This 1990 Custom Chevrolet Pickup Truck Will Leave You Baffled Yet Intrigued

That’s how some crazy pickup trucks have come into existence, one of which we’ll be checking out in this piece. It’s the Shadi 2000 Chevrolet Pickup, a unique vehicle with questionable styling that has attracted plenty of critique over the years. However, I’m not planning to badmouth it too much because, as weird and unconventional as it may be, it was probably someone’s dream truck back in the 1990s.This is a truck you certainly don’t see every day. It’s one of those designs that you either love or hate; there is no in-between. It’s something of a hybrid vehicle blending the front of a sports car with the rear of a pickup truck, which was pretty unconventional for its time. If you look at the picture gallery, you’ll notice that the bizarre contraption looks like the love child of Chevrolet’s venerable C3 Corvette sports car and the S10 compact pickup truck.

The Shadi 2000 was a fiberglass body kit mounted on a Chevrolet pickup truck. Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s, body kits were all the rage, especially on trucks, but while most people chose to customize their vehicles with premium bumpers, a redesigned front grill, a more aerodynamic spoiler, or hood scoops for enhanced performance, the Shadi 2000 went all in with a full body kit that gave completely transformed the look of the donor pickup truck.

The sad thing is that very little information is available about this oddball, and this is most likely because it never managed to drum up enough interest to get people to actually buy it. It is believed that only seven Shadi 2000 conversions were ever produced, and only four are known to still be extant today.

The Shadi fiberglass kits were made in Pasadena, Texas, but the name of the company that designed them is lost to history, as is the reasoning behind its weird, uncanny styling. By the looks of things, it might have been an attempt at creating a more aerodynamic American pickup truck, but there are many questionable design elements that might explain the extremely low demand.

The Shadi 2000 body kit consisted of around 12 individual pieces and could be mounted on a 1977 to 1987 Chevy pickup with a short wheelbase. While the back of the vehicle retains the typically angular and aggressive styling of a pickup, the front end is another story altogether. It boasts a Corvette-like slanted nose that is much longer than the pickup it is based on, and the hood seems to be inspired by the crazy Mako Shark II, the concept car that set the proportions and styling for the Corvette C3 to C7.

While the slanted nose is definitely the highlight of the design, it’s a combination of features that make it unique and weird at the same time, including widened wheel arches, various vents, sidesteps, a recessed light oddly placed just ahead of each rear wheel, a massive looking tailgate with prominent Shadi branding, and an optional rear spoiler.

Buyers of this unusual kit had to do the conversion themselves, and a closed-door respray was needed after all the panels had been fitted.

As mentioned above, only four examples of the Shadi 2000 Chevrolet Pickup have survived to this day, one of which is the vehicle in question here. This rare example is due to soon roll across the auction block, and though most people seem to hate it, we really hope it will appeal to some gearhead willing to drive the hell out of it.

It is finished in red and features yellow and blue decals down the side, tinted windows, and Shadi badges front and back. There is also an out-of-place Batman logo on the rear window. This unit has the optional spoiler, and the rear tailgate is fully illuminated. No performance figures are available, but the Shadi 2000 truck is equipped with a 350 ci Chevrolet small block V8 engine coupled with a column-shifted automatic transmission. The vehicle rides on a set of Ultra wheels wrapped in new  National Renegade XT tires and has LED lights installed underneath.

Moving on to the interior, we notice Wirth red velour upholstered seats, a sports-style wood-rimmed steering wheel, electric windows, air conditioning, and custom color-matching door paneling and carpeting.

Though quite obscure and very little known, the Shadi 2000 Chevrolet Custom Pickup deserves a place among the most unusual pickup trucks out there.