Despite missing its head and intake, bidders are still clamoring for a shot at winning this 1960 GMC Custom Crew Cab pickup. It’s wearing nicely patinaed paint and still shows good chrome and glass all the way around, so it gets instant style points, for sure. The pickup was converted to a three-door setup at the hands of Novelty Carriage Works in Spokane, Washington, and is likely one of only a few examples of a vintage extended cab pickup with an odd number of entry points. Find it here on eBay with bidding at $4K and no reserve.
The seller doesn’t provide much in the way of detail, but I’m guessing based on the background of the photos, he’s got an eye for interesting vintage pickups. The company responsible for the conversion, Novelty Carriage Works, opened its doors in the 1890s and manufactured a wide range of vehicles, from carriages to school buses, and obviously handled a few conversions along the way on behalf of automotive manufacturers. I’m not sure if this was a one-off or if GM handed off production of any and all extended cab trucks to the company – does anyone out there know?
The three-door design follows the logic that preventing passengers from stepping into traffic is a good thing, even if it looks somewhat goofy. The interior is presentable, with mismatched bench seats front and rear. This looks like a manual transmission example from here, and I can only imagine what it’s like to hustle a truck like this through the gears. The dash and door panels are consistent in their blue color, so perhaps the front bench seat is the only deviation from standard. Photos show a surprisingly narrow back window for such a big truck.
If this GMC is on the wrong coast for you to consider (it’s still in Spokane, amazingly), then check out some of the recent Barn Finds Exclusives we’ve posted from the large Georgia collection. This includes a super clean 1958 Chevy Apache pickup. You can read more here about the other trucks in the collection, and be sure to check out the photo gallery at the bottom of the article.
Jeff, I gotta give you props, you sure find some interesting subjects. And you know how to plug the large Georgia collection you’ve been placed in charge of. How has the interest been in the Georgia stuff? Brisk sales? Hidden surprises uncovered when other cars get moved out? I for one would love a followup story about it now that several months (maybe a year or more) has passed since you began teasing us about it! Cheers,
The front end on that GMC, it looks like 2 fronts, a Plymouth on top……….and some other Plymouth on the bottom.
Looks like a forest service or power company truck. Super cool.
I love those trucks with the turning signals above the headlights that’s different from what we have today
I have seen a 3 door once before. I believe it was a 1963, and it was being used by the railway. It is certainly and interesting truck, and thinking about it, it would cut the cost of building the truck and probably make the cab more sturdy by only having the 3 doors.
I thought by looking at the truck, that it came from the factory that way, but common sense would indicate that the numbers would have been too low to build this on the regular assembly line. It would make sense to me that these trucks were built by a custom builder.
I worked in the oilfields in central Canada in the early 60s, and the regular cab version of these trucks were very common. I don’t recall ever seeing a crew cab back then.
Bob
Suburbans of this era came standard with three doors. Logical a pickup would follow suit.
I thought so too and then I looked it up. The 3-door Suburban didn’t come out until ’65.
Nope. ’67 was the first year of the three door.
The purportions are not right. They hacked too much of the front part of the bed. Looks almost home made to me. But, a few beers and a saw and lets see how it looks? Do over……….
Even up until the early 2000’s modern-day extended cab trucks only had one “half” door that opened.
I can see the attraction of these early crew cabs.. I love vintage trucks and sold my ’72 C10 since I couldn’t use it with the family (4 bums). Something like the subject vehicle would make a vintage pickup a realistic classic for someone who wants to bring the family along to enjoy.
Cool truck find those parts!!!
60 F100 6′ STYLESIDE, 63GMC 6′ BIG WINDOW, 63 1TON TOW, 67 QCODE BIRD,
68F250 CAM SPEC. 69CDV, 69 429 GAL VERT, 72 GM 3/4 TON SHORT VAN, 73 QCODE 4sp RANCHARO GT CLONE, ALL COMPLETE NO
RUST, ACCIDENT’S THEY ALL NEED NEW
HOME’S
Try 3 door Carryall. I think all the way from 1952?
Ummm,where did the heads go? The interior almost looks like Navy blue but a little glossy, could be the lighting. I think its pretty cool. Painted up and restored it would be a pretty penny.
I remember the Air Force having some of these still running in the ’70s. Blue interiors and AF blue outside. Used mostly as on base transportation to get crews to and from aircraft.
GM farmed out the production of 1960-1966 crew cabs to at least 12 or more different companies, they could be had in 2, 3 and 4 door versions. we have a group on face book that discusses them, just search 60-66 chevy and gmc crewcabs
Ugliest GMC ever made!!