Introduction
Hi everyone. I typically spend most of my time over on the 67-72 board, but recently I came across some photos and information that I think you would enjoy over here on the 73-87 board. I spent a good amount of time searching for and documenting development and concept photos for the first and second generation C10's, and in my search I also came across some photos for the 73-87 trucks. These photos depict the development of what was supposed to be the new-for-1972 third generation C10, however, production got pushed back to '73 as we now know. Speculation over on the 67-72 board was that the truck looked too similar to the newly released '72 Dodge D100, so Chevrolet went back to the drawing board to redesign the truck we ended up with in '73. I hope you enjoy this look into the development of these trucks.
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.
-January 1969
In early '69, GM was testing clay models of what was supposed to be the next generation C10 released in 1972. From these images, you can see the early "squarebody" design is quite a bit different than the production version.
-March-May 1969
Here you can see that GM was experimenting with several different side profile designs. The first nose design is very simple, but the design shown in the last photo here is much more similar to what ended up in production
-June 1969
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
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. The 67-72 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.
I am still gathering information and photos on this generation and as I acquire it I will add to this thread. I hope you all enjoyed these photos and if you are interested in seeing the photos for the first two generations, check my signature for the links. That's it for now!