THE 1976 CHEVY EL CAMINO
This little project is one that we had for quite some time and had actually done some work on prior to my recording it in this section of the TIC website. This is a car that started its life in our hands as a mere body with a bunch of parts. We actually picked this car up from a local auto shop for a mere $300, delivered to our door, title in hand. It was of course missing a few odds and ends but still, we got an El Camino for $300!
One of the first things that I did was pick up a used engine and a transmission that was supposed to be a rebuild and drop these two components into the car. Of course with the car being a SBC car, the whole powerplant went in smoothly, motor mounts and all. I also had stock exhaust manifolds that I put on the engine since I wasn't really keen on using headers. I will have to cut a couple of flanges from another SBC car/truck to use on these exhaust manifolds in order to build the exhaust system when I get to that point in the project. As for the transmission mounts, since the crossmember was one of the missing pieces, I had to fabricate one out of angle iron to use temporarily to hold the transmission up. As for the details on the powertrain, I installed a 305 that I helped pull from an early 90's Chevy truck and the transmission is a 700R4 that was sold as a rebuilt unit. I wanted the 700R for its overdrive gear as this would make the Elco a more economical daily driver especially on the highway. After doing this work, the car sat for a while, parked in the same spot along the driveway, collecting pine needles and crap in the bed.
Fast forward to today and I decided to resurrect the project, as far as doing anything on the car goes. I figured that anything I can do on the car that doesn't involve spending any large amount of money would be worth it in order to get farther along in the project so even if I do put the project on pause again, I can at least know that there isn't much left to do in order to finish it. What I'm really looking at here is reassembling the car using the loose parts that came with the car along with some extras I managed to pick up from a past trip to Texas. I managed to pick up a replacement transmission crossmember and a rear bumper, which was also missing. That bumper was worth more than what I paid for the car as its the bumper with the integrated taillights. Luckily I found both pieces from the same guy for a little over $100. Taking these parts along with the rest, I can start getting the body together.
The first thing I wanted to do was get the front bumper and grille back in place since this was the bulk of the loose parts that came with the car. Due to previous accident damage, I had to straighten out the bumper mounts so the bumper would sit straight instead of at an odd angle showing that there was damage done. With a little brute force I was able to get things straightened out enough to get the bumper lined up and back in place. The grille went back in along with the headlight trim and side markers among other pieces. My first goal with this project was to get all the loose pieces reincorporated into the car before I start really working on the reviving of things. Of course part of the advanced work will involve removing more parts, but a lot of those parts will be going back in once the restoration work is done. Some parts will probably be deemed unnecessary and scrapped.
The next large component that I addressed on this car is the tailgate. I had to go in the side panels where the hinge bolts go to clean up the threads before installing the bolts so I lessen the risk of stripping or cross threading the bolts, or worse, breaking them. Due to the weight of the tailgate and the need to keep the thing stationary so I can get the bolts in, I needed to get some help to hold the heavy component while I installed the bolts.
Moving along, the next area I wanted to tackle was fully supporting the 700R4 transmission. Even though the powertrain was installed, it wasn't fully secured. No crossmember was present for the transmission so it was just kind of crudely supported so it wasn't just dragging its tail on the ground. Since trying to find a crossmember for a cheap price was proving to be a real problem, I ended up just fabricating a crossmember from some heavy angle iron and tubing for reinforcement. When all was said and done, the crossmember was heavier than even a stock unit would've been. I made sure to build the crossmember to line up with a couple of the mounting holes on the frame so the unit would mount right in place with no extra hassle.
The next area that I want to tackle is the fuel tank. I need to remove the fuel tank in order to inspect it to make sure there was no rust damage that would compromise the tank as a whole. I also have to install a generic electric fuel pump close to the fuel tank in order to more efficiently draw fuel from the tank and push it forward to the engine. With new fuel lines in place and the pump in place, I will have to add a generic sending unit to the fuel tank since sourcing a replacement unit will not matter if I don't have a working gauge to read the level of the stock sending unit.
Now for some meat and potatoes. One of the more difficult things that is involved in a car restoration is electrical. Now since this car pretty much remained untouched for who knows how long, I still have to remove all the old wiring. Along with that, I have to make note of the devices that would need to be repowered, so in removing the wiring, I have to snip off the plugs that I would have to wire back into with the fresh wiring. I also have to make note of the things that would not be included in the new wiring so I don't confuse myself with unnecessary wiring. Another area that I had to touch is the dash, including the gauge cluster and eventually the HVAC box in the process of getting the wiring out so I can begin with the rewiring. With the wiring, I also plan on retrofitting the HVAC box to actually simplify it. Instead of having multiple vents controlled with actuators, I just set the box up to have chest level vents and defrost vents. When the blower is on, only those two vents will move air at the same time.
With the HVAC box reconfigured, I move on to the rewiring. Using a universal fuse box and a bunch of scrap wiring, I get all the necessary circuits wired in for the car, save for a few things that wouldn't be included. Wiring is done nice and neat, using zip ties to keep wires bundled up and everything routed nicely behind the dash and through floor channels and paths along the inner fenders in the engine bay. Everything from the lights to the engine electrical are all wired in. Even though there isn't a working key cylinder hooked up to the ignition switch, it too is reused in the rewiring, unfortunately requiring a screwdriver to work the switch mechanism to turn things on. The HVAC system is wired up just as well, using some microswitches and relays to bypass the extra functions no longer required in the HVAC system.
While we're inside the cab area, I turn my attention to the interior. There were many pieces that came with the car that while ratty, were still somewhat usable on the doors and sides. I mounted all these trim pieces and door pieces, eliminating these pieces from the loose pile of parts and at making the interior look more like a car interior. I took a moment to add some speakers to the rear of the cab, albeit crudely since I don't have any speakers with housings that allow me to mount the pieces in a neat enough manner as to not stick out like they do.
After taking a break from this project, I come back to the car with a vengeance. I tackle several areas, the first being the rest of the fuel system where I ended up modifying the fuel tank with a generic sending unit that is matched up to a gauge. After cutting a hole in the top of the fuel tank and adjusting the float I was able to get the unit mounted and the tank back under the car. The gauge was easily mounted as the electrical system was already in so it was a matter of just tapping into the power for the other gauge set and running a wire from the sending unit forward to the cab. The next thing addressed is the engine, with the assembly of everything on the long block. I swapped out the cylinder heads to the older generation heads with which I had a 4 bbl intake to fit. I didn't have the pieces that would go with the intakes that are intended to be used over the two generations of SBC V8s that were used across the 80s and into the 90s. With the heads I added the intake, exhaust, and engine accessories on the front. I also fabricated the rest of the exhaust system going back, knocking that off the list and allowing me to fire off the engine for the first time.
After getting everything addressed in the engine bay and under the car I jump back into the cab and work on the seats. I had a pair of new gen VW beetle seats I had gotten for free. The seat bases were made in such a way as to not allow for their mounting to a relatively flat floor like in the Elco. I ended up salvaging the seat bases from the ratty front seats we pulled from a GMC Safari minivan we stripped a while back. I welded up metal to allow me to bolt the Safari seat bases to the VW seats then put holes in the floor to secure the hybrid GMC/VW seats to the Elco floor. The Safari seat bases had to be chopped and lowered as they were made for the high ceiling minivan and if used in their old configuration, they would've had the VW seats touching the ceiling in the Elco.
