I've been wanting to do a x frame convertible conversion or a tri five 2dr conversion for a while partially for the challenge. It would take at least a clean 4dr to save that Buick. It came from Minnesota to MT in the 70's and spent 50 years in a damp barn. The rust is weird. Everything low is really really rotten but the upper fasteners look new when I pull them out. The convertible stuff all seems pretty good. It's also funny to see how much better Buick build quality is than Chevy. Just looking at the inner fenders, Chevy is obviously the cheaper car.
I had some time on New Years and thought I’d finally get the diff together. Then I took a good look at my yoke. Womp womp. It took a week and I got this: I know I could bought a stand for the diff for like $30, but I’ve got a lot of things to spend $30 on so I winged it. I got my preload on the high end of what the manual allows at 25 inch pounds. Final contact pattern: .025 shim, .007 Backlash. I hope it’s good because it’s mounted up now. Next up is axle bearings and backing plates. I’m a little concerned about wear the pads the brake shoes ride on. I have to decide if I’m going to try to repair them. The other thing I’m working on is the front of the bed. It’s a smooth surface with vertical braces on the backside. It’s full of cargo dings and the horizontal brace along the bottom is rotten. I want to try to save the main panel, so I’m trying to straighten it out before I cut the bottom brace apart. It’s also a good place to learn. If the panel doesn’t improve I’ll make a new one. I started the first section. It’s improving, but the others are lacking. There are some creases around the braces that I need to figure out how to deal with.
You should definitely repair those wear pads; you don't want the shoes hanging up. Takes but a few minutes to weld them & grind them smooth.
Looks good Lewk. I agree put the time in to fix the backing plates. I got my pedals thanks to benchseat4speed! Just need the linkage!
I've fixed backing plates like that. If it's not too deep I just go over them with my little knockoff Dynafile belt sander thing, but those grooves look deep enough you might weld them up first and then sand them off, don't want to take too much meat off. Well worth the effort. Bed panel is going to be a job, but at least it's intact enough to tell what it's supposed to look like.
I made some progress in the front of the bed. The second section is much improved. The third section improved too but it’s oil caning. I’ve smoothed it all out with hammer and dolly and a shrinking disc. I may keep at it, or a might try to heat shrink it a little with the torch. First I’m going to go after the areas with the back braces with a stud gun and see what happens. Other stuff to deal with when I work on the lower brace: This probably isn’t the most interesting update to look at, but I’m pretty pleased with my progress.
If you can at least get it close enough for bodywork that's a huge step ahead. Considering the other welding and panel fab/replacement it looks like you'll have to do on the lower parts, any time spent saving that upper part will be time well spent.
For sure. Also, I'm also looking at that area as a great place to sharpen some skills because if I really screw it up, it'll be fairly straight forward to replace. That was I don't have to learn the stud gun and shrinking disc on the roof panel. The lower part is going to be a PITA.
Thanks for sharing your rear end setup procedure. I need to rebuild the 10 bolt in my 55 Chevy. It´s been noisy for quite a while and it´s got a lot of backlash too. I´ll jump back on your thread to take a peek. Great work on the ElCamino btw!
@lewk Hello, In our teenage case, we had just purchased a 58 Chevy Impala with 280 h.p. Then a year later, the 59 El Camino came out with 335 h.p. and took over the stock car cl***es with a 4 speed and positraction. My brother was the owner of the 58 Impala and I eventually was able to start driving it in 1960. It sure was an itch that was hard to change as we had a fairly new Impala with a powerful motor. But, wanting the new El Camino for our needy truck purchase was right there and we needed something to help us out in our small business. The Impala trunk was not the best place to transfer old motor parts, etc. A larger truck would not fit in our dinky two car garage and so, a small truck was our choice. It was a dilemma since my brother just bought his Impala. So, as the newer El Camino car/trucks continued to move along in design and powerful motors, we just had to sit by and use what we had. Jnaki It was not a case of not enjoying the 58 Impala. It was fast and reliable with little maintenance required for my late night full power runs on the Cherry Avenue Drags location. Also, it was difficult to stuff a longboard in the trunk and back seat to go surfing before and after school. So, after high school, I sold the Impala and my flathead sedan delivery to get a new car for last three years of college. The 65 El Camino fit all of my needs. Smooth start, ride and plenty of room for all of the “college days” stuff and furniture. Plus, my surfboard fit nicely between the boxes of college necessities. Having owned a 65 El Camino in the fall of 1964, I have always enjoyed the cool car that is/was useful for all purposes. It was primarily going to be used for the long haul to northern California and back to So Cal during college vacations/holidays. I got used to driving up and down all of the major highways from 99 to I-5 to 101 and even a slow trip up the coast along Highway 1 to give myself a vacation prior to the hard semester of college coming up ahead towards summer. The El Camino got great gas mileage and handled well on all twisty roads and straight aways. The usefulness of the El Camino was from loading trees and plants for my mom’s garden, to motorcycles for our desert racing program road trips and even plopping in and securing a surfboard for our trips to the coastal regions of So Cal. It was a road warrior with usefullness well beyond a normal cruising sedan. Comparing the El Camino loaded with two Greeves Desert Racing Bikes was so much better than towing a small trailer behind the 58 Impala on a hundred mile road trip and back. Note: So, after all of the uses of those road trips, when it came time to do the up the coast road trips with my girlfriend, then wife, our suit cases got thrown in the back bed. My camera equipment got the special treatment in the small behind the seat location for comfort and security. And we were happy cruisers on our many coastal northerly road trips during our 20s-30s. But, every time we stopped for lunch or dinner, we had to move our suitcases inside the cab and take any valuables out of the open bed to secure inside the locked doors. And, after finishing what we left to do, then the reverse procedure happened time and time again. The one thing not used was this special place I found in the close area behind the cab, in the bed. One day, I noticed a bunch of screws in a nice pattern across the ribs. Normally, the tool box, motorcycles and what not, got shoved on top and it was a forgotten space. But, now, opened, it was a huge drop down area great for some storage. But, what storage? It was not a waterproof sealed storage area and only because the ch***is is similar to a station wagon, the drop down area was used for the rear footwell locations. But, in the El Camino, the screwed in place panel was a cover of sorts. It was not advertised as an extra storage area, for fear of factory water leaks and wrong usages in construction, etc. It was just sitting there. So, inquiring minds would like to know if any HAMB hot rod folks have converted the empty space in the bed for storage and have a lockable, waterproof compartment for normal usage. Note2: There were a couple of projects, but not in a 65 El Camino. The differences might be negligible as the bed in a 64 to 67 were pretty much similar in measurements. But to keep the HAMB 65 or older parameters going… any takers? https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=uKeV5bfbA5M a different version... Some go one step more but, is it sealed and lockable? So, with an empty open area in place, you are in the right time period to get the option completed before you move on to the next step in your build. YRMV
Valentines Day burnouts are coming right up! I'd never done a rear end before. I mainly followed the procedure in my '61 manual and cross referenced the 58, 59/60 and 63 manuals and also a FB gear group and some YT videos. Hopefully I got it dialed! Thanks for the stories. I've thought a lot about using the smuggler's box space. I've got the bulkhead divider out right now and have thought about putting a door in it and putting components for my OT air-ride system in there. It'd need a top panel with drain features to keep things dry when water pooled in the bed. Smuggler's box storage features and chopping the top are two ideas I could sink some time into if I let the intrusive thoughts in my head take over. If I used a hardtop windshield, 2dr HT doors, and maybe some 4dr HT C pillar stuff around the B pillar, I think I could get a pretty clean chop that almost looks factory. I am still trying to get the car done someday though...
I bet you guys thought I forgot about you. Like maybe I got distracted and bought a Model A or something. (Seriously, the need is real. I scored a 331 Hemi and I need to put it in something) I’ve been building a hammer form out of a plant based material. I think it’s tofu. I don’t have much as far as a wood shop goes, so I mostly built the form with a ****py 80’s Black and Decker router and hand held belt sander. I dreamed of a nice 12” disc sander. The wood is ipe deck material left over from a project at work. It’s miserable and splintery for woodworking, but it’s very very hard. I also used some cheap hardboard in places to get the spacing right. I’ve still got a lot of work to do smoothing the bent flanges. There are a lot of hammer marks. I’ve also got one more set of divots to hammer in and all the edges need t*******. 90% of this brace is hidden so this is all overkill, but I wanted to see if I could do it. I could have probably made it in a few pieces with a shrinker stretcher, but I don’t have those tools. As a side note, it’s been a year last weekend since I blew my back up. I remember I could barely carry this particular piece of metal last May. Im doing much better and I’m spending a fair amount of time in the gym. It cuts into car time, but I can’t afford to get soft and hurt again.
New panel shaping up nicely, I like how you made those indentations with the press through a hole in your form.
I'm just joining. Forget the Model A for now, and get this thing done! It's almost June! I can't wait to see pics of it at a cruise in. Very nice job on everything so far!
Daaaayum, talk about doing a lot with a little! That bed floor ‘support rail’ or whatever that thing is called looks amazing, especially considering what you had to build just to make it! Outstanding work. It’s very frustrating how bad these 59-60 Camino’s rust. Places that are ridiculously hard to repair too. You make it look easy
Thank you for the kind words guys. I’m trying to level up my skills as I go. It’s wild how much rust these things brew. I think they were never coated between the two layers of the bed, so they must have started rotting after the first rain storm. Other than some folks just putting in square tubing, I haven’t really seen pics of how people are replacing this brace. Most of them probably need it.
I did a little more last weekend. I finished straightening and t******* the flanges and knocked in the last divots. I also started cutting the old one out of the car. The bottom plate needs replacement too. I’m probably going to hammer form it too. At least it’s simpler. Our older dog is scared of the garage, but the younger one inserts herself into everything.
My J-O-B has kept me pretty busy recently, but I got the lower half of that brace pulled. Nice work. The flat lower section isn’t great. I made a new one. Next up, patch the inner side panels and fit the patch for the lower brace half. I’m keeping the vertical section of it because of the top flange.
Man, that's a ton of work! I can relate... sometimes it seems never ending. You're doing really great though, don't give up
The maze of welded seams on that lower floor pan is impressive, lots of piecemeal patch panels put in there to fix it. Everything looks like it fit up nicely though, once those are dressed I don't think I'd even know it was done. That new lower section looks like it's going to fit nicely, probably as much work to carefully extract it as it was to make the new one.
I am impressed with the work you have done. I know you are looking forward to getting it on the road.
The more scabs I pick, the more there is to do! That rear floor panel is available, but it’s like $350. I just couldn’t justify it for something no one will ever see, so weld maze it is! If it were a 2dr ht or a convertible, I would have splurged for full pans. I can’t wait! She likes it under the car.
The Jalopy Journal
