Third Gen Should Have Been 1973-80
 

sometimes I think the Third Generation of the C/K trucks ran too long, often times when you look for parts they are split 73-80 and 81-87 anyway making things even more confusing

Gen I was only 7 years

Gen II was only 7 years

so should have Gen III

are you with me?

Re: Third Gen Should Have Been 1973-80
 

You have too know what will interchangea, more fun that way

That is the year split just look at a 79 then look at the difference you can see to an 81. They Changed the lines the hood hinges and many more like the light switch in the floor that is sooooo cool. so maybe that will help you understand if not just read about c/k trucks on Wikipedia.
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Re: Third Gen Should Have Been 1973-80
 

You forgot they kept the square body tell 91 in the crew cab the suburban and k5.

That's right. But we're talking about the c/k series.
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Re: Third Gen Should Have Been 1973-80
 

73-87 works. If you nit pick, then you would have a new gen every year.

Re: Third Gen Should Have Been 1973-80
 

So do you not count the '87 R/V trucks because they weren't designated C/K?

I'm not sure where this is going. The GMT400 trucks had revisions every year, so did the 73-87, the 67-72, 60-66. Everything isnt interhangeable to everything in any generation.

Re: Third Gen Should Have Been 1973-80
 

The R/V line continued from 88-91 in the Blazer Suburban, Cab N Chassis, and 1ton trucks.
Not everything is a drop-in interchange. Some parts are.
Doors will bolt up from 73-91 but electric windows and locks don't fit the 73-76 doors and you may want to keep the inside door trim on the 77-91 units when you bolt em to the 73-76 cabs.
You can, with a bit of work in the hood hinge area, mate a 1990 Suburban nose onto a 1973 cab or use a 1988 RV 1 ton cab on a 1977 with the 77 nose.
There are all kinds of nitpicky details but the broad strokes are the 73-91 CK & RV chassis are largely the same.

It's just like my W chassis Impala. I can use some parts but not all from 2000-2015 W chassis Impala and 1999-2007 Grand Prix on my 2009 and there are parts that could be cannibalized from W chassis as old as 1988. Tho I'm not quite sure why I'd put 28 year old parts on my 5 year old car.

Re: Third Gen Should Have Been 1973-80
 

More of the learning curve.

My 73 has 85 doors, 66 dash 91 seat. The bed is cobbled from a 73 floor 84 quarters 87 tailgate unknown blazer band.

Re: Third Gen Should Have Been 1973-80
 

So bottom line is, 81-87s rule and 73-80s drool?

Re: Third Gen Should Have Been 1973-80
 

Round eye ftw every time.

I have a 91 crew that will be swapped to a 73 nose soon.

Hey I'm not sure that one is better than the other I just stated that they got a face lift in 81.
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Re: Third Gen Should Have Been 1973-80
 

Strike that. Reverse it, just like Willy Wonka says.

Re: Third Gen Should Have Been 1973-80
 

LOL, more like 73-80s Rock and 81-87s __ck!

JK

Amen brother.
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Re: Third Gen Should Have Been 1973-80
 

I think the last C5 were about 82?
I've found changes from early 78 (glass fuses),79 is blades
I'm using 89 vents(with locks) and thinner door glass,crank,openers in 78 doors
89 pad with 78 bezel,89 seats.....I thought it was cool being able to swap like this.

Round eyes Rock,but square bodies rule....

Re: Third Gen Should Have Been 1973-80
 

I saw the '81's before they came out; I didn't like them so I hurried and bought an '80 before it was too late.

When I saw the GMT400's before they came out - I didn't like them so I hurried and bought an '87 before it was too late.

My dad used to tease me that I would have seen the 55 Chevy's, not liked them and hurried to buy a '54....

K

Re: Third Gen Should Have Been 1973-80
 

There were a couple things going on during that time frame:

a) That was when cars were being downsized and were losing some of their utility. As a result trucks were becoming more and more popular - the beginning of the "trucks as personal use" craze. That was totally unanticipated among the truck product planners.

b) Additionally, GM management had not caught up to the idea of trucks as a profit center. Chevy truck engineering was kicked out of the GM Tech Center in the mid 70's and was dispersed into several small job shops across SE Michigan. This only added to the "red headed stepchild" mentality among upper management, resulting in trucks having to sprinkle new content as they could with minimal input (both from a planning sense and from a financial standpoint). We used to have special events at the Desert Proving Ground (called "the Happening") in an attempt to help build awareness among upper management.

c) Increased legislation in the form of safety and emissions content made future development more lengthy and more costly.

d) Lastly - the C/K platform is bigger (more proliferation of models, and more production volume) than the rest of GM, and, in fact, than most other manufacturers (BMW, VW, etc, for example). It is no small task to change over from a timing standpoint and from an engineering workload standpoint, which is why you see these incremental changeovers spanning multiple model years.

K

Re: Third Gen Should Have Been 1973-80
 

Roger that! I have to always hit the pick-n-pull with my trusty cross reference list by year/part. I even carry a couple catalogs just in case... Once BABA YAGA! is done; I will be glad to put the cheat sheets away for a while!