The Most Recent Progress and pictures are on the Last Page
Here is my 1967 Chevrolet El Camino Custom. This is the first vehicle I have ever owned. I purchased it in 2000 for $1200 with money I earned washing dishes at the local truck-stop.The trim-tag shows the original color as Marina-Blue. The color that was covering most of the truck when I got it was a really bad looking teal green. There was lots of rust on the roof, quarters, hood, doors, cowl, back window and in the bed area. The pics don't show it, but there were rust bubbles just about everywhere.
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How it all began
The car after I got it home in 2000:
The worn-out interior, and new gauges :
Shortly after I got the car, the 350 (non-original) blew up(it was well worn-out). So here are the pic's of the new 327 small-block (date code correct from a 67 impala).
The restore started as just pulling the messed up dash and wiring to repair and repaint it. The snowballed as most projects do into a full blown tear-down.
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So the car has been torn apart since the end of 2001 to now.
Restore Pic's
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As I tore apart the elco, I found lots and lots of rust and filler OVER rust (and four layers of different colors of paint covering most of the body.).
Progress:
I made a patch to repair the rust through in the bed:
Cutting out the rust behind the door on the quarter panel, here is a pic after some eastwood rust paint was applied before patching.
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Fixing the rust on the lower A-pillar. I made a few patches to fix the area at the bottom of the windshield, and also installed a new lower channel that I bought from Year One. Here is before and after:
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Fixing the rusted-out lower rear quarter. Cut it all out and started tacking in the patch panel I made:
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After welding up the patch in the bed I wire-brushed everything and then cleaned it with metal-wash. I then applied two good coats of Rust Bullet paint. I then installed the new front bed cover I just bought used (my old one was rusted out).
And after epoxy prime:
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I got bored with rust-repair so I decided to fix the gauge cluster. Here is before:
And During:
Here is pic the the car in epoxy after cleaning all the rust off with both sand blasting and 3M clean-and-strip discs. I also repainted the firewall with eastwood extreme chassis black.
Update : Gauges are done! They turned out AWESOME!!! I must say, they look better than new ones would. I did all the repair's myself, and only bought the chrome bezel new, the rest of them are all orginal. I repaired the scratched-up clear plastic with a buffing wheel and plastic polish and I looks incredible! The pic's don't do it justice, but here they are.
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Update 04/28/08 :
I got a new hood!!! The old flat hood was way more rusted than I thought. Under the primer was lots of filler and rust. So off to the dump it went (you could even hear the rust rattling around inside the old hood). The new one is an SS hood that would have came on a Chevelle of the same year.
Here is the pic after it was delivered today:
And after some wax and grease remover, scuff with 3M pad, and then tacked down and some Dupont epoxy primer.
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Update 05/02/08 : Doors are back on!!!!
I finished stripping five layers of old crusty paint off my doors with aircraft-stripper and some scrapers and steel wool. The then got the stuff cleaned off with water, then went over them again with Eastwood metal wash to clean them, and etch the metal so it wouldnt rust. Then cleaned them again with 3M disc's, then did a final wipe down with Pixel20 to be sure they were clean, and to kill and microscopic rust (I HATE RUST). Then they got scuffed and tacked. Then I sealed them all up with Dupont Epoxy primer. I mounted the new hinges and bolts while I had a friend hold them in place I bolted them to the car!!! Its starting too look a like a truck again after many years in pieces:
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- More parts!
Also, some new parts arrived that I ordered from OPGI. I needed new inner fender skirts and a radiator support (mine were rusted, it made more sense to replace them). I also bought a fender tie bar (between the fenders) and hood hinges. It always feels good to get new parts. I did some sanding to smooth out some scratches on the fender skirts, cleaned the parts with wax and grease remover and then scuffed and tacked. Gave them all a good smooth coat of Dupont Epoxy primer (I love this stuff, its great for just about everything).
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Update 05/03/08 : Parts are painted:
I finished priming the parts with epoxy, and scuffed them smooth and tacked it all down. I then sprayed Eastwood "Underhood Black" paint with my little detail gun. This paint is really nice looking. It has the correct 20% semi-gloss for underhood parts just like the factory used.
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Update 09/27/08 :Update so far.
I have been working on my Duster too much, I am back to workin on the elco now. Been working on it for the last few weeks, here is some of the rust repair I am doing on my fenders:
These fenders had SOOO many dents and lots of rust, in hindsight, I should have just bought some new ones, but I dont have the extra cash to throw at them right now. I patched the rust at the front edge of the fenders, as well as the usual lower rear corner rust on both sides. While I was at it I welded up the trim holes, and the holes drilled by one of the previous owners to fix dents (they must have been too lazy to take the inner fender off). Here are some pics of the repairs:
I sanded the fenders, then use Picklex 20 to get the metal clean and rust free. Did some filler work and then sealed them up with epoxy. So far I have a couple weeks into the fenders, and still need to do a little more to make them perfect.
Tonight I worked on the last of the major rust. The back window channel on this truck is RUSTY. Someone at one time appears to have welded another piece of metal over the rusty window channel, and then used brass to fill in some of the holes. And then they slathered the whole thing in an half inch of filler.
I Ground all the filler out and cut alot of the metal and spotwelds I could find. Here is a pic of some of the nasty metal I removed:
Here is a pic of the patch panel I bought. Looks like it w2 ill work ok:
More on Page Two and Three
MANY MORE PICTURES TO COME SOON
I will update this site each week with my progress. As I work on this vehicle daily.
Thank You for stopping by, please be sure to sign my guestbook.
