When I lived in SoCal in the 70's it was the same way.
When I owned a shop in central California in the 70's and dealt with CARB on a regular basis, the year of manufacture of the engine, not the chassis was the determining factor for emissions compliance. The feds were a bunch of pansies compared to the state guys! They even had a foxy blonde mechanical engineer in a miniskirt, driving a Corvette and ambushing shop owners, requesting illegal modifications!
Jerry
