Thread: 84 El Camino (new project)

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I had planned on nothing major until the new shop is up, how hard could that be????????? Well, I guess I don’t do cold turkey very well.

I have found that not having a project under construction led to sever withdrawal symptoms I tried doing simple things….. replacing the turn signal switch on my daily driver and upgrading the stereo…..doing the disc brake conversion on the 64 Ford…….even a tune-up on the wife’s car. Nothing seemed to help

I finally folded yesterday I just couldn’t take it anymore …………..I bought a car err truck or whatever an 84 El Camino

Anyway the story on the truck is that a friend of mine inherited it when his dad passed away a few years ago. His dad had had El Camino gone thru shortly after he bought it ….to include the drive train, suspension, interior and paint (really cheap paint job….so dead now chances of it buffing out are nill).

My buddy is the type that is VERY hard on vehicles both on the bodies and the drive train. He managed to blow the rods out thru the block and oil pan on the drive back from Texas and ended up having it flatbedded back to Arizona where it sat outside for a year waiting on an engine that he could never seem to find. When he went thru a divorce I volunteered to provide storage until he got back on his feet (I hate to see something just sit and rot out here, especially a nice interior).

Well I’ve been storing the truck for 5 years now and ran into the guy over Christmas. Long story short, I ended up buying it from him. It’s rust free and except for a couple of dings pretty straight and other than the engine it should be mechanically sound. It’s got the majority of bells and whistles V8, AT/PS/PB/AC/Tilt/Cruise

I plan on putting the LT1 I pulled from the 72 Vette in it and probably a quick paint job then a For Sale sign in the window.

I justify this by telling myself it’s not REALLY a major project, just an engine and paint job. I should make a fair amount of money on it to put right back into the shop fund. SOOO this all makes perfectly good sense and I do not really have an automotive addiction to cars (how can I this is a truck) besides it’s just one……how am I doing on self denial????