Almost every time I go to a car show I see something that reminds me that skill in shaping metal and plastic doesn’t necessarily translate into aesthetic taste or talent. Last year at a Woodward Dream Cruise event I saw what at first glance appeared to be sort of a Dodge Viper, but actually was a C4 Corvette with some creative fiberglass work. Then, a few weeks ago at a spring shine-n-show in northwest Detroit I spotted this not-so-cute ute.
Someone put what had to be hundreds of hours into creating this custom Chevy pickup truck. My favorite touch of automotive kitsch here is the spoiler. Multi-element wings on tuner cars are silly, but they could, theoretically create some downforce. Sticking a spoiler right behind the cab of a pickup truck isn’t going to spoil anything except one’s sense of taste. A proper spoiler creates downforce. This one might force something to come back up. To be honest, though, it’s not an utterly terrible looking vehicle, the front end actually has some nice lines and proportions, if you ignore the hood scoop, but this Chevy’s been molded, slammed, shaved and gassed almost beyond recognition. Well, not almost, actually. I know my cars pretty well but I had to ask the owner what kind of vehicle gave its life to bring forth this into our world. After he told me, I was still scratching my head. Now that I’m looking at the photos I realize that there are a couple of tells, one or two things that haven’t been customized, but I’m not telling. Instead I’m asking the Best & Brightest to identify this wild custom. Since it’s wearing a bow-tie it’s not much of a hint to say that it started out as a Chevy, so I’ll give you the additional information that it did not start out as an El Camino or some other Chevy truck, it’s sedan based.
Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, a realistic perspective on cars & car culture and the original 3D car site. If you found this post worthwhile, you can dig deeper at Cars In Depth. If the 3D thing freaks you out, don’t worry, all the photo and video players in use at the site have mono options. Thanks for reading – RJS
Looks like a 3rd gen Chevrolet Caprice. Possibly a wagon given the size of the bed.
The doors and windshield are what did it for me.
79 impala wagon
The surprising thing is that it’s outside a K-mart. I would have thought Louis Vuitton, or at least Tiffany’s.
Beat me to it, definitely a B-Body, 77-90 Impala or Caprice. Doors and windshield give it away, especially since he kept the side mirrors. These have the “big” car (5 X 5″) lug nut pattern that is shared with the light-duty trucks.
I’ll go with the caprice wagon
It seems to be a GTO
I’ll narrow it down to a 1986-1990 Caprice Classic due to the side mirror design. Probably a sedan, no need to start with a wagon just to chop the back end up anyway.
If sedan excludes wagons, 79 4door impala sedan.
The front doors are obviously B-body, but narrowing it down to a year or even which model is just guesswork unless we assume the builder is a Chevy fan.
Did this start life as an Impala, a Caprice, a Bonneville, a Parisienne, a Delta 88, or a LeSabre? We can’t really tell without more information.
The chrome trim around the windshield and shape of the windshield puts this in the 1976-1982 era, with the door I’m going to guess this is a 4 door chevy malibu station wagon from that era. Second guess would be a nova 4 door sedan, but not quite as likely due to no nova wagons being made in that era.
My guess was Malibu as well, I don’t think it’s wide enough to be a Caprice.
Agreed.
What’s wrong with it? Where do I begin?
I’m not clicking that cars in depth link. That thing this is scarey enough in 2D. Actually, I think 2D might be a bit too much.
I haven’t put any pics of that up on CID yet. There is, however a post today on a pristine 1967 Buick Riviera survivor that I saw in the parking lot of a car show on Sunday.
That is a kit car. More specifically a Superstepside kit
http://www.superstepside.com/
So someone is charging money to make cars look like that.
The body shell they sell has no doors, roof or front glass, which explains why this car kept the original windshield, roofline and doors. I was wondering why they didn’t do some kind of chop to hide the donor car, now that I know it’s a plastic body kit, that clears it up. Thanks for the link.
One word – FUGLY
I’m shocked…..shocked to see a Ford Fairmont Futura next to this thing…..a Fairmont someone actually spent time customizing. I remember when I had to PAY a junk dealer to haul one of those things away.
I have seen a few of these around. Usually modified with a 5.0 Mustang motor and other resto mod features. They have more style than your typical box Fairmont.
While I agree that thing is all sorts of hideous, I will disagree slightly with the statement of the spoiler. While a spoiler is technically for the purpose of reducing lift, a similar device can be used to perform other desirable air flow patterns. For example, the PT Cruiser convertible used a fake roll cage primarily for aesthetics, but it was effective at keeping the wind out of the cabin area. It worked like a spoiler but for a very different effect.
Trucks have a vortex that forms behind the cab. It is very possible that some sort of spoiler-esque device could be of benefit there, to break up that vortex and possibly help keep the wind out of the bed and/or reduce drag. Of course, that’s not the purpose of this POS, and the guy who installed it can’t even spell “aerodynamics” or (or “ugly,” it would seem).
So, that’s what happened to the DC Sniper’s Chevrolet Caprice…