Other El Camino part IV, Pontiac Safari Sport

I stumbled on this awesome Pontiac Safari Sport custom at one of many El Camino facebook pages and got a short story from builder's son, Irvin. His dad build it over the years and wanted it to look like it came from the factory assembly line.

Even the dashboard looks like it belongs to El Camino.

It's nice to see that interior is also considered in this custom job.

GM's policy was to use same bodies and measurements it's easy to fit parts from same x-body style.

Irvin told me that his dad build this 13 years ago from parts and junk yard cars. His dad owned a body shop and but didn't build any custom himself. Well except this one. All parts are from 1978 to 1983 models except tail gate emblem which is from 2006 GTO.

I have to say that this looks like it really did came out of factory assembly line. It's great that G-bodies have so much interchangeable parts that you can make your own custom without too much cutting and welding sheet metal.

Photos by Irvin Arter. Jr.

Other El Camino part II, Pontiac Lemans Sport Truck.

Pontiac Lemans Sport Truck. I have seen pictures of this before but now it's for sale  Pontiac Lemans Sport Truck at www.leadedgasclassics.com , go check it out! More pictures! At least for now.

(Photo courtesy of Hemmings Motor News and LeadedGasClassics.com)

"This sport truck is 1 of 1 Prototype constructed new in 1967 for presentation and review for production by Pontiac Motor Division President. It is believed to have been responsible for the introduction of the GMC Sprint."

In a Hemmings.com blog is more a reasonable explanation about the birth of this hybrid:

"group of Pontiac dealers in the Midwest, unhappy that Pontiac didn’t get their own version of the Chevrolet El Camino, pooled their resources to build this car by melding a LeMans Safari station wagon nose (and, as we see from the photos, dash and drivetrain) with an El Camino chassis and cab."

This is short story in Chevelles.com backs up this side of the story.

That would be awesome to own. It's not that hard to custom made since most of the body sheet metal are interchangeable between cars that has the same GM platforms.


Other El Camino part I.