1973 GMC C15 Sierra

Chuck Most · June 16

In 1978, Patrick Goreham had an idea. Trucker culture was big in the cultural zeitgeist, everyone and their grandma had a CB radio, and you couldn't escape trucker slang and cowboy-adjacent trucker clothing.

While not everybody could be an actual long haul trucker, Pat reasoned, anybody could embrace the aesthetic with one of his conversion kits!

Using his own heavily modified 1973 GMC 1500 as the test subject, Pat designed, prototyped, and produced a fiberglass tilt nose for the 1973 and later GM pickups that, if you squinted in poor lighting, almost didn't quite make your Chevrolet resemble a Peterbilt. Goreham Conversions produced somewhere between 75 and 100 of the Sneaky Pete conversion kits in 1978 and 1979, before Pat folded the operation and went back to his full time job... repairing and maintaining carnival rides.

Pat's '73 GMC changed hands a number of times, before recently landing into the possession of Frank Kroll. The truck had been through seemingly every level of hell since Pat had sold it in 1982. But Frank remembered seeing a Goreham Conversions pickup in a magazine when the kits were new, and even in black and white, he was smitten.

He'd never imagined owning one, much less THE original one, but after happening upon it listed on Facebook Marketplace, and paying quite a bit more than he'd hoped, the GMC was in his garage. It had been in the possession of a (now defunct) landscaping business in northern Illinois for a number of years, serving as the official rolling business card. But after sitting abandoned for years, it was sold after the city got tired of complaints about all the debris on the property.

Being, essentially, the prototype, Pat's truck has a few details that differ from the production models. It is the only one to have a GMC logo on the grille shell, all the others had "Pete". It is the only one with an aluminum front bumper, production units were chrome plated steel. And it had Pat's existing street machine modifications, like a solid front axle, Corvette drivetrain, and more.

Though the truck shows all the weather, wear, and tear you'd expect to find on a 52 year old truck, Frank says the fiberglass hood has held up unbelievably well. The stepside bed was replaced with a wide bed at some point.

Frank has started a registry for the Goreham Conversions, and so far, the whereabouts of five complete trucks and two hoods are known. And if course, Frank is planning a full restoration for this one. He's recently managed to hunt Pat Goreham down (he retired to Guam in 1999), and Pat's son in California is going through his things looking for period photos and literature he still has.

The model is a 1993 reissue of the Revell Midnite Cowboy. I bought it centuries ago for the wrecker unit, and I basically started this project to dispose of the rest. I wanted to go for a "barn find" kind of look. Since there was no way I was going to go to the trouble of having the tilting hood line up, it's glued shut, but it still has the full engine and radiator. The bed is from the MPC '84 GMC. Actually, the bed and tailgate trim came from one '84 GMC, and the tailgate itself came from a second '84 GMC.