Dave1987SS 1987 Choo Choo Custom Restoration

dave1987SS · Jul 15, 2011

1987 El Camino SS - Choo Choo Customs
Original LG4 305 with Crane Compu-cam and Edelbrock TES
Monte Carlo SS TH 2004R and 3.73 posi rear end
Speedway Racing Tubular upper control arms, S-10 Xtreme brakes, Monte SS sway bars, Grand Prix bars and braces
Monte SS dash and tach, Grand National seat covers & custom SS logos on headrest, black carpet and GN Concert Sound speakers in doors
Added Power antenna and power mirrors from Camaro
Photographs to follow

dave1987SS · Jul 15, 2011

I will take some photos tomorrow, spent last night and today removing the hood and Choo Choo Customs nose. I need to replace the drivers side front fender and door so I will try to document this for future reference.

dave1987SS · Jul 15, 2011

Now that it is registered as an antique and no longer needs to pass emissions, I may rethink the "all emissions legal!" line in my profile.

dave1987SS · Jul 16, 2011

7/15/11

Today I took off the drivers side fender. Lots of rust on the shims, will have to get new ones and paint them all before assembling them. Also plan on getting all new bolts and clips. One area of the inner fender was broken, is there any way to glue the black plastic? Not sure if it is ABS or not, maybe some pipe dope will glue it back together.

dave1987SS · Jul 16, 2011

Here is a close up of the cracked plastic and also the rusty shims between the fender and firewall.

dave1987SS · Jul 16, 2011

Mysterious wire!

I also found a plug that I do not know what it goes to. It is a tan wire with brown snap on male connector and comes out of the wiring harness by the windshield wiper and speedo cable right next to the brake booster. If anyone knows what it goes to please let me know.

cjlaketexoma · Jul 21, 2011

No clue on the wire, Dave - but keep the pics coming!

464elky · Jul 21, 2011

Dave, i think that is the power feed for an underhood light. Not positive though.

jlcustomz · Jul 26, 2011

x2 on underhood light connector

dave1987SS · Aug 4, 2011

Thanks for the tip on the wire, I disconnected the light a while ago and forgot about it, just found it in a box of parts in the cellar. I got rid of all the rust and repainted it a nice aluminum color and it has been sitting in the box waiting for the restoration to be completed.
Dave

dave1987SS · Sep 1, 2011

A little bit of an update, got called back to work so my permanent vacation is over, not much time to work on the EC now but here is what i've done in the past month or so. We removed the bent up door and put on a temporary door (has a lot of rust in the inside botom edge just like the bent door so will need some new metal welded in before we can put the new door panels on, typical East coast problem.) Also found rust in the bondo areas of the rear quarter, was able to stick a screw driver right through it, so I bought a new rear quarter from Auto Body Specialties in Middlefield CT. That will be done after I get the new door skins on and the rust in the door repaired.

dave1987SS · Sep 1, 2011

Here is the new front fender with the temporary door, still cannot get the door gap right, looks like the front of the fender has to be raised up but not sure exactly how to get it lined up better.

dave1987SS · Sep 1, 2011

Celebrity Headlight conversion

Figured I'd add this into the thread, I bought the 1990 Celebrity headlights and lauren engineering brackets for the Choo Choo Customs nose. I can replace the headlights with the sealed beam headlights making changing the bulbs simple like a new car. After investigating the electrical issues I found that the easiest way to do everything neat and without hacking up the harness was to use a Monte Carlo LS wiring harness. From 1986-1988 the LS had sealed beam headlights, and although they are not a direct replacement for the SS nose, the wiring harness is a complete plug and play replacement for my original harness. The only change needed is to remove the weatherpack connectors from the headlight plugs and snapping them into the Celebrity plastic plugs. The weatherpack connectors are the exact same on the Monte LS and the Celebrity, the wires are even the same colors. See the photos, you just have to remove the big plastic connectors from the Monte harness by using a weatherpack connector tool to release the clips, then snap on the smaller plastic connectors from the Celebrity.

dave1987SS · Sep 1, 2011

The last photos were removing the weatherpack connectors from the LS harness, here are attaching the Celebrity connectors.

dave1987SS · Sep 1, 2011

Here are the lauren headlight buckets, with the Celebrity headlight unit attached to them. My Celebrity lights were missing the retainers so I used some press on nuts, I'm not even sure what the original celebrity clips look like.

dave1987SS · Sep 1, 2011

The Monte Carlo LS harness replaced the original El Camino SS one perfectly, the hardest part was getting the old harness out of the core support. It was held on by a bunch of plastic snap on clips, which broke when I tried to remove them. Getting the sockets and turn signals through the space between the core support and the AC evaporator was hard but a large screwdriver allowed me to slightly bend the core support to allow them to be threaded through. Once the harness was out of the core support I disconnected the horns and used a 1/4" socket to loosten the bolt that holds the harness connector to the firewall. Once this bolt is loose you can then pull the harness straight out of the connector on the firewall. You will also have to disconnect the windshield washer and wiper motor, I found it easier to unbolt the wiper and the motor from the firewall to give me access to the bolt in the firewall. also there is a connector going to the brake proportioning valve that works the brake light. Swap out this harness with the Monte Carlo LS one, and it connects to all of your wipers, pump and brake valve, I had to move the connector for the horn back down the harness since it appears that the Monte Carlo horn must have been located in the center of the grill. I threaded the harness through the core support and installed it into place, and plugged in the lights just to see if they would work.

dave1987SS · Sep 1, 2011

The lights lit up, one of the high beams was burnt out so I ordered some new bulbs off of Ebay. I also ordered a bunch of hardware from fastenersandclips.com where I was able to get all of my bolts, U nuts and even the plastic clips to hold the wiring harness into place.
The bulbs were Euro DeZigns H.I.D. Xenon/Krypton, they are not real HID lights but just have a blue coating I have been told, they replace the original Celebrity bulbs # 9005 and 9006, and cost $16.99 a pair compared to $49.99 a pair for Sylvanias at the local AutoZone.

Here are photos of everything hooked up in the original Choo Choo customs mounting brackets.

dave1987SS · Sep 1, 2011

Actually I did not take photos of the brackets, these pictures are after I test fit the nose into place and attached a couple of bolts for position. They still need some adjustment but you get the idea. One problem I ran into was the black seals around the edges of the Celebrity headlights. The nose would not fit over the lights with these on them, luckily they just snapped on and I was able to remove them to allow the nose to fit over the lights correctly. You can see the seals on top of the nose in the last photo, and these definitely need to be removed.

lcochino · Sep 1, 2011

Now your talking my L.A.ngu:beer:age!! Its gonna look sweeet!composite
,the ONLY way to go! Ordered my buckets L.A.st ourweek from our friend lauren:smileyb:

dave1987SS · Sep 2, 2011

Yeah the only thing I don't like is when the high beams are on the low beams do not light up too, was reading about it on the Monte Carlo SS forum and that is the way the Celebrity lights are designed to work, you can probably rewire it to light both at once but then you would need a relay to make sure it does not melt your headlight switch or wires.

spencersr · Jan 14, 2012

You can use a one way diode from the high beam to the low beam positive the one way keeps the high beam off during low beam usage. Will the celebrity buckets fill the el. I'm wanting to do this but I just got laid off so I have plenty of time but no money and a junk yard real close

84withzz4 · Jul 26, 2012

1987 Choo Choo

Dave, how about an update on your restoration.

lcochino · Jul 26, 2012

X2:nanawrench:

87next2last1 · Jul 26, 2012

dave1987SS hasn't been on since Last Activity: 10-17-2011

dave1987SS · Jul 26, 2012

Been busy working on other projects and been back to work for the past year so not much has been done, my "Winter" project was supposed to be to fix the drivers door. We got the old rusty and dented door skin off but the lower inner door panel had a lot of rust. My friend's father builds hot rods and was able to bend a piece of the old door to the correct shape for the lower inner door but we never got a chance to weld it in. And since he does not do welding during the summer (too hot and he's too busy driving his '51 Chevy custom convertible pickup around) looks like I'll be waiting until the fall to work on the door. I bought some new core support bushings but need to shim them up, hopefully this will raise the nose up enough to fix the fender to door gap. I'm also working on the interior, have to clean it all out and I got a rebuilt radio that looks like an original 1987 with EQ and cassette deck.
Dave

dave1987SS · Jul 27, 2012

Here is the source I found to rebuild my 1987 GM stereo. My original factory one had the standard AM/FM cassette player with no equalizer. the tape deck died around 1995, and I wanted to get one with an EQ like those in the Monte Carlo SS. The price for Monte and buick Grand national ones was sky high on ebay, but I found a 1987 Cadillac eldorado stereo with EQ for $15.00 on ebay. Unfortunately it had a bad power switch and kept blowing fuses. I was able to find a guy that completely rebuilt my factory stereo. He also added an AUX cable so I can now play my Ipod through the factory stereo. He not only replaced the bad switch, but also installed a 4 foot cable, a new belt on the tape deck and 3 new lightbulbs. total cost was a reasonable $55 + shipping. He works fast and I had it back in a week! Works great and I highly recommend Tony's service.

Price is still the same. $55 plus return shipping. Return shipping will be USPS Medium Flat Rate Box. 11.00
Make sure to package it well. Tight packaging so it does not move in the box...
Send to:

Anthony Barlos
2 Jane Drive
Saint Peters
Missouri
63376-2231

Dave1987SS 1987 Choo Choo Custom Restoration

Attachments

Attachments

Attachments

Attachments

Attachments

Attachments

Attachments

Attachments

Attachments

Attachments

Our Vendors

Top Contributors this Month

Recommended Communities