Photo: RGV TRUCKS/Twitter
Back in the 1960s, trucks buyers starting demanding more from their workhorses, with these also serving as personal transport vehicles rather than simply being put to work. Six decades later, the pickup market has spread higher than ever before, with more and more range-topping luxury and performance trucks moving closer to six-figure territory. Of course, certain features got lost along the way, with the prominent rear wheel arches, or Stepside bed configuration in GM talk, being on the list. Well, it looks like this Chevy Silverado has found a way to bring that back.
We're obviously dealing with a custom effort here, one's based on the third iteration of the model. In fact, the Silverado 1500 sports the facelift introduced for the 2016 model year, which paved the way for the more aggressive styling brought by the 2019MY arrival of the fourth-gen truck.
From the introduction of GM full-size pickup trucks, which took place early last century, up until the late 2000s, the carmaker offered two types of beds.
There was the said Stepside, which involves wheel arches sitting outside the bed, thus generating a perfectly flat shape for the latter. Then we had the Fleetside, which sees the arches sitting inside the bed and thus generates flat exterior surfaces.
However, the GMT900 platform that brought us the second-gen Chevrolet Silverado in 2007 did away with the more extroverted Stepside configuration, leaving the fender flares of the Fleetside to do the visual work.
And it seems difficult to tell if those rear bits were built from scratch or if they integrate parts of the original sheet metal. However, if we look on the sides of the new tailgate, we'll find what appear to be custom taillights that might aim for an old-school look.
Regardless of whether you'd give such a treatment to your modern truck or not, one thing is clear: the blue collar machine sitting before us can't be ignored.
From the introduction of GM full-size pickup trucks, which took place early last century, up until the late 2000s, the carmaker offered two types of beds.
There was the said Stepside, which involves wheel arches sitting outside the bed, thus generating a perfectly flat shape for the latter. Then we had the Fleetside, which sees the arches sitting inside the bed and thus generates flat exterior surfaces.
However, the GMT900 platform that brought us the second-gen Chevrolet Silverado in 2007 did away with the more extroverted Stepside configuration, leaving the fender flares of the Fleetside to do the visual work.
This custom design works, or does it?
If we take a look at the pair of images showcasing this recent-model Silverado 1500 (hat tip to the RGV TRUCKS on Twitter), we'll notice the look of the custom rear fenders somehow still matches the design of the factory front units—for the sake of comparison, you'll find a few photos of a standard vehicle in the image gallery.And it seems difficult to tell if those rear bits were built from scratch or if they integrate parts of the original sheet metal. However, if we look on the sides of the new tailgate, we'll find what appear to be custom taillights that might aim for an old-school look.
Regardless of whether you'd give such a treatment to your modern truck or not, one thing is clear: the blue collar machine sitting before us can't be ignored.
La cheyenne del viejo pic.twitter.com/cfQVQ8qUPr
— RGV TRUCKS (@OfficialRGVTP) June 30, 2021
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