Should I get 5th Gen instead?

Last weekend I was having a BBQ and sauna with my childhood friends and we talked about my "obsession" over 3rd gen El Caminos. That lead me to think that I have always wanted a 5th gen El Camino, especially from 1982 to 1987 with the quad headlights. Those aren't that rare, but not as plenty as the first few years of 5th gen, 1978 to 1981.

I always fancied those later years 5th gen as my daily driver, the work horse if you will and then for the weekend drive a 3rd gen. Now I have a Volvo as my daily driver, without the party in the back, and I don't really need a three cars, right?

So there is the want to have one, but not the reason.

As the fuel prices keep on rising I have thought about getting an electric car as for my daily driver. Those are getting cheaper and cheaper to buy, but the lack of infrastructures for charging that electric car is non-existing in here where I live. And I can't charge at my apartment. At least not yet.

Then we talked, me mostly, about turning an El Camino into an electric El Camino. And I didn't know if there exist any readily made conversion kits, until I wrote this post. A few years ago when I first had this idea there weren't any conversion kits available and the electric cars were mostly for wealthier people, but nowadays the prices have fallen and there are plenty of electric cars available in every price range.

Now, this is still an idea and will be till that charging problem is figured out.

Damn. That 1970 is really, really sexy. Should I just buy 1970?

Damn. I really miss my 1970. A couple weeks ago I called the new owner and Kelly is doing fine. I was a little bit tipsy when I told him that if he ever thinks about selling it, he should call me first. But I don't think he is ever going to do that, since he has also fallen in love it.

So my quest for an El Camino continues, but which generation? Most likely 3rd, but there is this ticking thought back in my brain saying that 5th gen.

The search for the El Camino

 ...is about to begin. Well, actually has started as a market probe. To see what price ranges there are in Finland and US. One of my childhood friend has a connection in the west coast of the US and does scouting and recon gigs for clients. When we started talking about me getting an El Camino again, he suggested that he can scout the Craigslist in California and he can handle the whole transaction with his guy and the seller, so I only have to say no and yes, and when I say yes, then pay the man. His connection handles whole deal in the States and shipping and only thing I need to in here is to have the El Camino registered and taxed, which is around 50€. My 1970 was about 55€ over ten years ago.

I have set notification on local online car sales website called nettiauto.com and I geet once a week a list with new or if ad has been altered.

There are couple of the 3rd gen El Caminos for sale, but now what I am looking for. Well, maybe that 1969, but it doesn't have air conditioner. And it's... well, maybe not judging the colour scheme without seeing it in live. Maybe I should try to have a look on next weekend?

Then there is of course the craigslist. Which is pain to try to find, when you are outside the US. I understand that it's main purpose is to use as local sales listing, but there used to be a third party website that crawled all craigslist site and find what you are looking for from every state and town. 

The more I have thought about should it be 1969 or 1970, I am leaning on 1969. I like the aggressive nose and there aren't too many 1969 El Caminos in here too. Actually I could find out since our national car registery Traficom.fi has open data of all the cars that are on registery and is on-drive. 

Uh, oh, over 5 million lines of data. Too large for Google sheets. Oh well. I'll check on that later. 

But for few weeks I'm off location and I am not in hurry to get the El Camino. 

Time to acquire a El Camino again?

 So, it has been a loooong time since I posted. Now I have been thinking of acquiring a El Camino again. The thing is that even thought I always wanted a 1970 El Camino, and I had that and I started this blog because of it, but now I am thinking of getting a 1969 El Camino. Now, this blog's title is 1970elcamino... 

Should I keep title, and get the '69 or should I get the '70 and everything is a-okay. Then again, I have thought about getting my '70 back. Even thought I sold it as there was too much history with it, with my now ex wife. Time has passed and we are in good relations, me and ex. I still have the number for the guy who bought it from me four years ago.

Then again, "new" is new, but 3rd gen El Caminos are rarely for sell in here. I have a notification agent active in local national car sale website and currently there are few 3rd gen El Caminos for sale, but either the asking price is way too high or there is something wrong and the price is too high for the condition. 

One option is always to buy one from the US and get it shipped here. Friend of mine has a connection in the Los Angeles area and we have talked about it. The guy in LA is Finnish and he scouts the possible cars for clients and takes pictures and videos and is very thorough about it. So you'll know what you are buying. The thing is of course it takes time to get it from the US to Finland. And even if it would be driveable, I couldn't drive it in this season. 

The second problem is that where should I park it? I live in a row house and I have two parking spaces next to each other so I could park it there, but it's parking lot. No roof or any protection from the weather. I have been looking for a house with a big enough yard and that has a garage or I can build one. Where I live houses are quite cheap so that ain't a problem, but choices for living close to work, as I do have less than 5 min with bicycles, but no garage. Buy a house with a garage and it's going to be 10 km away from my work, so I had to travel most of the year by car.

Maybe I should start by buying that house first and then the El Camino?