should i? (elcamino)

[dusterbd13]

ive had my half ton truck on craigslist. for sale or trade. so a guy called me with a 67 elcamino big block car for an even trade. it doesnt run, and is partially dissassembled. ive onle got 800 in my truck, so i figure i cant lose. my camera, cooler, and i are loaded into the truck this morning to go check this thing out.
my plan: get the big block running. big, long, smokey burnouts.
pull big block, sell for 1000. buy 350TBI and 700R4 to shove in.
primer.
AC.
Daily driven.
maybe some suspension and brake upgrades (tall ball joints, tubular arms, C5 Z06 vette wheels, C5 Z06 brakes, big sway bars, etc)
bench seat

well....


400 miles round trip later....

my camera batteries were dead. apparently my daughter was playing with it and left it on.
the car is ROUGH. going to need rear window channels, quarters, and front fenders. and an interior. and a radiator. and an exhaust system. and a wiring harness. and a bare metal respray.
oh yeah, its a 454. lat 70's truck motor. T5 from a camaro behind it. factory big block floor shift car (has all the tell-tales like column, pedals, steering column bolts, etc.
4 wheel drum brakes. no air, no PS, no PB. its also mostly dissembled. there's a TON of parts in it like stainless, emblems, dash is in the bed, taillights, handles, etc. i have no idea what is there and what isn't. I'm not familiar enough with these cars to know without a lot of time, which the seller didn't have. he had sick grand kid that he had to get back to, as his son was at work. he also offered to let me wander his property where hes been parting out chevelles for the last 30 years and get what i can find to use (within reason)
i just don't know. its a LOT of project, and considerably more money than i was originally planning on.
what do you all think? remember, I'm a social worker, my wife is a teacher, and we have a 3 year old and another one is on the plan for the next year or so.
Michael

[65MALI]

Thought I might chime in on this one, being that I rescently scored a fairly clean 65 El Camino. Now I too have been looking around for another v8, smogg excempt, running project truck type vehicle, and what do you know I stumbled upon a descent 65 with a bunch of extras. I talked to the seller and he said that he is willing to sell the Elco without the engine or tranny, which was fine by me.Anyways make a long story short, I drove about hour away, looked at the car which was in really good(CA survivor) condition, minimal rust in the usual places,painless harness,flowmaster exhaust system, etc.... Struck a deal for less than $500, gave him half and said that Ill be back in a couple of days to trailer the thing to Dreamspeed (Mr.quicks shop) where they ended up installing my "built" 283/th400 combo that came out of my chevelle.

I guess my point is if your set on owning an El Camino and dont mind putting the time, effort, and money into,trailering, reassembling and working on the El camino then go for it, but I say if you can find another project with a little bit more "extras" or work already done to it, then even better. Further more I say pass on the El camino, continue to try to sell your truck and use that money to find a better candidate for a project car or try to trade for a better car than the El camino your considering. Sometimes you just gotta keep looking. Youll know when you find "the one".. btw heres the picture of the chevelle. just to give you an idea. It didnt come with the cowl hood and and wheels.

[graluc]

I'd pass. Those projects always need twice the work and money you think at first and I guarantee half the parts will be missing or unusable.

Been there, done that.

[moreHP]

All that metal work sounds like a deal breaker to me. It sounds like it needs everything and has the wrong engine/trans anyway. On the other hand if he is willing to load you up with parts then you could always sell off bits and pieces and have more money than you started with originally. And if you look hard enough you may find somebody who just has to have that body because its a factory big block.

[paul67]

Depends what you can do ,ie can you weld then it only parts to find ,It what needs to be bought to do or labour, I just bought a project that mech sound but need major body work but being as I can do that then its feasible to do so I bought it where he was having to pay someone and it was becoming a money pit.

[dusterbd13]

i can do anything but body work. after praying and sleeping on it, ive decided to pass this one up. ill keep looking for the right car. also, 67 is my least favorite year of that generation. im going to narrow my search to 65-66 only.

michael