Wondering if someone has any idea how to find out how many produced like this

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N2Corvettes

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richard
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Hey folks, came across a 82 week or two ago an elderly gentleman had sitting in his barn and just had to get it.

82 - 2wd
Shortbed STEP SIDE
Silverado
6.2
Med blue
Alum wheels
Bedrails
Tilt
A/C

ANY IDEA HOW TO FIND OUT IF THIS ONE IS RARE?
 

Grit dog

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No idea, but, like you, I’d guess very few shorty stepside 1/2 ton diesels were produced.
On one hand it should be a total fuel sipper with enough power to move that small truck pretty well. On the other hand, it’s ripe for a gas V8 transplant and already set up for it save for fuel system mods.
But regardless, what a great find. Just being an 80s short bed step side is pretty rare on its own.
 

Keith Seymore

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To my knowledge there is no way to find out.

I did have one of each, though: I had a blue 1980 1/2 ton 2wd shortbox stepside (6 cylinder), and dad had an '82 short box 2wd fleetside diesel.

In any case, we built roughly 15 million squarebodies, so there's going to be a few out there.

"Rare" for a square is tens or hundreds of thousands, not ten or a hundred.

K
 

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Grumpy

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I noted you have tilt steering and did not mention cruise control, these two were normally checked off together at time of order submission, regardless of engine.

A common low-cost option was the sliding rear window; from the image you provided, I am unable to tell what is equipped there - the factory sliding rear window was slightly different than those which were Dealer- or Aftermarket-installed, the factory ones would leak fairly easy, while the aftermarket ones would break off the locking tab after a few months.

Is the truck equipped with a headliner? Having A/C and no headliner would place it in a unique position all by itself, as I recall A/C also meant the headliner was going in unless specifically delineated. Carpet or rubber floor mats were choices that made no difference in rarity.

Back when I was at the Dealer (80s & 90s,) all information was retained on microfiche you had to sort through (thus the insanity from "gone ficheing",) and this only had data to verify the factory options as delivered.
Production questions as this could be answered by submitting your VIN by mail to GM Photographic, and they could end you all the information you could ever dream of (almost to the names of the people who assembled the vehicle, though not quite.) Such requests normally took about three months for a reply. However since the explosion of enthusiasts looking to declare rarity and correspondingly, extra value to their vehicle, and the intense work trying to digitize all this data, I doubt such is available today.
My go to people at GM were Santi in Tech, Rhonda in Parts Support and Steph.

Santi, if you are still alive, you are the Pagan God of Everything Electrical!
 

Keith Seymore

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Production questions as this could be answered by submitting your VIN by mail to GM Photographic, and they could end you all the information you could ever dream of (almost to the names of the people who assembled the vehicle, though not quite.) Such requests normally took about three months for a reply. However since the explosion of enthusiasts looking to declare rarity and correspondingly, extra value to their vehicle, and the intense work trying to digitize all this data, I doubt such is available today.
I think you might mean the GM Heritage Center, rather than GM Photographic.

You can send your VIN and $50 to the Heritage Center and they will pull your original invoice, which includes build timing, option content, pricing, any available discounts and original selling dealership.


It does not include the names of the people who assembled the vehicle but if it did my name would be on there.

K
 

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Grumpy

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Looks like the Heritage Center is the old Photographic. There no such thing as that when I was at the dealer. I remember when the ad "this isn't your father's Oldsmobile" was all over...... no, Dad had a 442 that would keep burning rubber through all four gears, not burn the transmission if you tried pulling a lawnmower.
 

RecklessWOT

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I think you might mean the GM Heritage Center, rather than GM Photographic.

You can send your VIN and $50 to the Heritage Center and they will pull your original invoice, which includes build timing, option content, pricing, any available discounts and original selling dealership.


It does not include the names of the people who assembled the vehicle but if it did my name would be on there.

K
That is cool, I'll have to look into it. Is that for all GM vehicles? I would like to find out more about what my Trans Am used to be. It is so far away from what it was stock (which is fine by me, I intend to keep molesting it past what the previous owners did, no reason to stop now) but I still think it would be neat/ potentially useful to find out how it started life
 

Keith Seymore

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For Pontiacs you contact Pontiac Historic Services, the original archive for collector vehicles.


K
 

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