I’m so conflicted about this. On the one hand, I love the idea of taking a brand-new, modern vehicle, packed as it is with the latest technology, performance, efficiency, safety features, and, yes, all of that new-ness (which brings with it the promise of trips taken without long periods of lingering by roadsides when something inevitably breaks) and skinning it with the charm and character of an old car’s body. I feel like I mention the ancient Aztec god Xipe Totec the flayed god every time I talk about a retro-modded car like this because of how the practice was to wear the skin of a sacrificial victim, but I promise I won’t do so this time. While these have existed for a while, it’s very possible that ICON 4×4’s C Modern Retro Series is the best example of this new-car-wearing-an-older-car’s-skin ever.
I mean, it better be, since it ranges in price between $450,000 to $550,000.
Go ahead and take a moment to wipe whatever beverage/chowder/chili you ejected at your screen when you read that price, because that’s a healthy reaction. If it helps, that price does include the donor brand-new Chevy Silverado that lurks under the surface, but not the 1967 to 1972 Chevy C10 or C20 pickup truck that will become the new body for this retro-mod.
Here’s how ICON 4×4’s press release describes it:
ICON 4×4 proudly announces the launch of its newest vehicle program: the Chevrolet C Modern Retro Series, a limited production series that seamlessly blends the iconic styling of the 1967 – 1972 Chevrolet C10 and C20 pickup with the engineering, performance, and everyday usability of a brand new Chevrolet Silverado 1500 4×4 V8.
Developed from the ground up by ICON founder Jonathan Ward and his team of engineers, designers, and craftsmen, the C Modern Retro Series is neither a restoration nor a conventional C10 Chevy build . Instead, it represents a comprehensive reengineering effort that preserves the complete functionality of a modern Silverado while clothing it in one of the most beloved classic Chevrolet trucks ever produced.
As you can see, this half-a-million-dollar Silverado looks, as far as anyone can tell, like a well-loved and worn old C10, something that may be worth, oh, between $8,000 and $10,000 if it’s just a nice original and running truck. A really nicely restored C10 can go for between, oh, $40,000 and $100,000, depending on just how nice, but it’s worth remembering that this is not a restored old truck. It’s brand new truck, very carefully re-engineered to look like an old truck, because it’s wearing the old truck’s entire body. And that’s not cheap or easy to do.
From a distance, you’d never realize this, of course. But start looking up close, and you get some hints:
Like under the hood; that’s the 6.2-liter Ecotec3 V8 engine, I think. It’s definitely not what originally came in any C10. Just like how this fusebox is clearly not from an old C10: 
Where are the pennies jammed in to replace missing fuses? That’s some prime old-truck character right there. They should have engineered modern fuses that look like pennies. When I order mine, I’ll demand that.
Another big tell is the dashboard:
I have to hand it to ICON here; they do a good job of integrating all these modern controls into a very old-school looking dash. However, for $500,000 freaking dollaritos I sort of want custom, retro-looking button faces for everything. The F, V, and T knobs look great (Flush, Vamoose, and Tsuris, I assume) but why don’t we get an old-school looking knob for the lights or parking brake or mirrors?
It looks like the lighting has been upgraded to LEDs, which make sense. And the patina on the paint is impeccable, too.
The interior materials look interesting, the way they ride the line between luxurious and retro. That’s not an easy line to walk, and I suspect here the goal was to keep retro look while upgrading to modern luxury tactility. I haven’t touched it, so I’m guessing, but that’s what it looks like to me.
Oh, and that window crank is just a switch for a power window, before you get too excited about rolling down your own window manually.
It sure looks like an old truck inside; I’m curious about how ICON handled sound deadening and rattle-resistance, which I suspect must be priorities in this price range. It seems like extensive work is done in that arena, with modern methods and materials.
If you like patina, you can get the Derelict style, which preserves old paint and patina, as this example does. Or, you can get it in Old School style, which seeks to make a sort of time capsule like-new version of the old truck.
“The 1967 through 1972 Chevrolet truck is one of the purest automotive designs ever produced,”
… ICON founder Jonathan Ward said to whomever was writing this press release, and I can’t necessarily argue with him there. These old trucks were remarkably clean and uncluttered designs, confident and not needing any superfluous ornamentation to look just right. They are fantastic old trucks.
Only five trucks in this series will be made, and I suspect that may be the right number. Because who is the target market for these? God’s dad’s boss?
I don’t know what to think. I love the idea of these, and I think these may be the best-executed versions of the modern-vehicle-reskinned-as-an-old-one ever. I’ve driven some similar sorts of things, like that Dodge Power Wagon retromod I drove a couple years ago, and that thing, while cool, was one of the most dangerous, difficult vehicles I’ve tested and it cost almost $400,000. I think the processes required to make vehicles like these simply isn’t cheap.
As usual, I have no doubt ICON will do an amazing job on these. But does that even matter to most of us? There’s going to be five made, all sold to people who pay professionals to keep people like me away from them. Far away, ideally.
Just to be clear, the chassis is a stock 2025 CK1500 Silverado, shortened a bit to fit the C10 body, which is all original C10, painstakingly made to fit and, even more impressively, not freak out the CAN-BUS, which remains gleefully unaware of what has been done to it. I was told by Jonathan Ward himself that the wheels are specially forged just for this application, too, to give the “perfect offset for a proper stance.” That man sweats the details.
Is the experience of owning and driving one of these that much better than owning and driving a $40-$50,000 competently restored old C10? Isn’t some of the charm of these old trucks the noise and smells and vibrations? I have similar questions about that Kindred EV-converted VW Microbus I just drove (and will have a review of soon). I don’t really know how to process these things in my head; I waver between appreciation and contempt, interest and irrelevance. I don’t really know what to do with these.
I’m open to hearing what you think. Maybe I just need to embrace the conflict.
I made the same noise about their $1M suburban build. its just not worth it. I built a body swapped IH Travelall mounted to a Tahoe floorpan, so I know exactly how much work can be required to build one of these. And this truck is not even that, its just a frame swap after a frame shortening. That basic process can be done in average work week’s amount of hours. Icon is charging for their name, not just their product.
That’s the standard automotive business cycle, just accelerated into a finite one-time-use format.
Step 1. Invest money into development projects and make a competitive product at a competitive price to establish your brand’s name in the popular conscious. “These newfangled Eagles really impress me, they’re much faster than Pontiacs at a similar price point, and the build quality is pretty solid!”
Step 2. Once established, slowly widen the profit margin by raising prices as far as your good reputation can support them. “Toyotas are worth the premium over a Chevy, you’re paying for reliability!”
Step 3. Once you reach the limit of what the customer can pay for, start cutting production costs wherever possible
without compromising your brand’ image or identity. “Carlos Tavarez, Pictured Above, leaves Stellantis with a $20M golden parachute”Step 4a. If the company is solvent enough to take a loss on R&D costs (by way of savings or by way of a buyout), return to step 1. “Stellantis announces 11 new models”
Step 4b. If not, go gently into that Good Night. “Young people just don’t want Harley-Davidson motorcycles, and Harley-Davidson Motorcycles has no idea why”
Icon seems to be on an accelerated, simultaneous version of steps 2 and 3, blasting towards 4b as fast as they can.
I also have skills in taking a new vehicle and making it look old and rusted
Posermobile.
The price is way out of line to what it’d take to build a similar truck. the 67-72 Chevy trucks are pretty nice looking. The concept is neat. The one Thing I realize as I got older are these era of trucks are pretty tight when you’re over 6 feet tall. By 73, Ford and GM both made the cabs bigger.
What kind of labor hours do you think this build takes?
Fake patina, or clear coated rust, is like buying pre-scuffed work boots. Especially when you’re paying more than the typical new mortgage.
Either leave it alone or repaint it. The obviously shiny rust is so tacky.
Alright now I know I’m someone who always says they can do something for less and then ends up spending more while doing it myself.
However, I’m 10,000% confident I could do this for significantly less than $500k.
When I become a super rich guy I think I’ll be more interested in something like this than a supercar.
Yeah, definitely has more charm that whatever hyper-sperg-mobile the lads in Bolognese or Maranello are slinging. If you’re going to throw stupid money into a car, this is a cooler way to spend it.
Yeah this is cool as fuck and probably an absolute joy to drive every single day. You can still spend asshole money without looking like an asshole.
It looks like it should be running the Griswolds off the road on their way to the Christmas tree farm.
I’m sorry…. but if you spend $500k on this you are a moron. And the whole rusty-patina thing is sort of old hat and makes you look like a douche.Oh- and I had to edit this. I looked up again and saw the utterly cheesy pics of the under the kitchen counter IKEA LED strips in the bed. Yep… that right there really makes me wanna’ shell out half a mil. Maybe I’ll do that to my 1996 Tacoma. Stick LEDs in the bed! Who woulda’ thunk?
EDIT 2: That fucking dash…. That is absolutely and inexcusably lazy. And it will age just as badly as those weird companies that took Ford Thunderbirds, trying to pass them off as Stubakers or some other thing except its painfully obvious to anyone that yeah- its just some boring ass Thunderbird and its innards… I would have absolutely done away with the touch screen, would have spent time working out how to integrate the modern controls using period interfaces and made it look like what a C10 from that period was supposed to look and function as. Its beyond easy to simply take the radio it came with, pair in the audio from a system mounted out of view, upgrade the speakers and have the best of both worlds. What they did here was they molded some stuff around off the shelf current GM switchgear.
The rusty-patina thing only works if the car/truck is original and/or kind of rough/unrestored (but not a complete pile of shit), or to quote David Freiburger, the patina is earned. When it’s a $500k build sitting on top of a brand new frame and drivetrain, corny. Just paint the damn thing, it looks better.
Adding on to my other comment responding in this thread, the original ICON Derelict builds were cool to me because they took a barn or field find car with original paint and real patina, then they’d carefully preserve it and put a protective layer over it. Which is still a little hokey, but at least it’s real patina.
The half-assed modern dash in this one makes me suspect they faked the patina, though.
I agree the old Derelict builds are cooler than this, something about shiny rust does not sit right with me. I’ll probably never earn enough to spend house money on a truck so I suppose I’m not the target for this anyway.
It’s a real shame, because what you describe in your edit 2 is exactly what ICON usually does. Every build I’ve ever seen from them has a beautiful, period correct interior with custom machined switches to run all the modern stuff without it being visible. I had to go and check their website and of the ones I checked this is the only one with a terrible hacked in modern dash like this.
I have no idea why they did this one this way, or why they think they should make 4 more.
I don’t get it.
Half a rock to cosplay ruggedness. And with that dashboard execution no less. A fool and his money are soon par—
These aren’t even that impressively built, and why would anyone even want this? It’s not useful, interesting, fast, comfortable, or even that good looking. Something like this could easily be done in a home garage for 1/10th of that price. How absurd. I can’t stand ICON, slinging janky restomods.
While ludicrous for 99.9% of us, Icon knows they can sell a few of these trucks for $500,000, so good for them.
I’m a buyer at $25,000 ????????
Of all the vehicles to do this with this makes the least sense… The technology of a brand new Silverado is gonna be unfashionably out of date in like a decade.
By then, an ACTUAL C10 probably has a lower chance of giving you problems than one with ten times the mechanical complexity, and unlike this, the C10 won’t go out of fashion.
Holy hell, that’s a price jump. Last time I’d checked on ICON’s builds, they were about $250k.
They probably found that the only people stupid enough to buy these things had enough money that the difference didn’t matter.
$250k, $500k … eh, whatever. Something like, “Why are you bothering me with details? It’s tacky to discuss money. Speaking of tacky, make me look cool and rugged. Make it look like I have taste! Oh, but with infotainment, and LED lights, AC, and 500hp+!”
Oof, this comment sheds some possible light on my disappointment in ICON for building this. I really like most of their vehicles, but this one is a huge oversight and is plain bad.
But you’re probably right – they realized they were doing a shit ton of work to make a great product that they then sold on to a rich asshole who didn’t appreciate it, so they figured they’d find a shortcut and make some quick cash. The buyer can’t tell the difference anyway.
I respect the craftsmanship. I wonder what the depreciation is on this. Someone will get a nice barn find in a decade or so.
An Icon 1952 Chevrolet Styleline Deluxe Sport Coupe sold for $332k on BAT and their less expensive FJ fuils sell for $100-200k+ all the time. I suspect this holds it’s value pretty well. It’s a 1 of 1 done right.
Every ICON I’ve seen before now was a 1 of 1 done right. This one looks like a 1 of 5 that they completely forgot about the craftsmanship and attention to detail that set them apart. That dash is awful.
I don’t hate the use of stock GM switchgear. Those modules have chips in them and wouldn’t easily be turned into traditional switch gear.
True, but to me there’s no real good reason to swap everything onto a modern production chassis anyway. All the other ICON builds use Art Morrison frames and off the shelf crate motors, controllers, brakes, AC, radio, etc to give you a modern driving experience that still feels like an old truck in every desirable way.
I bet even just jumping in and turning the engine over in this feels unsettling, since I assume it sounds and behaves exactly like a modern Silverado. I’m just not sure what they gain in going through all the effort to keep the modern Silverado underpinnings and electronics. It’s not like it gets them airbags, a big cushy center console, or the plush modern interior of the new truck, and with an old body I’m sure they can use the original VIN to register it and avoid emissions issues.
It’s certainly not for everyone but if what you want is a rad vehicle that also doesn’t make you miserable in LA traffic on your way home from a weekend in the desert, this makes a lot of sense.
Compared to a stock 72 Chevy, I’m sure this is much nicer to drive and live with on a day to day basis. But the other ICON builds already seemed to solve that with modern crate motors, brakes, AC, etc, all while hiding all the modern stuff much better than this.
I’m just not sure what is gained by going with this weird body swap exercise.
Even things like adding an infotainment screen, trailer brake controller, hands-free phone integration, etc could have been done in the standard ICON way by using off-the-shelf aftermarket stuff and hiding it well instead of trying to keep a whole modern truck under the sheetmetal.
For 500 G – the price of a modestly big house, in other words an appreciating asset which cars generally are not, aftermarket rebuilder notwithstanding – you’re gonna fix the fkin paint.
For $500k my choice is going to have an Italian/European name and may or may not be in the shop half of its life. It will NOT be a Chevy truck.
With the 6.2 this could be in the shop half it’s life as well! And with a Euro name like Chev-row-lay, you’re closer than you think….
My thoughts exactly. These things love to eat lifters.
I hate hate hate the patina BS. About as authentic as fake convertible tops…
IIRC the patina is real. But carefully preserved to make sure it’s not going to get crustier.
Understood. I clarified what I mean in a response to the DrunkenWrench below…
The Derelict series is genuinely old sheet metal. He actually tracks down naturally patina’d donor vehicles, and then does nothing to preserve the finish, as he believes it should continue to develop.
Doesn’t justify the price, but it’s not fake.
Yeah, I should clarify what I mean. Embracing somebody else’s patina as if it is something that suggests that the buyer of this $500K retro-thing actually lived a hard working, patina worthy existence….
I would argue the overwhelming majority of people driving a vehicle with patina are not the original owners, and the paint was already toast when they bought it.
Unearned patina!
The vehicle earns it. It’s part of it’s story. Arguing that people “didn’t earn it” because they’re not the original owner is just gatekeeping.
Do you also argue that non original owners driving vehicles with perfect factory paint didn’t earn that either cause they didn’t do all the required upkeep themselves?
We’re not about that kind of nonsense here.
Um, ok. I’ll stick to my point. It’s like pre-worn and factory ripped jeans suggesting some sort of interesting personal history when all you did was pay $400 for some fraying cotton.
Speaking of gatekeeping, we aren’t about calling somebody else’s differing opinion nonsense… around here. I’ll call this poseur cosplay but you do you. Go forth and enjoy the day.
Are they walking around claiming that they’ve worn them in themselves?
If not, it’s just fashion.
No one is claiming that they “earned” patina. They either just like it or can’t afford to correct it.
The only “fake” patina, is literal faked patina, where it’s painted to look as such. Which is a style choice. Ask anyone doing it and they won’t pretend it’s real, they just like the aesthetic.
Being an ass about it and claiming it has to be “earned” IS an opinion, but it is a gatekeeping opinion.
I hope you don’t accost people in vintage band tees to name songs/albums of said band.
Chill. It’s my opinion. I find it a bit phony and that’s it. Key word- opinion.
And, oh, the irony of getting personal and insulting me… and then say that I’m the ass.
Now as far as wearing T-shirts of bands… I’ll meet you over at the vintage vinyl forums to discuss 😀
Seriously, have a great day.
“Being an ass” describes a behaviour.
If you’re taking the description of a behaviour as a personal insult, that says more about you than it does about me.
“Being an ass about it..” is an insult. Dude, I don’t like the patina thing… you do.
Ahh, the old “says more about you than it does about me” trope. A bit of a self own…
It’s a new day! Perhaps enjoy it by not arguing with anons on this great site. Cheers…
It was built for enjoyment, therefore Torch says this a sports car
Ah, but you see, it was MODIFIED for enjoyment, so it’s a SPORTY car! This is obviously a hot hatchback!
Outside looks good, but intentionally preserved patina looks bad if you ask me.
Interior has too many do-dads that seem tacky. Don’t like the modern stuff in the dash, I don’t like the lights on the door cards.
And then the bed lighting just looks incredibly basic for a job this pricey. I expect more out of Icon. They look like AliExpress bedlights. Sure, they are tucked up under the bed rails, but any talentless jabroni could do that in an hour or two of work. I at least expected some nice diffuser panel to hide them all or something.
Despite this being one of my favorite generations of Chevy pick-up, this is one of my least favorite Icon builds.
The engine bay pic too. Definitely one of the engines of all time. Very whelming.
Yeah, this all looks way way way more like a personal project car than it does a professional resto-mod. I get that it’s probably better, but I can’t get past what look like so many lazy shortcuts when you hear they want $500k for this thing. Reusing f so many stock 2025 Silverado interior buttons/parts and that the engine bay seems way out of line for a $500k truck. This looks like most any other LS swapped C10 for <1/10th the price, except I guess the buttons have been frenched into the dash here which is why it’s $475k more than those? It all really ruins the old truck charm and doesn’t seem up to snuff for the price. Pass
While this also isn’t “perfect” in my eyes, it does save you $300k.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/147372959291?_skw=k10&itmmeta=01KVAS1X7FPEM7RS41QFJHXAQF&hash=item22501ce63b:g:ZnEAAeSwZPxqJQ0L&itmprp=enc%3AAQALAAAAwGfYFPkwiKCW4ZNSs2u11xATeyJ4jeI9byCHt9OtUQPKmYInHvJVd0qcWWZVkOWGyLfrWHjGJ09mINFtHo%2FoNP5JrPPqZcDYHK9trxZshrbtWjBQ3q1dm0seIFLZOvWaYkWgAzk1Y4HOoYVr2buCcHDbJGQO%2Fl6DdKFRO0rL37qWLguixTh0I7KLqNTzFGiyJFmdIghqbLIp%2Bi2L86%2BAhjx0fbe8L%2FQOoHJcGOHo8ObZL3gPq5iJ32FAy5%2BHF3pm2g%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR9beh9naZw
just a FYI, everything after the ? in a link is just tracking nonsense.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/147372959291
TIL… I’ll promptly forget tomorrow.
It isn’t worth the price, but the wealthy don’t care.
…also it’s not painted like Everett Jasmer’s original USA-1, which I would rather rock on a C-10 of this generation. Wide fenders, chrome wheels, blue pearl over white paint and fiberglass hood included.
Ok, on one hand this is an impressive bit of engineering.
On the other hand, the first thing I thought when looking at it was “pfft, I could do most of that myself.” You could get close enough to the look and the performance of that truck for way, way less money. Lots of companies out there would be happy to sell you the parts. Exact? No. Perfect? No. But close enough.
The hard part for me would be finding a starting point truck that wasn’t a pile of brown flakes in a field.
That’s most of these boutique business models. Singers are like 1M cars. You can get 90% of a Singer yourself, for about 100k. Or 80% of the way there for 50k.
I wanted to not like the interior buttons. But then I remember that I worked at Bollinger. They wanted to not like standard OEM interior buttons too
The buttons and switches in the B1T and B1S looked fantastic, still sad that those did not come to be.
I know some guys who worked there small world
It’s so weird, because every other ICON uses beautifully made custom, period correct switchgear and no screens or modern stuff showing at all.
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.