Year Designations 1960-87

1960 – In 1960, Chevrolet introduced this new body style truck. It was a completely redesigned truck from the previous years, both in appearance and functionality. Front suspension is a newly designed torsion bar system. Rear suspension is a coil spring and trailing arm design. The low mounted grill consists of 2 horizontal bars connecting dual headlamps. CHEVROLET is embossed across lower bar. Center opening of grill has 3 louver insert. Front of hood has oval openings on each side. Parklamps fit in center of vertically louvered bezels and fit in these hood openings. Windshield is a wrap around design. Front windshield pillars slope forward. Vent windows are wider at tip than bottom. The dashboard consists of two large arches on either side. Instrument cluster is housed in left arch. The right arch houses the glove compartment. Master cylinder is a dual cylinder. One side operates brakes. The other side controls a hydraulically operated clutch. Small back window is standard with big back window optional. Front bumper vertical bolt holes are 3 1/4″ apart. Custom cab trucks have aluminum trim strip from front fender to rear of bed on fleetside models. Side emblem consists of CHEVROLET on top with the word APACHE and series designation below.

1961– Very similar to 1960 truck. Lower bar of grill is now smooth. Plated grill insert is similar to 1960 but also has four vertical louvers and the letters CHEVROLET. Parklamps now have winged design bezels on either side of lens. Side emblems consist of the word APACHE and the series designation only.

1962– Similar to previous years but with the following changes. New modern hood without oval openings as in previous years. Character line around body is now continued around sides and front of hood. Parklamp lens is mounted in similar location surrounded by aluminum bezel. Turnsignals are now standard equipment. Grill is similar except center oval has 9 rectangular openings made from 2 vertical and 2 horizontal bars. Lower bar again has CHEVROLET embossed. Single headlamps are now used surrounded by large ribbed bezels. Custom cab trucks trim extended from front fender to rear of bed on fleetside models. A second strip of trim branched off of door trim and extended to rear of bed. Side emblems consist of a red bowtie and the series designation on top of a vertically ribbed background.

1963– Similar in appearance to earlier years. Front suspension now uses variable rate coil springs. Clutch uses mechanical linkage. Grill has CHEVROLET embossed in lower bar and single headlamps surrounded by smaller round bezels. Center of grill consists of 56 rectangular holes formed by 3 horizontal and 13 vertical bars. Front bumper vertical bolt holes are now 4 3/4″ apart. First year for the 230 C.I. and 292 C.I. engines. Side emblem is a vertical rectangle with series designation on upper portion and red bowtie below.

1964 – Redesigned cab. Windshield is now flatter design than before. Windshield pillar posts slope back. Vent windows are wider at bottom than at top. Redesigned grill consists of numerous vertical and horizontal cross hatches for a screened look. Upper grill bar has CHEVROLET embossed. Single headlamps are surrounded by rectangular bezels. The dash is now full cab width and has a lip along entire top edge that forms a shelf to reduce glare. First year for self-adjusting brakes. Factory in dash air conditioning optional. Emblems are a square with series designation embossed and bowtie on top.

1965– Similar to 1964 trucks. Side emblems are now rectangular shaped with bowtie in left portion and series designation in right portion.

1966– Similar to 1964 and 1965 trucks. First year for the optional 327 V8 engine and Turbo-hydromatic transmission. Side emblems are rectangular shaped with bowtie on top and series designation on bott

1973 – Starting in 1973, Chevrolet introduced major changes on its C/K Series trucks. The most notable changes were to the body. These trucks featured a completely restyled and “rounded” body style with an “eggcrate” grill, curved side glass, doors that opened to the roof line, and the elimination of roof drip rails.  It also featured a wider interior with larger seats, and flow through ventilation directed through louvers located behind the hood.

1974 – Virtually unchanged from the previous model.  Interior included foam instrument panel padding, an energy absorbing steering column, and on all models with automatic transmission, an anti-theft ignition system was used.  Exterior changes were highlighted by four new colors, improved below-eye-line mirror, and new optional bright roof drip moldings.

1975 – First year catalytic converters were standard equipment on all trucks under 6,001 gross vehicle weight (GVW). Introduction of the high-energy system (HEI) which delivered a hotter and more consistent spark for better starting power.

1976 – Blazer gets a new body design with a metal roof over the front seats and an optional removable fiberglass roof shell over the rear seats and cargo area.  Also now equipped with an integrated roll bar.  On 1976 pickups, the grill texture was changed slightly, and the engine call-out badges were removed from within the grill.

1977 – New grille design with 4 (instead of 8) vertical dividers and 2 (instead of 3) horizontal bars.  A mesh was also placed behind the major gill sections.  Inside hood release.

1978 – Most notable addition was the offering of a 350 Diesel engine in the C10 pickups.

1979 – Light duty trucks got a new front end with integral park/head lights, a bright metal lower grill outline molding, and a new paint scheme for the grill.  The 1979 grill was slightly narrower top to bottom, but of the same basic design as the previous years style.

1980 – The same 1979 grill was used on the conventional trucks but Silverados got new rectangular parking lamps.

1981 – A new grill, used on both blazers and pickups, was introduced that continued the ice-cube tray look with 16 taller openings running across the truck between the stacked square headlamps.  It had a wide center horizontal molding that was brightly finished with a bowtie in the center.

1982 – The 1982 models were essentially carbon copies of the 1981 models except a chrome grill was standard on all models.

1983 – A revised grill treatment and parking lamp placement.  The grill featured a black-out look and the parking lights were moved from the bumper to the bottom of the grill.

1984 – New grill design, used on both Blazers and Pickups, that had a bi-level design with three black-finished horizontal bars or bright-plated bars, square headlamps in both sections (optional), parking lamps behind the bars on the bottom, and a yellow bowtie on the body color strip in the middle.

1985 – The full-sized Blazers and pickups had a wider body color panel between the upper and lower grill, and the grille had only a single horizontal bar intersected by seven vertical bars.

1986 – Last of the Chevrolet truck engines to be equipped with carburetors.

1987 – Chevrolet redesignated the “C/K” style pickups to the R/V10, R/V20, and R/V30 models.  Trucks in larger weight classes (as well as Suburbans & Blazers) retained the “C/K” look.  Some of both types of trucks were included in Chevrolet’s 1987 model-year production totals.