Even though Alameda is home to numerous street-parked Chevy El Caminos, I've been guilty of overlooking examples of GM's truckcars so far in this series, with just this '72 so far. That's probably because I consider the 1959-60 and 1964-67 models to be the only "true" El Caminos, for reasons that don't stand up under any serious scrutiny. So, with Maximum El Camino Day as inspiration, I'm going to make sure that we see more of the island's Elcos in the future, starting today!

While non-pickup Chevelles of this era are a rare sight, you still see quite a few El Caminos. No doubt this is due to the usefulness of the truck bed motivating owners to keep the things running long after the non-bed-equipped A-bodies were crushed.


This '75, a fine example of the Malaise Era GM A-body, lives on the same block as the Bonus Cab '71 Chevrolet pickup; I think they may belong to the same owner. Since that owner is a high school classmate of Belvedere Adrian (who, by the way, informs me that the '71 has 454 big-block power), I can make some inquiries about this El Camino and see if I can learn more about it.


The Malaise El Caminos were bigger than the generations that came before and after them... but I'll bet this one is still lighter than the new Pontiac truckcar.