Hi,
Wanted to let everyone know about my progress in getting my Elky back together after the fire. My Mechanic convinced me that changing the heads, intake, and carb wouldn't be necessary. Turns out, what I thought was melted aluminum was actually the melted pot metal t-handle type valve cover fasteners! :D Duh!!! He's repairing the carb, and I'm gonna leave the intake and heads alone.Seems that the air cleaner shielded the carb from so much heat.What will take the black soot off the intake? It's an Edelbrock,and the soot is really hanging on to the aluminum. I have a good distributer, starter, brake booster, master cylinder, and alternator to install as soon as everything cleans up. Man, I hate fire damage!!!!!!!
Also, I found all body parts at the junk yard here. I had to pay alot, but almost everything was there. I found an a/c delete heater box, and that's good. I never intended to put the a/c back, which wasn't on when I bought the car.It's the only non-a/c Elky that I've run across. The inner fenders are sun bleached, so I'll be painting them with something. ??? The Fusion paint might do the trick. Is that Krylon, or Rust-oleum?? Also found a near perfect wiring harness, could hardly believe it!! 8) Going to do the jambs and firewall with single-stage Acrylic Enamel. It's code 11 white, so that will be sufficient. Tomorrow I'll order my windshield,radiator, and Firestone Firehawk tires. I'm going to go from 205 60r 15 to 215.Also will place an order to Rick at E C Parts, for everything that the junk yard didn't have.Hopefully, I'll have enough money left over to buy a set of headers. They will be so much easier to install with the front clip off the car.
Forgot to mention the sheetmetal,bought a hood, and right fender, plus the header panel. All in reasonably good shape, no rust or dents. I'll use the left fender. Seems that the major portion of the heat was on the right side.
Also, the brake lines got hot, so I'm thinking that I'll need to replace them. I would think that the brake fluid would be contaminated. The trans dip-stick tube was hot also, so I'm changing it and trans fluid.
I know this is a long post, but wanted You to know what was going on. Am I missing something?? I'm pushing my finances to the limit to get my Elky done. I'm on a mission, for sure!!!! :D
Any thoughts or concerns will be appreciated.
I'm taking pictures with one-shot cameras,and will post when they are developed
Take Care
Ron

Ron, I read your post, and I feel for ya Bud. Take some pics of before and after like i did. A fire, big or small is somewhat debilitating to both your truck and your psyche,,,, believe me I know. Check out the pics of my 80. It took me MONTHS to get mine done.
It sounds like you are on the right track. Keep your head up and keep plugging away. It IS an ElCamino of course. The best truck around.
How's things in Bend? I REALLY miss living in Oregon SO much. It is SO great out there.
Later
dug
P.S. as to cleaning up your intake, I have a small sandblaster that did the job perfectly.

Just Paint the Intake. You can get aluminum cleaner and you can sandblast but by far the easiest will e to paint it. If your engine is black like most Chevy engines are, then just spray it with simi-gloss engine enamal, black.

You actually have an opportunity to do many things better with little or no cost. Two easy areas come to mind that can be easily upgraded from stock and you'll be glad you did.

1. Check out all your front-end connections/joints. If the heat got to them they may be damaged and now would be the time to replace/upgrade. Wiser folks on the Forum can comment better than I, but I can't help but wonder about temper issues if heat got to those ball joints, etc.

2. Personally, I would upgrade the headlight harness with dual relays and bigger wire as a minimum. Estimated cost - $10. You'll never regret it.

There are many other examples.

Take care.