man do i have my work cut out for me on my 77 el camino! i want to get rid of my rear bumper and replace it w/ a new fiberglass piece that is flush w/ the body. has anybody done this or have any suggestions? im also going to try and shave my door handles and get rid of the tailgate handle. i was wondering if i could do a set up like the earlier el caminos w/ the tailgate latch on the inside. just got rid of all my trim and starting on the rust. if any of you have any suggestions on what i should or could do id appreciate it!

I remember seeing a Roll Pan for the 4th gens somewhere. It had lights on it like the corvette lights. If you had plans to relocate the lights then if the roll pan you end up with is fiberglass that should be easy to plug the holes for the lights.

Are you good with sheet metal work? You can use a Door Shaving kit to relocate the latch to a button in the cab. While you are working on the truck convert that Smuggler's box to a functional storage compartment. Add a Piano type hinge and a lock. Then have the bed sprayed with rhino liner.

It would be cool to have the Box lid in Polished Diamond Plate Aluminum, well the whole bed for that matter. But with a black Rhino Liner the polished aluminum would look killer.

That is what I'd like to do on mine I should have just sealed the bed and the Rhino Liner'ed it. It takes a pretty good amount of paint for the bed and adds a fair amount of cost. Not that Rhino Liner is less than paint. Its just now I am going to add that but only to the bed floor.

I'd say be careful with what ever you use to strip it down with. I didn't get all the chemical off the first time through and had to go back and reblock and primer some areas and the bed was one big area. I had to basically redo the whole bed before I could paint it. Chemicals are hard sometimes to get all the residue off the surface. Paint doesn't stick to it at all. I had no fish eye problems it just didn't stick, it was like spraying on Teflon. :oops: When I went to sand for final time it peeled off in sheets where I hadn't got it clean enough.

But then you probably won't have to go through all that. My 76 was my first really big endeavor and my teacher to some degree.

Good Luck