Now that the Elky is finished except for the interior - I would like to find a set of original bucket seats. Currently, I have a great set of Z bucket seats with a gazillion power adjustments. They are very comfortable but not original El Camino seats. Does anyone have any suggestions? Are there any wrecking yards with a good selection of El Caminos? Thanks for any help you can give. Also, who is going to the Goodguys show next month? I am thinking of entering my '69. Thanks, Bonnie

Good luck finding original buckets and once you find them be prepared to pay some serious change. Many of these cars came from the facotry with bench seats and now it seems like everybody wants buckets. So the price and availability have self adjusted to balance.

I sold a set from my '68 awhile back for somewhere around $600 to a kid down in Fresno.

I know a lot of folks are really into the factory original thing... but after driving both the original buckets and bench I think I would look at aftermarket seats myself. The seat bottoms are ok, but the original backs are just too short to be comfortable. A taller seat back would also increase the safety factor. The other wonderful feature of original seats is the lack of side support. My bench always feels like it wants to dump me off the side.

If I were doing it again, I would look into a pickup style seating setup where you basically have a couple of buckets with a convertable seat/console in the middle. That way you get the bucket feel but can still put a smaller person in the middle and have seating for three.

I decided on an original bench seat. Now I just have to find the headrests and hardware. Thanks, Bonnie

I picked up my bench last summer from GM Sports in San Jose, 408-432-8498. If you are not familiar, these guys are a wrecking yard that specializes in GM sports cars (GM made sports cars?).

It was not cheap either by the time I got through buying the seat and the covers and having the covers put on. I thought I would put the seat covers on myself and actually did the passenger side back. But when I got into the driver side back I found the notorious broken springs and decided that it would be easier and faster to have it done.

I'll give them a call to see if they have the headrests and/or hardware. I have to go right by them on Sat. I'm sure you are right that it won't be inexpensive. Bonnie

I got two headrests left over from my rustifcation job on my '71.
They're outta a '70ish Cutlass. I bought the whole bench seat/w headrests & belts for the springs.
They're in great shape. You're welcome to all/any.
Did I mention the color is lime (puke) green? Good dye job is mandated.
Gimme a ping if interested.

DANNY

Yesterday I drove to GM Sports and found a bench seat including all hardware and headrests in very good condition. Couldn't pass it up. The guys there really know their stuff and couldn't be more helpful, plus the prices are fair. Bonnie

I'm new to the site, but have found a ton of information on here so far.


I just picked up my first elky an 81 conquista SS 2 weeks ago, body is in ok shape, a few rust spots that have abviously been painted over, but the body is nice and straight, 305 engine runs strong, TH350 tranny didn't slip into reverse, but after changing the fluid and adding some transx she seems to be doing better, but not great yet, figure I'll drain the fluid again in a few weeks when I do the differential and get the sludge that has broken loose out of there.

I'm looking for a few things to get her to be my daily driver before my temp registration pending smog (ends in july) runs out. Sell or trade for parts. I'm a computer wiz at NASA, and would gladly offer my services in exchange for parts or cash if I can afford it.

I'm looking for a rochester qjet carb 2 or 4bbl doesn't matter, just need it to get my smog done, even if its a borrow that would be cool. I stopped by gm salvage the other day and they have a couple elkies, but nothing in good shape and they won't warranty the carbs I can pull of the car, they would like 50 for it which I'll do if I have to. The previous owner put a new edelbrock performer on it, which runs great, but has no hook ups for the ECM so get check engine errors all day long. Once I get it smogged I'm out of the woods for a while.

Bonnie, Any chance those camaro bucket seats are still available? I have a bench seat now but would like some decent buckets.
Also looking for a replacement dash in decent shape, the cluster is good but doesn't have a tach, but will worry about that later as I haven't decided on the dash I want yet.

I have torn out the dash ( very cracked and weather beaten, and am going to start on the carpeting and seats next weekend hopefully.

If anyone has any parts/spares their willing to get rid of let me know, trying to do this on a tight budget at least for the mean time.

She sure is fun to work on though, even when she shorts out at 10 at night on the freeway, that was my saturday evening adventure, I think I'm going to name her vixen :) Fortunately I keep my tools in the car and happen to have some spare wiring in the car to rig it for the ride home, today was spent cleaning up some of the electrical.

Thanks for any help / advice you guys can offer.