67-72 Development/Concept Photos Galore!

[hewittca]

Introduction

Hi everyone, I believe I may have something of interest to all of you and thought I would share. I like to know what goes on behind the scenes, so I've been curious about the development of our trucks. For the most part I came up empty handed on the forum and through online searches for any substantiated information, so I focused on seeing what was available from GM directly. Little to my knowledge up until contacting GM, they actually have a full GM Heritage Center and much to my delight, they will share any releasable information/photos with you if you just ask. So, I asked for any photos/information they had on the development of the 67-72 Chevy trucks, and boy did they deliver! Originally, I only had this first set of 77 photos, but as I dug deeper, we were able to find more and more photos. As I continue to collect photo sets, I will add them to the thread as a new post and include a link to them here in the original post, that way we can organize and separate these information heavy posts and have space in between to discuss each set of new photos. I hope you enjoy these!

Disclaimer

Of course, I must state that these are property of GM and I have been given permission to share these with you in a public forum format. PLEASE don't do anything with these photos that would result in requested removal by GM. This essentially means that these photos are for "reference" only and may not be used in any profitable way.

Contents

Part 1: Original 67-72 Development/Concept Photos
Part 2: Early Development
Part 3: Promotional Photography
Part 4: GMC Development/Concept Photos
Part 5: Suburbans and Panels
Part 6: Blazers
Aside 1: Studebaker Concept Rumor
Aside 2: Harry Bentley Bradley Interview
Aside 3: Production Line Photos
Aside 4: Chevrolet Tempo

Part 1, Original 67-72 Development/Concept Photos

-March 1964
From these photos of the first full sized clay model, you can see that by early '64 they had already arrived at the general shape of the soon to be '67 C10. The main things I noticed here are the unrefined grill and different hood which is very similar to the hood on the Brazilian C10.






-May 1964
By May, it appears that they built another clay model with new nose and tailgate. Notice the lower body line which steps into the body instead of out like the production model, and the more stylized tailgate designs.





-September 1964
Here's a fun one. This is another proposed nose design, and quite possibly the most unique design considered for the soon to be '67. At first glance this looks like a far fetched proposal, but if you look closer, the grill openings and shape of the hood are almost identical to the production version. The tailgate is also very similar to the production version.





-November 1964
By late '64 the design was very close to the production version as seen here. Note the slightly more intricate tailgate design with integrated licence plate mount and... the F100 for reference!




-April 1965
This truck appears to be production ready except for a few slight differences. I noticed the sharper peak on the center hood ridge and the filler cap shifted further up on the cab.



-March/April 1967
Now we are into the production run of the '67-'72 C10s and subsequent photos depict yearly updates to the current generation truck. These photos illustrate several proposed grill updates for the upcoming '68 model.






-June 1967
This next set appears to be proposed design updates for the upcoming '69 model. The most notable changes of course are the hood and grill. I found it interesting that by mid '67 they already planned on changing the hood. Note too that the grill appears to just be a printed overlay at first. I liked the first tailgate proposal on this update.











-November/ December 1967
At this point it appears the grill, nose, and tailgate updates were finalized, and they were experimenting with different trim options. Note the trim around the rear window, bed cover, and different side marker lights.








-March 1968
What appears to be the production ready '69 update.




-November/ December 1968
Looks like they were experimenting with different paint scheme options for the 69/70. Note the proposed body colored bumpers.





-January 1969
More paint scheme designs in early '69. Note the white tailgate and updated dash which did not make it to production. This dash is very similar to what the next generation '73 model would receive.






-January 1969 (next generation)
If you've started to get bored by now, here's some surprising information. In early '69, GM was testing clay models of was was supposed to be the next generation C10 released in 1972. As we know, this would be delayed for some reason since the current generation would continue through to '72, and this next generation would be released as a '73. From these images, you can see the early "squarebody" design is quite a bit different than the production version.



-March/April/May 1969
Even more paint scheme proposals, most likely for the '70 model








-March-May 1969 (next generation)
In parallel with the current generation updates, GM was continuing to develop the next generation truck (slated to be a '72).












-June 1969
Grill proposals for the '71 model update. Note that they originally planned on updating the '69/'70 grill versus moving to the eggcrate grill.




-June 1969 (next generation)
Experimenting with more design proposals, but still quite a bit different than the production version for '73. Note that the plates on these read "72 Chevrolet Pickup".









-August 1969 (next generation)
In this final set of photos, you can see that even in mid '69 they were still planning on releasing the next generation in '72 and there were no other pictures of the development of the '71-'72 model that did make it to production. The current generation truck shown here is a '71 grill update proposal for what was supposed to be the last year of production for this bodystyle. The next generation truck is very similar to the production version '73 except for the prominent lower body lines seen on this proposal.






That's it! I hope you all enjoyed this peak into the development of our beloved 67-72s. My main takeaway from these photos is that I am very pleased with the overall production design compared to some of the variants pictured above. I am still gathering information on these and as I acquire it I will add to this thread. The biggest thing I hope to figure out is why they pushed back the next generation truck from '72 to '73. In retrospect, however, I am glad they did because we got an extra year out of what I consider the best C10 design!

[boraxman]

Very cool stuff...Enjoyed looking through those/

[Bishops Trucks]

Very interesting pics. I've been thinking of a concept for quite some time now. If I had the skills and funds to do it, I would love to take a 67 to 72 and shrink the whole thing down to an S10 sized truck. After a lot of cutting, shaping and welding, that would be a very cool little ride.

[creekncabin]

That is an Awesome find...

[firedemon]

man look how nice and tight that rear bumper looks like its part of the truck not like we ended up with and I'm glad they didn't use that grill

[RodnRudy]

Man, I'm sure glad those designers came to their senses! Some of those concepts are butt ugly!
That 73 concept looks like what Dodge ended up with. LOL

[WarMonger]

those are really cool looking.

[dazza]

Originally Posted by RodnRudy

Man, I'm sure glad those designers came to their senses! Some of those concepts are butt ugly!
That 73 concept looks like what Dodge ended up with. LOL

Dodge, exactly what I was thinking!

[dazza]

Many thanks for posting those, cool stuff.

I really like the white stripes on this one:

---

[elf w/capital T]

holy heck that was awesome!!

[leftybass209]

Love it, thanks!

[Leonard60]

Very interesting.

[72 tigger]

Thanks for sharing these! Sure glad they didn't use some of those designs! I thought the 73 looked a lot like a dodge too- maybe some of the designers at GM were fired & went to dodge?

[jayoldschool]

Very cool!

60-66? Please?

[hewittca]

Originally Posted by firedemon

man look how nice and tight that rear bumper looks like its part of the truck not like we ended up with and I'm glad they didn't use that grill

I agree. That is probably the only part where I think the concept is better than production. The concept bumper makes the production one looked like a tacked on afterthought.

Originally Posted by jayoldschool

Very cool!

60-66? Please?

Haha, I'm working on it. It took a little while to get these. Once I get the 60-66 pics I will post those up as well.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Originally Posted by dazza

Dodge, exactly what I was thinking!

Exactly my FIRST thought!!! I was about to throw up some comparison pics, but I guess I don't need to!

[chewychevy67]

I enjoyed reading this

[hamjet]

very cool! I wonder why the duel steering wheels in the march 67 photos..

[jeh]

Very interesting info, I'm with everyone else about the "Dodge" thing on the later concept.

[68Gold/white]

Wow, lotsa styling craziness. I saw dodge, ford and international styling similarities in all that...crazy...
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[Coley]

That is really interesting.
I thought that updated dash was really great....quite a bit fancier than the 67-72' dashes as they stand now.
Very cool stuff...great find.
C.

[71swb4x4]

Very cool! Thanks for going to all the work!

I so badly want to quote the original post...

[hewittca]

I agree with everyone as well, that concept definitely looks like a Dodge. Maybe since that Dodge was to be released as a '72 model as well, GM abandoned that design and ended up pushing back the release to '73.

Originally Posted by 71swb4x4

Very cool! Thanks for going to all the work!

I so badly want to quote the original post...

Ha, yes it's an intense post. Took me 3 hours Just to compose it.

[Tomahawk30]

Very cool! Thanks for doing the legwork to share!

[57taskforce]

Man that's a cool read thanks for sharing! 55-59 would be cool too me as well!
Looks like the May 64 front end became similar to the medium duty front end.
The black and orange scheme from March/April/may '69 looks really great to me. I really like it.