Doing the grille, I had to buy two 1963 Dodge Polara grilles, the El Camino is about six inches wider. I had to chop parts from one set to extend the other. Here's some pics. First I cut the flange for the old headlight bezel mount away and put the grille up to the edge. Look at the space that needs to be filled, also the Doge grille is perfectly flat whilst the Elky opening has a slight vee. Here's a piece cut from the donor grille placed up to the original. JT came by to help, he's a good thinker and figured out where to make the cuts to the gaps would be even. I used 3/4" flat stock drilled and fastened to the grille to make a mechanical joint, ideally I would liked to have had it welded and rechromed but the expense would have been outrageous. I countersunk the screws and welded them in place, the whole strip could be chromed but I think I'll just paint it flat black. Here's the grilles joined up.
I wanted to french the fender ends and kinda 'float' the grille. I welded brake line around the edges, I had to pie cut the fenders at the bottom for clearance. Now I've got to figure out what to do about the joint in the middle, any ideas?
What about a pointy spear-like daimaond shaped thing... maybe formed by cutting a Chevrolet/Cadillac hood/trunk "V" in half, trimming and welding back together? Just a thought.
Thanks Squirm, Gigantor, blue beer rules. The floors are all Por15 painted now. The remaining grille's gone to my friend Yogi, he's gonna put them ina 70s Datsun pickup truck, they're gonna look great. BTW, the grille bottoms are not perfectly lined up yet, I'm going to drill the pan and I've made mounts for the center bar, everything will line up perfectly but you will be able to see where the joints are if you look up close.
Hell, I don't know, I heard 63-65 Polara, I'm no Mopar expert, I just found em on ebay, whatever they are, they are now rubbish to a collector.
No offense taken at all, buddy, seriously I have no idea, I've been told a lot of different things, it doesn't look like the 63 in your pic, I'm thinking it's a Monaco grille, not Polara. I'm heading off to Google images to see.
yeah i restored a 50 ford coupe for a guy that had th car painted at a body shop in town just a year prior, and it was bubbling in door bottoms,rockers,quarter panels, etc., when i dove into it there wasnews paper, chicken wire,etc., i had to replace rockers, patch doors and fenders and quarter panels, alot of work, but came out beautiful! keep going dont get discouraged just think your saving some american iron from the scrap yard!
Jeez! This guy actually lives very close to me! I hope his techniques are not contagious lol. Sorry to bring up an old post, but I just couldn't keep my eyes off of this train wreck! CHUCK
What about a long vertical diamond made from steel, with studs welded to the backside to attach it. Beveled and just big enough to cover it. Sorry for the lousy pic..
I was working on a guy's '62 Biscayne, that "Grandpa" had "fixed up" for him. I had to replace one Qtr. because he had had a disagreement with a tree while backing up. The bottoms of those Chevy Quarters go in at the lower belt panel, then they go back out , leaving a shallow drip. Grandpa thought they were dented and filled them with Bondo. Both sides. Like up to 4 inches thick. I called the guy in to see what I was up against. He decided not to have the other side repaired because of the added expense. A few months later he came back in, and he was pissed. He had wrecked the car, again, and the shop he took it to told him I had filled the side with bondo. I went with him and looked at the car. He had wrecked the other side this time, and was looking at grandpas fix. I pulled his estimate, with his signed notes about the "filler". He was all apologetic that he forgot which side had been repaired. In retrospect I'm kind of glad I didn't get to do a full resto on that one.
Ted, there are a lot of Pontiac Vees on ebay all the time. I've been looking at some, I just don't want an identity of any kind on the car.
Nadnik, I was actually thinking you could take advantage of the way the leading edge of your hood was curving down and you could make a divider for the grille like the Pontiac. In other words it would split the grille. क्या आप समझते?
Nads, that's one rad '59 Camino! Seems to be '59s here in Finland also rustbuckets.. Is there more material to mask? How about getting the middlepart in one piece, cut slice in the middle and bend it to fit?
I've got lots of off cuts left, I bought a big old Ford star on ebay the other day, it might look good. I finished the fenders, they are pristine. I'm gonna sand the dashboard next, paint the roof, fins and tailgate metalflake pink and get the windshield in. I can block sand the body on down the road, it would be nice to get her back on the road.
I filled in my speaker grille in the dash, the covers always rattle anyway. My back's killing me from squatting in that cab and sanding this massive dashboard.
Got the fenders done, these things are pristine, they are not at all in the shape the rest of the car was in, absolutely no rust whatsoever. I got lots more done, the window frames and the cab back, not much gonna happen this weekend on account of the holidays and the Turkey Run.
I gotta say, I'm really enjoying this and J. Fishbeck's Elky build... And you aren't the only one with bizarre rust...our '60 (CA car all its life) has perfect fenders and doors, but the floors and quarters are history... Really like the custom vibe...
They have very questionable structures, they were clearly a hurried project with engineers not really thinking about the consequences. I have a 60 wagon and had another 59 El Camino, all had perfect front fenders.
Then may I suggest to you, Woodpeckers fine '59 wgn build. It's bananas.. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=458755
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