project drivabeater 2.0: 64 el camino this time

[dusterbd13]

so, i figure ill get the introductio to the project out of the way, and share my score with everybody. im really excited. ive been wanting to build a 64/65 for myself sice i built a 65 with 4 wheel discs and hotchkis suspension for a customer. it just worked for me, and i loved that truck for the little bit of time it was in my care.
since then ive been on again/off again looking for a solid example of one to build. after my health troubles last year, i decided if i was ever going to actually do it, i needed to get around to doing it now. so i put my daily driven truck up for sale, and started digging. this past saturday, i did right at 400 miles looking at various examples of 64-72 el caminos. one really caught my eye, but it was a big block 72 that just didnt really do it for me. on the way home, at a mcdonalds, i was looking through craigslist. came upon a text only ad, on the way home (ish), that had been posted about an hour prior. so i called the guy, and went to see it that night. it was dark, cold, and windy. truck hadnt been started for about 6 months, or moved in that time period. the egntleman i had bought it from was laid out of work, and was selling it to pay bills. i didnt even beat hhim up on his asking price....

anyway, we tinkered with it for about 2 hours till we gt it to fire. between bad batteries, bad batter cables, bad gas, etc, took siome doing. but when she lit, no noises, no smells, no nothing. just ran like a top. the previous owner said when he bout the truck 10 years ago, the guy he bought it from claimed he had just put a new engine in it. i dont knnow, but the tops of the heads are pretty clean, so ill go with it for now.
i told the guy i had to get final approval from my wife, and id be back after church on sunday with some tools and grubby clothes. when i went back, i really pored over the truck. found some rot in it on the quartes and floor pans, but nothing serious. truck had new exhaust, somewhat fresh motor, all the trim, good glass, ran and drove. 350 4bbl, 3 speed on the floor with a hurst shift box. manual drums, manual steering. seemed to be pretty origonal and unmolested, all things considered. previous owner told me he was told that it was a belmont NC fire marshalls truck before the guy he got it from bought it. no way of knowing for certain, but its kind of a groovy story.
anyway, the truck was an origonal powerglide truck that had been swapped. seems like almost all the auto trans column shft stuff is still there. heater and all electrics work, except dome light and radio. brakes are horrid, and there was no fluid in the resivoir. radiator was pretty low as well. factory clock in the dash no longer wrks, either, but all the idiot lights do. someone also put wat appears to be early 70's american racing t70's on it. theyre in almost mint shape. also, it had had a spotlight on the drivers a-pillar, which did not come with the truck.

i drove it around a good bit on sunday, put all the cash from my sock drawer down as a deposit, and went back today to sign title, pay the balance, and trailer it home. my dad went with me, and we had a very good time. really enjoyed it.
giot it home, and started to just get the grease, griome, dirt, and debris off. today was just the first layer.

i figure i ought to give the broad brushtrokes of my plan as well, since this is the first post....
a few years ago, i built a track oriented, daily driven s10. called it the drivabeater.

https://www.pro-touring.com/showthre...ht=drivabeater

that truck was low budget, but quality. looked good from 5 foot, handled well, stopped well, ran out well, still carried a payload well. sold it to get my bigger truck. sold m bigger truck to get this one.
anyway, the general plan: have a 64 elcaino that looks good from 5-10 foot. bench seat, column shift. 4 wheel discs, chassis upgrades for stance and handling. AC, overdrive, EFI, and various other creature comforts. i want to keep the period look as much as possible on the exterior and interior, but the engine bay will be a different story. that will sprout serpentine accessories, electric fans, TBI, hidden wiring, etc. the plan is to complete this truck for under 10k, and habe it run next to my duster at the pro-touring events. ill have to find someone else to drive it there, though. the exterior will still have all thr trim, and im hoping to find a cheaply priced correct spotlight to replace the missing one.

so we will start the budget counting now:
purchase price: 3800
battery, battery terminals, and castrol superclean: 115
total curent investment: 3915

on to the pics!!




















origonal color:




first step will be much, much more cleaning. underneath, underhood, inside, everywhere. this thing is just FILTHY. im expecting to go through a lot more superclean before im done.
then on to battery relocation/cable repair, and figuring out where ll the brake fluid went. after i know what im working with, ill start tweaking it for what i want. last thing will be finish paint and body. will probably get bare metal sanded and eoxy primed in teh near future to weatherproof it some. it will, after all, be my shop truck.....

michael

[Sneke_Eyez]

Awesome. I'll be following along. Your driveabeater project was cool in its purest form, I've enjoyed watching you build the Duster, and now I get to watch you work on another totally cool vehicle. Good luck!

[dusterbd13]

thanks!!

and the origonal drivabeater was great fun while it lasted. the guy that bought it from me and i had lunch a few weeks ago. got to drive it again.

this was almost a thread about another s10, only turbo n* and AWD. but i just couldnt get the elky out of my head....

[dusterbd13]

previous total: 3915



for this update, i really havent done much. been too busy with other stuff. so this is mostly a post about parts gathering, spending money when/where the deals were right.



on to the parts pics!

front sway bar, with cooked bushings and all hardware: 1 5/8 from 78 trans am: 16.01



serpentine accessory drive, with pullies, hardware, 120 amp internally regulated alternator, junk power steering pump, AC compressor, and AC compressor bypass pully: 112.46









jeep grand cherokee 12:1 power steering box, code wk from a hit REALLY hard 82k truck: 35.25





spotlight replacements (boght 2, one 6 volt, one 12 volt. bothe need rebuilt/tweaked/etc. im going to have to figure out how to do that.....) bought from a guy in mooresboro, nc off craigslist. guy dailys a 71 porsche 911, and had an ITB bmw 2002 track car. neat guy. anyway, paid 20 bucks. for the pair.







also, went to lawndale to pick up some vette parts for my best friend. spotted an old spreadbore double pumper in one of the crates. i asked the guy how much. he said 40 bucks. as i was paying him, he told me that was 40 for the WHOLE BOX of carbs. 9 in all. anyone need a quadrajet, double pumper spreadbore, or 600 cfm vac secondary holly? ill make you a SCREAMING deal....





the next part i had in storage. i had gotten this from a mid 90's suburban 3/4 ton. this was for my last shop truck. new owner did not want it, and left it with me. so essentially, its free as the guy got all the spares in the purchase agreement. its 1 inch diameter. i may be able to use it, i may not. if i can, my front and rear swaybar swaps are done!!





next up is my screaming wheel deal. working on a customers c5 z06 vette today, we got to talking about his track wheels. turns out hes running scrubs now, and running 4 of the 18 inch wheels for cheaper slicks. a few years back, i had set him up with a nother vette customer who had gotten out of tracking, and he bought two complete sets opf staggered z06 motorsports wheels. he had the 17;s taking up room, as the stagger on these is 17 front/18 rear. i offered to clear his bill and give him 80 bucks. he said done. i have not recieved the other 2 yeat, as they still have the nt05 rain tires on them, but hes planning on finishing those off at VIR on the first weekend in march. these wheels measure 17X9.5 with 7.5 backspacing. bolt up with no spacers, but would not be runnable. per my research, this wheel needs a 6 inch backspacing to be proper fit with 275/40/17's. so, im ordering some hubcentric 1.5 inch spacers soon. these wheels will also allow me to run c5 vette brakes on the front, and anything i want out back.









im also playing with colors as you can see on the rear quarter. im thinking of doing od green with a black out on the front area of the windshield and hood following the body line. also thinking of the green thats on the firebird arked next to it, and finally, just a clean black with red interior. havent decided yet, and need to get a photoshop or rendering done so i know what im working with.



so, the upcoming to do list:

swap to power steering

swap to electric cooling fans and serpentine accessories

rebuild spreadbore and install

relocate battery after fixing rust in smugglers compartment

convert to discs

convert to 17's

rebuild suspension

fix electrical and interior gremlins

enjoy for a little bit.



new total is:

4218.72



anyone wanna buy extra stuff as i take it off so i can subtract from my budget instead of add? and i really need to start a sale thread.....



michael

[john31s]

This will be cool, subscribed.

[Todd in Vancouver]

Love that body style and this something a little different. I definitely vote for a green colour, and have a look at GM dark forest metallic green truck colour that I did a Camaro in. Would look killer with white stripes on this body style.

[dusterbd13]

so i spent a couple of hours over the last couple of days getting a little pre-tlc done to this thing.

i pulled down all 4 drums, cleaned, lubed, and adjusted. could find no evidence anywhere of where the brake fluid went. no idea. it had to go somewhere, but that somewhere has not revealed itself to me yet. all the drums were nice and thick, no appreciable wear. all the shoes looked fairly fresh, same with the hardware. wheel cylenders fairly crusty, but no evidence of leaking.

bled a bunch of air and crap out of the lines. readjusted the wheel bearings, and found minute amounts of play in both wheel bearings on the rear axle. will probably change them when i go to rear disc.

gave the underside a good once over. floor pans have been replaced at some point, and BADLY. and the replacements are already rotted. so, looks like that will be a bigger job than originally thought.

found why the e-brake was not working. was not hooked up at the pedal. hooked it up there, and had to adjust it almost to the far slack end of travel for it to have any travel at the pedal. doesnt drag, but only has about an inch of travel in it. may work out with time.

engine was origonally blue, as evidenced by where the chevy orange is flaking off. one piece fel-pro gasket (blue one) on the oil pan, which makes me a little nervous. but it runs good, sounds good, has plenty of power. need to figure out just what it is though, and to do that i need to find the casting numbers. im afraid its a 305, but still, even if it is, it will suit my needs fine. just need to figure it out for TBI stuff, really.

also swapped the shifter stick to a longer one i had laying around. still dont like it.

started looking around up under the dash while i was doing park brake. cable to the heater motor is sieved for some reason at the box. thats why i cant turn it on, as the fan speed switch also operates that cable.

the low beams dont work, but 3 of the 4 headlights come on when you pull the switch. miserably dim, though. still has 2 of the old t-series bulbs in it.

test fitted my new to me spotlights. fit the hole perfect.

drove it a little tonight after all that.

runs hard in the secondaries. dont know what its geared yet, but its stiff. like 4.11 stiff. rear brakes are having massive pre-mature lock up problems. but its wet, and i think i may have them adjusted a little too tinght. time will tell. also, i proceeded to pop the cooling system on the way to the gas station. i know its at the front area, but unsure if radiator or hose, as it was really, really dark and i had no lights or tools with me. still put fresh gas in it, and drove it home after adding a lot more water. well figure that out another day, but short version is to put a 3core aluminum radator, new heavy duty cooling pump, and fresh hoses in it. then see if the freeze plugs hold.

it was a fun drive tonight, though. i really like this old truck.

now back to customer cars.

michael

[dusterbd13]

so, quickie update. the cooling system failure was threefold. what caused the massive loss was the too large mechanical van contacting the upper radiator hose. cut it juuuust enough. also, the previously mentioned ffan clutch. lastly, the core of the radiator is haing small leaks in multiple places. so i fixed all three problems for a grand total of 8.94. thats 7.99 plust tax, and a couple of crimp connectors, as well as stolen nutmeg frm the wife. upper radiator hose was bought at o'reilleys. after i got that in, i found the small leaks. used nutmeg, which is the worlds best stopleak. and it smells nice!
i the went on another test drive, as i had to get some hardware and zipties for the firebird build.

wound up driving over half the town to get what i needed, drop off movies, and get some groceries. truck ran really good, though slightly warmer than id like. drove pretty good, and the brakes felt good (well, as good as 10 inch drums are going to.....)
suspension has a little play at the steering, a few creaks and bangs, and the shocks are done for. pulls to the left as well.
trans and drivetrain are pretty good. pulled the engine codes, and it comes out to an under 200 horse 73 350 with 3 speed. runs good, though, so i wont mess with it. also an acceptable power level for stock TBI and ECM from an 80's fullsize.

tonight, after work, i decided to address the cooling fan. up in storage, i have all sorts of odds and ends and parts. pulled out a dual fan setup from my duster , and a thermostatic control left over from my old s10. so no new money spent.



qpther 5.99 at o'reilleys for the fan mounting ties, a luttle time in the rain and dark, and i have an ugly but functional cooling fan setup. it really needs done differently, and will be, but first i want to get a few other things redone so im not chasing my tail.


also, my 1.5 hubcentric spacers (58 from ebay)came in today. now to find a couple 275/40/17's that i can mount up on the z06 wheels. see if i like them, or if they need to go waway. im leaning towards them going away, as i would really like to go with a 16x8 rally and 245/50/16 tires. saw a black one on the net with that setup, and it works for me.



lastly, i started mocking up the spotlight.


new budget total:4291.65

[bonecrrusher]

Looking good.

What's goign on w/ the duster?

[dusterbd13]

Still waiting to get it back from the bodyman who's building my traans tunnel.then a reassemble and shakedown thrash to get it ready for vacation/wedding.

[dusterbd13]

budget first: subtract 120 for the z06 sheels and spacers.
add 535.26 for the following:
steering wheel
pitman arm
brake booster brackets
16X8 rally wheels with 5 inch backspacing

all ordered from summit. the wheels are on backorder, and should be here in a few weeks. then ill put some good tires on them, and convert my disc setup at the same time.
new total: 4706.91


im not sure if the wheel is going in the elky or the duster. either way, ill use this price. ive always wanted a tuff wheel in the duster, and looked at these on the internet, but now that i have one in my hands it seems pretty bad as a tuff wheel knockoff. ill probabloy try it anyway, but im not holding my breath. if it goes in the elky, itll go in as is for now, and be color matched to the interior when i get there.

the pitman arm is for the power steering conversion. same with the steering wheel.
the brake booster brackets are so i can run a late model booster and master.
the wheels are because of this:


this is my goal. only with a red interior and smooth center caps instead of the tri-bars. maybe a hair lower, but not much.
thanks to everyone who helped do photoshops for me. i really, really appreciate it.

im off to pull-a-part tomorrow to grab my late model serpentine power steering pump tomorrow, and hopefully a fresh remanned booster/master combo. if i get really lucky, ill snack some good rear rotors while im out there too.

michael

[SRD art]

Looks like fun to me! Keep it coming...

[Sneke_Eyez]

Heck yeah! What a stance that thing has on those wheels! I'm sure you'll have yours looking like that very soon!
Keep it coming!

[dusterbd13]

im hoping to be able to nail that stance. paint and body will be last, though, so its going to stay ugly fer a while....

[droptop73]

Just a couple of quick questions about the steering box. What year grand cherokee do you look for? What is the significance of the WK stamping? I checked out a bunch of grand cherokee steering boxes today and there were no markings like in your photo.

[dusterbd13]

Just a couple of quick questions about the steering box. What year grand cherokee do you look for? What is the significance of the WK stamping? I checked out a bunch of grand cherokee steering boxes today and there were no markings like in your photo.

theres a thread on team chevelle with a sticky. thatsa where i got all my info.
id link you to it, but im on the work computer., link saved on my home computer...

[droptop73]

Thanks Michael,

Team Chevelle... I'll have to check it out, it's not one of my normal hangouts! LOL

[dusterbd13]

so, previous budget total was 4706.91
add 23.52 for 10 ft 2 gauge batery cable and terminal ends
add 31.98 for booster and aluminum master (93 s10 blazer, if you were wondering)
add 26.36 for rotors (brand new, though surface rusty LS1 camaro rotors)
add 27.42 fpr calipers and abutments (LS1 camaro, ive had them for years. dont remember what i paid, but they came from pull-a-part, so i used current price)
add 27.02 for power steering pump, lines, pully, and cap
add 16.02 for valve covers
add 0.00 for power steering cooler and misc electrical parts (they didnt charge me)

new total: 4829.23

so, ill pick up where i started this week: getting ready to get ready. still collecting parts for the brake and steering conversions. picked up a fresh booster/master combo at pull-a-part in columbia when i was down helping a friend move. 1 inch bore, 10 inchish booster. should work great. also got the tube nuts to reuse when making my new brake lines.

i had also picked up a power steering pump, which upon returning home i realized was wrong. luckily, pull-a-part has started a return policy lately, so i was able to swap it out after work today for the correct piece. didnt cost me an extra dime, and this time i got a pair of fresh power steering lines in the process. i also picked up rotors for my LS brake conversion, as i seem to have lost the set i had. while scrounging, i found a clean set of stock valve covers. i hate chrome valve covers. just seem cheap in some applications. no offense to anyone, but the ones on this car just looked BAD. ill clean and repaint the stockers. sell of the chrome edelbrocks....

i also pulled my disc brake swap stuff out of storage. what you can see in the pic is the LS calipers and abutments, C5 vette abutments, and a 300ZX twin turbo rear caliper/rotor set. i also have a set of Z06 vette calipers kicking around somewhere, i just havent found them yet....

at this point, im still up in the air about rear brakes. id like to go disc, just for cool factor. but i dont know if its worth the time and money in this application. ill leave the drums back there for now, and make the determinayion after i actually get more than one evening worth of driving in this thing.
lastly is the pile of electrical/power steering cooler stuff.



i also actually turned wrences on the elky. i know, shocking that im doing somnething instead of spending money. i got it backed into the work bay tonight, and started dissassembly in preparation for rear mounted battery and hardcore cleaning. decided to route the positive battery cable along the trans tunnel inside the car for safety sake. went through the factory qaccess hole in the rear cab wall. the hole was solid, but the blockoff plate is pretty rusty. ill make some new ones here shortly.


i then pulled the battery out of up front after routing the cable. at some point, someone cut the origonal battery tray almost in half, and bolted down some universal metal tray. im reusing the universal piece in the smugglers copartment for my battery mount. i was also shocked to see no rust under the battery tray. did find a mouse nest and a handfull of drywall screws, though.





after that, i decided it would be easiest and best to clean the front end of the chassis and engine with the inner fenders removed. this is when things snowballed.





passengers side is almost out, but theres about 4 biolts that im going to have to cut off. the u-nuts on the fender have broken, and i cant get to the back side to hold them. id have cut them off tonight, but my wife and daughter are asleep. dont want to wake them.
so far, everything has come apart with hand tools with that exception. i did discover a few concerns though.
first, the core support is bolted directly to the frame. shouldnt there be busghings there?
second, im wondering if the distribution block is plumberd correctly. something doesnt seem right with it.



lastly, im driping water from the bellhousing. the only reason i can think of for this, other than there was still a little up in there somehow from when i started cleaning, is the rear freeze plugs are leaking. which would mean that i motor has to come out. whoch would be an even better time to clean and paint everything. and swap to a 700r4. and change some leaking gaskets. and......

SNOWBALL!!

i dont know where im going yet at this point. im hoping to have a buyer lined up for the t70's, which would give me my trans money, whioch would make this much less of a debate withe myself. anyone want them if he falls through? ill let em go right, just wont ship them.

oh, and my rallys are backordered. it will be sometime in april when hey arrive.

michael

[fordrule]

i know the feeling about snowball. I tore the front end of my falcon off to clean the inner fender wells and the engine bay and ended up sandblasting the whole thing cause It just looked so bad and wanted to start fresh...

[1360]

What size are the T70's?