Gentleman Jim Special! 1975 GMC Sierra Classic
In the mid-1970s, General Motors dabbled in offering luxury pickup trucks to its customers. An existing market had already been established given the success of the Chevy El Camino, which was considered a “gentlemen’s” pick-up on a car chassis. So, GMC gave it a whirl in 1975 and produced the Gentleman Jim, a fancy full-size truck as part of the Sierra series. Production was low – only 1,000 or so copies – so few survive today and as nicely as the seller’s edition. Located in Cody, Wyoming, this fancy truck is available here on craigslist for $15,750. Thanks to our reader “Snotty” for this tip!
The 1975 Gentleman Jim was the ‘70s version of what might carry a Denali tag today. Mechanically the same as a routine pickup, the story was all in the paint job and creature comforts. You could get one in any color you wanted as long as it was black and gold with a color-keyed grille that matched the rest of the exterior (and body moldings, too). The passenger compartment was equally impressive, with factory bucket seats (in tweed and saddle vinyl), a center console, and woodgrain paneling everywhere. These trucks were designed to pamper their occupants.
As you might expect, Gentleman Jim had a lot of standard equipment that would be extra on other trucks, like factory air conditioning, automatic transmission, power steering and brakes, and tilt steering. Sources disagree on the number of these beauties that were produced, but the largest quantity quoted is no more than 2,000.
As a C15, the seller’s truck would be a ¾ ton Sierra Classic. At 64,000 miles, it’s a genuinely nice but not perfect condition. The seller provides limited photos and in one the black paint on the driver’s side in the back is scratched up. But there is no sign of rust or excessive wear. The seller doesn’t mention what’s under the hood, but a 350 cubic inch V8 would be likely. We assume it’s a truck that you could drive anywhere and – since the paint isn’t perfect — maybe use it to haul stuff, too. But if that’s your objective, why not just get a regular pickup?
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Comments
When I saw the location of this truck was in Cody Wyoming I said to myself but of course where else would you find one of these rare trucks? If I bought this I would be on the hunt for a Macho Trans-am to fill the garage. Of course one would require cowboy boots and a hat and the other would require lots of chest hair, a button down and large gold chains.
I like the truck, but for the love of God, put the BFGoodrich raised white letter tires back! This looks absolutely horrible with those whitewalls!
There was a guy who worked at a grocery store that
bought one of these new.Wonder where it went?
You and your lady won’t know your not in a caddie on Saturday night.
Per the picture of the SPID label, this has the LS9 350.
The gentleman looks to be a 1/2 ton stance ? Is the author correct its 3/4 ton running gear ?
The 3/4-ton reference would not be correct. The Service Parts ID label shows a model number of TC10903, which is a 1/2-ton, 2WD, long bed, regular cab. That designation is still used today by GMC for that model.
C-10 was a half-ton Chevrolet, C-15 a half-ton GMC.
GMCs were 5 more, purely for marketing purposes.
3/4 ton gmc would be a 25, half ton was 15 and one ton is a 35. As blunt stated the Chevrolet equivalents are 5 less each
Love it but does anybody else find it odd the carpet appears to be green?
I thought the exact same thing. For as much detail by GM to color keying everything else (so far even as the grille inserts), green seems an odd choice for a black truck. Odd, very odd.
Very odd indeed and definately got me puzzled. Maybe sometime in this truck’s life some owner ordered a replacement carpet – accidentally he checked off one box below ‘gold’ ending up ordering ‘green’ instead…?
These trucks were ahead of their time just missing power windows and locks Compared to what trucks come with today I like this mostly because it has the 8 foot bed. For you younger folks here you can put a load of 4×8 sheets of plywood in the back and still shut the tailgate
These were considered Heavy Half Tons when they came out.
I remember when these came out. My local GMC dealer had one in the showroom.
I just found out that tach was part of this package – don’t remember ever seeing a squarebody with OE tach.
The Gentleman Jim package apparently aimed for the same buyers as the Beau James package, only the latter didn’t have buckets however could be spec’d as both short/ longbed and 350/454
https://autowise.com/all-of-73-87-chevy-and-gmc-special-edition-pickup-trucks-part-i/
Once again BF writer doesn’t check his facts. These were all 1/2 ton trucks, not 3/4 ton. Come on guys get your defecation in sequence.
And the easiest tell is the 5-lug wheels. A 3/4 ton would have 8-lug wheels.
This model was used in a movie with Linda Carter to drive through a bank window to steal the safe.
My antique dealer roommate in CT had a Gentleman Jim like this back in 77, that I drove a lot. (my 76 Mercury Capri was ALWAYS in the shop). The Gentleman Jim was a blast to drive with the 8-track blaring! Got lots of attention from other pickup drivers. GMC also marketed another “special edition” pickup that year called the “Beau James”.