The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot '73-'87 Trucks -- "The Rounded Line" Welcome!

I would like to add my welcome to one and all who want to participate in this new forum. The "square body" series of trucks is rapidly gaining in popularity and so the decision has been made to make this part of who we are at Stovebolt.
Leo

Thanks for stepping up to the plate Leo!!
I might add that the site could use How-To tech articles for these trucks. So if you have done something that may help others, write it up and post it.

Don

Leo,
What about my 90 suburban. Its square body (till 91) cause they didnt retool for suburban till then.
Where does it fit in SB, or does it fit at all?
delky dave in wyo

Just pushing the limits?

I am fully aware that square bodies continued on in the bigger models for several years. That has happened with other series of trucks even back in the 50s. This particular forum covers the years 1973 to 1987.

It isn't pushing the limits, it's the same body style until '91 for the burbs and the 4x4 pickup trucks as well. Same parts and pieces... as '85-'87.

We need the Grand Pooh-bah (alias, “Unrepentant VW lover”) for a ruling.

John has asked that someone start a new thread with the Suburban question. He has an answer but is waiting for someone to ask specifically.

Thanks for adding this sub forum.
Should be a lot of help to many.

Long time Square Body owner of many.
Bought this 77 K30 New and Still have it
Ordered with every available option at the time
From Chevrolet.

Picture is two years old.
Tom

I just laughed a bit at this forum title. "The rounded line". Then second sentence calls them "square bodies ". Everyone I've ever heard refers to this generation as "Square Bodies".
I am glad this forum was added. Looking forward to spending a lot of hours killing time here also.

The owners of this site are very specific about name correctness. If GM referred to them as “Rounded” then that’s what the official site title will be. But, we all call them “Square Bodies”. It’s a new addition for us so it will take awhile for us to get up to speed. Been a while since we’ve seen you around the Bolt.

Apparently GM officially named this series the rounded line. Maybe we can figure out why that was. I have heard several theories, one referring to the curved side windows and one to do with the wheel wells/openings.

I've been working for 40 years & the term "square body" seems to be a fairly need thing to me, may be more of a regional thing.
If ever there was a "square body" it would be the GM200 '67 - '72 platform, not the GM 300 '73 to ' 87 (and thur '91 as R / V instead of C / K series).

I am always busy doing something. I don't spend a lot of time on many websites. But working on my Stumpy Truck has me here for info and maybe parts. While I was looking here the Square Body Rounded Line caught my eye so I had to say something.

Fire away! Like Martin said, that's what GM called them, so ... To me, they are about the most squared off design GM *ever* came up with ... But all the other design series, I decided to go with what GM called them I had to call it something so I went with what GM called them, so that's what I went with here even knowing that they were off the mark ... I think the GM PR dept. was high on bad meth or something when they thought "The Rounded Line" was good ... "Rounded" .... SERIOUSLY???? but who am I to judge .... ???

So yeah ... we're all with you on that one... We're just glad to finally expand the site a little. Have fun with the series name! Call my sanity into question (the others do ... ) we're all here to learn and to enjoy the hobby. We're glad to open the aperture some more. Like most social media sites, this one is a contact sport (Rubbin' is racin'), so keep having at it. It's all fun and good to go. Just no flaming, personal attacks ... blah, blah, blah. Read the rules (there aren't many) We all just try to get along, share what we've learned and exist on the common ground.

Old trucks ROCK! Everything else goes somewhere else.

Regards,
John

I created this thing so blame me for everything.

Oh, and as for the Suburban/Blazer question ... I did not know that they carried the design on longer for those than for the pickups .. so yeah, sure ... whatever the years are for them that carry on the same design...

And LUV's/S-10s ... What would you all think about including LUV's but NOT S-10's ...? Or should we include S-10's up to when they discontinued the line ...?

This is getting hard ...

Thoughts?

BUT ... !!! .... TGP -- Just gotta say, that is one gorgeous truck! Why is it not in our new Gallery section? With a lot of pictures??? Man, I like that truck!

And another think ... Phak ... is there a problem with me being an unrepentant Air Cooled, German automotive aficionado?


I've owned 5.25 Stovebolts. I've owned 10 air-cooled, rear engined VW's and one front-engined, liquid cooled VW.

Anyone have a problem with that?



All in fun. Fire back if you're froggy enough ... Remember, I have my finger on the "Ban Member" key ...

John, just a friendly reminder, Phak is a ex nuke machinist.
He has power you would not believe!

Don

The only thing I would say about your ratio of Bolts to VWs is buy more Bolts to get that ratio up.

I have heard the S-10 refenced as Square Bodies also. I didn't agree with it at the time I was like "no it's a S-10, not a real truck".
But I don't really got much more to say about what forums you add, or call them.

BUT ... !!! .... TGP -- Just gotta say, that is one gorgeous truck! Why is it not in our new Gallery section? With a lot of pictures??? Man, I like that truck!

Thanks John for the comment and everything you and Peggy do for us here.

I added the truck to the gallery.
Tom

2-ton Will take a shot for you... Went to work for a fertilizer co. in 73 they had a new 73 3/4 4 speed 292 pickup. Ran fine but much later lost a head gasket,I then discovered those heads will warp like a chunk of firewood gotta cut both surfaces to hold the gaskets. We later called them the rust bucket line !!

Leo just peplied to you poof its gone.

For reference, The truck on the right is the Rounded Line truck.

Don't know why they called it that. Sure looks square, compared to the GMC.

I know that I am a bit late to the party, but I just saw the post.

John, I have nothing but good things to say about VW’s, but not on this site! LOL! In fact, my wife owns a 2008 VW Eos and it’s an awesome vehicle, but it’s not a truck!

Also wondering why the forum is called the "rounded line" when "square body" is the common term. Funny that my old 83 GMC farm truck is a classic!

Probably will not see many 73 Chevy trucks as I bought a brand new one and kept pretty good care of it and it still rusted out just in front of the rear fenders at and also the rear of the front fenders ... I and 3 other guys back then bought brand new trucks, all 1973 Chevy and GMC..
Right away my wiper switch did not work and the other two guys had the same problem and when we all three got new ones from the dealer they did the same thing ,,came on when ever they wanted and stopped when ever they wanted..
I finally put a toggow switch on the bottom of the dash board ,,,and it was that way when I sold it ..Curious if any of you had this problem or did General Motors fix by the new 74 's came out?

this it the 73 truck in this photo ,,the wife had the Camaro .
https://photos.app.goo.gl/MUAZphJjHQvBQRto8

Rounded Line...lol... Now that is funny. But, if GM says it's so, it is so. Carry on!

I have always thought of the first generation S-10/S-15/Sonoma as the little Brother to the square-body. In fact, the big brother square-body shared the 4.3l V6 with the S-10. I've had the 4.3 in both Silverado and S-10 vehicles over the years. There are a lot of S-10 trucks running around today with V8 engines in them, and let's not forget the impressive GMC Cyclone and Typhoon that had the turbocharged 4.3 and AWD.

It's your forum, but I think it's cool that you are considering including the S-10. I know a lot about these trucks and still have TWO S-10 vehicles on my property to this day. In fact, one of my current projects is a 1985 S-10 Blazer 4x4 Tahoe edition. I bought it with a nice interior and exterior but it came with a rod knock. I still got a year out of it before the rod went through the pan.

I'll attach some teaser pics, but leave it at that unless or until the 'bosses' allow this vehicle to officially be part of the community.

I always found on my ‘79 that to shut off the wipers do this: high speed on, wait until a downstroke, when the wipers hit 1-2o’clock on the windshield (looking out of course), shut it full off quickly. Worked every time for my ole girl.

Ah, the tips and tricks of ownership.