El Camino Central Forum banner

What have you done to your El Camino today!

720K views 7K replies 689 participants last post by  Indianjohn 
#1 ·
I'm a member of another forum that has a thread similar to this one. I'd like to start one here. It's been great over there, seeing all the projects other guys are up to every day! Anything goes as long as it's something you've done to your Elky. Pictures are always a plus if possible.

I'll go 1st. Today I took my elky to the shop next door and had my air conditioning fixed. It had a leaky hose. The hose is replaced, the system is charged, and now it's blowing nice and cold! :beer:
 
#4,056 ·
oiled the door hinges. hoping this stuff keeps the hinges quieter longer than some of the previous stuff i have used. i guess only time will tell but it seems like it started doing the job way quicker than the last stuff i tried.
 
#4,060 ·
broke the exhaust manifold bolts free. it was surprisingly easy even tho they are so rusty that they are a tad sloppy with 14mm and 1/2" wouldn't fit. the threads were in really good shape. just the heads were in poor shape. would have pulled the manifold and replaced the flange studs if i had new manifold gaskets since i wasn't sure if this manifold is metal to metal or had a gasket. really want to get the exhaust leak at the flange fixed. also finally got the spark plug wires ziptied up. someone had them all ziptied together and i got them all separated. doubt it makes a huge difference but looks a bit better.
 
#4,061 · (Edited)
A few things checked off the list.

Hello all Finally got my hood painted, got some new tires
put on the chrome mirrors,and an 82 year old gentleman made
me a new tonneau cover.Put in white gauge covers and new
steering wheel and chrome gauge rings. Next thing to do is
redo a set of bucket seats I picked up. Russ
 

Attachments

#4,068 ·
got the exhaust manifold off which was about the easiest thing i did today. snapped 2 flange studs which i figured was going to happen. drilled them out and re-tapped the holes for the new studs and sandblasted/primer'd them. got to wait till tomorrow to paint it since broken studs/sandblasting took longer than it should and primer needed a bit longer to dry. i really like how things are looking but really hate how much work it is to get there. i really need to buy a sandblasting suit or cabinet. sucks sandblasting with just a mask and having to wash my hair 2+ times after to get it all out.
 

Attachments

#4,069 ·
i really hate how much a pain these manifolds are to install. almost feels like it shrunk because i had to put back bolts in lightly first and then pull it forward to get the front bolts in and even that was a fight. middle bolts went in like they should. i guess at least my exhaust leak is fixed and the 1 exhaust manifold is looking a lot better.
 

Attachments

#4,072 ·
tons of room. took less than 5 minutes to remove and about 30 to re-install. if the manifold wasn't wonky it would have likely taken half that time. thanks. i got a lot more practice cleaning/painting parts than i would like. every time i tear something apart i usually clean things up and paint them.

today installed new speedo gears and universal joints as well as flush the transmission fluid. the fluid smells way better now than it did. speedo seems way more accurate than it was also. hoping next months fluid/filter change and pan clean comes out bit better since there is not as much crap floating around in the system.
 
#4,071 ·
Just finished a new electric fuel pump instal in the back, running the power line to the front and re setting up the regulator in a good place. Now have all my fuele stuff in line , Edelbrock intake manifold, new matching 4bbl carb, and electric fuel pump. ALLLLL,, most ready to find out where the heck Arlington, TX . is.. HA. Now have some oil leaks,, but I am going to carry a 50 gallon barrel of 50wt.. :banana:
CYA.
 
#4,073 ·
Dropped my El Camino at the paint shop today!! The body work took so long. I am super excited. It's not gonna be perfect, but it's gonna be a whole lot better than what it had before. Going with gloss black, so imperfections will show up easily, but she's gonna look mean. Before I started the body work people would say "Oh you've got that El Camino with the white primer," but it wasn't primer... it was just a really crappy old white paint job.
 
#4,075 ·
Pulled Vacuumn and serviced 134 in my 72. Must have done something right, temperature was 100-104 today and center vent was reading 57 degrees.



FYI - POA was adjusted for 134 by Classic Auto Air , also their parallel flow condenser installed.
Compressor was an S-6 - Aluminum direct replacement for the A-6.
All else 47 year old originals.
 
#4,076 ·
Played around with the timing on my stock 454. I ran some 89 and disconnected the vacuum advance and added 4 degrees to the primary timing. Now I am running 20. It runs much better down low, it has a stable feeling since that vacuum advance isn't going up and down with every movement of the gas pedal. I tried 22 but got full throttle ping.. This 454 is low compression so I have lots of room to play with as far as timing goes..
 
#4,078 ·
New power steering pump and lines

Got new pump lines and belts installed. Working on getting my Edelbrock 1406 adjusted. If I am at 1500 rpms with all lines to carb installed no smoke but if I drop rpms I get a lot of white smoke. Should I be plugging vacuum line to carb when adjusting idle speed? 1500 seems awful high. 1978 Black Knight 350.
 
#4,084 ·
Got new pump lines and belts installed. Working on getting my Edelbrock 1406 adjusted. If I am at 1500 rpms with all lines to carb installed no smoke but if I drop rpms I get a lot of white smoke. Should I be plugging vacuum line to carb when adjusting idle speed? 1500 seems awful high. 1978 Black Knight 350.
Might be a bad transmission vacuum modulator. See if the vacuum line has oil in it..
 
#4,079 ·
you should probably start a thread about it but shouldn't need to be plugging any vacuum lines to tune the carb. white smoke is usually moisture in the exhaust which should usually disappear once the exhaust has warmed up but rpm shouldn't effect it that much. my 78 runs at about 1500 cold and 700 once the choke is fully open.
 
Top