in photos, it would be a great buy! Trucks are on the rise as collectors items and this one is a turnkey driver. Heck, it’s probably nice enough to take to car shows! So, if you’ve been looking for a classic truck that you can just jump in and drive, this one might be worth a closer look.
One of the best-looking trucks ever, and this one has a 454 to boot. I don’t even like trucks but if I ever own one this is it.
I remember people buying the 454’s, because they got right at the same gas mileage as the 350’s of that time…… which, wasn’t very good!
WOW! Slap my ass and call me Sally! Just what I’m looking for !
I love the bumper overiders along with the nice door cards. Some spats would be the icing on the cake.
If it was only a K !
Now that would be a find!
When I was a kid of 14 my best friends dad had one just like this. We would sneak it out on a Saturday night for a joy ride. Man would that thing boil the rear tires!
I had one and I can say they are awesome! Just make sure that rain drip rail is solid or you will be enjoying a cascade of water every time it pours! LOL.
Great find, someone should grab this one now.
That’s a fine looking chunk of metal right there! Dad bought a new 1978 Silverado with the Big 10 package and a 454. Bucket seats, center console, PW, CC, tilt, etc. My oh my would I love that truck today. Not practical at all for everyday driving, but fast as hell!
“I imagine it consumes a fair amount of fuel…”
Very nice trucks. I had one with the 454 V-8 and Trailer Pkg. It got 10 m.p.g.
on the highway. Consistently 10 mpg. 55 mph or 70 mph, it got 10.
Mine had dual tanks and I could watch the fuel gauge drop.
BUT, it was the truck of choice for pulling a trailer. Lots of torque.
We had several one ton flatbeds of this vintage in one of my companies. Some had big blocks like this and some had small blocks. Your observation is dead on….couldn’t get the 454’s over 10 mpg where the 350’s would do 13 with a good driver. I never found enough extra power in the 454’s to make them worth the 30% extra fuel burn. These were bad years for economy……low compression smoged up engines.
Thing is.. 10MPG unloaded, or towing a house.
I wonder why there are no pictures of the tailgate or from the back of the truck.
The pictures were taken in a storage facility and there are no plates on a supposedly california truck.
I wonder why.
They were good trucks overall. Some problems with rust around the rear wheel openings. 1974 was the worst year ever for fuel economy for GM’s trucks. I remember a customer of mine complaining that his pickup (454 powered) did NOT have a gas tank; he just poured the fuel on the ground. He bought a 6500 three ton at the same time and the 6500 (with 427) got better mileage than the half-ton—his words. We did a lot of tweaking with the advance curves and jetting/metering rods, and actually got the fuel economy (read: consumption) to something that allowed a customer to drive more than a couple hundred miles on one tank….
I love this generation GM trucks. I had a 1976 C1500, black and red, it had the 454ci. I towed a 30ft camper trailer with it for years, gas mileage wasn’t good, but as stated it wasn’t much lower than the 350 at that time, but wow what a difference in power and torque. This is a great find, wish I was in the market for a truck.
It lookslike a 73.the headlight bezel on a 74 was different I believe,it also surrounded the parking light.Makes me wonder if the frt end has been redone.
My dad owned one of these when he pulled campers for Morgan Drive-A-way
out of Elkhart, Indiana. Dad’s truck was
a 4-speed instead of an automatic, and
wore a Green and White 2-tone paint job.
I think his had a Tan interior with some
sort of plaid inserts on the seat cushions
and nackrest. Other goodies included
dual gas tanks, HD suspension, cooling
system, and a Reese hitch for good
measure. We removed the tailgate so
that the truck could carry both a slide
in camper and a pull type camper as
well. And if that wasn’t enough, we added
a sliding 5th wheel setup to haul 5th
wheel campers when slide in models fell
out of favor. It was a great truck that helped put food on our table, clothes on
our backs, and a roof over our heads.
You couldn’t ask much more from a
work truck than that.
Owned mine…..thankfully when gas was 75 cents a gallon.
A different era and a damn fine truck. It would outrun anything pulling a Grade,
lot’s of torque.
I’d have one again if I had a barn big enough, and a trailer to take camping,
if the campground fees didn’t exceed a nice motel and dinner out………
What is rare in my opinion is that it looks to have it’s original body panels. Where I am from this vintage of Chevy truck would start rusting on the dealer lot. The Japanese aftermarket body panel importers got rich with this single model run by GM’s build anything and they will buy attitude also known as lack of engineering.
Lack of engineering? GM OVER-engineered everything back then, including these trucks. That’s why they produced them for 18 years-if you include the ‘Burbs, Blazers and Crew Cab pickups that remained in production through the 1991 model year. It’s also why there are so many still on the road today in 2019. With a couple of easily fixed exceptions, they’re pretty much bullet proof. I’m from Ohio so I know about the rust issues but thankfully, high quality “licenced” replacement sheet metal is now readily available. The cheap, off shore stuff is also still around but I don’t use it anymore. I own 7 of these trucks of various models and wouldn’t hesitate to drive any of them coast to coast. Apparently, your an AMC fan and I’m cool with that, without AMC, Jeep would’ve died back in the 60s. I actually like many of their creations including the Pacer (make mine a Pacer X with a 304 please). I’d also LOVE to find a restorable Honcho pickup as well as a Cherokee Chief for a reasonable price. No luck so far though.
My dad had a black 73 or 74 C10 Cheyenne super lwb with red interior back in the day. It had a 454 and th400. Loaded with ac and i believe it even had power wimdows and locks but cant remember for sure. He traded an olive green with white top 72 c10 custom deluxe lwb for it so he would have more power to tow his Longhorn bass boat. It did that but drank gas like no tomorrow. After a coulle of years my brothers talked him into letting them swap the 454 for the 350 in one of theirs 73 Camaro. Woke the camaro right up. They added headers aluminum intake and an aftermarket crane cam to the otherwise stock low compression motor. It would have been even bette with more compression but was running too good to tear apart. The only reason the th350 held up was they never got around to adding posi to the stock 10 bolt 3.08 rear. I recall anserious top end charge in that car.
I parted out a near twin to this truck a few years back. Bought it for $400. Same color 73 c20. Not a cheyenne but it had a 454, th400 and ac as well as a lot of rust. Friend of my dads fed cows out of it. The “rebuilt” 454 turned out to be good for a core only. It had a near perfect front bumper grill headlight trim tilt steering column and crack free dash pad. Everything else was junk. Kept the sway bar and brackets for my 72. Traded the th400 for a 1989 4×4 s10 blazer with a 4.3 but with no title plus a new pair of cooper cobra 275 60r15 tires and $100. Sold the shell of the c20 to a guy for $200 and a hood for my 70 longhorn. I have no idea what he was thinking. His dad cussed him out when he came to get it. “It doesnt even have a damn steering cloumn! How are you gonna get it on the trailer?” LOL I think i still have the door panels and interior trim in my barn.
In 1974 I worked in a Shell gas station. The gas cost $.49 / gallon. That would be $2.60 / gallon today adjusted for inflation. I just filled my truck up yesterday for $2.19 / gallon. This truck would be cheaper to drive today than it did when new. Maybe that will make it sound like an even better deal.
As of today, bidding is at $10,100 and reserve not met (!)
I bought a 78 from the orig. owner. It was a 454 trailering special and dam near perfect. always garaged. It was promised to me by him when he was done with it. (passed away)He knew that I loved that vintage of gm trucks. They just treated me well, and where dependable and tough.
Russ bought it new and was a nice med. blue/oyster fabric int. I was told that int. was rare. Non the less It was optioned well including dual tanks. He also had a 3rd big tank made for the bed.
When I got the truck I found all 3 tanks full-something like 70 gallons total. I thought I would not have to put gas in that truck for months!!! Wrong, Lasted about 2 weeks of reg. driving LOL. Super nice truck, but mileage awful. I had a few that had the 350. just as tough, but much better on gas. I still love these trucks.
Sold 14K
I have an ’85 K10 with a 305 in it and it’s my daily driver gets around 19mpg