Projects 59 El Camino.. Build Pics

Needed to get into the 58, so I guess it warranted a few pictures..











plus a little work fixing the center nut, it wasn't straight up and down. So I re did it.

 

Rad.

I dig the 58 too, I like post cars more than hardtops.

 

It was quite the search, trying to find all the missing parts... I had found a 2dr 58 Seville, a little after bringing this thing home! Coulda'-Woulda'- Shoulda'

 

I agree with the posted cars. It sure looks solid. Is it a California car?

 

Yep! L.A. plant, V8 car w/ a one piece frame. It was in a local wrecking yard, not because of the accidents damage, but because the wiring harness shorted and finally melted.

So this picture shows what I came back to today.. it was still in need!



This is what I will come back to tomorrow..



The lower, lower hinge area still needs work



I have to weld up these holes in the morning..

 

I love Pictionary, "LA Woman" by the Doors.
My Gal is LA built also.

 

My Elco is the only car in the yard that's not L.A built.. It's from Missouri

El Mirage starts Friday, the same day as Tuxies.. I'll let you know if I am gonna cruise out there still

 

Cool, was thinking on passing on Tuxies anyways. Dont want to make two trips. One with 56 to Riverside then El Mirage sat. with my truck and mini bike in tow. See you at the HAMB camp or let me know where to find you out there.

 

I will see you at Elmo then..

Look for this or this..





I should be near, either one..

 

So I got the bottom of the A pillar, welded up & ground back down.

The floors are done, ready for paint.










I've been using Firefox instead of IE Internet Explorer, lately. It's soo much faster & photobucket doesn't hang me up. I've wasted too much time waiting on photobuckets hang-ups while using Internet Explorer. Firefox for me! Not a commercial, just a time saving tip

 

It's Looking good man , keep up the great work . so it will be painted and on the road by next weekend right ?????????????

 

Yep, if everything goes as planned! Hahaha.. that's a good one!

 

hey are you using a different seat or have you just made different brackets ? looking good ....broke 4 toes at work so mine slowed down for a week ...so much for stell toed boots ,huh

 

The seat is out of my 58 Biscayne. When I told the wrecking yard I wanted the 2dr Biscayne & 4dr BelAir, they broke the back glass out of the 4dr(which the 2dr needed) trying to get it out. They also tried to keep the front seat, so when I went back to pay em.. I complained about the back glass, and where the hell is the front seat?! Well they ended up delivering both parts cars, for free, and the front seat was in the car when it showed up. Then I ended up with some super sport buckets, for the 58. So I ended up putting the bench in the Elco, since the one that came with it was completely wrong.

When I worked in the parts department, for Ford.. four of us were carrying an explorer frame, through a walk way(per dumb & lazy fkn mgrs orders) when the other asshole on my side let go, I tried to save it.. right on my toe! Good thing for the extra rubber on the front of my chucks, who knows how bad it couldve been! Hahaha

You should stay off it, it will heal faster that way!

 

I had to get something done today.. the bottom side of the bedfloor, is ready for paint

 

190.3 MPH today.. running against his own 193.9 record. Jimmy Shine is running the same class C/STR. But he spun out! As far as I know, Stan Back still holds the record.. for now!

Excuse the shitty footage, I was run-ning-gah!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7ByRFkU1Vg

 

Gump!

 

Kinda felt like I was chasing Jen-kneeee!

 

I noticed the psngr lower trailing arm bracket! I don't know why they did it, the other side is not like this. I will grind it down and make it look a little better. No one will ever notice.









To add to it all, the front bushing is no way gonna fit through the hole. I am gonna have to file the arm, 'til it does.

 

So I had to mic the bushings and the arms holes, to see where I was at. They had a difference between 19 and 22 thou, so I cleaned up the holes and Viola.













Job done, even the pan hard bar.. Tomorrow, I will pull the axles and install the ctr section with the 3.55 gears.

 

I cant wait for you to finish the elki, if just to see what your gonna do with the 58! Ive always had love for the duel headlights!!

 

Thanks!

A friend of mine went to Simpson Racing Products, in Harbor City,Ca. He was going through the warehouse, and came upon a white & gold 2dr 58 Biscayne. He text me some pics, asking me to sell him, mine. Hopefully he'll be motivated, period! And just want a classic sedan, of his own!

 

So, I'm stuck in the water til Monday.. One of the axle bearings o-ring, broke! The place I am going to get one will be open then. Otherwise, Imma have ta' buy a whole new bearing, just for the o-ring.

But, there is good news to report.. It really was a posi unit in the rear-end. Score!




I still have to figure out the ratio, but it feels nice to get ahead, every once in a while!

 

Ends up, there 3.36 gears. Not the ratio I would've guessed, but hey.. I'm sure a lot has happened in its 52 years of existence!

 

looking good J.........drove my " the Mullett 60" round the block 4 or 5 times today ....get the tank back in it next week ,be ready for a road ride .........

 

the Mullett.. All business up front, with a party in the back! Rock on!

 

So I get the rear end all bolted in.. and realize I forgot to add the thrust washers, to the outside of the control arms. Fuck me, tomorrow is another day! I couldn't of accomplished the work I did, today.. as fast as I did, w/o the help of my uncle. Peace be among him..

Being a tri-5 dork, I think I figured this out rather well!

 

Jim Sig emailed me this.. once again, I wanted to share!
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Will the El Camino Make a Comeback? You Can Help Decide!​

Very rarely do we comment on possible upcoming new cars here at The Rodder&#8217;s Journal, but we thought some of you might find this of interest. For some time we have heard rumblings that there was a chance that Chevrolet might bring back the El Camino and we recently came across a post on the Hemmings Motor News blog about its possible return.

We have long been fans of the El Camino, which was originally produced in 1959 and 1960 based on a full-size Chevy platform. After a short hiatus it returned as a Chevelle-based derivative with that model&#8217;s introduction in 1964. They were then produced continually in various iterations until the end of the 1987 model year. The El Camino, as well as Ford&#8217;s Ranchero, have always been prized by hot rodders and customizers alike. Passenger car styling combined with pickup truck practicality have made them the basis for everything from push car/trucks for front-engined Top Fuelers to mild custom parts haulers and mag-wheeled shop trucks. The El Camino has long been a staple of the hot rodding and customizing scene.


After reading on the Hemmings blog that General Motors has created a Facebook page to gauge public support for a contemporary redesign of the El Camino, we had to dig a little further. It turns out that this idea stemmed from a Twitter conversation held between GM&#8217;s new Chief Marketing Officer, Joel Ewanick, and Jalopnik.com reader, @chevalanche. This came after Jalopnik writer, Ray Wert, urged his followers to tweet to Joel letting him know that they &#8220;want a new El Camino. Badly.&#8221;

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And that&#8217;s exactly what they did. After reading the tweets of Jalopnik.com readers expressing the desire for a modern El Camino, Ewanick put the ball back in their court. As it states on the Chevrolet Facebook page, &#8220;Ewanick said he&#8217;d consider bringing back America&#8217;s favorite car/truck if Jalopnik can get 100,000 fans to comment on their post.&#8221; And Jalopnik is calling his bluff. So far they have received thousands of comments, but not the amount needed for the ElCo comeback. If you&#8217;d like to help make this happen, you can visit the Jalopnik blog here and post your comment&#8230;we did. Click the &#8220;Start a New Thread&#8221; button at the bottom of the post and follow the instructions.



Of course, the possibility of the mighty El Camino&#8217;s return, if nothing else has inspired us to include a couple photos of some of our favorite vintage El Caminos and include some of the brochure and promotional material that Chevrolet published when the first generation El Caminos were new more than 50 years ago. One of our all-time favorites has to be that of San Antonio, Texas native, John Chisenhall&#8217;s. We shot John&#8217;s Gary Howard-painted vibrant green &#8217;59 in front of the Alamo. The ElCo&#8217;s spaceship-like body contours, slammed stance, polished five-spoke wheels add to its appeal. John, by the way, is the son of Vintage Air founder Jack Chisenhall.

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<hr align="center" size="2" width="100%"> ​

Recently in TRJ #42 we featured Richie Valles&#8217; equally nice &#8217;59 El Camino. The Burbank cruiser intentionally blurs the line between mild customs and lowriders. The body remains stock with the exception of the shaving of the door handles and emblems while its air bag-assisted stance is radically low. Pearlescent green hues seem to be a popular choice with the first generation of this body style.



Back in TRJ #7 we ran a pictorial on Pat Ganahl&#8217;s newly assembled and detailed Cadillac engine. It now powers his Nitti-esque Deuce roadster. Ganahl&#8217;s accompanying copy included an interview with early Cadillac V8 guru Tommy Baker and we ran a couple of snapshots of just what might be the ultimate hot rod shop truck, Tommy&#8217;s then-new &#8217;59 El Camino with an also brand new Cadillac 390 with a 4-71 blower. Tommy replaced it with a new &#8217;64 El Camino when they came out and it got a 429 Cadillac motor.

Tommy Baker may have had the ultimate El Camino shop truck, but it is surprising just how many rodders with cool El Camino-based haulers come to mind. We remember Lee Pratt had one of the first generation Chevelle haulers about the time he moved from Des Moines to Los Angeles a couple of decades back. Some of our publisher's first-published photos featured Frank Morawski&#8217;s &#8217;67 El Camino that were shown in Truckin&#8217; magazine back in the late &#8217;70s. Most now associate Frank with the Fred Carrillo Bonneville roadster which appeared on the cover of TRJ #50 or perhaps the Super Bell Coupe or the Curley Tremayne chopped Merc, but he still has the super low mileage and pristine El Camino in his Maryland garage. And speaking of Super Bell, you may wonder what Pete & Jake&#8217;s/Super Bell proprietor Jerry Slover and Magnum Axle&#8217;s Fred James have in common in addition to the manufacturing of traditional early Ford-based hot rod suspension and brake components, well you guessed it, they both owned bitchin&#8217; El Caminos. Jerry ordered a 375-horse 396 &#8217;68 model upon his return from Vietnam and Fred had a black and lowered late &#8217;80s example parked in front of his old &#8220;Fast Freddy&#8217;s&#8221; Santa Ana, California store most work days.

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<hr align="center" size="2" width="100%"> ​

The point is that many of us have had a cool El Camino based hauler and it just might be cool to see their revival as a new model. We&#8217;re voting for a no frills modern version that pays homage to the original &#8217;59 and &#8217;60 bat-wing styled iteration without being too overtly retro. The original&#8217;s highly sculpted sheetmetal just may work well with current styling trends. Would it be too much to ask for a sedan delivery version as well? We sure like the mint green delivery that is shown on the front of the 1960 brochure.

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Stop by and see us this weekend!
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The West Coast Kustoms 30th Annual Crusin&#8217; Nationals is coming up this weekend in Santa Maria, California, at the Santa Maria Fairpark. We are looking forward to a great weekend of bitchin&#8217; customs, cruisers and hot rods, live music, and hanging with friends. If you&#8217;ll be attending the show please feel free to stop by the TRJ booth and say hello. Mention this email and receive a free set of TRJ water slide decals. Spend $30 or more and receive a free poster of your choice while supplies last!

We hope to see you there!

Cheers,
Your friends at
The Rodder's Journal

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I know its a little late, but I just pressed a bunch of bushings into my front control arm bushings. I also found them to be a little tight like you did, and cleaning them and adding grease did the trick. .020 could easily be surface rust or dirt buildup.

 

Yeah, it wasn't much at all. The circular file just cleaned up the holes w/o taking much off. Slow but sure type thing.