Fair point. Vodka helps warm everything up. I mean, I'm only a couple hours from Canada. We canceled skiing last weekend because it was going to be -41 with wind chill on the mountain. Grown folks need a little something once in a while too and the damn kids are always home, wandering around, asking questions, not going to sleep, and distracting my wife. The more I think about it, the more critical this heater core is.
I guess I live close enough to Tijuana that heater core repair cost me 50 bucks just this side of the border.
Lucky. It’s costing me way more in time and money up here. I can’t quite tell if you’re busting my chops or if the banter is bugging you. If you’re busting my chops, I’m laughing with you. If the banter is bugging you, I don’t know what to say, folks are just having fun. If you’re saying the car is off topic, I’ve made some cost driven choices like the 350 instead of the 348 for now, but I haven’t made any S10 framed billet aluminum level sins that I’m aware of. It’s a budget car that I want to get done quickly. Cheers.
I’ve been doing a bunch of rinky dink stuff that’s not too interesting plus a rodent ate the headlight harness on my wife’s very off topic new Toyota while she was at work. It’s been sucking up my car time. I’ve got parts in the mail though and I’ll have actual El Camino updates shortly.
Keep the updates coming. Cool build and way to cool car/truck! The blue flake is also over the top! Keep at it and make sure to keep the wife happy. I can't wait to see you drive it down the road! More pics please! Most of the stuff I do ain't nothing to write home about!
I worked on a bunch of little stuff waiting for the heater core to get back. I made an adapter plate for the fuse block so I wouldn’t have to poke new holes in the firewall. And hung the Speedway harness The only original V8 gas pedal linkage I had was from the 59 and was rusted and split. The ElCo had a hodgepodge someone built and the Bel Air had linkage for a 6. I got new bushings, chunks of the Bel Air linkage, and some spray paint. The factory floor pan has a slightly raised area under the gas pedal pivot that had weld nuts and a welded bracket for the parking brake pulley on the bottom side. My cheap patch panels don’t have that. I decided to keep it simple and tapped some holes in a piece of plate. I had to hammer a little room in the floor up front, but noting too bad. Just set in place. The heater control from the ElCo had the least pitting, but it was really scuzzy and dull. It’s the middle one. It came up OK with some elbow grease. Here it is polished. My gas pedal pivot/parking brake pulley bracket is next to it. I dismantled and cleaned the turn signal switch. I finally bought a good pair of crimpers after all these years.
Now things are starting to warm up. I sent it to Oregon, it came back to me from Utah. I mounted the valve. And assembled the heater box. Part numbers for the seals. They were actually kinda hard to track down. Several companies have their cabin side seal labeled engine side. The only engine side seal I could find came from a Chevelle place in Canada. Someone had sprayed right over the dirt on this one, so I took it down to bare metal. Sprayed and mounted. That knob is around somewhere… Next up, finish mounting the gas pedal, heater cables, fan, wire heater, wire and mount the cluster, and look inside the Muncie.
That’s my goal! I’ve been collecting dashboard jewelry. OG tach, NOS gauge panel, new Volt, Oil, and Temp. I still need to find a tach cup. I hope I can be as cool as this guy now that I have this gauge panel.
Lewk, what kind of crimper did you get? Looks like it does a great job. I have three different ones and I’m not thrilled with any of them.
I’ll have to step my mustache game up. That’ll do it. I got these used on the auction site. They’re kinda expensive new, but they do a good job. I have a couple pairs of the cheap ones that just mash everything, but I can’t stand using them. These are great. That’s amazing. I’m almost speechless. The resemblance is uncanny.
Oh man, I missed the notifications on these posts! Between family activities, doing boring stuff like figuring out the wiring, and fighting with my Muncie, I haven’t had anything to post on my main thread. I’ll do an update maybe tomorrow. It’s too late tonight. June is about to get really busy, but I’m trying hard to get the motor in before I loose all my free time.
I’ve been doing a lot of little stuff with the dash and the wiring. A lot of it has come together. I still need to sort the parking brake warning light, glove box light, and wipers. It’s got the wrong steering wheel on it for now. I pulled the Muncie apart thinking it would need a kit and be good to go. It wound up needing everything. I reused the case, mainshaft, tailshaft housing, side cover, shift levers, and assorted small things. A HAMB member helped me with some gears and I got some others new. It’s now got a nodular iron midplate, and a combination of new Asian and Italian and used gears. I know it isn’t best practices, but I’m on a pretty strict budget. The motor plate that came with one of my Lakewoods is an early one with a center hole that only seemed to fit small journal crank flanges. I needed to open it up for my flange. I took it to work to use the plasma, but my office mate suggested we feed it to the new laser instead. Cut, but not knocked out yet. I would have felt bad about cutting vintage parts, but someone had already cut the louvers. I indicated the hole in the Lakewood scattershield itself, and it was off. I used Moroso .014 offset pins and got it within .005. All set to start assembling the clutch. I was trying to get the motor in tomorrow, but unfortunately I have the wrong clutch fork. I could cobble together the linkage, but I think I’ll wait for the right part so that it’s all easy to service in the future with off the shelf stuff. Family stuff is about to get really busy so I probably won’t get another chance until July. It’s kind of a bummer. I’ve also been playing with wheel ideas. The car is going to be pretty low and my slots don’t feel right. New Supremes have gotten expensive and they don’t turn up used around here, so they won’t happen in the near future. I’ve got most of a set of Appliances stamped steel cragar things, and most of a set of 14x6 409/wagon wheels. I might run those with spiders or baby moons or something.
That dash is gorgeous, that blue with Impala trim. Wheel is perfect too. Good call leaving the original gauges in, temp, clock etc. even if they don't work. They're too pretty to remove. Like the four gear and all the work that went into it, and it'll look great with any of the wheels you mentioned honestly. Really like the look of those real deal 61-63(??) 409/wagon wheels and the 58 dog dish caps. You'll figure it out, you have good taste. You can never go wrong with chrome reverse on a 60 chevy, just sayin.
Appliance Steelspoke wheels are cool, I like that option. Looks like the project is coming along yet, good to see.
The Impala steering wheel looks great, but my wife gave me the metal flake moon wheel so I should use that. It’ll look good too. OEM style chrome reverse look great and I’d do those in a heart beat but I’m not sure I’d do smoothies. Finding a used set that isn’t trashed from rust pits up here is tricky and their new price is on par with Supremes. I’ve got a mix of 63 date code and 64 date code 409/wagon wheels and the earlier ones look so much better with that flat lip. I scooped em up because I’ve been gathering to do my 63 SS one of these days. I missed a $200 409 that would have been perfect for it last weekend. I’ll be kicking myself for a long time on that one. I’ve got that one 58 dog dish, but if I get serious I could chase up a set (or maybe 59 or 60, I’m not too picky) I keep plugging away. I’ve got 2 standard and 2 reverse 14x6 Appliance Steelspokes plus a 14x7 reverse. I’d probably run em if I could get a full set of reverse of either size. They might be a little late for the HAMB though and I wouldn’t want to rub the wheel police too wrong. I’m chasing a set of Rocket 5 spokes too, but it’s a kinda convoluted deal and might not work out.
Thanks for the update, looking great. Too bad about the distractions but that’s life, I know exactly how that works….
Looks good keep plugging away when you can. On my 63 pu I had I ran 59dog dishes with chrome trim rings. Looked stock and yet cool at the same time.
I like dog dishes for sure. I may go that way until Supremes are in the budget. I got my clutch together. Still need the correct fork. I robbed a dowel pin off a crank I got from a boat a few years ago.
The Jalopy Journal
