Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Best looking 70's Pickup truck?

Power Wagon

'79 Ford. Earlier weren't bad but those square headlights really made that body style.

You know..I would have to disagree.

With the round hood and fenders..I think the round head lights really were better.

On the 73 to 80 Chev....the round headlights up to 80 were wrong with the square hood and fenders.

Much better in 80.

Jmho of course!

Wow is right!

Me also! Had a '72 Cheyenne SB 4x4 with 350/auto in dark green with 3.73 rearend. That was a super hunting rig. Sure wished I still had it. Ring and pinion was bad when I bought it. Didn't notice in test drive but showed up with a nice whine about 100 miles down the road from Fairview, MT where I was working at the time to northwest SD. Got some money back on the "100% sound" guarantee and drove it for a bit over 1yr then didn't want to stick a grand in it to fix it right so traded for a '75 2WD long box w/454 like an idiot!!!!!

Don't lean against it, you will have a dent. I had one tinny body!

I’m a diehard Ford guy, 4th generation. But I don’t think there’s ever been a better looking pickup on the road than the 67-72 Chevys, especially SWB 4X4s.

Of the 70’s Fords I think the 78-79s are the best looking and they had the good brakes and steering setup by then. Have a 79 in the driveway that I’ll never sell. I wish they’d have kept the Highboy frame and spring setup past 77 1/2 as the stance and ability to clear 35s stock was great. But the drum brakes, sorry power assist steering, and the 360 2bbl as the only V8 in 4X4s sucked.

Had some of the little 1st gen Broncos and they’re a hoot. But they aren’t really great for anything but kicking around the hills or Sunday cruising. Our last one was a 74’ with a 200 six, 3 on the tree, and 4:56 gears. Too underpowered for any off-roading unless you were in Low Range and had a top speed on the road of about 70. Sounded like it was about to sling a rod through the block it was wound so tight and the manual drums took a while to shut it down if you ran that fast anyway. Cool looking little rig though. A 76 or 77 with an auto, power steering and disc brakes, and a 302 would be much better I’m betting.

I like the size of pick-ups from that era. My Grandfather had a pristine 69 Chevy long bed,..orange with a white top,...pretty pick-up. I was a middle school aged teen,..but I could reach over the side and put my bicycle in the back.

The pick-up I have now isn't very new,..a 2005 F-150 long bed. But the sides are so high that it's hard to reach over and get something out of the bed.

I guess people like bigger trucks. But the early 2000's Dodge Dakota is about the right size for me. I haven't done any measurements, but it looks to be about the same size as the '64 chevy pick up we had when I was a kid,..and at the time it was considered a full size half ton pick-up.

I have a 4X4 short box sitting in the barn in need of restoration, hopefully it will look that nice someday.

It is striking...the difference.

I have a 72 and a 2002. Both regular cabs...both long box 3/4 tons

There is quite a difference in size and weight.

Round headlights were far better

When I was 15 I bought a 68 chevy with money I'd saved. My dad and I replaced one fender-well and fender, both rocker panels, sanded, primered, and painted it (inside and out), put a new floor liner in it, put new decals on the tailgate, put the original mirrors back on it, put on a frame mounted receiver hitch, put in trailer brakes, put in a seat belt for the middle seat so my younger brother and sister could ride to school with me. I had a local shop re-upholster the seats. I drove it through high school and pulled a 2 horse trailer with it a lot. The 3 speed straight 6 and low gears were good enough for how I used it.

Gas mileage was terrible.....sold it when I graduated and put the $ towards a Nissan Sentra because I was going off to college and it was the "smart" thing to do.....ranks as one of the "stupidest" things I've ever done.....

1970 to 1972 Chevy or GM. Had a short box, stepside, Chev which I really liked. The cab was a bit crowded but I liked the truck. If they built the same truck today, I would buy one but they wouldn't build it. GD

The last full size pick up I owned was a '98 F-150 short bed. I really liked that truck. It was just a base model, V6 stick. But it would pull my 18' Crownline boat just fine. (Launching a boat with a stick shift can get tricky, however) It never seemed to be all that big of a pick-up. But the 2005 long bed that I have now seems huge in comparison, although I think most of the difference is the length of the bed.

A long bed as opposed to a short bed makes a big difference in the perceived size of a pick up. I never felt any need to make allowances when parking the '98 short bed. But I have to pay attention when pulling the 2005 long bed into a parking space. That extra couple of feet in length makes more difference than it seems like it should.

All the 70s-the late 80s were nasty looking in my eyes. I had a few of them Dodge, Ford, and Chev., but they were butt ugly. I like the Chev 63-68 style and I liked my 66 F100 SW 352 custom cab.
If I were to do another custom it would be a 67 or 68 SW Chev.

76 GMC after it's first red paint job. It had been grey with maroon in the middle.

What's the longest trip you ever made on that hardtail pan?

Mostly new sheet metal & second red paint job about 9 years later.

Poorer than usual pics for me but this is about all I've got. Mt first 4x4

A 70 that was bone stock w/307 2 bbl. & 3 on the tree. It was replaced with rebuilt 300 hp 327 out of a 64 Impala. The 36" tires were huge in the day, common now.





My first born has been grown up for many a year..

8 hours of riding in a day was pretty normal.

That was then, like over 40 years ago. Got by with a lot of things back "then".