[tophes84elco]

Well I haven't really been on here too much lately but plan on doing a lot of work to my car this year so thought I would start a build thread. Plus I have always wanted to start one. I probably won't be making quick progress as I also have a 1970 chevelle that I am going to be working on and swapping the frame on it so this and that will probably take a while to complete and I haven't completely made up my mind on what I want to do with the elky. Also some of these pics are of after I have already done some work as my camera never seems to be charged when I want to take pics. So here's what I have so far.

Here's basically what it looked like when I first got it. 1984 el camino with a mild 350 sbc and th350 out of a 1970 caprice. Rest was all stock except for the leaky sunroof that someone put in at some point in time.

 

[tophes84elco]

The first thing that happened shortly after I bought it was the stock 7.5 ring and pinion detonated when I went over some rough railroad tracks. So I found a bare 8.5 housing with axles and added a posi with 3.73 gears and also a moser pinion yoke as the housing didn't come with one and 3 inch racing studs. Also blasted and painted it. Threw a cheap cover on it cause I was running out of money.

Then shortly after I got the rear end done, I noticed the transmission no longer had 3rd gear. So I completely rebuilt it myself and put in red alto's, kolene steels, larger bushings, new front pump, 2500 stall converter, Trans go shift kit and new dipstick tube that uses the later style lip seal instead of the o-ring. Pretty much upgraded everything in it. Now when you get on it, it will chirp the tires on each shift. Nice firm shifts. No pics of it though.

The only pic I have of the 8.5

Also I was having some overheating problems (probably why the trans burned up) so I put in a new water pump, fan clutch, and aluminum radiator. Also installed a transmission cooler to keep the temps down. Now the highest I have seen the gauge go is 180 and that is only when it's hot out.

New radiator, water pump and fan clutch. Trans cooler is mounted in front of the radiator and run inline with the radiator.

Here's a pic of one of the third gear frictions from my trans. There was no friction material on any of the third gear frictions!

 

[tophes84elco]

The next thing I did this past summer was install the 1980 grand prix dash I have had laying around for a couple of years. Got that along with the center console and tilt column out of the junkyard for $100. No cracks on anything.

Here's a pic of the dash before I had everything installed and wired. It's all together now but I don't have any recent pics of it. Also I just temporarily zip tied the old tach and gauges I had to the face plate but now I am using the original gauges.

And the center console, sorry about the black and white.

Also here is a pic of my crossmember modified for dual exhaust. I'll probably end up replacing it but I think the guy who originally did it did a nice job.

 

[tophes84elco]

Cut the windshield, rear window out and the quarter windows. The rear window kind of sucked but I ended up borrowing my friends tool that uses piano wire and carefully cut it out. The quarter windows came out easy. Used a windshield knife to cut the windshield out and although it took forever, it came out good. Pretty much done messing around with it now until I order an air compressor which is the only tool I pretty much don't own, but I will be removing all the interior soon. Don't want to risk damaging the dash.

Here's the pics from when I took the windshield out.

Then here's a pic with the quarter and rear window removed. Little bit of rust on the bottom of the rear window channel but should't be hard to fix.

Then about half a minute with the cordless screwdriver and 35 screws later the sunroof is out.

Here's a better shot of the dash with it all together. I'm going to dye it but not for a while.

 

[tophes84elco]

That's pretty much all I have done so far. If your wondering why I am taking all the glass and interior out, it is because I'm going to be replacing the roof on it. Yes, I just said replacing the roof! lol. Have a rust free, straight roof that I got from a guy last year who parts out el caminos and malibus. Just need to wait till I get a compressor which I'll be ordering tomorrow or Monday. Then a lot of work will be started and getting done on it! And don't worry, I went to school for auto body! :nanawrench:

 

[tophes84elco]

Sorry I haven't updated this in a while but here's what I've done since the last post. Haven't had much time as I took a new job working second shift 3-midnight and also work 2 hours overtime ever night and also 8 hours on Saturdays so I really only have Sundays do work on it. Now progress will be pretty slow. Anyways here's what I've done.

Got pretty much all the interior out. As you can see the floors have been patched with sheet metal from the previous owner. Passenger side just has some small patches.

The drivers side on the other hand has some pretty large patches. Not sure yet if I'll just buy the front and rear patch panels or if I'll replace the entire drivers side. Or I might just redo them better with sheet metal. You don't really ever see it anyways.

Front

Rear

The smugglers box is pretty much rust free except for some spots on each side of the floor. Shouldn't be too hard to fix.

Driver side

Passenger side

Got the rear bumper off, a lot of the trim and the front header panel off. Also I forgot to take some pics but I found where all the lead filled seems are so now it should be pretty easy to remove the roof skin. Also figured out how it's attached in the drip rail channel. Just need to drill out the hundreds of spot welds.

You can sort of see the tranny cooler

 

[tophes84elco]

Finally got around to cutting the skin off of the donor roof and wow was that a lot of work. Started off by grinding off the paint where the lead seems are. Next I took a propane torch and heated the lead till it melted and brushed it out of the seems with a wire brush. If you ever do this make sure to wear a good respirator, safety goggles, good gloves and some old clothes you can throw out when done. After that I drilled out all of the spot welds. There's quite a few on the window channels but under the lead there were only 3-4 where the quarter meets the roof along with some short bead welds. The skin is held on with some bead welds on the a pillar. The worst are the drip rails. There are small spot welds about every quarter inch if not closer. Took forever but finally got it apart. Here's some pics.

Sorry but didn't take pics of before I started but this is the donor roof. Here you can see where the lead seems are on the a and c pillars along with all the spot welds on the front window channel.

Here's what the weld looks like on the A pillars underneath the lead. Also where the skin folds off of the a pillar onto the window channel it looks like the braze welded it on each side.

Here's where the roof is attached by the quarter panel. Note there's just a few spot welds and a couple of small beads but kind of hard to see since this is after I cut and drilled them out.

Finally seperated!

Don't have the one on the car cut off yet but I had to set it on there to see what it will look like! I'll get some better pics of it and the skin out in the sun in the next week. Right now I'm borrowing my friends car trailer and it's blocking the garage door and I was too lazy to move it.

Also, I now have all the trim off and the entire front clip off and bumper minus the radiator support so I can still drive it in and out of the garage. Don't have any new photos right now but will add some when I get the chance to. My initial plan was to just put lower quarter patches on both sides but after removing the trim off of the driver side quarter I found some nice rust on the wheel well body lines. So looks like I'll be putting a full quarter on that side. Passenger side I can get away with the lower patches. But like I said, progress is going to be slow now lol.