Saw an Extended Cab Today (Long Post)

[Slonaker]

Actually, I saw two 73-87 extended cabs this weekend. The first was one that I passed on the interstate on my way home from work Friday. It was the first that I had seen in about a year. The second was a GMC that I found in a local junkyard on Saturday. I have never seen one up close before, but always thought it would be nice to have one. I'm not so sure after seeing one up close.

The one in the junkyard was a GMC 1500 from the 1980s. It was still mostly complete, so I was able to crawl under and through it, literally. I was disappointed by what I saw, primarily with the quality of the bodywork done when the coach company extended the cab.

The entire upper portion of the cab that had been added (from under the quarter window on one side, over the top, to under the quarter window on the other side) was floated out in about 1/8 of an inch of bondo that was cracking and falling off. I though at first that the truck might have been rolled and repaired because there was so much bondo on the roof, but the lack of bondo in the portions of the cab that came from GM seem to rule this out. I looked over the whole thing and it appears that it was just built poorly from the beginning. The sides of the truck seemed to have somehow escaped the bondo problems. Perhaps they used preformed panels for the sides since they are easily seen.

It appeared that they had just cut the back end off the cab, pulled it back about 2 feet, and welded flat pieces of sheet metal into place without trying to form them to match the lines of the body. The metal under the bondo was very wavy. It looked as though it was just tacked into place and beaten into submission with a hammer, then covered with a lot of bondo.

I considered briefly, since the bondo looked like something I would do in my driveway, that it might be homebuilt. Apparently, though, it was not, because I found a label in the doorjamb with the name of the coach company in Arlington, TX that completed the conversion.

I did not spend much time underneath the truck, but it appeared that the portions of the cab that had been added were starting to rust pretty badly. I did not see any type of rustproofing on the added portions, which might explain the rust.

The quarter windows were plastic, apparently made from Lexan. The word "Lexan" was etched into the corner of the one window I looked at, and they were scratched up like old plexiglass gets over time. The seal that went around it was, apparently, cut from generic material. It had a gap on one side where the two ends met, leaving a small hole that would probably leak.

The interior looked at though it was vacuum formed plastic painted to match the rest of the interior. It did not look too bad, though it did not really match the styling of the rest of the interior. Parts of it were covered in what looked almost like household type carpet. I guess it could have been added over the years by one of the owners, but it was installed very professionally throughout the truck. This leads me to believe it probably was installed by the conversion company. It reminded me a lot of the type of stuff you see in conversion vans.

I was really disappointed. I always thought that I wanted one of these trucks. I thought that, since they were converted here in Texas, I might one day find one for sale. If the workmanship was typical of these, I don't think I would want to touch one.

I do wonder, though, if I should snatch up the interior plastic and everything. Someone who had one of these trucks could probably really use the spare parts. If anyone knows of someone who needs this stuff, tell them to send me an email. I'll tell them where to find the truck.

Slonaker