68 GMC-copo?

[67sss]

went to look at a 68 gmc 2 wd longbox- tag says COPO. It's a bare truck, no motor or tranny. It use to have a 6 cyl. w/ a turbo 400. It has a 1 ton rearend and front disc brakes. It'll be a parts truck, are there any other special things that I should look for? No pics.

[Palf70Step]

COPO's were special order or fleet type buys. Some odd combos came out at times with them. Sounds like it already has had some monkeying around done to it. Even as a COPO, I never saw heard of front disks on the trucks that early.

[ChevLoRay]

Can you get a pix of the SPID and post it? It may help someone explain it better or even show some other unknown bit of data.

A specific color of paint may the the only thing that made it a COPO truck, in that a company had a special color of paint that they used that wasn't available from GM. I am going to guess that it is paint that made it a COPO.

[Longhorn Man]

the disks were probably swapped in, the "one ton rear" is probably the original, since you can't tell one from the other by peeking under the truck.
As said above, COPO could be as simple as an odd paint color.

[Bob B.]

I uesd to see a lot of 292/Turbo 400 trucks in the 70's and early 80's. Wasn't that rare then.

[PanelDeland]

Actually I think most COPO trucks were 6 cyl.It seems like all of them I have ever known to be COPO were.Most of the time the COPO options were to make the truck more useable and inexpensive for fleet use.Almost all I have seen were solid color,had no trim,no AC,standard steering and brakes.I'm sure there were exceptions but I just haven't seen any.
I think this is the original intention for the COPO.The dealers who COPO'ed Camaro's,Chevelles and Nova's just used the system to build spec musclecars.

[special-K]

I had a COPO`69 C/20 Stepside 250/Powerglide with a couple options.It had "special paint".It was light grey solid and the 16.5" rims (all 5) were painted red.The wheels were red all over with tires dismounted and there were factory chaulk markings there.The funny thing is the truck never had company lettering or logos.

[67_C-30]

Originally Posted by special-K

I had a COPO`69 C/20 Stepside 250/Powerglide with a couple options.It had "special paint".It was light grey solid and the 16.5" rims (all 5) were painted red.The wheels were red all over with tires dismounted and there were factory chaulk markings there.The funny thing is the truck never had company lettering or logos.

I had a stepside '72 C/20 that was similiar except it was a funky off white with a green interior. All of Alabama Power's trucks were painted this was up until the late 80's. I even had an '81 C/20 stepside that was the same way. The funny thing is both the '72 and '81 had 292's with a SM465 and 4.10 geared rearend with no spin/posi units. I guess that was a tried and true combo and they stuck with it. I still have the spot light off the '72.

[stllookn]

I want to see that SPID...67sss...bring it to the XXX on Sunday. You are coming right? Dennis "oldiron" was organizing a caravan down from Arlington.

[67sss]

gunna try to make it.

[special-K]

Ask a simple question and.....

I`m curious,too.

[turbojunker]

Originally Posted by 67_C-30

I had a stepside '72 C/20 that was similiar except it was a funky off white with a green interior. All of Alabama Power's trucks were painted this was up until the late 80's. I even had an '81 C/20 stepside that was the same way. The funny thing is both the '72 and '81 had 292's with a SM465 and 4.10 geared rearend with no spin/posi units. I guess that was a tried and true combo and they stuck with it. I still have the spot light off the '72.

I had a 69 C-10 stepside that was an Alabama Power truck. It was a 250/SM465/4.10 posi truck. No spotlight, but it had the hand throttle. It was green on green originally. Man, that green interior was hard to take.

[piecesparts]

A COPO can be just about anything that wasin the warehouse, when it was ordered. The COPO puts it at a Corporation Only Purchase Order, which lets the GM ordering agent list anythingg that he wanted.

I can still remember the day that you could go to the dealers and order your truck in the design like YOU wanted it. I remember my dad's 1963 1/2 ton (FORD) truck short stepside bed with 3/4 ton springs and a straight front axle, sprting a 292 v-8 motor. The GM dealers were doing the same thing in those days.

[corn]

COPO was usually something not normally ordered. Not necessarily limited to rare or high performance ...

[special-K]

Alot of municiple vehicles were COPO.All those airport vehicle,ambulances,brush trucks,etc.

[Boog]

It appears COPO has a couple of meanings. I've always heard it meant Central Office Production Order in so far as cars are concerned. I saw a COPO Chevelle on Barrett-J yesterday that only the paint was special. A color not normally offered on the Chevelles. Marking on the firewall read PNT---? Production line did not know what the code was.

[special-K]

I always heard COPO standing for the "central office" thing.Check this out.Remember these?

[Longhorn Man]

Originally Posted by Boog

It appears COPO has a couple of meanings. I've always heard it meant Central Office Production Order ...

that's whart COPO means, and that's the only thing it's ever stood for.

[pound41]

It could have been a High Performance thing as well Like the camaros and Novas. My Dad wanted to order a 72 Stepside All black, Black int, No rear bumper, 402/Turbo 400 411 posi No powersteering and he wanted the one that was not stock Coils or leafs cannot remember. No one would order the truck. Finally one guy said lets get it as a copo. It took a while but it finally arrived what a truck.

[Longhorn Man]

I don't see why he couldn't get anyone to order that stepside... there's nothing there that isn't a normal RPO or non standard RPO combination there.

[special-K]

Salesmen can be funny about sitting down and ordering you a truck,that`s all.I thought COPO stood for Camaro Or Pickup Order.

[468BIGBLOCK]

COPO stand for CENRAL OFFICE OF PRODUCTION ORDERS. THIS IS WHERE YENKO CHEVROLET AND OTHER DEALERS SUCH AS BERGER,GIBB,BALDWIN MOTION AND OTHER DEALERS ORDERED THE SPECIAL BIG BLOCK AND OTHER SPECIAL PERFORMANCE CARS. THIS IS WHY YOU SEE COPO IN THE MUSCLE CAR WORLD . THIS IS ALSO WHERE HEAVY DUTY STUFF LIKE TAXI CABS,FLEET VEHICLES,POLICE CARS, AND ODD BALL OPTIONED TRUCKS CAME FROM.

[special-K]

That would be COOPO.