This dry, western 1979 Chevrolet LUV 4×4 pickup was parked in 2012 and has been reconditioned over the last few months to get it back on the road again. It has 100% original paint and decals, the seller has it posted here on craigslist in beautiful dry, western Scottsdale, Arizona, and they’re asking $5,950. Here is the original listing, and thanks to T.J. for sending in this tip!
Chevrolet almost seemed confused as to how to market their rebadged Isuzu Faster pickup, the Chevy LUV. Their period literature says over and over again how tough they are, with phrases like “the tough half-tonner” and things like that, to make sure that customers knew that they were tough. Yet, then they talk about the “soft-riding suspension”, which is quite a trick to have it both ways. The seller says that this is a solid example and they have started to detail the underside.
It’s funny, although not ha-ha funny, how some car magazines whip people into a frenzy by giving false information concerning the “big, evil government” and their, gasp, regulations!!! (!!) A 1979 Car and Driver magazine article showed a comparison between a ’79 LUV and a ’79 Toyota 4×4 pickup and in the article they say, “The government, to no one’s surprise, has duly noted the fuelishness of Blazer-class rigs and will slowly legislate them out of existence with new 4wd fuel-mileage standards that start in 1980.” Rubbish! We all know that big, gas-guzzling trucks didn’t go away after 1980 yet here they are trying to get people to rush out with torches and pitchforks. I guess some things never change.
Back to this Isuzu, I mean, Chevy LUV. We’ve seen many of these interesting vehicles over the years here on Barn Finds, including some like-new examples. The seller says that this one was last registered a decade ago and has been brought back to life in the last few months. The dash pad is shot, and there is a “permanent patch” on the driver’s floor due to a leaking window. Speaking of that, the windshield needs to be replaced, but the seat and door panels have been redone.
The engine is Isuzu’s 1.8-liter SOHC inline-four, which would have been factory-rated at 80 horsepower and 95 lb-ft of torque when new. The seller says that the engine has been rebuilt some time ago and it runs well, the five-speed manual also works well as does the 4×4 transfer case. This price is more reasonable for a 4×4 Chevy LUV than we’ve seen in a while – this might be a nice project. Have any of you owned a 4×4 LUV?
I love the stripe packages on 1970s trucks. Dodge and Ford’s Freewheeling packages raised it to an art form.
They didn’t look so tough after a few Midwestern winters. They dissolved like Tang. But it’s good to see one still preserved.
My thoughts exactly. I had a Datsun PL620…wound up on a used-car lot in Ohio, having originally been sold in Texas. It was 11 years old at the time I got it, and even just sparing use in the salt season, had it rusting like uncoated sheet metal.
For some reason the LUV appealed to me in its time. It looked sturdier, even though we now know it wasn’t – looked that way because it was more spartan, and we were told that Isuzu was a truck specialist.
They rusted, if anything, faster than Datsuns or Toyotas of the time.
Looking at this one…it’s interesting to juxtapose the known thin, corrosive body sheet-metal, with that burly one-piece rear axle. Seems they really were built to take it – for the JDM market, where snow and freezing temperatures are a rare event.
I bought one new in 1980. Had it under coated in a clear rubbery material from the dealer. Drove it in Omaha area for several years with no rust problems. Yellow paint faded real bad and the vinal seat and dash split right away. Mine was a four speed and if I remember correctly, five seed gear boxes were’t available till1982.
Looks like it came with different stripes originally.Guessing those
side stripes were added much later.I think the lettering on the tail-
gate is original.
I LUV this thing. That dash pad looks like it’s seen better days, as the writer mentions.
Is that an aftermarket air conditioning system I spy with my little eye (in the Photobucket-link collection of pics)? I wonder if it works. It’d really blow if it didn’t blow. Seller says all electricals work except the temp gauge but I don’t recall a mention of A/C specifically… maybe I missed it.
Seeing vehicles of this vintage are the reason I like BarnFinds so much… thanks Scotty! Have a good day, all.
From everything I see on it (in my driveway) it was a factory AC truck. All the guys were pulled in the power barn but heat still works! And all the electrical do not work. I decided I want to make it as original as I can with logic in mind. New dash is ordered and windshield is getting replaced today!
Brian- Good luck w/ the project… it looked like a great little truck and I’m sure you’ll make it even greater.
PS- “All the guys were pulled in the power barn”?? What does that mean?
Sorry it must have autocorrected. All the guts for the AC under the hood (Power barn)
My little 2 wheel drive 76 LUV is a project in the works. It had considerable amounts of rust when I got it. cut it out with a wheel, replaced the floor pans It looks a lot better since I painted it but it still needs a lot of work. It’s a fun project but I’m getting a little tired these days, don’t seem to have the pep I had before. took my temperature earlier it was 85.9 degrees. I think I’ll go take a nap.
God Bless America
The LUV was my very first purchase. 1976.
It had a small camper on the back. It had Spirit of ‘76 stenciled on the front of the camper and God Bless America stenciled on the back. NEVER got pulled over by the police!
I really worked it hard, carried lots of friends. Yeah, it was a rust bucket at the end, but it was MY rust bucket. I loved that little truck.
That being said…I’m not buying this truck!
Loved seeing it, though.
good friend’n neighbor Rainey Blackmoon, had the Mikkado model of this. He worked at the Framingham plant during the era, I think he said they made it there. Memory can be incorrect, weak and yet still clear. I think these were ‘rebadged’ (shipped from Japan w/a prt or 2 missing, completed at the dealer).
There are so many different processes pre sales (near or far coach built, dealer v factory, this here 1) that we consumers just cant tell the routs taken. Good to have CR/CU and some of the national auto-writers to pull back the curtin fora look see.
If I remember right,these were shipped complete with
bed/cab,but had slats of wood between the bed and frame,
being classified as an “incomplete vehicle,thus avoiding the
“Chicken Tax”.
These were never built in the US – they were built by Izusu,
in Japan.
My dad bought one brand new when I was a kid. Man what great memories I have of that truck. Going to pick up railroad ties to hall off or use for house. But my biggest memory is after we would get done doing errands for mom or a hard day’s worth of work he would always take me to McDonald’s for a happy meal, and we would sit on the the tailgate in the parking lot and eat our lunch. I know my dad is still around and it’s great to talk about that old truck and all the memories me and him had together with it.
My 1980 LUV truck was the biggest piece of junk that I ever owned! The clutch cable broke every six months. The frame mounted electric fuel pump would go out on me in the dead of winter when the road salt would get to it. The only positive part was the four wheel drive system.
Someone grabbed this LUV, was it one of you?
My mom’s 2nd husband traded in his gas guzzling 78 blazer 4wd with a 400sbc for a 80 luv.Bought it at Long Chevrolet in I think Elmhust IL. Used to have the Timmy the paperboy commercials I think for advertising .It was black with red cloth It had a chrome roll bar and wheels 2wd with 2 Marchall lights up top.Good little truck that nearly tripled his gas mileage.Never had a problem with it other than traction in the winter.Used to put sand bags over the rear wheels in the bed.I loved the Blazer and was sad he traded it in.