Last 1987 square body GM truck

[Hiluxxulih]

This has to have been asked before (I checked the search function ) where is the last square body 1987 gm truck ? Maybe gm has it in a museum somewhere .

[andrewmp6]

Last ever made was the crew cab tell 91.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Hiluxxulih

This has to have been asked before (I checked the search function ) where is the last square body 1987 gm truck ? Maybe gm has it in a museum somewhere .

Nope. It's not in the Heritage Center.

The question that was asked earler was specific to the last pickup produced at the St Louis assembly plant (both Chevrolet and GMC nameplates).

K

[73Super8]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Nope. It's not in the Heritage Center.

The question that was asked earler was specific to the last pickup produced at the St Louis assembly plant (both Chevrolet and GMC nameplates).

K

Are there any trucks at the Heritage Center?

[Hiluxxulih]

Seems strange that GM did not save the last square body , they made them for 14 years that a big accomplishment and probably a few million trucks .

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by 73Super8

Are there any trucks at the Heritage Center?

Yes - there's an orange roundeye stepside, and an '89 or so Suburban. There's also older trucks like a '55 or so, and a '65 or so, as well as a GMC motorhome.

Those are the ones that come to mind.

K

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Hiluxxulih

Seems strange that GM did not save the last square body , they made them for 14 years that a big accomplishment and probably a few million trucks .

I don't think anyone really cared, at the time.

We were pretty focused on getting the GMT400 launched.

K

[nekkidhillbilly]

seems like they would keep a 73 over a 87 just saying.

[73Super8]

Thank Keith.

[esbstuff]

This is the last 87 GMC and the second to last truck produced in St Louis on 8/7/87. However a Chevolet truck was the last truck off of the line. The Chevy has disappeared, but was still around at least in 1990(?)... Based on what I have been told, I am fairly sure the new owner in 1990 knew what he/she had and was buying, so I would hope the Chevy is still around. I have been looking for the Chevy for quite some time, but have come up empty handed. The orginal owner died in 1989(?) and the wife sold the truck to an unknown person a year later... She has since passed away and the kids have no idea what happed to the truck. Its my understanding that all of the orginal paperwork went with the truck when it was sold.

Based on what I have read, all the other GM truck production plants had already switched to the 88 model year by this date. (Maybe someone could confirm this?)

The last Chevy should also have a plaque like the one I have for the GMC.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...ght=gmc+pickup

[57NAPCO]

Thanks Keith, those are wonderful examples.

[Hiluxxulih]

That's pretty neat thanks for the picture .

[Bigstevex4]

I have a 90 Jimmy square body. Bought an 88 K 1500 in July of 87 they were really wanting to get the new ones out. I had only one around for weeks on north end Denver.

[Cabnchassis]

The square body stayed on in R model vehicles from 88-91. My crew cab is a 91. 3/4 ton burbs (I think only the 3/4 ton in burbs but I don't actually know if they were still making halfies) and all cab and chassis trucks that i've seen in those years stayed square until 91.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Cabnchassis

The square body stayed on in R model vehicles from 88-91. My crew cab is a 91. 3/4 ton burbs (I think only the 3/4 ton in burbs but I don't actually know if they were still making halfies) and all cab and chassis trucks that i've seen in those years stayed square until 91.

Funny story: I saw the GMT400 models before they came out and didn't like them, so I hurried and bought an '87 R truck.

Fortunately that '81-'87 front end had grown on me over the years. I saw the '81 front end before it came out, didn't like it, and hurried and bought an '80.

My dad once teased me: he said "...you would have seen the '55 Chevy, not liked it and bought a '54!".

K

[Cabnchassis]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Funny story: I saw the GMT400 models before they came out and didn't like them, so I hurried and bought an '87 R truck.

Fortunately that '81-'87 front end had grown on me over the years. I saw the '81 front end before it came out, didn't like it, and hurried and bought an '80.

My dad once teased me: he said "...you would have seen the '55 Chevy, not liked it and bought a '54!".

K

That's great lol, nobody can make you feel silly like your old man, and it's funny how these things will grow on you.

I was raised in a ford family and never liked either the rounded line or the GMT400 trucks looks. And a lot of guys I grew up with ran high HP 350s in stock gm half tons cause we were all kids and that gave me impression that GMs lacked durability. After my last ford I bought a nissan and immediately realized it was too little truck for me. I really wanted a diesel but couldn't afford a good cummins and couldn't find a clean powerstroke in the body configuration I wanted and then viola. Drove by the crew cab I have now and fell in love with it all at once. It was literally twice the truck I needed and that just struck a good chord with me. Practically stole it cause they didn't even know how to start it, the brakes were locking and it has real rough interior. That crew cab has taught me and continues to teach me how wrong i was about GM durability in their bigger trucks.

A year before that I bought a GMT400 for my dad on fathers day but he only used it like once a month for years, one day a few years ago I thought I'd warm up the oil and take it to the trails, started following a lightly lifted half ton round line chevy and within a mile realized I had a lot more truck than he did. We were hosing them down together and he started looking mine over and teaching me about it. He's the one that learned me just how many different running gear/drive train configurations GM had. I went home and tried to buy it back from my old man but he just gave it to me.

Nowadays I can't see ever getting rid of either one. I still don't have any use for the stock half ton truck gear but I cant drive by a heavy duty GM for sale without at least taking a peak.

[Dooley]

I seemed to have missed this thread.

My new purchased 1988 V30 square body 2 door regular cab dually pickup was built in May 1988 at the Janesville plant.
At the time the dealers had a "buy a new truck, get a cap for free" deal going.

Owned it 25 years, now it resides in Texas.

[nvrenuf]

Fwiw, my K5 was built in Aug '91 which should be pretty dang close to the end of production.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by nvrenuf

Fwiw, my K5 was built in Aug '91 which should be pretty dang close to the end of production.

I would agree.

By then I had already left Flint Assembly (where your truck was built) and had moved on to the Desert Proving Ground.

K

[85raiderburban]

Originally Posted by Cabnchassis

The square body stayed on in R model vehicles from 88-91. My crew cab is a 91. 3/4 ton burbs (I think only the 3/4 ton in burbs but I don't actually know if they were still making halfies) and all cab and chassis trucks that i've seen in those years stayed square until 91.

light duty pickups in '88 started as GMT400 body style. ALL Suburbans and K5 blazers remained square until end of '91. The 1 tons (dually) you could get in BOTH squarebody and GMT400 from 88-91.

[GM72K10]

Originally Posted by 85raiderburban

light duty pickups in '88 started as GMT400 body style. ALL Suburbans and K5 blazers remained square until end of '91. The 1 tons (dually) you could get in BOTH squarebody and GMT400 from 88-91.

Single Cab 1 Ton dually Square Body 4x4 (Only) PICKUP last year was 1988. You could get a single cab square body CAB & CHASSIS (2wd or 4wd) until 1989. 1989-1991 Square body were crew cab, suburban, blazer ONLY.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by 85raiderburban

light duty pickups in '88 started as GMT400 body style. ALL Suburbans and K5 blazers remained square until end of '91. The 1 tons (dually) you could get in BOTH squarebody and GMT400 from 88-91.

The day I left the assembly plant and joined engineering was the day the teams were split into the GMT400 design group and the carryover C/K/R/V group. I was assigned to the carryover group.

There were all kinds of rumors, and whispers and espionage as the teams were being divided up. I had no idea what was going on. My only thought was "...PLEASE do not send me back to the assembly plant!!"

K

[Keith Seymore]

By the way: the whole C/K GMT400 vs R/V thing?

...

...that was to eliminate confusion.



You'll notice we never did product changeovers that way again. After that we always kept the C/K model designation and just changed the model code (ie, 10906 vs 15906).

K

[Jstock85]

enjoyed that! good truck history lesson

[LDO]

Dang Keith, you are the serious inside man for sure. I wish I had been able to visit the plan when they were making our trucks. I don't think cool stuff is made anymore. It all looks like everything else, prolly why I like older stuff better...