'72 El Camino - First Love

I drove the Camino in today and was reminded of this thread. Here's a picture of some dirt bike retrieval shenanigans this past fall. I had the perfect vehicle for the job!

With my Fiat Spider at the dealer, these two are sharing DD duty. The Camino is loaded up to help someone move. 

I also completed my annual tradition of fixing the A/C. It has a Vintage Air system, which works great when it does. I think the hoses got crimped incorrectly when I first got the hoses made, so I've been slowly replacing every hose over the years. Last year I made it through the whole summer with cold A/C, and last week I found some very obvious florescent green dye on the high-pressure line between expansion valve and dryer, one of the few remaining (and hardest to access) hoses from the original install. Blows ice cold now, just in time for a 90 degree week.

Looking tough after dropping off a load of scrap metal. And by the way, the A/C lasted all summer this time, so hopefully it's fixed for good.

Putting in more work for the move! This was the only way to move the Lotus's drivetrain without disassembling the whole subframe. Rear air shocks were pumped up to 160, just enough to not bottom out on rough Atlanta streets. I wouldn't go further than a few miles with this much weight.

In reply to maschinenbau :

Did you find a place with a bigger/better garage?

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

Calling it a sideways move. I'll have to move the Lotus outside again when I retrieve the hot rod tomorrow. My weird little trucklets will finally get to know each other!

maschinenbau (I live here) said:

After driving an El Camino for 15 years, I know one thing for certain. EVERYONE loves an El Camino. There is no group of people against El Caminos, from Prius-driving granola types to coal-rolling diesel bros. They simply rule.

Here's a fun story from last year. I was driving on the interstate from some family gathering and my sister and her husband happen to be behind me. It was night and I was cruising about 70. Suddenly I hear a BANG and the engine immediately runs like E36 M3. It's backfiring, bogging down on power, not sure what's going on. I merge over to the shoulder and try to figure it out. Before I can lift the hood, sis calls me asking if everything's okay. She heard the bang and saw flames from the exhaust. She was worried my car was on fire. I assure them I'm fine and have towing on my insurance, no need to stop. I'm able to restart the engine but it still runs real bad, like a vacuum hose is loose or something. I'm parked in a bad spot so I limp to a gas station with the prayer that bad gas caused it, and fill it up. It's still running pretty bad but seems to have fixed itself enough after revving a bit, so I figure no harm in getting as close to home as I can. Damn thing makes it the whole 30 miles with nothing but a slight "miss", as if the ignition timing is out of whack.

At home I immediately investigate with the engine running. While reaching around the distributor to try and "correct" the timing I get zapped! Goddamn car just shocked me. So I turn out the garage lights and see an electrical storm arcing behind the cap and onto the firewall. WTF. I pull the cap and rotor to find this mess.

The rotor was split in half! The rotor contactor was completely bent over 90 degrees. The advancer weights strewn about, along with many unidentifiable chunks of crap. The cap had two large windows and the coil discharge voltage was just going wherever it felt. This was RUNNING! And honestly, not running that bad once the distri-blender puree'd the parts into smaller, more digestable pieces. This was a Summit Racing brand HEI upgrade distributor from 14 years before. I still have no idea what went wrong. My guess is a circlip holding an advancer weight broke, allowing the weight to get thrown and "run over" by the rotor. But who knows. Now I'm running a Cardone re-man. 

 

I wonder how many of the "speed" parts we pay dearly for at Summit, Jegs, etc, are really cheaply made Chinese knockoffs of once quality products.  I never heard of an HEI grenading itself like that before.  How many billions (trillions?) of miles did all those things go trouble free?

I have been looking for a el Camino for a while now. People are real proud of rusted out examples. El Camino's just do so much well for a daily driver

Here's an ancient college autocross picture from faceplace memories

And here it is in the new garage with its new roommate. The Lotus got kicked outside. Probably the only household in America where two old trucks get priority garage parking over a Lotus.

Rooftop parking deck pics with some friends over the weekend

Wow these are some great shots, thanks for sharing!

Surprise lower ball joint swap. I rebuilt the suspension in 2015 from a no-name kit and it's showing. The other side barely made it a year, so I replaced it with a Moog. Finally got to do it again to the passenger side. I know Moog quality is all over the board, but this box looked old, beat up, and said made in USA so fingers crossed.

There are some tricks to old A-bodies. You can leave everything attached to the car and just remove the lower arm. You don't need any special tools like ball joint removers or spring compressors. To pop the lower ball joint out of the spindle, put a thick rod and breaker bar under the arch of the steering arm and pull down. I used a 1/2" socket extension and piece of tube.

With the lower arm free, you can get the spring out without a compressor. Just lower it all the way down, stick you a good pryin' bar between some coils, and leverage it out. It will release a little compression, but not enough to be dangerous.

Ball joint lookin chunky. Then just find the right sized sockets for the hydraulic press. 

My new ball joint fit a little loose in the arm, so I took a ball-peen hammer and bent the flanges of the pressed hole inward. Then I pressed in the new joint. It's a "pulled" ball joint, so it shouldn't ever get pushed out from the other side, but I laid a couple TIG tacks between the joint and arm for good measure.

All back together. Putting the spring back in with the pry bar method is tricky but I got it down. I also replaced the leaking Monroe shocks with new KYB silver Gas-A-Just. Passenger side was dead dead. Like, zero damping.

I love this truck! 3rd Honda bike it has brought home. During some traffic the "hot" light started to flicker and eventually went solid for a few seconds. Put it in neutral, hold a higher rev for a bit, and it went away in time for traffic to clear. Love having A/C. Might need an auxiliary pusher fan to help on the really hot days, or I could swap the mechanical fan for ful electric. 

Love that color. 
My second car, back in 1980, was a 71 ElCamino. Always loved the 'Camino/rancheros. Later, in '84, I bought a brand new Dodge Rampage. 
Glad y'all ar keeping so many alive. 

That's cool.  My new avatar is sympathetic.

If you want it, I have a new, unused 12" electric universal fan (pretty thin) you can have for free. 

As a final thought, that bike seems to really coordinate with the car, if I use somebody else's eyes . . .

Met up at cars and coffee with dad and his Chevelle. Used the Camino yesterday to pick up furniture. It's a nice little truck to have around!

Always feels good to drive around in an old mechanical friend. 

On a related note: I mean, she's making fun of a stereotype, but this song is literally about a '72 El Camino, and it's kinda funny:

Here's a couple others from earlier this year. 

I have a line on a camper bed top for cheap. Might be kinda cool to try on.

Just picked up this camper top today. These are so rare and it was too cheap to pass up. 

I think it has potential, even in white over green. Won't see another El Camino at a show with a period correct bed topper. It would also be perfect for Power Tour.

The bed topper rails rock .....good on you for scoring this!!

The last of the commodore utes down here had a passing similarity to the elcamino, pity the animosity between GM and Holden prevented the platform being used in the US. Worse for us sedan based utes have been replaced by 4x4 tonka trucks :)

In reply to maschinenbau :

Oh man that topper looks so good! Love to see it on there, can't wait for the inevitable cleanup

Finally got around to cleaning up the topper. Scrubbed and bleached all the mildew off, added new weatherstripping, and installed new hold-down draw latches. I dig it! You can definitely feel the weight up top though, causing even more body roll. I'm planning to camp in it at Road Atlanta for Petit LeMans next month. It could use new paint for sure, but it looks good enough for now.

I think the white looks pretty good and is probably one of the better colors for it short of getting it color matched to the car.  And it's probably going to be easier and look better to not even attempt that.