Chevrolet El Camino 1967 images

1967 marked the final year of the Chevrolet El Camino’s second generation, and one of its most overlooked performance years. Buyers could order this car-truck hybrid with seven different powertrains, topping out with an SS396 big-block borrowed straight from the Chevelle. With just 34,830 built, clean surviving examples of this last-of-its-kind El Camino are increasingly hard to find.

1967 Chevrolet El Camino 327 CID V-8 2 Speed Automatic

MCF thanks Gateway Classic Car for the images provided here.

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By 1967, Chevrolet’s car-truck hybrid had already spent seven years trying to convince buyers it deserved to exist, competing against Ford’s Ranchero in a segment nobody could quite agree on. That year would turn out to be the last chapter of the El Camino’s second generation, closing out a design that had barely changed since a full facelift the year before. Underneath some of these final-year trucks, though, was a genuinely serious performance option that most casual shoppers never noticed sitting on the order sheet, an engine borrowed directly from Chevrolet’s fastest muscle cars of the era. With seven different powertrains to choose from and one very potent optional big-block, the 1967 El Camino offered a lot more than most buyers realized.

Seven Engines, One Very Different Truck

Chevrolet offered the 1967 El Camino with a genuine spread of seven powertrains, starting with two straight-sixes, a 3.8-liter rated at 140 horsepower and a 4.1-liter at 155 horsepower, moving up through a base 4.6-liter V8 at 195 horsepower, and continuing into mid-range 5.4-liter V8 options rated at 275 and 325 horsepower.

The SS396 Hiding in a Truck Bed

At the top of the range sat the SS396 package, offered with the L35 engine at 325 horsepower, the L34 at 350 horsepower, and the range-topping L78 at 375 horsepower, essentially the same big-block muscle found under the hood of a contemporary Chevelle SS. 1967 also brought the newly available Turbo Hydra-Matic 400 automatic, optional front disc brakes, and a collapsible steering column as a fresh safety feature.

The End of an Era

Chevrolet built 34,830 examples of the El Camino in 1967, priced from roughly 2,615 to 2,695 dollars new, before retiring the second-generation body for a full redesign the following year. That makes clean survivors from this final second-generation model year, especially SS396-optioned trucks, notably harder to find today than the more common six-cylinder base models.

A Genuine Hybrid, Not Just a Marketing Gimmick

Unlike some car-based pickups that felt like afterthoughts, the second-generation El Camino combined a real, usable cargo bed with passenger-car ride quality, interior comfort, and even available power steering and air conditioning, giving buyers genuine daily-driver comfort in a vehicle that could still haul a real load, a combination that appealed to small business owners and enthusiasts alike.

GMC’s Badge-Engineered Twin

Chevrolet’s General Motors sibling division sold a nearly identical vehicle under the Sprint name a few years after this generation, following GM’s well-established practice of badge-engineering the same basic vehicle across multiple divisions to reach different dealer networks without the cost of developing a second unique platform.

A Design Language Shared With the Passenger Cars

The mid-1960s El Camino’s styling, from its creased fenders to its twin-domed hood, mirrored the passenger Chevelle almost exactly from the cowl forward, a deliberate choice that let Chevrolet market the truck as a genuine extension of its car lineup rather than a separate commercial product, which is exactly why the SS396 package translated over so naturally.

Why So Few Survive With Original Big-Blocks Intact

Because El Caminos were bought and used as working vehicles far more often than an equivalent Chevelle, a much smaller percentage of big-block-optioned trucks survived in unmolested condition, with many original engines swapped out over decades of hard use, making a documented, numbers-matching SS396 example like this one considerably harder to find today than the production totals alone would suggest.

Restoring a Truck That Was Actually Used as One

Because these trucks so often lived working lives rather than being carefully preserved, sourcing rust-free bed floors, cargo bed rails, and other truck-specific sheet metal has become one of the more challenging aspects of a full El Camino restoration, parts that a standard Chevelle restoration would never even need to consider.

A Distinct Niche in the Collector Market

El Caminos occupy a genuinely unique space in the muscle car hobby, drawing interest both from traditional muscle car collectors chasing the SS396 package and from truck enthusiasts who simply want something unlike anything else in a car show parking lot, a dual appeal that has kept demand for clean, documented examples steadily strong.

Custom Trim Options Buyers Could Add

Beyond the SS396 performance package, Chevrolet offered a Custom interior trim option on the mid-1960s El Camino that added upgraded upholstery, additional sound deadening, and brighter exterior trim, letting buyers dress up the truck’s cabin well beyond its standard, more utilitarian base configuration.

Bench Seats Were Still the Default Choice

Unlike the bucket-seat-and-console layout closely associated with the contemporary Chevelle SS, most El Caminos of this era, including many SS396 trucks, left the factory with a simple front bench seat, a practical holdover from the model’s origins as a genuine working vehicle rather than a dedicated performance coupe.

A Truck That Aged Into Genuine Collectibility

For decades after leaving the factory, the El Camino was viewed by many enthusiasts as a lesser cousin to the Chevelle it was based on, and only in recent decades has the model earned its own dedicated following of collectors who specifically seek out the car-truck body style rather than treating it as a fallback option.

Documentation Still Determines Value

As with any big-block muscle car built more than half a century ago, an El Camino’s ultimate collector value comes down to verified originality: matching engine and transmission codes, a documented ownership history, and confirmation that its SS396 badging reflects a genuine factory order rather than a later addition.

The Last Year Before a Full Redesign

As the final model year of its second generation, the 1967 El Camino carried only detail trim changes from 1966, making it visually similar enough to its immediate predecessor that specific one-year-only trim details, like grille and taillight treatments, are what collectors use to distinguish a 1967 from a 1966 at a glance.

A Two-Speed Automatic, Not a Modern Overdrive

The two-speed automatic offered on El Caminos like this one reflects period Chevrolet technology, a simpler, more truck-like transmission than the three-speed Turbo Hydra-Matic that would become far more common across Chevrolet’s lineup within just a few more model years.

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