Time Out: 70 El Camino Side Project

[lolife99]

Subscribing,...

[jhama78]

10" wheel in the rear most definitely looks 'right' Lucky kid for sure.

[SCOTI]

With the suspension freshened up & the necessary funding reached, it was decided to do some rust/sheet-metal repairs before other items.

This thing had a sun-roof installed @ some point in it's life. Like most things w/a hole on top that sits outside for any length of time, eventually it's going to leak. So, someone crudely patched up where the sun-roof was, wiped over the sheet-metal patch w/bondo (no primer anywhere) & then threw a poorly installed vinyl top over the mess.

The roof skin was done by a shop that has done work w/my buddy's dad before (his dad is a long-time local upholstery guy). The guy was able to get to it quickly & the price was very fair. I just told my buddy to go by there frequently to ensure the quality of repair was what we were shooting for.

The guy removed the old rotted metal, installed the new skin, & metal worked things allowing us to ok the work before any top-coat was applied. We wanted proper metal work here & no hidden shoddy work. We got it....

[SCOTI]

After priming/sealing, my buddy & his dad sourced new quality black vinyl material & got the new top installed. I lobbied for paint because it seems vinyl tops love moisture & I felt a 'simulated vinyl top' would work w/o future risk. They opted to keep it traditional. Then another old school local guy came out & installed the glass...

[SCOTI]

Our plan was to tackle the floor boards next. The Camino was then stripped of what remained of the old interior. It was @ this time that an offer came about & plans changed.

I've never done an entire floor. I've done patch repair but this thing didn't have much remaining to 'patch'. The existing damage to the floors wasn't repaired much better than the roof. it had the standard sheet-metal squares hammered in to fit where the rot diminished, screwed in place, & then slathered in sealant. They then threw cheap carpet over it @ called it good. What a mess.

So the change of plans was one of the neighbors where my buddy's family shop is does sheet-metal repairs for a living @ a local body-shop & does side work. He said he could do it right, quickly, & offered a good deal. You know the old saying.... Correct, Fast, & Cheap: You can pick two out of the three. So what seemed like a good idea to allow a pro go @ it & quickly move things along turned into a big delay. Yes he did a good job as priced. But instead of weeks, it was months (months). The guy also wound-up installing a tailgate skin for us as well since there was a delay (the old gate had ~3/4" of bondo on it in some areas).

While not happy, there was no harm as it allowed time for replenishing the funds.
As my buddy would say, it is what it is....

[SCOTI]

The unfortunate part of the floor delay was it jacked-up our schedules. With the kids school activities, sports + life in general, progress slowed as the season changed. My buddy scoured the net & C-list looking for El Camino/Chevelle related parts during this downtime.

We wanted the classic 'muscle-car' theme w/the interior. My buddy was looking through ad's for related parts when he came into contact w/a guy selling various parts & made him an offer on some mis-matched pieces. So a road trip to Baton Rouge LA was in order & he was able to pick-up a set of buckets & console for free (the guy thought it was cool what he was doing for his son on such a shoe-string budget so he wouldn't take any money for the parts). Very cool! My buddy insisted on paying something so he wound up giving him some cash so he could take his wife out for dinner.

Since we were into the winter months now, we returned focus to my dually while he continued looking for parts for the Camino. I was really pushing to have my Dually done for the Lone Star Throwdown which kept us both busy. Unfortunately my deadline wasn’t achieved as there were too many shake-down issues to address.

As we moved closer to summer, a plan was made to shift our focus back to the Camino & get it over to my shop to transform the ‘challenged’ engine bay. Gotta show the 'free stuff' first though.....

[SCOTI]

Our intent under the hood was again to keep things simple & maintain the classic muscle car theme.

We wanted to clean-up the multiple layers of chipped paint that was then topped w/un-masked undercoating. The exposed frame, hood hinges, springs, core support, inner fender skins & wheel-wells were all poorly sprayed w/undercoating (the stuff was everywhere!). And the other issues:

The motor leaked all over.
The intake was stained.
Headers hung far too low.
None of the pulleys matched (1x faded billet, 1x chrome steel, 1x painted steel, & 1x plated steel).
There were wires literally draped over the motor from side to side.
The external Voltage regulator was removed & wires were just hanging exposed or loosely twisted together.
There were multiple holes in the firewall that indicated there was prob an under-dash A/C unit @ some point in life that were filled w/expandable foam & taped over.
Other items were dirty + had over-spray.

This was going to be a big part of the project & would make or break our efforts. This is also where ‘the boys’ (car owner Dylon & his bother Blane) got more involved as school was now out.