Monday, January 26, 2015

New year and new tricks? Part two.

As I wrote on part one that there are few things that I have been thinking of addressing this winter and after writing half way through on that post I noticed that I need second post to continue, to keep it light and not writing too long post. And plus I get "free post" as I split that originally planned long post in to pieces.

So, part one was mainly about exterior and this part two is about interior fixes. When I bought this El Camino it came with bed full of new or used parts and there was also used sweep dash.


I also bought an used one from Finland with kilometer per hour speedo, thinking of changing miles per hour speedo to it, but now I that am use to mph, I am not sure to whether to change it or not. At least it needs paint, desperately. And new lock on glove box.


Also I have been thinking of building a small console under dash to house few gauges and stuff. Since I have bench seat I can't do lengthy center console.


Sadly I haven't get back to garage to do what I have been mentioned above and earlier post.

You can see that A/C vent in the center of the dash? I installed it last summer. I've had it almost five years without it. 


Sunday, January 11, 2015

Front spoiler.

70-72 Chevelle and El Camino front spoiler.

"
This is our 70-72 Chevelle and El Camino standard front spoiler.It is made from 22 gauge steel with a black satin finish.  Comes with all mounting hardware and instructions.
This is a very popular Spoiler. Great muscle car look and helps with cooling."


I have been thinking of building my own and it's not that hard to manufacture by hand. But is saving 130$ + shipping worth it? Well, for me shipping cost are a bit too much, but combined shipping with other products and then it's quite low per product.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

New year and new tricks? Part one.

We have a saying in Finland that is roughly translated: "new year and new tricks". I was at the garage day before yesterday and photographing few things on my El Camino, those things that I have been thinking of addressing this winter. Those are minor things and don't really affect on daily driving, except for one issue: passenger floor mat is wet when raining, but that is that "usual" thing that happens for old El Caminos. Cause of the passenger side floor flooding is either passanger side front window and/or back window on the lower corner under the molding.

Other thing that has been on my to do list is changing the front bumber. It has two dents on that can be straighted out but since I got a straight one that came with the car when I bought it, there's no point to use time and energy on that old one.


And when changing that bumber I can put use those original yellow lenses on,  but there are some issues with that since in Finland you can't have constant yellow lights in front as a parking lights but of course you can have yellow turning signals, but as those are in the same housing that is the problem. I may have to install a switch to deactivate parking lights during inspection.

And while the bumber is off I could change the grille to black one. Straighten the chrome moldings too.

 I bought couple years ago a use grille from Ebay and the plan was to paint that with other colour and install that on and keep the original as original as possible or restore it at some point.

While doing minor cosmetic things I should address that hood misalignment too.

It has been that all this time. Over five years. No hurry with that one since the exterior isn't in the prime shape. It has that ratty muscle car fibe to it. Patina, that you can't paint on. Mismatch of colours.

El Camino's are getting old, there's no way around it. There are so many thing to mention that I need to make a sequel post to this.