Gonna be kewl Mike!!! A bit of a line change on the door and presto changeo!!! instant kustom... Worst part is, few people will even notice, and half of the one's who do will insist it's stock!!!!!!:LOL::LOL::LOL:
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Gonna be kewl Mike!!! A bit of a line change on the door and presto changeo!!! instant kustom... Worst part is, few people will even notice, and half of the one's who do will insist it's stock!!!!!!:LOL::LOL::LOL:
“…. Worst part is, few people will even notice, and half of the one's who do will insist it's stock!!!!!!....”
You're probably right Dave, but isn’t one of the tricks to make it look like it could have/should have come that way.
It’s one of the reasons I’m really looking forward to seeing you’re Ranchero done.
Exactly why I do it Mike!!!!! When it's all done and sitting in the pits or cruising down the street and somebody has to ask if it's chopped or what did you change, then you know you did it right!!!!!:LOL::LOL::LOL:
Got to get the pickup sold and the 'maro at least sitting on all four, then it's on to the Ranchero.... Already have a few potential buyers on the 'maro...don't think it will be too tough to peddle....
Anyway, very interesting to watch the Elky go together!!! Doing anything out of the norm and exercising a bit different approach always interests me. As I remember it, this is how things were done "back in the day" not some of these atrocities showing up the last few years....
Well I got the front clip hung. It wasn;t exactly a bolt on but not overly complicated either.
It turns out the end of the frame rails are about 2 3/4" longer on the Monte Carlo than they are on the El Camino. After looking at some options I decided to just cut off the appropriate length of frame horn from the donor car.
The Monte also uses some additional bracing that neither one of my El Caminos has. There are a pair of diagonal cross braces that run from the center of the crossmember to the outer ends of the frame rail (the holes for mounting these are already there).
There is also a brace that runs from the forward mounting point of the diagonal brace to the lower hole of the bumper mount. These are actually what I used to help insure the extension was the correct length.
Once the frame horns were extended it as just a simple matter of bolting the Monte Carlo clip in and adjusting gaps (something I’m still do a little adjustment with).
Coming along nicely Mike!!!! Nice fix on the front clip mounts!!!!! Getting to be a very interesting build.....
Yeah Dave even though this is still in the early stages of the project I'm really pretty happy with the way it's shaping up. I had yesterday off so I figured I’d go ahead and get the 9” under it and free up some floor space in the shop.
How come the jobs you figure will go fairly quickly end up being the ones that fight you every step???????? I figured 4 hours tops to do this, even throwing in the time to box the lower control arms and installing new bushings. It ended up taking about twice that long.
Oh well, at least it’s under the car and I at least have emergency brakes now. One of the neat things that happened on this was a few months ago my boss was cleaning out his garage and came across a new set of rear springs and shocks he had bought several years ago for a Monte Carlo project of his that he ended up selling before he installed them that he donated to my project.
Hopefully this coming weekend I’ll actually get the engine and transmission in the truck and start getting mounts figured out.
It sits just a bit high in the back right now and I may go back to the stock springs, but I'll wait until I get the engine and trans in to make a final decision.
Well I got the nose to come down a bit :LOL:
Yep I got the 500 sitting in it now. It fits but it's a lot more snug than it looks at a glance. The exhaust manifolds are a bit tight and I may have to relieve the frame just a bit for pipe clearance. The steering clearance is adequate but I wouldn’t want it any closer and it looks like I’ll have just enough room to close the hood with a 1” carb spacer and drop base air cleaner. Thank god I’ll be running aftermarket AC to I didn’t have to trim the stock AC box. Basically there is just one sweet spot to make it fit.
Anyway here it sits, and the next project will be to get a crossmember built (the trans mount is farther back on the TH400 than the original Th250. It was a good way to spend a weekend :whacked:
Nice work Mike!!! That big old overwidth Caddy looks kewl in there!!!!! Heck, still have room for a Procharger blower!!!!!:LOL::LOL:
You know Dave the funny thing is this thing is going to be more easy to service than the small block it replaces. Everything like plugs, front monted distributor, fuel pump etc are all right out there in the open.
Well I finally got around to getting back on the El Camino today and decided to tackle the crossmember.
It’s nothing elaborate but it is functional. I figured I’d do everything on one shot so I set the X pipe and mufflers in place so I could figure out where I needed to put reliefs in.
The crossmember is basically a piece of 2” thick wall pipe with pieces of angle iron welded to the ends to fit inside the frame rails (then drilled and bolted in) and the foot for the transmission mount from a donor crossmember welded to it. The pipe was heated and exhaust reliefs hammered into it. It strong enough to hold the weight of the transmission and me doing pull-ups on it without bending so I figure it will do fine.
Total investment was nice too $0
Should work out fine, Mike...pipes look really good too!!! Anxious to see how you like the X-pipe, put an H-pipe on my pickup.... Curious to see if we both just wasted our time and money or if they actually help!!!!!!:LOL::LOL:
Ok so in spite of what we in the South West tell you we do run into some rust occasionally. In a lot of cases it’s in the floors due to water leaking in windows and soaking the carpet and not being caught.
Although the rest of the truck is solid the floor behind the drivers seat was rusted out. I originally bought the truck as a parts truck and while I knew about this it really didn’t matter at the time.
This is going to be a driver not a show car and the floor of Monte Carlo parts car had surface rust but was solid so it donated a patch. I’ve still got to grind the welds and I’m debating whether to blast the whole floor or just wire wheel the surface rust and coat it, I guess I’ll figure that out later.
Guess I need a reminder every once in a while about why I'll never move back to rust country :D
Once I got the carpet up I also found out that it had originally been a bench seat truck and at some point someone had added the brackets for the split bench…….just wish they had gotten the passenger side in straight, I’ll have redo those at some point, but it shouldn’t be a big deal.
Should do just fine Mike... a bit of blasting and grinding and it'll be ready for primer! Still waiting to see which body line you decid to "relocate".!!!!
Dave basically what I'm looking at is is lowering the the body line between the door and front of the rear tire down to match the line on the door and soften the body line under the quarter window to also match the door.
As trying to match the body line behind the tire with the lowered body line on the doors and fenders would put the new body line down where the marker light is I plan on completly eliminating that one.
Well, nothin' like a bit of pingin' and dingin' to keep a guy busy!!!!!! Going to work out great on the lower line, nothing sez it has to be continued on the back side of the wheel well anyway!!!!!
I haven’t done a lot with the El Camino in the last couple of weeks but I did repair the drivers side door striker. I don’t know if anybody picked up on the jury rigged repair the truck had in the picture of the floor repair, but I was kind of afraid of what I was going to find when I pulled the aluminum plate off.
The sheetmetal in the jamb was surprisingly good with only stress cracks and no rust…..the backing plate the holds the captive nut and reinforces the area was a different story. Having the Monte Carlo parts car sure came in handy again.
I’ve also been kicking around that I was going to do with the rear bumper. I really didn’t like the idea of having the painted front bumper and chrome rear one. I also didn’t think a rounded roll pan in the rear would look quite right with the more square front bumper.
I came across this “tucked bumper” while I was looking at roll pans, I think it might look OK and might be the best option, but I’m open to suggestions and comments.
I'd maybe think about narrowing the bumper, trimming up the ends, etc and making it flush mount with the body sides... Maybe even shorten the overall length a bit??? Could even do the front bumper cover in sheetmetal and make the front end look like the rear... Just a few more hours of fab time Mike, what the heck?????:LOL:
This is looking really cool, Mike! How's the big block Dodge shop truck doing?
".....Just a few more hours of fab time Mike, what the heck?????....."
Dave I got tired just reading that :LOL:
The old Dodge still goes OK, but much as I hate to admit it the couple of guys who commented that I made it too nice to use as a shop truck were right ...I hate puttting anything in the bed (although I do) for fear of tearing up the paint :(
I also kind of miss the lower bed height of the El Caminos and this ones getting a spray in bed liner
Good move; also I found a place called Rubber Cal that sells bulk rubber mats of just about any thickness, shape and size. I'm going to buy a roll of their 6mm thick to use as a mat in my van. You might take a look, maybe there's something you can use.
www.rubbercal.com
Well I've been plugging away, the bumper came in a while back and overall I’m pretty pleased with the quality and the way it fits initially (it is going to take some fitting to make it right but overall it’s pretty close. I also went ahead and installed a class III hitch ….. worked out pretty well but I’ll probably have to dump the exhaust behind the rear tires instead of straight back.
I also managed to get the brackets for the console installed and the shifter put in and hooked up.
Looking good, Mike! This thing should scoot really good.
Good choice Mike, that bumper will really smooth out the lines in the back! I've yet to buy an aftermarket part that didn't have some fitting required, looks like you're on the same roll!!!!
The oil filters on these swaps are real tight to the front sway bar and a lot of people space the sway bar down. The other option is to use the later style oil pump from a 425 which tuck the filter in closer. It’s still snug, but as the truck is currently up on stands and the suspension is unloaded I think I will pick up a little bit more room.
I spent the last week doing exhaust. Like everything else on this it’s tight too. On the passenger side I had to trim the flange a bit just to get it to fit and on the drivers side there is less than 1/2" clearance between the flange and frame. I’ll probably use a bit of heat and BFH to gain a little frame clearance once I get the engine back out……I don’t need a lot but a bit more would be nice.
When everything was fitted and tacked I pulled the pipe out and welded it all together. I used a couple of ball and socket joints at the mufflers so the whole head pipe can be dropped if I ever have to pull the crossmember and or transmission.
I was really kind of wondering how the tail pipes would fit. When I did the wife’s 84 El Camino last year I used 2 1/4" tail pipes over the stock 7.5 rear end and it was tight. The 2 1/2” flowmaster tailpipes actually fit very well, but I suspect that part of that is due to the Lakewwood upper control arms being a lot narrower than the stock stamped ones.
The tail pipes coming out behind the rear tires came out pretty good too. I still have a bit of welding to do and add one more hanger and some tail pipe tips but the exhaust is pretty much done.
I did decide one thing doing the exhaust…….once I get the new shop up and the lifts in I will be buying an exhaust pipe bender. This piecing bends together to build an exhaust gets old after a while. I priced some benders last week and the price wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. I’ve got plenty of time so who knows I may even come across a decent deal on a used one.
Progress slowed down a little bit the last couple months but didn’t come to a complete stop. I did a steering column swap to an earlier unit that was in a bit better shape than the one in the truck. It also has the earlier style cruise control turn signal handle and no wiper function which will match up with the earlier under dash harness from the 78 Monte donor car.
I did the typical remove the shift handle and fill the nub. While the column was out I also pulled the steering gear and resealed that and installed a new rag joint.
Before I reinstalled the new column I decided to see if I could gain a little clearance between the exhaust manifold and steering column by slotting the mounting holes and shifting the bottom of the column over a little. It actually worked out pretty well and not only gave me a bit more clearance on the exhaust but also moved the shift lever on the fire wall side over enough to let me squeeze the linkage between transmission and column in (with a few mods).
I wanted the linkage between the column and transmission connected because even though the truck now has a floor shift the collar on the column still needs to rotate to make the backup lights and in dash shift indicator to work. It also locks the floor shift handle in park then the steering column is locked.
I also picked up just a bit more clearance when I found out the shift linkage from the Monte Carlo I parted out was only 1/4” instead of the thicker 3/8” linkage that came with the 83 El Camino. I really don’t know why the difference. They were both column shift cars and the bends in the rods are identical. I guess it’s just one of those things that make you go HMMMM.
In spite of the extra clearance there was still an interference problem between the linkage and exhaust manifold. The solution I used was to re-drill the linkage holes closer into the pivot points (If you do one you have to do both as otherwise it changes the ratio between the 2 arms and will prevent the shifter from going into low gear and the shift indicator from reading correctly). When I pull the engine back out I will trim the excess off the shift arm and clean that up a bit.
Good ideas, Mike! I like the exaust; very clean job.
I've been moving along with the mockup. The brakes are done and fuel lines to include a new fuel return line have been run.
I found out I did have some issues with the fuel tank I needed to address. When I got the El Camino the tank and straps had been robed from it. I bought a new aftermarket tank and straps and had installed it so I could make sure I had plenty of clearance for the exhaust and run the new fuel return line. Shortly after I had done this It came across some posts on another site that indicated the tank I had bought had venting problem that caused the tank to only fill about 1/2 way.
I figured I would work on that after I took the truck apart but then the tank in the wife’s El Camino sprang a leak a couple of weeks ago. I ordered another tank made by a different manufacture that one guy had indicated didn’t have a venting problem and put that in the wife’s El Camino last weekend. Guess what it has the same venting problem….I could only pump 12 gallons in the tank (it’s a 22 gallon tank) before it would shut the pump off and start spitting fuel out of the filler neck.
Anyway I pulled the tank out of my El Camino brazed a couple of 1/2" barb fittings on it and ran an external vent line. I really don’t mind welding on a new tank that never had gas in it, but at some point I will have to purge the tank I had put in the Donna’s El Camino and make the same mod.
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...m/tankhose.jpg
With that taken care of I got the radiator in and fortunately found I had room for the heavy duty fan clutch and 7 bladé fan.
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...hclearance.jpg
The radiator is in the stock location but I had to move the shroud over about an inch to center it on the fan (due to the engine having been shifted a like amount due to clearance issues). This will probably work, but I'll try to find a little wider shroud to completly cover the core.
I'm still working on finding a lower radiator hose that will fit but a stock upper Cadillac upper hose works well and a power steering pressure hose from an 81 Monte Carlo also seems to work well after I changed the fitting in the back of the pump from a compression fitting to an O Ring fitting to match the steering gear.
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...tom/hoses1.jpg
The last thing I should have to do before I can call the mockup done is to get the Hot Rod air unit mounted under the dash.
Kick ass build .... I love it.
I'd seen a graft (Buick GN clip) on a mino many years ago & always like the look.
You've done a great job so far.
REGS
Working out great, Mike!! Seems on every build there's some easy things that wind up eating up a bunch of time!!! The big fan and radiator should cool the beast just fine!
It’s back down on the ground and the hood is back on it. I’m very happy with the results so far. In spite of the size of the engine compared to a SBC everything fits well and the engine compartment doesn’t look nearly as “busy” as the engine compartment in the Wife’s 84 with the 350 in it. Of course a large part of that is not having the AC box on the fire wall. Everything looks like it’s going to be easily serviceable and there was plenty of room for the Quadrajet with a 1” spacer and 2” air cleaner.
I have been working on getting the Hot Rod Air unit in which is the compromise for having the clean firewall. From some of the postings I have seen around the net I’m under the understanding that HRA has gone out of business. I know I had a lot of aggravation with them when I originally tried to buy the unit a while back. They did have a reputation for making a quality product so I just hope everything works well and gives me a good service life (I have already bench checked all the electrical and vacuum controls and everything seems to work as it should).
I’m using the biggest unit they make, which makes things a little snug, and in retrospect it might have been easier to have gone with the unit that was the next size down ( I really thought I had a bit more room LOL).
With a little bit of trimming on the inside of the dash I was able to get the unit up where I wanted it. I will have to modify the inside of the glove box somewhat to clear the blower motor, but that shouldn’t be too bad.
As this is a universal type setup I had to fabricate some simple brackets to hold it in place which actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.
What I’m currently working on is trying to tie the system into the factory duct work rather than running a bunch of hoses to all the vents. I think I have it figured out and but it’s going to involve a bit of fiberglass work over the weekend.
I got back on the AC unit over the last couple of days. I used the same trick I did on the heater box for the 57, using metal tape to form what I needed to then covering it with fiberglass.
For the defrosters I ended up making an extension that completly covers the defroster outlets on the HRA unit. As this will never be seen again I didn't spend a lot of time smoothing the outside on this one. :LOL:
Then to seal it it was just cut a piece of foam to fill the gap.
I actually had a heck of a time finding a piece of foam to make the seal out of. The 2 places I used to be able to buy it before no longer carried it. What I ended up finding was one of these contoured foam pillows which turned out to work great. I compresses easily and seems to make a really good seal. It also cuts pretty well with the wife’s electric knife :eek::LOL:.
Once I got it all put back together I put the dash and vents back in to check how well it moved air. I was able to do a direct comparison between this system and the wife’s 84 El Camino with factory AC. The airflow thru the dash vents is at least as good as the factory setup and the amount of floor air flow is better. The defrosters do not flow as well as the factory setup but it should still be sufficient.
As usual it never seems to end, now that I’ve gotten this far I’ve decided I don’t really care for the controls that came with the unit. Comparing how the HRA controls work and the factory setup, I think it should fairly easy (famous last words) to make it work with the original controls.
know where your coming from. I got rid of the great big non efficient space robbing, not real efficient ac/ heat stuff myself, and yes It can be done.Not exactally the same car/ P/U as mine, but close.You can use the what used to be kinda dash/ electronic/ vacuum controls in the origional cabin, which is what I wanted to achieve.and like you went aftermarket.Much better. Im trying to post picks, no dice right now. jeeze 500 Caddy who would'a thought. Wow