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What have you done to your El Camino today!

718K views 7K replies 689 participants last post by  Indianjohn 
Fresh paint and new color. I am loving it. Need to blacken more trim pieces this weekend. I was planning on a combo of black and chrome, but the black just looks so much better to me.

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I blackened the turn signals, reverse lights, reflectors, running lights and wipers. I still have some more blackening to do this weekend, but it is slowly coming along. The big woohoo today was a trip to the muffler shop for some nice fat tips, black of course. Double wall. Need to paint the exhaust pipes from muffler back now that it is more visable. Also need to blacken light assmblies and all the shiny silver bolts. They stick out now. Gotta go black.


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I took the plunge and ordered up a Gear Vendors over-drive unit. Being built this week and should arrive next week in time for Christmas. The wife is going to be very surprised when she opens that gift. :D

Also ordered up a PCS push button shifter with paddles. So, excited for this project to upgrade the TH400 tranny. I should be able to handle all the work except driveshft cut and balance.
 
Drove mine to Kroger's used it as a grocery getter today . Now iam back to working on my speaker box.
Let's see the box, any photos to share? What speakers are you putting in it?
 
Had me going for a second or two... I thought, this guy must have a freakin pit crew, LOL! Good one! 🍺
me too, exctited for you. Keep dreamin.
 
Storm is coming. I grabbed some BBQ and groceries. Locked up for the weekend so I plan to install the shortened driveshaft after popping in the GV unit a couple weeks ago. I should make some momentum this weekend, but I had to cut out the exhaust pipes to fit the GV, so wont be back on the road for a month or so.

I also plan to add in the PCS electronic shifter, but I want to test the GV with the column shifter before adding in a new varible. I am struggling to get the steering wheel I want, but I finally got a mock-up that I am excited about. This will include the PCS paddles and option for four buttons.

You can read more on my modz page. But here is a mock up of the steering wheel. This is a paper cutout blown up to actual size. The buttons will be auto/man seitch for GV in upper left, OD switch for GV on upper right, line loc on lower left (coming later) and ejection seat button on lower right. I'm also adding in a short NRG adapter becuase the other issue I have been having is the stck height is too high and it pushes the steering wheel too close to me. So, the Momo Jet wheel has a 1.5" dish and by the time I add in spacers and paddle and the short adapter I hope to have the right stack height. This will be fun if everything works as expected.


This is a Volante 9 bolt steering wheel that I started with. I do not want a stack height any taller than this if possible. But, I am adding in buttons and a paddle shifter which requires the 6 bolt design with top bolt at 12 oclock position.
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This was my first wheel attampt. It is a 6 bolt Volante. Dish is too tall.
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This is my second wheel attmempt. Dish is the same and I finally discovered that this wheel has a 6 bolt pattern with 11 and 1 oclock positions. I though the 12 oclock position hole was correct, but no. Volante has a rotator plate they wanted to sell me but that add to the stack height and does not resolve the fact that I can see a lot of the paddles behind the wheel. I really want somthing that hides this a bit more. The black on black is nice, but not quite what I wanted.

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Here is a mock up of the steering wheel that I think I love. I printed this out on paper to actual size. I then cut out the slots so I can visulize what this wheel will look like mounted on the adapter plate and paddles. It is on order now. This hides most of the paddles. The buttons look nice too. The Momo Jet wheel has a nice thick grip and some CF inserts and button. I plan to use a black annodized bowtie horn button in the CF frame. If it fits. I'm excited to get this all mounted up. But, it has been slow to come together.
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Today was a good day. Drove the car down to the muffler shop with straight headers. Sounded like a race car. I passed two police and did not get pulled over, thank goodness.

After installing the GV overdrive I had to cut out the exhaust and have it rebuilt. This time I had the shop add in an H pipe. Great sound, a little more pep off the line and really clean job of installing the H pipe right behind the crossbeam where there was a little gap before the main body of hte GV. Perfect fit. All the exhaust is up about an inch or two higher than before too.

I also got the steering wheel and NRG adapter. So, no bat mobile steering wheel. This Momo wheel is awesome and the total stack height is just about right wven with a spacer and the paddles. Here are a few goody shots. I hope to get the wheel installed tomorrow, but won't have the paddles working until I can figure out the GV unit first. Then I will add the PCS ecetronic shifter and wire up the paddles.

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I got the Momo Jet steering wheel installed and made a couple test drives. Still working out the kinks, but here is a photo and video to share.



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I'm partially OCD about some stuff, so gotta say I'm loving the fact the colors on the radio seem to match up exactly with the dash lighting. Seems like a little thing to most ppl, I guess, but to me it adds a lot to bring everything together. Looks great, but gotta fix those cords lol, that'd drive me crazy.
The matching color was no accident. I have blue neon in the amp rack too. The cords are another story. I have more, so once I get everything dialed in I will end up putting on new cords that are not frayed. But, I am hopeful that after I remove the column shifter, I may have some more mounting options since the column piece that moves will become fixed.
 
Today I completed the installation for the PCS e-shifter and the companion paddles. It took me about 10 hours for the install. I really like electronic projects, soldering and cable routing much more than heavy lifting projects like gears in the rear end or installing the GV overdrive unit.


This was a fun install and like usual, I prefer to strip the car down as much as possible so I am not fighting the install process. I also through the years learned to do electrical tests before putting the car back together before finding out that I missed something and I have to pull the car apart again.


With that said, the electrical test was a success on the first try. I did have to program the e-shifter twice, since I missed Drive on the first calibration.


Here are a few videos to share. If you want to see more photos for this project or to learn more about my 70 Elky resto-mod check out my modz page here:
1970 El Camino 350 Daily Driver Project - Lots of modern...


This is the phase where I get everything wired up for a test before routing all the harness wire looms only to find out that something is not working correctly. Here is a short video on the test. This took place right after calibration of the control module.




Video #1 is a quick tour outside the car.









Video #2 is a tour of the PCS e-shifter, paddles and GV operation. Then I head out for some test driving where I show the paddles and GV switches in action.

 
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Looking nice. RJ, what brand seats are those?
 
Ok, the big weekend is over and I accomplished some major projects. I will detail items #2, 4 and 5, separately on my modz page.

1. Got the car back from the shop. They pulled the motor to install an oil pan, oil pump and replace some seals and freeze plugs to stop all the leaks. The car now vibrates and we think it is the flex plate. So, it goes back tomorrow and since they have to pull back the tranny I am going to have them install a new Hughes GM5TOW 1800rpm torque converter. They also did something to lock up the Lokar dipstick, so hopefully they can remove it, but they likely have to buy a new one. These are not cheap. I was really bummed about this.

2. Rolled the rear fenders for tire clearance. I still have to roll out the front inner fenders. It takes time, but man it works great when you have the right tool. No more fender rubbing in the back.

Driver side rear
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Passenger Side Rear
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3. Adjusted exhaust system to stop a thumping sound that would occur on occasions.

4. Installed Yukon 3.73 rear gears and went for a 100 mile break-in. I learned lots here. I will share some of my experiences to help others and to remind myself of some importants tips for when I work on my wife's Wrangler differentials.This will be on my modz page.

This is the first time I was able to successfully complete a rear end gear swap. The previous time I installed Yukon 3.08 gears but the diff was out of the car and I did not have the skill or tools to do the work so half way through the job I took the rear end to the shop to set the bearings, pinion depth and backlash. This time I did it all by myself. It only took my about 20 hours. ;) But, I spent about 6 hours trying to set the final pinion crush sleve. I could not move it with my air 1200cfm impact wrench. I had to take a break to think it over and I came to the conclusion that it was not the tool but rather the air compressor was not powerful enough. I bought an electric impact wrench for $80 rated at 400cfm and this did the job just fine! It even cost less than my fancy air impact wrench that I bought just fro this job.

Pattern looked great on the first setup. Lucky there. But I did spend hours calculating and measuring all my shims.
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5. Installed a new black ribbed TH400 tranny pan.

Gotta have some bling
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I had the local shop replace the oil pan and pump. They initially said they can just lift the motor up a few inches to remove the pan. Well, that did not work and they had to pull the whole motor to drop the pan to replace the oil pump. They also discovered that the pickup tube was just laying in teh bottom of the pan and this would explain some of my low oil pressures. Nonetheless, this led to a sequence of badness. The car was returned to me with a vibration above 3000rpm. I could feel it at idle and not under load, just really noticable over 3000 rpm. They also managed to get the disptick stuck. I could not remove it to check the oil. So, I took the car back to the shop.

They thought the vibration was cuase by a bad flex plate. So, I had them just put in a new one and since the tranny was pulled back they slipped in a Hughes Torque Converter with 1800 stall. This is there Tow package converter. Well they got the dipstick out. It was a mangled mess. The vibration was still there. So, then they pulled the motor back out and discovered that there was no downtube for the dipstick. They said it was just missing. Why they did not realize this and put one in is beyond me. Why the dipstick never got wrapped around the cranshaft for years when I owned it is also beyond me. So, basically they broke my motor and they said there was already a lot of damage to the cylinders due to a lack of oil since the oil pump pickup tube was not connected to the oil pump. They said the dipstick getting caught in the crank just made things worse and caused the crakshaft to wobble and this was the cause of the vibration. I am not sure I completely believe them, but I know that if the motor gets put back together and the vibration is still there I would be upset and unhappy and would have to pay another shop to fix it or to replace the motor and the dollar signs were just rolling.

The local shop did say they felt bad and wanted me to be happy so they said if I bought a new crate motor they would install it and not charge anything extra for the labor. They other shop in town that I really like and trust has built/installed two motors for me in the past and while they are expensive, they always get things right the first time. But, I paid 5K in labor for them to drop a replacement motor in a 2002 Camaro Z28, so the thought of having this shop finish the job sounded good, unless they break somthing else.

So, that is a long-winded story to say that I bought a BluePrint 350/390Hp motor to replace my 74 Gen I with 190 Hp (about 225-250 with my modz). I have done a lot of work to this car and for under $5000 I should have a new power plant to match all the other great upgrades. I did not want a dressed motor. I bought a base model crate engine. I will reuse most of my components which are all new and have less than 3000 miles on them.

Here is a photo of the dipstick.
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And the crank bearing caps that they say are detroyed and causing the vibration.
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Yep, rebuild or new engine time for sure.
Thanks, I appreciate the feedback. A crate motor is on order. The timing was unexpected, but since I have had a couple days to think about it I realized that I have invested a lot of money in this car over the past year and a new crate motor actually cost less than the paint job and some of the other upgrades. It is one of those projects that I could not do myself, so I would always lean towards the projects that I could handle.

I am getting really excited for getting this done. If I can turn a 13 sec 1/4 mile I will be freakin stoked!
 
I started up the 78 Elk again today. It runs very nice. I just can't get it out of the garage due to the other truck is giving me problems so I can't get it out of the way.
Try a chain saw for the other truck. Elky wants to go out and play. :)
 
New motor was installed today. Upgraded from a 74 SBC 350 with 190HP to a BluePrint 350 with 390HP. The dyno sheet came in with 401.5 HP and torque of 419. After getting all my components mounted I imagine I am at 420+ HP.

Shop said that the vibration is gone and everything is set for the break-in period. I need to get a quick 500 miles on this baby so I can change oils and start to play with it a little harder. I plan to pick it up on Monday and do some driving after work on each night to break it in. So exciting to jump from about 250HP dressed to abotu 420HP. I just installed the 3,73 gears before the car went in for motor swap, so everything is going to feel different.

My goal is to have a sub 14 sec 1/4 mile and that will make me smile. My best with the 3.08 gears was 16 sec. I never had a chance to check with the 3.73 since the gears did not finish the break-in period yet.

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Racked up 500 miles on the new motor. 600 miles on the rear gears. I changed oil in motor and rear diff. Rear diff was treated with siem AMS oil 80-90w and Trans X posi-traction additive.

I also cleaned up some sloppy work from the shop. Rerouted emergency brake cable to above the tranny crossmember. I also tightened up some loose bolts on the tranny pan cover that was leaking. I also had a small coolant leak at the intake and these bolts were all retorqued. I also replaced all the header bolts. The shop put some mismatched ones in place and in the past these would often loosen up, so I spent $50 for high quality header bolts and I hope they stop coming loose.

I had some backfiring yesterday and when checking the spark plugs I noticed one boot had a hole in it from the headers. I tried to buy a shorty plug today and dammmn, these are hard to find with a .750 reach plug. So, I went to plan B and replaced the MSD boot and added a DEI boot protector over the top. This worked out great! Out for a test drive and everything was solid. No exhaust smoke and all is good. Oil pressure was up in the 50psi range most of the time.

The MSD 6AL was set to rev limit at 5500rpm and on a few 1/4 mile test runs I kept hitting that limit. So, I increased that limit to 6000rpm. I can really feel a power and speed difference at 4500-5500rpm.

I apparently suck at hole shots and the best 1/4 mil time I could get was 15.9 with an 8.2 sec 0-60. I was really hoping for more speed and holeshot power with the 3.73s and 390hp. :(

Got some more tweaks to make this weekend.
 
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