hey guys, i have a couple questions,i have found an 81 royal knight el camino in my town. I am looking for my first car and this looks pretty badass.
first off i was wondering if they have power brakes? i have read the 81 catalog but i could only see it has power steering.
2nd I am wondering what to look for when going to look at this truck. any places where rust is common etc.
3rd I have no idea what to offer for the car because the owner has no price.
my last question is was the royal knight version better or equal to the super sport model?

Here is a link to the car. http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/cto/1121185871.html

thank you!!:You_Rock:

Power front disc brakes were standard

Rust....everywhere. Bottoms of quarters ahead and behind rear wheels, bottom of doors, floorpan under driver/passenger feet. rear frame rails, etc etc. All the usual places older cars rot.

he has SOME idea..I usually ask for a ballpark idea, and present/phrase it as wanting to avoid wasting time for either of us. You might be think $1500, and him $15000 (just an arbitrary number). Should give you some idea whether it's worth going to look at

Royal Knight, in my experience is not nearly as common as Super Sport versions.

Ask the seller if you can take a bunch of photos, exterior, interior, under the hood and underneath, then you can post them here. You will get some opinions as to the 81s worth. If that topper has been on there most of it's life, there should be no rust around the rear window and inside the storage area.

Doug

as mentioned above- check door bottoms-quarters- in front and behind rear wheels- floor- smuglers box area- and MOST importantly- the frame- they tend to rust out at or just behind rear wheel arch area. Most el cams came with power disk brakes- as to value if it runs and has visible rust I would keep any offers on the low side- you can always go up. I recently bought an 83 el cam conquista with 61,000 miles- no rust outs- and in very good condition-inside and out- good luck :nanawrench:

sorry- re above- I forgot to mention that I paid $2,000.00 US.

It's a nice looking car from the picture.

It's a nice looking car from the picture.

Yeah no doubt, looks great.

Hope you've got a few grand extra to fix everything though. Might have a rebuilt engine, but could have bad brakes, suspension, exhaust, transmission, and any number of other things.

If I had to guess, I'd say he'll want at least $5k for it, probably closer to $8k. That's about what I'd ask based on the picture, low miles, and having a rebuilt engine (which doesn't make sense if it has low miles).

Offer him $3k if there isn't any rust, but I don't know how much El Caminos go for up north where you are. They tend to hover around $4k in bad shape and closer to $7k in good shape.