72 El Camino Project

[Danny72]

Hi Danny,

I just saw this thread and your Elco is lookingt great! I look forward to seeing your new mods in November.



George

Hey George,

Thanks!! Definitely looking forward to seeing you in November. I just saw a post you made a couple days ago and was like is that George? haha

Danny

[Danny72]

Finally got back to work on the elco today. I've been dealing with school stuff and college stuff and I also had graduation the other weekend. Now that I have time I'm getting back to the car. Got the rear end out today and got the control arms all changed and ready for the rear end to go back in. We're gonna be sending the car to a rear end shop a little past livermore to get a new gear set put in. While I was talking to the guy who was going to be doing the work and I told him what I was going to use the car for and he recommended that I put in a tru-trac over just a posi. I've never dealt with a tru-trac but have heard about people using them. If anyone knows more or can offer any input on if it's a good decision or is there something else out there better. I'm also going to get longer gears because the factory gears are just way too short. 65 mph in fourth gear and it sounds like I'm taching at 3500rpm. If anyone knows what gears I should run or what you guys have with somewhat a similar setup. Hoping that once I get this all settled I'll be getting inot more autocrossing events around here instead of only have Goodguys to race. Not that it's bad, not at all, I just want more seat time. I have the autocross bug baaaad!! Thanks guys.

New control arms and chassis braces.


First rear end I've ever pulled out. With the help of my dad of course. My partner in crime.



Upper control arms.


Lower control arms.



Me underneath my car.


Coco likes to hang outside and sun bathe next to my car.


Trying to get the chassis braces in.




How she sits until tomorrow to receive the rear end again.




Officially a graduate. I know it has nothing to do with the car. Just felt like sharing. Can you tell we're brothers?lol

[Motown 454]

Good news its all working well. Keep at it.

[Ron Sutton]

Congrats on the cool car & on graduating. It is heart warming watching your Father/Son project.

[Danny72]

Congrats on the cool car & on graduating. It is heart warming watching your Father/Son project.

Thanks! Really appreciate it. I'm so glad I get to build my car with my dad. I make sure he gets credit for all that he does for me. He's included in every post cause I can't do 80% of this stuff on my own and I'm glad he's there to teach me.

[Danny72]

So we got the rear end back in yesterday. Went pretty smooth. Had to loosen all the arms again so that we could move them into place for the rear end. only hard part was getting to torque the control arm bolts that have a torque spec of 110ft/lbs. Only thing is that while we had the car on the jack stands and allowed the rear end to hang it went so low that the upper ball joint of the end link of the sway bar came out and ripped the boot around it so it can't get a good seal. Simply ordered a new one from DSE for $55 and is supposed to get here by the 8th. Guess i won't be driving with a sway bar for a couple weeks. This tuesday we're taking the car to the rear end shop to have the new gear set put in. I'm really anxious to see how she drives after. I'm a bit tired of one-wheel burnouts.

Couldn't really get pictures while we were putting it in cause I was just trying to get it in and drive it.


Lower control arms.



Upper control arms.


Rear looks a little higher to me but it just might be that the bushings of the control arms may need to break in a bit cause the were rock solid while the car was in the air.

[72blackbird]

Nice work on the Elco- 68-72's have always been my favorite, so naturally I like yours too. I like those rubber chocks you are using to block the front tires, but do yourself a favor and toss those sheetmetal jackstands in the trash- I've seen them fold up more than once and the results can be fatal if you're unlucky to be under the car when it happens. Keep up the good work and happy wrenching.

Geno

[Danny72]

Nice work on the Elco- 68-72's have always been my favorite, so naturally I like yours too. I like those rubber chocks you are using to block the front tires, but do yourself a favor and toss those sheetmetal jackstands in the trash- I've seen them fold up more than once and the results can be fatal if you're unlucky to be under the car when it happens. Keep up the good work and happy wrenching.

Geno

Thanks! I appreciate it! Yeah we try not to use those jack stands as much as we can. Those are really old and we've had them forever. We have other stronger ones we use most of the time but we needed the height to get the rear end out smoothly and the ones we usually use are too short and the have less of a contact patch than the red ones. We are probably going to get rid of them soon. Thanks for the advice.

Danny

[ElCamino400]

I like your car, brings back memories of my youth, I'm currently rebuilding my 1970 Elky it was also my High school car (1981 grad).
I have a spare frame from a 71 if you want it, I'm out in the San Joaquin valley.

[Danny72]

I like your car, brings back memories of my youth, I'm currently rebuilding my 1970 Elky it was also my High school car (1981 grad).
I have a spare frame from a 71 if you want it, I'm out in the San Joaquin valley.

That's awesome! Thanks but I'll have to pass on the 71 frame, we're just putting parts on as we go. Someday when I have the funds and the time I hope to do a full frame-off build and make a full blown pro-touring car out of it cause I love seeing the kind of odd-ball pro-touring cars that you wouldn't think of it being a pro-touring car. Thanks though.

Danny

[HELLCAMINO]

Lookin good there young man!
Soon time for a new set of shoes to go with all that suspension upgrades.

[Danny72]

Lookin good there young man!
Soon time for a new set of shoes to go with all that suspension upgrades.

Thanks! Yeah I really want some 18" Boss 338 but it will take quite a bit of convincing for my dad to get on board with that idea. He really likes the rally wheels, and don't get me wrong they're great looking, but I like more of a modern look and bigger wheels will make it handle a little better too. Next step is paint and then maybe wheels. Slowly but surely.

[struck by Lightning]

Congrats on your graduation and the work you have done looks great! What gears are you running in the rear end....3.73's? I need to do the same thing with my Camaro....she's a one legger.

[Danny72]

Congrats on your graduation and the work you have done looks great! What gears are you running in the rear end....3.73's? I need to do the same thing with my Camaro....she's a one legger.

Thanks George! Sorry i never posted about the rear end. The guy the did the work opened the rear end up and told me I had 3.36 gears inside. I originally was thinking about getting slightly longer gears so it would be more freeway friendly but after talking with him he said the next longer gear was a 3.08 and if i wanted to get more of an autocross gear I'd go in the opposite direction and go to a 3.73. So since It's still a daily driver but will see more frequent autocross I decided to stick with the 3.36 since it was a good medium and just have him put in a tru-trac and replace both axle shafts because the bearing seal on the left side was bad and was leaking onto the brakes so he replaced both. I can tell the difference going around corners that it does bog down making a left turn. And two wheel burnouts are way more fun then one wheel.

Danny

[bonecrrusher]

Man those jackstands are a throwback to the ones my dad has - he's had that same set for 30+ years.

I never liked them because the thin metal that the top part where you rest the car on was easy to bend.

That rear end swap is looking damn good!

[Danny72]

Man those jackstands are a throwback to the ones my dad has - he's had that same set for 30+ years.

I never liked them because the thin metal that the top part where you rest the car on was easy to bend.

That rear end swap is looking damn good!

Thanks! Yeah those jackstands barely get any use. It's actually funny that you say that cause the top piece of metal is bent down on all four corners on all four jackstands.

Vettes looking great BTW! Been following for a while.

Danny

[bonecrrusher]

Thanks man - no updates on the Vette for awhile.

Still gathering engine parts - still deciding if putting the wide body front end on, or engine gets built....

[Danny72]

So the elco is all done suspension wise. For right now anyways. We got it back from the rear end shop a couple weeks back and had a tru-trac installed and kept the same 3.36 gear ratio. We also got the end link for the rear sway bar from DSE and got it put on with no problem. Only thing was the the bolts for the slip-lock collars for the rear sway bar stripped when I first installed them and they wouldn't torque correctly so we re-threaded them and got some longer, stronger bolts and put them on and they worked perfectly. The water pump on the other hand cracked on the fourth of july at my aunts house and was spitting anti-freeze all over the street so I drove it home slowly with my dad following just in case. next day we got a new water pump from Vic Hubbard and put it on with new lower hose and we got a new power steering pump because the old one would leak and make noise when i would turn the steering wheel at idle. now thats all fixed and running. Soon I'm trying to get into more and more local events to get more seat time and keep improving but i can't seem to know when theses events are and classes and all that so if anyone knows about the events or knows where I can find out where events are near the bay area it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.





Gave us space to wipe off nasty engine greese behind the water pump.




New water pump is all painted courtesy of my dad. Looks really good.






Sway bar was the last piece of the puzzle.




Rear sits a tiny bit lower than without the sway bar.

[dan10101]

Great Job on the El Camino Danny. I helped my Son with our first project 10 years ago. Now he's helping me finish my overdue project. He's the body/paint guy, I'm more on the mechanical side of things. But, true to form, I made him do most of the work on his car, (and he's making me do most of the work on my car)

I like what you've done so far. I'm with you on the larger wheels. I'm actually only about an hour or so from you. If you ever want to see what your Elky would look like with 17" Hopsters we can throw it on the rack and do a quick swap.
Dan

[Danny72]

Great Job on the El Camino Danny. I helped my Son with our first project 10 years ago. Now he's helping me finish my overdue project. He's the body/paint guy, I'm more on the mechanical side of things. But, true to form, I made him do most of the work on his car, (and he's making me do most of the work on my car)

I like what you've done so far. I'm with you on the larger wheels. I'm actually only about an hour or so from you. If you ever want to see what your Elky would look like with 17" Hopsters we can throw it on the rack and do a quick swap.
Dan

Thanks Dan! Yeah my dad and I are more of the mechanical type too but I really want to get into body work and paint. Glad to know that you guys are doing it together. That's what makes my car special is working on it with my dad and always learning and bonding with him. Its a project that will never be fully finished. I'll always be tweaking things and improving the car to my liking. I won't sell it for any amount of money. Too much sentimental value.

I might have to take you up on that and see what she looks like with bigger wheels. Shes only ever worn rallys. I'll definitely let you know and I'll talk to my dad about it. Thanks a lot!

Danny