66 El Camino - Project CaMEANo

[796spdbu]

Excellent..you read my mind..i was going to ask for pics next..Man I dig that truck!!

[Yelcamino]

Yup, this is the current daily. '65...'63 grill. It's a beater but it gets me around!

I like it!

[CruizinKev]

cool truck!

[Mr. Anderson]

Glad you like the truck guys. It's my interim daily driver while I play with the El Camino.

My interior had pretty much been spray bombed red. They didn't bother to take apart the A/C outlets before doing it and the chrome balls were all kinds of messed up. Plus, the Vintage Air A/C duct hose is a lot smaller than the stock Chevelle stuff would be. So I modified the stock A/C outlets to take Vintage Air pro-line louvers. Cleaned up the housing and opened the hole up just slightly, made a plastic ring that I epoxied in place, and fits like a glove.

[tommycomfort]

Looks great! Thanks for the updates!

[Mr. Anderson]

Filled in the old A/C control hole in the bottom of the dash and welded up the seams. Started and finished my gauge setup this evening. I wanted the usual 6 gauges but wasn't going to hang anything under the dash. Took apart the stock setup to see what I could do. Tossed out (ok, set aside) all the stock stuff and made a new panel to bolt to the stock trim piece. Cut the holes (geeeeez that took forever) then engine turned the panel just for grins. Still have to trim the excess. I'll have to make a new lens without the engraving in it, but no sweat. I'll also put some LED turn signal indicators in the upper corners and my high beam indicator in the middle. I haven't decided if I'm going to paint this bezel silver (to match my A/C vents) or if I'll get a new one (chrome).

[Mr. Anderson]

Progress has been slow but I'm hoping to change that in the next few weeks. I finally have all my front end parts so I can go ahead and get started on that. Pulled the 327/powerglide out a couple nights ago, it's headed down the road. I picked up a 700r4 too instead of the th350, excited about that.

Started smoothing the firewall tonight. Haven't decided what to do with the seams, probably just re apply some seam sealer and call it good. Will finish it tomorrow.



Ugly and rotted, say goodbye!

[73z-6sp]

Looking good!

[CruizinKev]

good work!

[Mr. Anderson]

Thanks guys. Here's today's efforts.



Just found a KILLER deal on a set of wheels and am going to pick them up in the morning. Man, I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight!

[Yelcamino]

Thanks guys. Here's today's efforts.



Just found a KILLER deal on a set of wheels and am going to pick them up in the morning. Man, I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight!

Your work looks great!

Since you're still at a point where you can make changes w/o too much trouble, you might want to see if an inline bulkhead fitting (see thumbnail) will be easier to work with instead of the square fitting you have now.

When we did my Elky, I used the square fitting and let me tell you, once all the sheet metal is in place, trying to get the huge wrenches into such a cramped space to tighten the outside fittings is a huge PITA! Of course, when I discovered this, all my stuff was painted and it was too late to change anything.

I don't know if the inline would be any better than the square one but it might be worth a look now while you can get to it.

[revhead]

You've been busy. Damn you run circles around my projects. Looks good.

[gearheads78]

looking great man!

[Mr. Anderson]

I don't know if the inline would be any better than the square one but it might be worth a look now while you can get to it.

Thats a good point that I hadn't thought about...especially inside the car. Hmm. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll have to think it over.

I bought this one a year or so ago when Vintage Air was discontinued their cast bulkheads, knowing one day I'd put A/C in something.



I hope you don't mind, but I think I'm going to copy the front end of your Chevelle, haha. The painted grill and spoiler look great. That whole car looks great!

[Mr. Anderson]

New wheels! Craigslist is the best thing ever, I stole these things. Need new tires, but I can mock up and roll the car around with these at least. And I'll need to run probably a 1"-2" adapter, so I no longer have to worry about that .5mm difference in bolt pattern.

[BossaNova]

Don't know how I missed this thread.....

Very impressive project. I love the Elkys!

I really like what you did with the louvers.

[EL T1]

Love those wheels! cant wait to see them on the elky. Any ideas on refinishing them, or staying with that color.

[Mr. Anderson]

Thanks! I kinda like the color thats on them, and might have painted them the same if they weren't done already. But there is some chipping around the edges. They might just get retouched.

With a maroon car, I'm wondering if they might be too dark. Been toying with the idea of sanding down the outer hoop for a brushed look, but there's really not a good hard line to stop at. I'll wait and see when the car is in paint.

Most of my other cars have had blacked out wheels though...I might just keep it up!

[796spdbu]

You have been busy! I like those BMW wheels! theyll looked good with the painted grille. Kinda of a europian race look!

[Motown 454]

Nice work the firewall looks great.