1957 GMC 100 Pick-up
Classic Fifties pick-ups don't get any more handsome than GMC's line. Zack Stiling discovers a fantastic example living (and working) in the north-west of England and whose owner is pleased as punch with the classic hauler...
Prior to 2010, Adrian Backhouse had only a passing interest in classic American cars and trucks, his first love being for motorbikes. “I'd had American bikes for 30-odd years, so I had that interest in Americana.” However, for all that we in Britain can buy into the American Dream with the right vehicles, music and clothes, we can't invest in the West Coast sunshine. And since bikers tend to suffer the most from the worst of the weather, he started to think seriously of buying a pick-up.
“I'd been looking at internet auction sites for some time, weighing up what I'd like if the opportunity arose. In my mind, I narrowed things down to a Chevy from the late Forties to mid-Sixties or a Ford from the Forties to the mid-Fifties. This 1957 GMC 100 came up and the opening bid was the top of my budget. It expired on Friday morning and there were no bids against it. When I checked in the morning, it had been pulled so I sent a message to the seller and agreed to have a look at it.
“The truck was in a body shop where it had been blasted and painted. I was shown pictures of it stripped and it all looked good to my untrained eye. I returned the following week to pay for it and drive it home. The 130-mile journey to Barrow-in-Furness was a bit of a baptism of fire. It had been sold ‘as seen' and was in need of finishing. The door rubbers had been trashed in removing for paint, so the doors rattled on their catches and there were no carpets – to say it was noisy was an understatement!”
That was in 2011. Now, Adrian couldn't be happier with his purchase: “The golden rules are, ‘Don't buy the first one you see' and ‘Don't go on your own'. I did both and nine years down the line I couldn't have got a better one. It's not a show truck, but that's not what I wanted.”
Once the finishing touches were completed on the truck, Adrian didn't hesitate to take it on long trips to the Trip Out in Bedfordshire and Suffolk, which was around 600 miles there and back, and the Hot Rod Races at Pendine; and it would have been bound for this year's Flatlands Motorama in the Netherlands had it not been cancelled. “It's happy at 60mph with more to come if necessary. It's quite satisfying to drive what is a crude vehicle for long distances.”
Adrian has only run into trouble once, when the truck's cheap fuel pump packed up in the middle of Scotch Corner on the way to Whitby Kustom, “which was scary to say the least”. Whenever parts have been required, he has been able to source them from Real Steel and American Auto Parts without any trouble. The truck is completely stock down to the V8, which Adrian believes is probably the original engine. The interior is suitably spartan, with little to play with besides the heater and two-speed electric wipers. Although the seats have been re-covered, all the gauges and switches are original.
The pick-up bed is in good order, but the original timbers are long gone, replaced by composite sheets, which makes it sufficiently rugged for its original purpose of load-carrying. Adrian recalls: “I've used it for hauling firewood. It's had three-quarters of a ton of soil in the back, paving slabs, a shed… I've been 100 miles down the M6 to collect an Ikea bedroom suite. It feels better with a bit of weight in the back, to be honest.” Cosmetically, everything is standard, too, save for the pinstriping by Nefarious, which was done to match the stripes on Adrian and his wife Denise's bikes, employing the same colours and patterns.
“It has had a couple of areas of the bodywork addressed over the years and is ready for a bit more attention to various areas, nothing too serious, just a bit of bubbling here and there in the usual places. It's not bad considering it lives outside under a cover.”
Unfortunately, Adrian doesn't know any of the GMC's early history beyond the fact that it had been imported to Britain by 2000, as the old MoT certificates show. “I think it had been in a peculiar situation, as it was being sold by the paint shop.”
GMC vs Chevy
When Adrian bought the truck, he confesses he didn't know the differences between GMCs and Chevys, but one can hardly blame him, as few people besides other owners would, the two brands being outwardly very similar. The General Motors Truck Company (GMC) was formed in 1911, but by the Twenties GM also had Chevrolet building commercial vehicles. While GM had made a half-hearted effort to organise itself in such a way that Chevrolet made light commercials while GMC focused on heavier-duty chassis, that all went out the window when the first half-ton GMC appeared in 1936, and in 1937 the Chevrolet line incorporated everything from a half-ton to a one-and-a-half-ton.
From this point on, Chevrolet and GMC pick-ups would be badge-engineered siblings, albeit with GMC being treated as the favourite child. While Chevrolet made do with its own basic-specification engines in its trucks, GMCs were offered with superior motors from Oldsmobile, Buick or Pontiac and superficial attractions such as Dual-Tone paint. Chevrolets could be two-tone as well, of course; the DualTone schemes exclusive to GMCs just being more stylised for the sake of marketing.
By the Fifties, the untrained eye could distinguish Chevy from GMC by the different grilles and revised bonnet treatment, although the 1947-54 Advance Design and New Design and 1955-59 Task Force and Blue Chip (as named by Chevy and GMC respectively) body styles were the same, and the differences were particularly pronounced for the 1955-57 models when the GMCs had much bulkier grilles and bumpers, and hence a lot more chromework. Without doubt, these were General Motors' most stylish postwar pick-ups, lifting features from the passenger car lines such as the wraparound windshield, 1953 Oldsmobile-inspired twinbar grille and Cadillac-style hooded headlights.
“I’VE USED IT FOR HAULING FIREWOOD. IT’S HAD THREE-QUARTERS OF A TON OF SOIL IN THE BACK, PAVING SLABS, A SHED… I’VE BEEN 100 MILES DOWN THE M6 TO COLLECT AN IKEA BEDROOM SUITE. IT FEELS BETTER WITH A BIT OF WEIGHT IN THE BACK, TO BE HONEST.”
The model designations were straightforward, being the 100 half-ton, 150 three-quarter-ton and 250 one-ton. Since 1939, GMC had made its own entry-level straight-six engines and a 125bhp, 248cu in unit was made the base offering in 1954, but the Blue Chips were also offered with a 287cu in Pontiac V8 producing 155bhp. Like the rest of America, even humble tradesmen were getting wealthier and hungry for power and luxury. In its 1955 debut year, 44% of GMC buyers requested the Pontiac V8 and almost two-thirds specified Hydra-Matic transmission.
For 1956, the Poncho was uprated to 317cu in and 180bhp and factory four-wheel drive was made available for the first time. The main change for 1957 was the fitment of a new grille with five slim horizontal bars and a vertical divider, at the expense of the 1955-56 model's lower grille bar, resulting in an altogether lighter and prettier appearance. The advertising line ran: “When your business is selling trucks… of any size… of any type… for any job… there's nothing like selling the Money-Makers”, the whole range now being referred to, somewhat long-windedly, as the “GMC Blue Chip Money-Maker Line”.
GMC was serious about making money, too, as its prices started to creep upwards noticeably. Its confidence in the Blue Chip theme was misplaced, though, with America heading towards its worst recession since the war. Auto sales showed a marked decline in 1957 and GMC suffered its share, selling only 62,165 new trucks compared with 82,266 in 1956. A simple half-tonner like Adrian's would have been the cheapest model at $1856 new, although the cost of optional extras would push many over $2000. The 1958 recession took its toll on all car and truck manufacturers, and GMC's sales would recover in 1959.
Now that Adrian has grown acquainted with his pick-up, it looks like it's with him to stay. “My worry is that if I looked for another one, it wouldn't be as reliable.” That's sound wisdom, and such a hard-working truck deserves an appreciative owner, so it looks like Adrian and the GMC will be inseparable for a long time to come.