Okay, stop rubbing your eyes because you really are seeing this. I love a good custom car, and this is something a bit different. It’s not clear when this Silverado was given the custom treatment, but the current owner has decided to sell the vehicle to someone who is willing to finish it off. You will find the Silverado listed for sale here on eBay. It is located in Latta, South Carolina, and has been listed with a clear title. The owner has set an opening bid of $2,000 on this pickup, but at the time of writing there had been no bids.
Customizing a vehicle requires a vision and an imagination. I’m pretty sure that the person who customized this vehicle had an imagination, and what they have created is a vehicle that definitely stands out. The seller doesn’t seem to be sure when the custom work was performed, but if the stripes and the wheels are any indication, I would be guessing that it was some time in the 1980s. The truck has been chopped by 6 inches, and it has also been lowered by 5 inches. It has a custom deck and spoiler, and I just love those suicide doors. The truck looks to be quite solid, and the workmanship doesn’t look to be that bad. There are a few detail items that will need to be completed. The vehicle doesn’t appear to have any tail-lights or rear turning signals, but it is possible that they are actually in the recess below where the tailgate used to be.
Compared to the exterior of this pickup, the interior is downright conservative. While the dash and seat look to be pretty reasonable, there is some finishing work required to the headliner and doors, as well as the door trims. It is a bit hard to tell from the photos, but it looks like some of the welds on the upper section of the doors may need some work on the inside. I guess the other alternative would be to strip out the carpet, seats, and headliner, and have a full custom interior made that carries the outside color scheme into the pickup.
Under the hood is a small block V8 which is hooked to an automatic transmission. The owner says that the truck runs, but we get little information beyond that. I’m also intrigued by some of the work under the hood. It looks like someone has gone berserk under there with the cooking foil. That is something that I would definitely want to rectify, as it looks completely out of place. If the customizing work was undertaken in the 1980s, then a heap of braided line would look right at home under there, and that’s the path that I would probably take.
There are people out there who are going to look at this Silverado and be absolutely horrified that someone has done this to a perfectly good pickup. Equally, there are going to be people who look at it and think that it is awesome. I’m going to sit on the fence on this one. The vehicle is not my cup of tea, but I admire the imagination of the person who looked at this Silverado and didn’t just see the possibilities but had the motivation to act on their ideas.
That’s the thing about customs. No one else may have the same “vision” as the builder did. And yes, I consider this to be a waste of a perfectly good pickup.
So early 90s, it hurts to even look at it.
I’m blind
It didn’t stand the test of time. Like mentioned above, these are individualized to a particular persons taste and often based on a fleeting fad. Even though tacky, some work as a reminder of past styles, not this one. It’s had too many hands in the engine compartment and the wheels have probably been changed too. It might be worth it to someone for a few thousand dollars, but will be a hard sell.
Steve R
Gemballa Porsche treatment for a pick-up truck. Does the bedcover hydraulically raise so you can actually haul something? Providing you can lift it over the wing, of course…to each his own
YIKES!
That’s one of those things that, once you’ve seen it, you can’t un-see and it haunts your nightmares like a train wreck or a multi-car pile-up.
Here’s a somewhat similar truck that I built years ago that I like to think was just a little more tasteful.
Agreed. It’s still a useful pickup. I would wonder about the headroom – and how much you can see over the front of the hood (blind spot?), but yours is not a bad treatment.
Don’t get me wrong, I look at the original post and can admire the skill and the amount of work that went into it, but I just cannot get past the “Why?”.
I built one just like this in the mid 80’s. Black, big block and chopped. Was a killer on the street. Lost it in a divorce in 97.
There was no where to go but up with this ugly model.
As a modifier myself you have to know when to say enough is enough which this person didn’t quite know when. I like the roof chop but not the 5″ lowering, 2 ‘ would have been enough. I only like suicide doors on Lincoln Continentals and don’t get me started on those wing doors. I don’t mind the bed cover just not the wing, it just doesn’t look right on a truck. The paint scheme is loud and flashy but if your a big enough man to create this and drive it you want to be noticed and I got to give credit where credit is due, just not my kind of creation. @Dirk I do like yours, really nice custom truck.
Hows comes they putted the doors on backards on dat squished truck?
80s customs were a different kind of bad taste. This one tastes like about 1992. Grow a mullet and cruise it!
Not a fan for sure. But anyone want to take some bets that in another 20 years people are bidding on this thing like they are today on those 70’s vans that 20 years ago no one would touch?
With the chopped top, windshield visor, partially-covered side windows (why?!?), and a rear spoiler that will hide everything behind you, the buyer had better be prepared to add a periscope.
They’ll be laughing at all the trends we think are cool now in thirty years, too.
Again, things like this surface from time to time. Curiosity if only for a second. Just another case of having the ambition to exicute really bad taste and zero sense of asthetic. This thing isn’t even ugly enough to be an outrageous novelty ride.
That dark strip in the on the bottom in the back will be your tail lights.
Nope … fugly overchopped and loose the stripes and sun visor lololol
Looks like a JC Whitney catalog of bad ideas
That’s definitely not a 1979 front clip. It’s post-1980, when the front end was redesigned with a sloping hood to make it more aerodynamic. The grille is from a mid-80s truck.
I wouldn’t be caught dead in it.
Grill and or front end is from a late 80’s suburban. I don’t recall that style being on a “truck”
Front clip is from a 89-91 Suburban or Blazer. I’ve swapped a couple onto mid 80’s C10’s as I like the look better than the stacked headlights.
Curiously, even though that body style ended with the 87 model in the states, it continued though 91 on the Mexican market 1/2 & 3/4 ton trucks, with that grille & light treatment.
If you think you hate it now, wait ’till you drive it.
Chopped and lowered… so, strike one and strike two… and a general, all-around strike three. Yer out.
If I was to get this truck I would have to take the entire body off it and send it to the crusher and get a all new body of the original body year and put the door hinges back where they are supposed to be so open right and undo all the shaved crap and put the suspension back to the original ride hight and get the original wheels so I could use the truck and haul stuff like a truck is built for and change the engine to a big block V8 and get a transmission for a big block v8 and all that custom stuff makes a vehicle look like trash unless the car was built with the suicide doors like some of the older cars had which looked cool
I like the doors,and the chop,and even the ground effects,
but that visor,graphics and the wings look hideous to me..lol..
This was a very popular trend in the late 80’s,and this
does show a lot of what was popular then.Thank goodness
that some things have gotten a little more tasteful,and
other trends have gone away.
What Keith said……