Re: 75 el camino project.

by riddick75 Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:32 am

end of last year I took the fiberglass quarters the guy I bought it from had on it found it to be really bad
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so i took to the interweb in search of a solid body. Came across one 3 hours away, so I loaded up my trailer the day after a huge snowstorm in both my area and all the way up to the middle of Wisconsin. found this beauty, 1977 classic
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So this week my plan is to start cleaning the inside floor pan which solid is just a little surface rust, then Ill get under it and clean the under side. the season of restoration has continued for me.

by dynchel Wed Apr 22, 2015 5:21 pm

The nice thing about g3's (currently) is a solid body is still affordable.

by pila Wed Apr 22, 2015 5:57 pm

Good move on getting the '77. Lots of extra parts too.. Your frame etc looks really great ! Very Happy

I have the '77 front facia, grille etc on my '75, even including the quad headlights. I had only one good single head light casting. I like the '77 grille because it's much lighter in weight that the '75 original, and it helps off-set my front end engine weight.
You may be able to sell a bunch of parts from the '77 or the '75 body on here, and also on the El Camino Central forum.

by riddick75 Wed Apr 22, 2015 7:52 pm

yea it was a good price compared to what I was going to have to do to fix the 75.

and I'm gonna do the opposite of you pila, I'm going to put the 75 face on the 77. I prefer the single headlights to the doubles. and Im hoping that selling the parts I have extra will off-set the price of the whole build, at least a little. lol and thats not a bad idea to put the parts up on here.

by Limey SE Wed Apr 22, 2015 8:47 pm

I would be in for that 77 Grille if you sell it ?

by dynchel Wed Apr 22, 2015 9:04 pm

A '74 grille is 16 lbs, a '76/'77 is about 4 lbs. FYI You will need to change the 3 mounting brackets to switch grilles.

by Limey SE Wed Apr 22, 2015 9:14 pm

dynchel wrote:A '74 grille is 16 lbs, a '76/'77 is about 4 lbs. FYI You will need to change the 3 mounting brackets to switch grilles.

His other one is a 75 John and he wants to keep the Single headlight look BONUS for hopefully me LOL

by knightfan26917 Fri Apr 24, 2015 7:14 am

Awesome find of that 1977 El Camino. Good luck with the continued project!

Cort Smile

www.oldcarsstronghearts.com
1979 & 1989 Caprice Classics | pigValve, paceMaker, cowValve
"Play with the fire & you're gonna get burned" __ Steve Wariner __ 'Some Fools Never Learn'

by pila Sat Apr 25, 2015 6:48 am

I would have preferred the single '75 headlights also, to match my '74 Malibu, but not finding the parts for a while, I just continued the project with quads. Since my engine is a Caddy 500, the lighter grille helps a bit on weight in front.

by riddick75 Sun May 10, 2015 11:32 pm

started cleaning the floor pans, found a little more bondo than I bargained forbut for the most part it looks like he used it to smooth the panels out for some reason.
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so bondo ground out and also pulled the dash out and everything else I could.
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some holes in the floor that will be addressed and some in the rear wall
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so next step is the smugglers box to come off to do the cleaning and patching.

by thatfnthing Mon May 11, 2015 8:44 am

Those floors are actually in pretty decent shape.

by riddick75 Mon May 11, 2015 11:50 am

Yea they are in good shape. still gotta get under it and see how things are but the worst part is the driver rear Thats a little swiss cheese but I'm thinking of forming a little metal over and patching in. Don't see the sense of buying a floor pan section for any of it really. And the back wall has some spots that Ill probably be able to just plug weld them shut. But over all really solid.

by wunderlich_33 Mon May 11, 2015 12:39 pm

Does the bed look the same/need replacing or did you get lucky on that?

where would you even find full floor pans or are they just quarter pans? let alone a bed

by riddick75 Tue May 12, 2015 4:41 am

wunderlich_33 wrote:Does the bed look the same/need replacing or did you get lucky on that?

where would you even find full floor pans or are they just quarter pans? let alone a bed

there aren't full floor pans like the hump included, but Original parts group and the elcaminostore.com sell the pans in quarter sections. I did come across one that had full right and left that went front to back. and they also have the bed panels as well in right and left halves. but the bed on this one is solid. I do have the bed panel sections that I bought but don't need anymore with this body.

by riddick75 Sat Jun 06, 2015 2:38 am

did a little work on getting the back wall repaired. pulled a doner panel out of my parts car
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holes in the back wall at the crease on good car
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and the bad cut out of the good car.
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got almost everything sized up and ready to weld in. just need to clean the rust off the panels before I weld them in, just to make my life easier.

by 77mali Sat Jun 06, 2015 6:25 am

Lookin' good!

by pila Sat Jun 06, 2015 9:29 pm

Looking good, and I know how much work you have ahead of you ! Very Happy

by riddick75 Thu Sep 03, 2015 4:55 pm

ok its been a while since I posted between work, work, and working on the car. but here it is up to date

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back wall patched in and seam sealed

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roof with some surface rust

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roof cleaning process (wire wheel and believe it or not, vinegar mixed with water) cleaned right down to metal.

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painted, rustolium white because its what I had lying around.

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floor to match, ill actually be using the truck bed liner paint just to give that added waterproof and a little sound deadening quality

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fire wall painted satin black, came out really well

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and all hard lines, brake lines and fuel lines installed. all are stainless steel so I should be good for a long while.

by Limey SE Thu Sep 03, 2015 5:42 pm

Man Looks good, Your making me want to Strip mine down over winter Now LMAO DANG YOU

by dynchel Thu Sep 03, 2015 6:45 pm

X2, looking real good bud.

by 77mali Thu Sep 03, 2015 7:01 pm

Very Nice!

by tropdeprojet Thu Sep 03, 2015 7:49 pm

Nice job!

In my car, no more spare tire and i cut a bigger storage;
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by Joe73 Thu Sep 03, 2015 8:12 pm

Awesome job.

by riddick75 Fri Sep 04, 2015 4:46 am

tropdeprojet wrote:Nice job!

In my car, no more spare tire and i cut a bigger storage;

you have that box sealed up really good? going to put anything down on the bottom like carpet or wood or something?

by tropdeprojet Fri Sep 04, 2015 6:55 am

Line -x Inside the bed.
Yes. Wood box and carpet for a sound system.

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