Hello Everyone, I just stumbled onto this site doing a search one day and am thrilled to know I am not the only El Camino fan in existence. From my experience people either love them or hate them...me, I love them! After several years of searching for "the one" I finally found the perfect project camino two years ago and have been busy working on the restoration. I am looking to meet other 73 owners...it seems that the years 73-77 get overlooked....its like in all the parts catalogs the camino stuff stops at 72 and in some cases goes up to 72 then skips 73 and works up through the 80's. I wonder sometimes if GM never released the patents so aftermarket parts could be made for years73-77. Needless to say I am having a hard time finding replacement parts and odds and ends for my year and would appreciate any insight you all might have on the matter. Mine is currently in the paint shop and i am eager to get her home and back together so i can actually drive this summer but need to find a few things first before she will be road ready. I have a ways to go with the restoration but am loving every minute of it! I look forward to getting aquainted with the site and all of you fine people!
:) caminocowgirl77

your right, parts are hard to find for those.

what color are you painting it?

Hello Everyone, I just stumbled onto this site doing a search one day and am thrilled to know I am not the only El Camino fan in existence.

Welcome to ECC. Let's see some pictures of that 4th Gen Elky.

:mrgreen:

You're correct, the 4th generation El Caminos, along with the 1st generation, are the lost years of El Camino parts and history. The only reason the 1st generation get a bit more coverage than the 4th generation is because the 1st generation (1959-60), because of their age, are often considered Street Rods.

Welcome to El Camino Central (ECC) and good luck with your restoration efforts.

Hello Everyone, I just stumbled onto this site doing a search one day and am thrilled to know I am not the only El Camino fan in existence.

Welcome to ECC. Let's see some pictures of that 4th Gen Elky.

:mrgreen:

I second that motion...step by step shots in the body shop would be great!

Howdy CowGirl,

So you have a 73. Pretty cool ride if you aske me. I have a 72, 76 and an 80 Elky. I like them all equally. All have their points and personalities. We have links to spots that can supply some of the parts. That generation is just starting to come into its' own right.

Anyway I would also like to say Welcome abord. This and ChevyTalk.com are the best places for Elky Information I have found.

How exciting that people actually read my post and took the time to reply...I love this site already! I have tried car chat rooms etc and generally I am ignored and in some cases shunned when i openly admit I have a camino and given even less credit since I am a girl who is into the car scene. I will be happy to post some pics as soon as I figure out how to go about it and get some scanned. Unfortunately the body was restored prior to my purchasing it and it was in yellow oxide primer (it wasn't a pretty site..I had to look at it like 3 times before I actually entertained the thought of buying it since it looked like it had been painted with a broom and beat with an ugly stick :) I redid it in a dark grey primer since I wanted to paint it in electric blue metallic. I also have an original 1973 white stripe kit I found which oughtta look pretty sweet on her. I have pics of her in the yellow oxide and in the grey primer stage (I did the grey primer and sanding myself but was too chicken to do the paint myself. I have a pic of her with the first coat or two of the blue metallic...so far so good. Thanks again for your replies and keep them coming! :) caminocowgirl77
PS. Any other camino owners in PA? I live below Erie and am hoping to find a few camino friends in my area.

Wow, a girl who not only loves Elkys but owns one and can work on it too. Be still my beating heart. :lol: Welcome to ECC caminocowgirl77! Have you've checked Ebay for parts?

Welcome caminocowgirl77,
Check with Bryan Shook, NECOA regional director for Region 3 (PA-NJ-DE) for members within a decent distance of you. Bryan -- elcamino72@hotmail.com

Welcome aboard caminocowgirl77 - always a pleasure to meet someone who likes El Caminos, especially the ones from the 'lost years'! I may be biased, but I've always thought the '73 was the prettiest of the 4th gen, before they started cost-reducing out styling details like the wing grills under the headlights and the separate nose cap.

As you have noticed, parts for these are mostly a matter of salvage yard cruising and eBay. I've been building up parts for the 'final' restoration of my '73 for about 3 years now, and the work continues. (Don't have the money to start the suspension/drivetrain yet anyway, and no point in doing the final paint and body until that's done...)

One note of caution w/ eBay - a LOT of the time things are mislisted, especially between the years of the 4th gen (can't count how many '74 and '75 grills I have seen listed as '73, for example). I always ask for pictures and part numbers. But, if you do your homework and are willing to walk away if someone comes in and drives the price somewhere silly, with patience you will eventually find almost anything there without paying TOO much. I have a set of 6 searches I run twice a week, and over the last couple of years have had pretty good luck, mostly w/ NOS (the condition assessment of used parts is so subjective... :roll: ).

If you have a list of the parts you are looking for, given a few days I can probably come up with the GM part numbers if you don't have them already (I have a somewhat battered dealership parts book that covers these years). Just let me know.

It's great to see a woman involved in cars, even better when thier into Elkys!!! 8) Welcome :!:

I have a 59' Elky & just bought a 59' Sportster & I'm going to paint them to match! Hope to see pic's of your's soon..."ELKYS RULE"..."SKULL" :roll:

Hello you all, Just wanted to stop by the site and say hi and let you know that my camino has finally emerged from it's cocoon and will be undergoing the remainder of its painting here shortly. I am still trying to get some pics together to scan on here, not to worry, I haven't forgotten! I have been dashing around to all the car cruise ins near me, but so far no glimpses of any elusive 73's and only a few elky's sighted all together. Hope all are having a good summer so far! :) Mary

Well! You've only made us wait a couple months :mad: ...J/K

Pix pix pix

Just wanted to say hey. Nice to know there is another girl out there with the Camino bug. Mines a 1975 with dark blue metalic paint. I too have difficulty finding parts but the obsession goes on.
Would like to see some pictures.

:cool:
Hey another 4th.
good news from here. 74 classic owner trying to get into this great site!
I am online every nite trying to touch base with other elky owners! This site is what I've been looking for! Alot of information from the die hard elky owners which is useful for sure. I'm just a car guy in general who wants to help out where I can.

74 Classic owner
Pumped 350, tired paint, daily driver, resto in progress

Hey caminocowgirl77 & Mizer

I noticed that neither of you ladies are members of the 4th generation User group. Welcome both to the board and you're both invited to become member of the 4th gen user group. If you like.

We're part of "The Forgotten Generation" of Chevelles and Caminos.

Hey everyone..it has been a while since I posted an update...wanted to let you all know that my camino has made it home from the paint shop (finally) and I am in the process of putting all the chrome and stuff back on....I put the SS grill and new headlights in the other day and today I installed a new hoodlatch since my old one was broke....I am busy between my two jobs and don't have much free time but I try to work a little on it each day if I can. It is really exciting and I can't wait to get it all back together..still trying to find someone with a scanner or digital camera so I can post some pics...hang in there ;) Mary

It may be going slow but remember it's worth it. That's what I've been telling myself for the last year and half.

Don't forget about us! And pics!!!

Hello everyone. Winter has fallen on North western PA and as usual we are getting slammed with all the lake affect snow good ol' lake Erie can offer. My camino is under cover until spring and in the meantime I am still hunting for odds and ends and researching good places who might be able to reupholster my bench seat (also want some blue flames to match the paint embroidered on it) I miss going to cruise ins and am wishing I could just go into storage for the winter too :) I have some pics which my sister emailed me but am not sure how to get them from my email to here (okay..I may know a bit about cars, but computers are a different story) I will get pics on here as soon as I figure out how! :)

I will get pics on here as soon as I figure out how! :)

8) Look forward to seeing them!!! 8)

An' check the FAQ section of the forum...it'll tell ya how to post pics! :D

And I thought i was the only one! One of my female friends calls them "crucks", for car + truck. Anyway, I technically don't count yet because I'm still shopping for one. Looking for a 1968-1972 (I know as is most everybody) for a solid daily driver. If I could have my dream daily driver, it would have the racing stripes and bucket seats. I have to say that wanting it as a daily driver, I don't care extremely whether it's a true SS or a SS clone as I'm not really interested much in resale value (I know some people will want to shoot me for saying this). Just that it runs great and looks pretty darn good, even if not in show condition. Been looking at classifieds, online cars for sale, and ebay. But I don't think I'd ever buy a car on ebay directly, maybe just use it to find ones of interest nearby that I could take a look at if they're willing to end the auction early in case of private sale. Gotta have good AC, auto trans. Looking at the 5K to 8K range.

Oh, and I will have a 1999 Chevy S-10 with about 45K on it for full or partial trade.

If anyone lives in the mid to Southeast (WV, NC, SC, GA, FL) with one for sale you think I might be interested in, post me a message and I will shoot you my email address.

Sorry this post sounded like a pitch, I'm just excited.

Deb

I know what you were talking about with the parts issues on a 73-77.. I am pretty lucky I guess, My Sprint is pretty mechanically sound though I have a lot of ideas on upgrading. sometimes I think I should keep it as stock as possible, but someone has already replaced the dash pad and built the engine with a big cam and headers.
I need to get back to the threads on upgrading the instrument cluster. I have an SS cluster with the guages and tach on the way, now I have to figure out how to get it connected.

Great to see you all having such fun with "my kind of car"