Anyone have the info on how to order the GM Restoration Packet for any particular year and model El Camino?

Dan;

Try here: http://www.chevytrucks.org/tech/restpak.htm

Thanks, Peter. I'll see what they have to say about 1987 El Caminos.

Just a quick heads up for everyone out there who also owns a 1970 El Camino.... I called the GM hotline for the Restoration Pacakage and they advised me that they do not have a package for the 1970 El Camino's yet. They did however put in a request for them to do 1970 Elky's though which I thought was very nice of the lady who was on the phone.

Also, they can do restoration packages for other Chevy cars too, not only Chevy trucks. Just food for thought for those of you with other GM and Chevy toys.

I odered a resto. package for my car. Its great, they send you 2 books,1 has all the specs. and options, and the other has info. on finding parts for your restoration. Not bad for one phone call!

Had to try the link and phone number. Got lucky, at first, the guy I talked to could not find a listing for 1972 El Camino Restoration Package. He thought that was wrong, so he did some further checking while I waited. After about 10 minutes, he found it. It is being sent out. Not exactly sure what will show up. I was told to wait about 6-8 weeks. Also, got a case number to call back after a couple of months, if nothing shows up.
Sidenote to Brian: maybe the lady you talked to who did not find any package for your year, might not have dug deep enough. I would suggest calling back and seeing if someone else can come up with the proper package to order.

I'll keep this forum updated when it actually shows up.

Jay

I also ordered yesterday. Had to hold for about 15 minutes, but everything else went like clockwork. Will let everyone know when the '87 package arrives and what it contains.

Jay,

the lady I spoke to said she was able to find 1969 and 1971 but no 1970 listing for the restoration packages. Like you said, maybe she just didnt dig deep enough. I will try to call them back again when I get a free chance. Right now I am working in my garage. I was checking the tire pressures in the elky yesterday when I started hearing a strange noise coming from the air compressor. At that time I was about 5 ft. away from it. I ran over to shut it off in time for the compressor to blow apart. Fortunately, I was not hurt and thankfully the plastic covering of the compressor kept 90% of all of the shrapnel inside the cover. Too bad for me, the connecting rod, compressor casing, piston, rings, and eveyrthing else except for the motor went or broke. Motor is still good but Sears/Crafstman only sells the motor with the mounting bracket for the compressor on it, so I need to get a whole new motor with it. Ended up getting a new complete air compressor cylinder and motor belt drive from the Home Depot. One day downtime but back up and running today.

I will keep everyone here posted as to what I find out when I call back the GM hotline.

Brian,
Good thing you did not get hurt when the compressor blew up. You might want to check with Sears if there was a recall on your compressor. I would ask to see the Sears store manager, tell him your story, of course tell him how much you love Sears, and see if he / she can find out if there is a recall on your model. You never know, they might do something for you.

Jay

Brian,
Really glad you were not hurt. Also glad the Elky didn't take a hit.

Thank you all for your concern. Fortunately, the elky was in the garage and the compressor was inside our wooden shed. The only thing that would have gotten damaged was quarts of oil, the spare bias ply tire and matching rim for the elky and my summer rims and tires for my 97 Dodge Ram 4x4.

I do plan on writing a letter to Sears complaining about it, and also that the unit is only used about once a week for not that long of a time while I am working on the cars. The tank was date coded 1998 and we are trying to find the receipt of when we bought it. Im almost sure that Sears will not do anything but it can't hurt to try.

Hi all,

Finally heard news from the Store Mgr. at Sears. First he told me that since it was out of warranty and that I did not seriously get hurt, I was pretty much SOL. He was also very rude and didnt seem to care about my well being. After this conversation, I considered calling the main office for SEARS.

The next day, I got a call again from the Store Mgr. at Sears. He said he brought the broken pieces that I took to Sears over to their service dept and they looked at it saying that it appeared that the cylinder wall was scored and that I did not take care of the unit. At this I told him that when the thing exploded, the connecting rod was still rotating about a good 10-20 cycles before I could shut it off which is why the cylinder wall was scored severely. He also said that my 22 gal. 5 hp compressor was overly used by using it once a week to once every other week. :lol: What did I buy a compressor for?? To dress up the inside of my garage for looks??? :lol:

Anyway, the long of the short of it was I got a $100 gift certificate for my trouble of reporting this and for my loss.

I called and placed an order for the GM Restoration packet on 4/28 well its to bad if you have a 79 elky they dont have model speciffic restoration packets but they do have one for all 79 chevys. Or so the guy told me that this one would help. I told him to send it anyway, hell its free, well it came today and guess what its only for the Impala and the Caprice Classic in 79, will this help or do I need to call and ask for something else.

Oh buy the way I dont own a 79 Impala or Caprice...

Thanks
ga79elky

I did receive my '87 Elky packet. It sounds to me like it mostly depends on who answers the phone when you want to order one of these packets. It doesn't make a lot of sense for 1970 and 1979 (the two years I've heard about), not having a packet, while other years, with practically the same make-up, being available.

Well, I just called the line and suposedly have a GM Restoration Packet for a 79 El Camino on the way. The guy I spoke with said that the 79 model was not all that rare and that I should receive their packet within 2-4 weeks. He also said that if there was anything that wasn't in the packet that I needed, I could call Bischko Books (makers of former GM Vehicular manuals) at 440-338-4811 and I could get (for a price) older model vehicle manuals.

I guess I'll see after 4 weeks or so...

Let me get this straight. Are these resto packets free from GM??
JC

Doh! My bad, just went to the link and answered my own question.
JC

Doh! My bad, just went to the link and answered my own question.
JC

Double Doh

Sorry couldn't help it :D

Well, Just got my restoration packet yesterday. Nice that it came via UPS ground, so it didnt take long getting here. Unfortunate that I received the Impala and the Caprice Classic for 79, just like ga79elky did.

Oh well lots of useful stuff!

I justed ordered my restro pkg for my 85 elky. Didn't wait but maybe 10 min's. She said it would take about 6 weeks to get.

Smooth!! Took about 5 minutes, they were very helpful and polite. What a nice change of pace. Said it would be out in about 2 weeks.

I ordered one for a 1954 Chevrolet Bel air, and it came pretty quiclky. The lady didn't believe me that there were 3 different models for a 1954 Chevrolet car. So she put me on hold, and then she came back and said, I have a restoration packet for a 150, 210, and bel-air. I guess she had her foot in her mouth. If you don't succeed in getting it the first time, just keep calling GM back, some of the receptionists could care less about the packet and are too lazy to look for them for you, but you will eventually get one that will take time and look for you.

Got my Restro PKG in yesterday. Took 8 Days for me to get. Alot of great info!

Called about the Resto pack,answered a few questions,no problems. The man said should receive it in 2 to 3 weeks and this is for a 1967. One of the questions he asked was where I heard about this. The answer "El Camino Central". The word on this site is getting out there people. Let you know what I receive when it comes.

[B] 8O Hey ElkySS, you said you got your 87 packet, but didn't say anything about it. Is it worthwhile?

Finally arrived!
I called GM around the middle of April for a restoration information pack for my '72 Elky. I waited, called back, waited, called back. This went on and on.

It did arrive today and at first was a little bit of a let down. It is basicly about 20 copied pages. I thought there would be more to it. But after I looked at it a little closer, it really has the information that was available in '72. Body specs, frame specs, engine specs, etc. Its kinda old school, but I like it.

If anyone wants a copy of this, let me know, I'll make copies and send them to you. I also have an original "Order Sheet" from '72. I can make copies of that also.

Hope you have better luck then i did.. Knew something was wrong when the Chick who answered asked me if an El Camino was made by Chevrolet.. Ordered a restoration package for an 85 Elky got one 4 weeks later for a Chevy Citation!

I called the phone number and ordered one for my 72 and got it in the
mail in about 1 1/2 weeks. It comes in 2 books and gives you all kinds of info on your year elky. Like what options could have been ordered and what the price was,option packages, engine info, it was pretty cool.
:D Mike

Hey Mike. Can you tell me what is on the title of the two books you received? Does it have an author or any other type of ID so I can call GM back and see if I can get what you did?

I really only recieved about 20 pages of "photo copied" sheets of paper. Not a "book" by any imagination. Plus, it took months of phone calls to get what I recieved.

Glad you got the real "restoration pack".

Hi
I dont have them at home-left them at work :-D
But I will get them Tuesday and will post the titles.
They are not real books, but are sheets of paper with info on them, but very good info on them.
Will post when I get them home. :lol:
Mike

Thanks Mike.
It sounds like what you got is different than what I received. I'm curious to hear what you got. I'll keep an eye on this post for later.

If you want a copy of what I recieved, let me know. I have copies of the "photo copied" pages and can send them to you via regular mail.

Thanks again,

JW

I received two photo-copied packets. One is after-market parts suppliers and Chevy clubs. It reads "Chevrolet Hobby & Sales Group, Past Model Information".

The second packet is entitled "1987 Chevrolet El Camino Restoration Packet", it includes a couple of pages from the dealer's showroom brochure, a page about the Conquista option and the "SS Sport trim" options, a breakdown of the VIN and Service Parts Identification Label (the old Trim Plate, moved to the inside glovebox door in late 1985 or early 1986), a specifications sheet including height, weight, gross vehicle weight range, engine specs, trim specs, and RPO numbers and suggested prices. This packet totals about 25 pages.

It did include one page that had a number that I did not previously have. This page listed the number of RPO Z15 El Caminos produced in 1987. Z15 is the factory Super Sport appearance package. 3,967 RPO Z15 El Caminos were produced in 1987. This is not to be confused with the 861 Choo Choo Customs, Inc. El Camino Super Sports produced in 1987. Almost all of the Choo Choo Customs' El Camino Super Sports did not have the RPO Z15 factory option. I believe this is because of the two tone paint scheme that would have been delivered on the Z15 option El Caminos. That would have clashed with the planned Choo Choo Customs paint and decal placement schemes.

Well I remembered to bring my packet home from work. The first is titled Hobby and sales group that contains things like extended storage guide,sanction bodies,past models parts suppliers,auto publications,cowl tag ordering guide and a few others. The second thing I got was a El camino selector guide. It includes standard specs and also includes all the option groups that were available for the 72 elky. Also the option codes and sticker prices for that option. It also includes suspension info, engine specs for all available engines for that year. I dont know if it is what eveyone else got, but I think it has some great info. :D
Hope this helps.
Mike

Hey Mike, thanks for the information. Looks like I got the low end or the quickie version of the restoration pack. I'm going to get back on the phone and try some more to see if I can get what you received.

After all this time, and I didn't get what was supposed to be shipped, thats terriable.

Thanks again,