Central Texas Noob

by Redscampi Today at 5:41 am

Howdy guys. I've been a car guy my entire life, but I'm new to these 3rd gen A bodies. I retired a few years ago and sold off all of my "hot rods" to facilitate a cross country move to be near my wife's folks. After moving and settling in, the car bug attacked me again so I started looking around. I'd always wanted an El Camino. Finding the earlier generation cars appealing but cost prohibitive, I began looking at 4th and 5th Gen Elcos.
Dummy me, I figured parts would be easy to source on any El Camino...
Anyway, I'm glad to have found this community and am looking forward to learning and hopefully providing some useful info along the way.
Thanks for having me.
Gary

by jpowen49 Today at 6:13 am

Welcome from Alabama, your El Camino looks great.

by 77camino Today at 7:06 am

Welcome aboard! Please tell us some more details on your beautiful El Camino. You are correct parts are limited but it appears that you don’t need much. If there is something specific that you are looking for, don’t hesitate to ask here.

by Redscampi Today at 7:33 am

77camino wrote:Welcome aboard! Please tell us some more details on your beautiful El Camino. You are correct parts are limited but it appears that you don’t need much. If there is something specific that you are looking for, don’t hesitate to ask here.

Ha! Thanks for the welcome and the encouragement. Here are some details about the car. There are quite a few things still to do, which is good because I wanted a light project.

Car has a 3 year old crate 350 long block, a TH350 with a shift kit, rebuilt Edelbrock carb, Edelbrock manifold, long tube headers. I repainted the red wheels a more pleasing silver color. Power steering pump is new, heater core is new, fan blower motor is new, drive belts are new, alternator is new, water pump is new. New aluminum radiator. Cheap HEI distributor is new - will be replaced soon. New Cooper Cobra 235/70/15 front, rear 275/60/15 tires. Paint is approximately 12 years old, looks decent in photos but it was a very amateur job and will get re done eventually. Seat upholstery is approximately 6 years old but the installer didn't quite understand what he was doing. Interior is tan and I plan on redoing it all in black, or maybe a nice black and tan scheme. Several of the interior moldings are brittle and in need of refreshing. Gearing is 3:42 which isn't optimal for a Texas highway car. I'll replace the transmission with a 200R4 or similar. Weather stripping is new but poorly installed. There is very little rust on the car, just a couple small holes I discovered in the cargo floor pans, and a little on the smuggler's box cover which had been Rhino-lined. My current project is replacing all the shocks, adding lowering springs in back, 2 inch drop spindles in the front, upgrading the front sway bar and adding a sway bar in the back. Hopefully that will help this lady move a little more gracefully down the road, and look a bit better doing it.

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