| This is our 1959 Chevy El Camino. It's our work truck. :) We had been looking to buy a work truck for some time, but had been unable to find one that was interesting enough to justify taking up a slot inour driveway. One early Saturday morning at the Crystal Cove car show, we spied a 1960 El Camino that was all hot rodded out. It really impressed us, and kind of planted the seed. Months later at the Pamona Swap Meet, we saw a 1959 El Camino and fell in love. Over the next year we searched high and low for the right '59. Finding any '59 is tough. Most of them are completely rusted away now, or are turned into show cars and are entirely unaffordable. Then in late March, 2005 we saw a small ad on ebay for a '59 that was for sale nearby. We went to go look at it, and offered the seller their reserve price on the spot. Since then, we have been steadily making progress with it. Take a look at the El Camino History page to see more pictures and info of stuff we've done to it. |
| Exterior: So far on the exterior, we have replaced a whole bunch of the weatherstripping and such. We fixed stuff that didn't work (side windows, vent windows, etc.) Put on new side mirrors and other new chrome bits here and there. We also put on a set of powercoated black chevy rims with baby moon centers and trim rings. The tires are Mickey Thompson. I like the look of the tires but absolutely hate the way they drive. lol. Bad decision on my part. Once we're done with some other work, we'll come back around to the tires and put on something good. Edit: We've since put on some real tires. BFG Radial T/A's. You wouldn't believe the difference! It's like a real car now. |
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Interior: The interior needs a whole lot of lovin and we don't really plan on spending any time here until the mechanical bits of the car are sorted out. The only exception might be the seats. We need to put in some adjustable seats so that Jaime can reach the pedals. :) The stuff that we've done out of necessity is replace the turn signal cable and switch, and install a brand new Hurst 3-speed shifter. |
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| Mechanical: The motor is a 327 from a '68 Corvette. It was rebuilt about 10 years ago, but sat there, waiting for the rest of the car to be rebuilt. The car had been completely dissasembled by it's owner and sat in boxes in his garage until a local shop purchased the disassembled El Camino, assembled it and sold it to us. So, through very odd circumstances, Elky has a 10 year old freshly rebuilt motor with about 500 miles on it. :O We purchased a new Holley 600 carb for it and took it to the dyno where it put down 247rwhp and 302rwhtrq. We installed a new set of valve covers and a new air filter. For the rest of the mechanical bits, so far we have replaced all of the suspension ball joints, bushings, springs and shocks, as well as fixing any small stuff that we've come across. I also installed a front disk brake conversion which included a new master cylinder, new rotors and calipers and new brake lines. |
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El Camino Fun Facts: A list of objects that Elky has already hauled for us
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