67-72 Development/Concept Photos Galore!

[cleszkie]

I love the smell of modeling clay in the morning........

[hewittca]

Part 3, Promotional Photography

The second set of new photos I would like to share are raw promotional photos that the GM Heritage Center was able to find. You will notice that many of these photos look somewhat familiar already, as they were used as the basis of many promotional advertisements and brochures. The neat thing, however, is that these are the unedited original photos before they were modified and accentuated for advertisement purposes. I will simply separate them by model year here and point out any interesting things I saw. Enjoy!

-1967
The first model year for the second generation C series of Chevrolet trucks. These first two are actually my favorite and exemplify how classy and robust the new design was. The third picture is interesting as well. You will note it is a fully assembled truck in bare metal. I'm sure this was for an ad but I'm not familiar with which one.














-1968
Note the original lower location of the new for '68 marker lights in the first photo. Also note in the second picture the additional trim on the '68 anniversary edition 4x4 that didn't make it to production.











-1969
Note the narrower marker light design that did not make it to production.









-1970









-1971





-1972
This first photo is possibly the most interesting of the bunch. I stared at it for a while thinking something looked different on this truck, but couldn't pinpoint it. Then it hit me, no marker lights! Then I looked a little closer and also realized the body line goes straight back to the end of the bed compared to the typical drop off on the production truck. Further, if you look closely, there is a vertical seam several inches from the end of the bedside. Were they shortening bedsides before it was the cool thing to do?! I don't know if it's just the fact that I've been sorting through all these longbed photos, but this one does appear slightly shorter than a standard shortbed to me. I have no clue what this truck was for but it is clearly a '72 based on the grill.

[72 tigger]

Very cool. I agree- that 72 shorty does look short. Would like to know the story on it- wonder if it ended up in the crusher? Thanks again for sharing!

[factorystock]

Thanks agian for posting the second installment of photos. Truly a time capsule experience, taking us back to what happened and what could have been. Luckily, we got the better designs. IMO, the earliest clay designs resemble a station wagon with an open box.

[68bowtie]

so cool. thanks for sharing. i love the action shots like the farm scene and the surveyor. i thought i recognized that 68 shortbed pic from somewhere...

[68bowtie]

also, those are some SKINNY tires on those 67/68's! what are those 185-series?!?

[joeydurango]

Cool stuff. Thanks for posting up more things to look at. Really like the "action glamour" shots - 4x4 on the Cali coast, surveyor, forklift and combine...

And I concur with Factorystock - if they'd ended up with the station wagon design, I'll hazard a guess that very few of us would currently have 67-72 Chevy trucks as a hobby.

[hewittca]

Originally Posted by joeydurango

Cool stuff. Thanks for posting up more things to look at. Really like the "action glamour" shots - 4x4 on the Cali coast, surveyor, forklift and combine...

And I concur with Factorystock - if they'd ended up with the station wagon design, I'll hazard a guess that very few of us would currently have 67-72 Chevy trucks as a hobby.

I agree with both of you. Maybe since they were reintroducing the El Camino, they felt this concept was too close in scale and car-like styling to release it as a serious next generation truck.

[hewittca]

For those of you that are interested and don't visit the 60-66 board much, the 60-66 development/concept photos have now been posted here.

[Trackbar]

Very good reading on the history of these trucks.

Correct me if I am wrong. Over the years I have heard from different sources that GM bought the plans for these trucks from Studebaker before the went under. Has anyone else been told this?

[hewittca]

Aside 1, Studebaker Concept Rumor

Originally Posted by Trackbar

Very good reading on the history of these trucks.

Correct me if I am wrong. Over the years I have heard from different sources that GM bought the plans for these trucks from Studebaker before the went under. Has anyone else been told this?

Interesting. I have never heard of this before now. I did some digging on this and from what I found I think it was speculation based on a Studebaker concept photo that surfaced. User Ryan68 posted a thread about this on the original boards that claimed this concept photo was of a Studebaker design that was purchased by GM. The photo and original thread are gone, however, there is this thread from 2002 that discusses the original thread, and the consensus is that the concept purchase was purely speculation based on subtle similarities between the Studebaker concept and production '67 C10. It is also mentioned that the whole rumor was started as a joke by Ryan68, but I could not substantiate this claim. In that thread, there is a nice post by user billogna that adds a bit of relevant information to this thread, along with an interesting concept drawing from '65. I will quote his post here:

"The original '67 was designed by Harry Bentley Bradley. There was an interesting interview with him in the Jan '01 issue of Sport Truck mag, in which he talks about how he pushed for the small back window, and how GM thought the overall design was too car-like so they changed the hood in '69 to make it more truck-like, but he was working with the Cadillac team by then, and had no say in the new design. Anyway, this is the most convincing pic, to me, that suppports the non-Studebaker theory. It is obviosly a '67 Chevy design. I like the Chevelle body line on the forward front fender. It is signed by Bradley and dated 8/65. He had been with GM since '62."


If someone has a copy of the Harry Bentley Bradley interview that billogna mentioned, that would be an awesome addition to this thread.

[hewittca]

Aside 2, Harry Bentley Bradley Interview

Well look at that, I found the article! It was posted on the boards by the original author Jim Aust (board member CircusWagonJim) here. There's some interesting information in the article and enlightening discussion of it in the original post. For the sake of completeness, I will withhold my own summary and include the full article here.











Credit goes to CircusWagonJim for these original scans of the article from the May 2003 issue of Classic Trucks. Admittedly, they were somewhat hard to read, so I edited the scans so that they are much easier to read. I have to thank Jim for his retroactive contribution to this thread!

[Sixteen Tons]

Very cool sir ! Thanks !!!

[hewittca]

I have just found another large set of photos that I plan on adding to this thread and I realize that this thread is quickly becoming information overload and will become an organizational disaster with the linear post format. That being the case, I have gone back and edited the original post to include a Contents section that logically organizes all the photo sets and links you to each section for quick reference. It also assures that each new photo set does not get lost within the discussion (which I fully encourage and enjoy!). At one point, I may try to conglomerate everything I've collected (over all generations) and create a chronological pictorial history of the development of GM trucks. For now, however, I will continue to add new photos in installments for your viewing pleasure!

[hewittca]

Part 4, GMC Development/Concept Photos

In this photo set, I have something you will enjoy if you are a fan of the GMCs. In the original design photos from Part 1, you may have noticed that there was a two year gap in development photos for the Chevrolet starting after the formal presentation of the preliminary production ready '67 design in the auditorium in November 1964 (shown here again for reference).



There were several reasons for the lack of design progression on the Chevrolet pickup during '65 and '66. For one, they had already finalized the preproduction ready design for which tooling was to begin. During the tooling phase, however, the design studio was not taking it easy. They were in the process of designing the three main variants of the base pickups: GMCs, suburbans, and blazers. I will add photo sets for each of these, starting with the GMCs. Since the GMC is structurally based on the Chevrolet, the GMC design is focused exclusively on trim, grill, and paint design as you would expect.

-January 1965
We pick right back up in the auditorium with the first GMC specific design photos after the initial presentation of the Chevrolet design two months prior. You will note that these grill proposals are done on a suburban clay model, most likely to utilize one clay model for two design purposes (overall suburban shape and GMC front end treatments). The most obvious thing to note is that this initial grill design for the GMC is almost identical to the production grill to be used in '67.




-February 1965
The GMC grill is back in the studio for refinements, most likely after positive reception during the presentation one month earlier.




-April 1965
The grill is essentially in its production ready design at this point and out on the patio for display. They are also experimenting with several tailgate designs. In the last photo, note the fender exit exhaust and customized truck drawing on the wall!






-June 1965
Here is a unique cab top trim and paint option proposal for the GMC. Also notice that they were experimenting with integrated bumpers after the traditional bumper design shown two months earlier.






-September 1965
At this point, they had recycled the Chevrolet clay model to experiment with trim options for the GMC. Note the Roadster tops shown on the wall behind the truck are for the independent platform Blazer that was being developed at the same time.




-March 1967
We jump ahead over one year to early '67. During this time, tooling for the Chevrolet pickup variants has been completed and production has started on all models. The designers are now experimenting with updates for the '68 model year. Note the production '67 Chevrolet that has been modified to propose new paint, trim, and possible grill design. This modified Chevrolet was included in the GMC archive.







-June 1967
These pictures are of the production ready updates for the '68 GMC. Note there are still no marker lights on this design.




-July 1967
These photos show the proposed grill updates to accompany the new hood design for '69. Note the unique hood update proposed for GMC in the second photo and the tailgate update, both of which did not make it to production.







-August 1967
It appears that the first grill proposal and second hood design from the previous month were preferred, and here they are starting to model it.







-October 1967
Here they are experimenting with tailgate updates again. Also, notice that at the beginning of the month they were still working with the new grill update, however, by midmonth they also introduced a modified version of the 67/68 grill to fit the new hood design for '69. By the last photo, you can see that they have abandoned the new grill update and have gone with the modified 67/68 grill in this production ready design.











-July 1969
You will notice a two year gap between the last photos and this final photo showing the production ready update to the '71 GMC. For GMC, 69/70 shared the same grill, hence the lack of grill proposals during this time.



The '72 shared this modest grill update with the '71, so there was no further development on the design of the 67-72 GMCs. If you read Part 1, you know that by early '69 GM was already claying the next generation C10 slated to be a '72 model, so yearly updates to the current generation began to wind down, especially for the GMC. What I found most interesting from these GMC development photos was that they abandoned nearly all significant year to year updates despite putting quite a bit of effort into development, specifically for the proposed grill update for '69. I don't know what the reasoning was for this, but I speculate that they were just running out of time and money based off of the comments made by Harry Bradley in his interview.

I hope you enjoyed this installment of the development of the 67-72 GM trucks!

[joeydurango]

Super interesting stuff! So... when's the coffee table book coming out?

[57taskforce]

Love it!!! Keep them coming!!!

[hewittca]

Originally Posted by joeydurango

Super interesting stuff! So... when's the coffee table book coming out?

Wouldn't that be nice to look through! Trust me, I have already tossed around that idea as the volume of photographs continues to grow and everything gets somewhat separated and disorganized on the board. There are several hurdles to accomplishing this though, so it may not happen. We'll see...

[hewittca]

I have decided to move any photo sets that have dedicated boards to the appropriate board.

Part 5, Suburbans and Panels

This photo set can be found on the 67-72 Suburbans & Panels Board.

[hewittca]

I also decided to move the production line photos to their own post in the off chance that I do find more. With these rearrangements I have made sure not to disrupt the linear progression of the discussions contained within the threads.

Aside 3, Production Line Photos

I originally wanted to include a detailed post on assembly line photos, but sadly there are only two photos that the GM Heritage Center was able to find for me. I assume this is because cameras were technically not allowed in the production areas, so very few authorized photos from GM are available. For now, I will just share what I do have.

-1969 Assembly Line
A fresh line of '69 C10s rolls off the line.



-1971 Assembly Line
I'm not sure what is meant by "The Last Truck" because this is a '71 model. Maybe it was the last truck to be built at Tarrytown.

[68panelman]

The "last truck", wonder who got that one, or was it just for that particular plant?

[cleszkie]

I'm not sure how the full-size conceptual models are made these days. I'm guessing its through the use of CAD and huge CNC-type machines to carve out the shapes. However, back in the day, these guys were frickin' artists! Shaping the models out of massive blocks of clay by hand. True craftsmanship.

[hewittca]

Part 6, Blazers

The photo set for Blazer development can be found here on the 67-72 Blazer/Jimmy board.

[Sicklajoie]

Originally Posted by hewittca

I also decided to move the production line photos to their own post in the off chance that I do find more. With these rearrangements I have made sure not to disrupt the linear progression of the discussions contained within the threads.

Aside 3, Production Line Photos

I originally wanted to include a detailed post on assembly line photos, but sadly there are only two photos that the GM Heritage Center was able to find for me. I assume this is because cameras were technically not allowed in the production areas, so very few authorized photos from GM are available. For now, I will just share what I do have.

-1969 Assembly Line
A fresh line of '69 C10s rolls off the line.

Funny how 69 trucks are rolling down the line with 68 Caprices alongside.

[geunther]

Pretty good attention to detail. The "2" at the beginning of the license plate designates the City of Cheyenne (County Seat). And its a Cheyenne Super model.