(Pics) 1957 Chevrolet Cameo pickup

I have never liked this truck because it looks like GM had two different design teams working on it, one designed the front half from the cab forward and another different team designed the rear half from the bed rearwards and neither team ever bothered to talk to one another. There is just no flow to the design, the bed and cab just don't work together. 

I don't think I have ever seen a more mismatched design than this example from General Motors, and GM has designed some ugly vehicles, the Pontiac Aztec comes to mind and there are others but at least the Aztec was consistent from the front to the rear.  

Here is my take on what happened GM started to design a new pickup and they started with the bed but somewhere along the line the project was never fully funded and only the bed was completed so they decided to just drop the bed onto the cab and chassis calling it a day. 

Posted by: @john3976

Here is my take on what happened GM started to design a new pickup and they started with the bed but somewhere along the line the project was never fully funded and only the bed was completed so they decided to just drop the bed onto the cab and chassis calling it a day. 

 

Actually, no, it didn't happen that way at all. GM had been working on "styled" pickups (and other trucks) for some years. At the 1955 and 1956 Motorama and other car shows, GMC and Chevy had various "dream-styled" pickups. There were Cameo Carriers for sale starting with 1955 models and GMC displayed a "Bluegrass Runabout" show truck in 1956. GMC had the fututistic L'Universelle dream van/truck on display in 1955 as part of this ongoing program to give certain trucks (especially pickups) a car-like desirability in styling, as well as their job working abilities.

For 1957, Chevy had the above (Ertl) Cameo Carrier pickup on sale and GMC displayed the gorgeous Palomino at automobile shows around the country. In 1958 and 1959, Chevrolet had the Apache Cameo Carrier, which continued and expanded on the '57 Cameo styling.

Here's pictures of the 1957 GMC Palomino, the 1955 GMC L'Universelle and the 1959 Chevy Apache Cameo :

Personally I like the look of the GM Cameo pickups but perhaps the chrome strip on the box where it meets the cab should have been deleted in order to make it seem more one unit.  The Dodge version was the one for me that jumped out as being two mismatched designs....wow.

Posted by: @jack-dodds

Personally I like the look of the GM Cameo pickups but perhaps the chrome strip on the box where it meets the cab should have been deleted in order to make it seem more one unit.  The Dodge version was the one for me that jumped out as being two mismatched designs....wow.

Generally, the cab and box on pickups actually are two separate structural units so even perhaps with basically no trim at all, there will be at least some discontinuity at that juncture. I think, a bit like Exner defining the rear of Chrysler Corp cars from about 1956 to 1961 with fins, GM was using trim to set off either or both areas in their newly styled '55 and newer pickup trucks. The idea was to make them styled more in the manner of the Fifties automobiles and thus to make them more appealing to a bigger audience than just farmers or tradesmen/handymen, etc. I'm sure the Harley Earl influence was definitely a factor. For me, I think it worked really well and yet one still had the everyday "work" pickups with their plainer style still a major part of the line.