Retro-Themed New Chevy Silverados

[kscarbel2]

Davey Johnson, Car & Driver  /  July 27, 2018

When Blake Greenfield took a green, 70,000-mile, 2014 Silverado in trade at his small Chevrolet dealership in Wells, Minnesota, his salesmen razzed him that the truck would be tough to move. The color wasn’t particularly desirable in the area surrounding the town of fewer than 2500 residents, and Greenfield figured they were right. Then he thought of two things: his own surname, and a 1973 Chevy truck that his father had owned when Blake was a kid growing up in Iowa.

The first part was simple. “In all of our advertising,” explains Greenfield, “we try to use the color green.” The second part, inspired by his dad’s old red-and-white pickup, took a little more know-how and imagination. His cousin Ray owns a vinyl shop and wound up spending hours looking at trucks, taking measurements from photos of old two-tone “Squarebody” C/K Chevy pickups of the ’70s and ’80s, and figuring out how the classic scheme might apply to a modern Silverado.

To go along with Ray’s design handiwork, Greenfield and his crew added a lift kit, sourced some wagon-style wheels that’d evoke the period in question, tacked on Cheyenne Super 10 and Big 10 labels like those worn by the Big 10 special-edition Chevy pickup of the late 1970s, and added chrome door handles and mirror caps. But they still weren’t entirely sure what the finished product was going to look like until the truck rolled out of Ray’s workshop back in December of last year with the vinyl applied to the truck’s flanks. Everyone at Blake Greenfield Chevrolet Buick loved the truck, and Greenfield figured it’d make him stand out around town and perhaps attract some business into his store.

It turned out to be a little more than that. When photos taken by a local found their way onto the internet, Greenfield’s phone began ringing. The friendly Midwesterner still seems taken aback by the reaction. “It seemed like it went viral almost overnight. We had calls from all over the U.S.” Since then, trucks—done both with vinyl applique and actual two-tone paint jobs—have gone out to far-flung locations such as Texas (naturally), New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Arkansas. Two Silverados currently undergoing the conversion are both destined to stay home in Minnesota, though. Greenfield is pretty sure they’re the twelfth and thirteenth examples to be built since the calls began.

And just in case you’d care to purchase the very pickup that started the minor furor, Greenfield notes that his 2014 is up for sale, although he admits he isn’t sure he should part with it. If you’d like to commission your own, both his Wells location and his other dealership, Spring Valley Chevrolet Buick, not far from Rochester, Minnesota, are both happy to take your order. We’ll have ours in Colt Seavers–spec brown and gold, thank you very much.

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[kscarbel2]

If this was a factory option beginning tomorrow, Chevy truck sales would rise 15-20 percent, AND the jolt would be so much that Ford would have to make a sales marketing response.

[1965]

I like them

[Maxidyne]

Amazing how the style of the "Big 10" which was created to get around emission rules is still popular decades later... Perhaps Volvo needs to create a "Glider" trim package?

[Dirtymilkman]

I think GM was wrong doing away with the two tone and tri tone paint schemes. 

[TS7]

I saw one at large Detroit area GM dealer today. Ford will be ok. 

[Maddog13407]

i liked these when i first saw them about 4 months ago. really like the orange one they did but the real problem is I'm pretty sure all Super 10's were 2wd and 4wd's wouldn't be a Cheyenne. having just sold a pristine 77 Cheyenne Super 10 and a diehard chevy guy I'm kinda let down. and those wagon wheels they sound like they searched and searched for, are nothing more than stock work truck chevy wheels they make today painted white

[kscarbel2]

Looking at them from a distance, not in person, I like what I see. If this was a factory effort, there would be no lack of refinement. At the rate in which dealers in the US and Canada are ordering these, one can expect GM to soon grab the reins.

[TS7]

You and I might like what we see, as a Retro look, but I think truck buyers under 55 might not. I see a lot of all black pickups out there. I would like to see a Mack GU813 with a RD800 style hood, that would be cool. It would have to have spoke wheels to look right.

[mackey58]

Black then silver then white man boring  colors

[Hobert62]

Local chevy dealer has these 2 used retro looking trucks on their lot.   

[kscarbel2]

9 hours ago, Hobert62 said:

Local chevy dealer has these 2 used retro looking trucks on their lot.  

They're done a bit differently, simplified a bit, but still look great.

[carlotpilot]

dump the 4 wd and gm could possibly convince me to try one of these