MY 1970 CHEVY EL CAMINO

"IN X ES"

The paint sketch, the plan for the spring, except with a big cowl induction hood and a pinstripe separating the orange and black on the side

My Car club, Can- Am Chevelles

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top Overall Rides!! #1!!Thanks a lot to everyone who rated me at 5 stars this is so sweet thanks a lot, and thanks to Team Car Domain I know a lot of you guys rated me too, thanks everyone!

 

 

As you can probably tell from my pictures, I'm just a young guy, I turned 17 in May, so a lot of the stuff I am doing to my El Camino will be spaced out over a few years when I have more money because I plan on holding onto the car for a long time.

 

 

But dont get me wrong, I'm young but I'm a huge car fan and know A LOT about cars especially muscle cars, and i worked hard for this car, worked full time for a few summers saving up all my money to buy it, am not some spoiled rich kid who had my dad buy me car, its all mine, money I worked for to buy, license and insure it all in my name

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me beside it the day i got it

 

 

My 350, factory rated at 250 horsepower/348 lb ft of torque at 9.00:1 compression with the factory 2 barrel carb, now its got a 600 cfm edelbrock carb and an edelbrock aluminum intake manifold, next is headers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My interior, nothing special, bench seat, new door panels, am still painting my dashboard is still taken apart at this time (so not in picture)

 

 

My door panels, have been redone in original style, also you can really see my window tint

 

 

 

Also I am going to build a dual exhaust system in the spring, 1970 Challenger T/A style in front of the rear wheels

 

 

Having a bit of fun with the El Camino the first day out on the road with it

 

 

 

 

 

This is the wood box i built for behind my seat to hold the speakers,  cant you tell how much my parents must love this car..and all of its parts scattered across the house (this is the kitchen table ha ha)

 

 

 

 

This is a custom box I made for my head unit to sit in underneath the dash so I dont have to cut open my factory dash, built it with wood I had in the shop, routered the edges and sanded it all right smooth. I'm really happy with how it turned out, and it was free to make! lol

 

 

And now here is the same box after i stained it really dark to match my interior

 

 

My new intake manifold, an Edelbrock Performer Series

 

 

I have this carb installed now, am actually not sure if it is a 650-700 ish, I know it is overfeeding my small block a bit, but for now i'm going to keep it, it runs awesome now that is installed i love it, it is so much better (and more reliable) with this carb

 

 

The El Camino ready to come out of winter storage, just got it fired up

- THIS IS ALL OF THE RESTORATION PICS AND STORIES AND EVERYTHING, TO SEE THE FINISHED CAR AND SHOW PICS GO TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE-

 

 

Back home, taking off the floor pan and replacing floor, the original floor was really rusty, someone just put a patch panel over it, so i'm taking it all out and doing it right(my dad in the picture)

 

 

 

 

The bed floor after i got the patch panel off, someone befote me just stuck new metal over the rust, since i plan on owning this car for many years, i decided to do it right and put all new metal in- ouch that rust is bad! tetanus shots everyone?

 

 

One of the 2 new panels i got to replace rusted out factory floor- thanks so much to Derek at Hank's Auto Wreckers, your the man!

 

 

 

 

This is me in the back of the El Camino grinding out all the spot welds to pull the rusted factory floor out. I put countless hours into this car until now that its back on the road, and I'm sure there will eb countless more, and I coudlnt love this car more, my friends all say its more than an obsession to me, so thats how it got its nicknames.. 'BEYOND OBSESSION' and 'IN X ES'

 

 

This is with the rusted factory floor pulled out, This is the crossmember setup and it is all spot welded onto the 4 crossmembers. If anyone else is ever doing anything like this on a 70-72 El Camino, feel free to ask any tips/tricks i picked up on how to deal with these floors, i would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have

 

 

This is the one crossmember, this is where the gas tank should be supported, which clearly on mine it wasnt

 

 

When I have a bit more money saved up, I want to get adjustable link bars

 

This is how the car sits as of right now, it looks good here, because you cant see the no floor in the back lol

 

 

 

 

This is the inside of the 1/4 panel on drivers side Before and After (before paint and undercoating)

 

 

 

 

This is right behind the cab right behind the driver's side of the seat Before and After (before paint and undercoating)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the new cusotm crossmembers installed waiting for more primer and paint, gas tank and floor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my interior almost all done. The dash, headliner, carpet, seats and door panels are all done now, the only thing left to do is the speaker box behind the seat

 

 

 

Long way to go still..

 

 

 

 

 

This is one of the many (very many) test fits of the new floor, needs some trimming to fit tight

 

 

These are some of the ton of holes drilled for spot welds to go down in, there is a lot!

 

 

 

 

This is the ifnal step before putting the new floor down, i grinded it all down to bare metal, marked out where the spot welds go, taped them off then primered and painted everything else to prevent rust under my new floor.

 

 

 

 

These are holes in the back wall, I have no idea why they were there, but this is after welding and filling them

 

 

The new floor partially welded in, i liek this picture because it shows the bracing and crossmember set-up, and also that I'm not some spoiled kid who bought a perfect car, or had someone do everything for me, we did this all ourselves in the driveway!

 

 

This is the driver side of the bed, it is upside down, this shows how we primered and painted the new floor pieces underneath, the wole underside of this car now is all shiny and gloss black, looks like a show car right now its awesome!

 

 

My dad laying down the first coat of primer to be sanded

We decided to finish the car to get it down to Grand Island New York for the 6th annual Northern Chevelle Gathering. We were leaving at 7 in the morning on the saturday, we literally finished the interior and trim friday night at 10:30!

 

 

 

 

The first drive since it was all finished, this is at about 11 at night, because we just finished the car and were goin to drive it 150 miles to new york in about 8 hours from this point! ha ha too bad about the dent in the door

 

 

This is the custom speaker box with the 2 sony speakers finally installed, it sounds great

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are some pics from the 6th annual Northern Chevelle Gathering, the car made it down there, only a few small problems along the way, it was an awesome Show, Can-Am Chevelles did an amzizing job putting it all together, I had an awesome time! See you all again next year! 

 

 

 

 

Ha ha, k when I say a few small problems along the way, this is one of them, about halfway done the 150 mile cruise, we heard a clanging noise, pulled over and just as were about 2 stop - BANG/ SNAP- the exhaust flang came off and the exhuast jammed against the ground and got thrown into the bottom of the floor denting it up about an inch-- aww the brand new floor!
-We pieced it back together good enough to get there and back, and go figure, in the driveway once i'm home, it falls off!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At A local car show, The last picture is with my mom's 73 Charger

 

 

I love this picture, this is my friend Mark parked right behind me in the driveway, Its a badass 97 Trans Am with a completely done up 355, the car is soo fast

 

 

This is at the front part of the underside of my hood, added some of the stickers and stuff that gathered up, looks pretty sweet when the hood gets opened

Right now, my plans with the car are to get it painted and done up more soon. As much as I respect fully stock and perfectly restored cars, I am going to have my El Camino customized and in my opinion much better than original. I am doing a massive 4 inch Cowl Hood, motor work, 4 wheel disk brakes, custom audio system, and yes.. a spray-in liner in the back.

 

 

 

These are some pics form July 22nd/ 2008, just went out for a cruise with my camera, I love these pics, awesome day, warm weather, car ran good, and as you can see its a picturesque area.

 

These are the new tires I got off my friend Mark (the guy with the trans-am in an earlier pic) They are 325 Wide Mickey- Thompson Tires mounted on MT drag rims as well, these pictures dont really do justice to how big these tires are and how sweet they look in person

I finally decided on a paint job, it is going to be Suzuki Pearl Orange Paint and jet black two tone split along the body line along the side of the car, black on top orange on the bottom,

 

This is a rough sketch that i made to show how i am going ot have it painted

 

At school one day, I am the one wearing the shorts

 

 

Can- Am Chevelles

 

All i can say is that, it is my car and daily driver, I am going to build it how i want it to be, I am going to make it drive and look like a custom and that even from 500 feet away, it will be obvious that it is my El Camino. So for the pure enthusiasts, sorry.