It was the 1970s, and the light-duty American pickup was transforming into something far beyond the dented, dusty workhorse that had defined its social status since the first cargo bed was haphazardly bolted to a car frame. Arguably started when Chevrolet first introduced its decidedly upmarket Cameo in the late 1950s, pickups had gradually made their way to a new level of comfort and appointments ever since.
By the decade’s midpoint, the Big Three had transformed their trucks into cruisers that were more about ponying up profits than packing in a payload. Ford had the Lariat option package for its F-Series, and a C-K pickup from Chevrolet could be had as a Cheyenne (or
