The "66 El Camino that I finally own" Thread

[99t]

CAPP0 said:

Is that the colour you're going for OP?

Colour wise, I took this picture recently which (on my screen at least) gives a reasonable idea how the colour appears to the eye.



Paint flatting and polishing continues, I've settled on a combination of wet and dry grit, pads and compounds for wet sanding and polishing, which seems to be working for me, giving a better result slightly faster whilst leaving fewer sanding marks

I've also started refitting trim removed for paint - whilst trying to make sure I do so in the right order, not least to make life as easy as possible, but also there are some things that simply must be done before others - e.g. refit the trim to the rear of the roof, as pictured above, before refitting the headlining, since the fixings are only accessible whilst the headliner is dropped!

Of course whilst the trim is off the car is the ideal time to give it a really good clean and polish, removing old paint, bed liner and window sealant that has been over-sprayed, smeared and dripped onto it over the last 53 years.

The associated trim fixings and seals also need attention, like the seals that go between the rear roof trim and the cab. Needless to say the original rubber had seen better days, so time was spent finding a strip of rubber of appropriate thickness from which to cut some new seals. No need for them to be pretty in this application, I just cut the rubber around the washers with a pair of scissors and then punched the hole in the middle.



All in all it means that refitting one piece of trim which physically takes about two minutes, actually took about two hours!

Satisfying to see that some pieces came up really well, with minimal marks / pitting and an excellent shine



The upper sections however, had clearly never been removed previously for paint (of which it has had plenty during its life in California) due to the need to drop the headliner for access. As a result, they have come into contact with more than one carelessly wielded sanding disc over the years and no amount of polishing will rectify these.



Used ones do appear in better condition (in the US) from time to time, so will keep my eyes open for a bargain, but not the highest priority at the moment...

[99t]

Was it definitely an El Camino? Ford's Ranchero "had wood" in the seventies...



Elk's probably did too mind, I'm not so well up on the later ones.

[99t]

Reassembly continues.

After a bit of a faff, I managed to refit the original headlining. Although not perfect I elected to keep it as the fit and finish is probably better than reproduction ones available - I am becoming increasingly disillusioned with the quality of the replacement trim parts I have purchased at considerable expense, but more about that in a bit...

The headlining was pretty grubby, so gave it a wipe over with a barely damp magic sponge. I left it a bit late to take a picture, but hopefully the before and after should still be obvious.



Quite pleased with the results and it matches the seats and door trims colour now - before I thought it was several shades of beige darker!



Time to fill one of the big holes at the front of the cabin (windscreen can wait for another day). The dash panel has been rubbed down and painted a while ago. Time to refit the instruments, switches, trim, glovebox and ashtray to it before refitting (much easier than trying to fit them once the main panel is in the car even though it makes it heavier to man-handle).

Little details first - glovebox door buffers (original ones hard, painted and fifty percent missing)



Replaced with nice soft rubber



Replacement upper trim - well no question it was needed...



The replacement piece certainly looked the part and was well made with really high quality "proper" chrome plating, rock hard and no marking this with your fingers like some plastic chrome.

BUT... the switches for the ignition switch, lights and wipers and the cigarette lighter have a specific fit through both the metal dash and the outer trim. This requires all four holes to line up EXACTLY.

Unfortunately when the light and wiper switches were aligned, the holes for the ignition switch and lighter were about 5mm offset from the holes in the metal dash, and vice versa. No way would it all go together without fettling.

Since I couldn't easily adjust the trim piece due to the specific shapes moulded in it to locate each item, I instead had to take a dremel to my lovely painted dash panel and elongate two of the holes. It won't be visible of course but feels like a bodge and just shouldn't be necessary. Grrrrr!

Anyway, rant over, it finally all slotted together





Thankfully, the other trim piece, glovebox lock and door and ashtray all slotted back together quite easily



And finally the refurbed instrument cluster



Next up, refit to the car, work out where all the wires go and fit and connect the radio and heater control panel...

[99t]

Slowly, surely going back together now. Still plenty to do and bits of it have fought me every inch of the way, but elements of it are starting to feel like a car again...

From this



To this

[99t]

Paul S4 said:

Are you going to tweak the engine at all...must be tempting to make it a bit of a 'sleeper' truck and surprise a few people !

Always tempting but I think I've got my work cut out getting it running and driving properly again after such a long lay up, brake pedal is solid so either the servo or master cylinder has seized, radiator needs replacing as it developed a leak at some point and the cooling system has gradually drained itself, there was a drip from the fuel pump last time I had it running and I'm sure there will be many other issues too.

Not to mention all the rest of the body needs bare-metalling and painting.

Feel depressed now!

Anyway, another evening in the garage and I have a steering column again!

[99t]

That's a shame, I was looking forward to another Elk thread in Readers' Cars for a minute.

Not an El Camino but Jim has this due in soon - lose the topper, lot of potential...

[99t]

Thank you both, there hasn't been any progress since my last post because household DIY has reared its ugly head.

Mercifully DIY progress has stalled now as I can't get any more materials, which means I hope to be back in the garage soon

[99t]

A little progress towards getting the Elk roadworthy again.

I noticed the radiator had a slow weep about a year ago and ordered a cheapo aluminium replacement from China via the Bay of E.

Old one removed, not the worst I've seen but evidence of weeps in a few places once off the car



New one needed a tiny bit of spacing away from the radiator panel to clear properly, and elongation of a couple of mounting holes but all things considered seems decent quality for sub £100 delivered. Fan shroud will be refitted.



Not sure I like the shiny appearance from the front - may apply some matt black before final fitting.



Just waiting for a pair of replacement transmission cooler unions before I can complete the job, although the unions came out of the old radiator, the hard lines were absolutely not going to allow them to turn, with predictable results...

[99t]

LunarOne]aul S4 said:

I may be wrong, but are black painted radiators more efficient in cooling.....?

That might be true if the radiator were actually radiating heat. I'm sure it does radiate a little, but it's likely that in the case of a car "radiator", 99% of the heat is removed by conduction to the ambient airflow, in which case the colour of the surface makes no difference.

I always thought paint on the fins would reduce cooling capacity not enhance it, although hopefully the radiator has sufficient excess cooling capacity that the effect of the paint is negligible. I've linked an interesting discussion below, admittedly about black painted intercoolers, but the principle is the same.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_mmmXTbLP0

I will probably just lightly blow over the lower tank and sides which are the bits that will stand out once the bonnet is back on and hides the upper areas.

[99t]

Unbelievably, it is another two years since the engine in the Elk last ran (after a bit of a battle it has to be said, a couple of pages back) so thought it was time to see if it still works..

First though, I needed to finish plumbing the new radiator in, namely the trans cooler section. Unfortunately I cocked up on ordering the new unions somehow and they turned out to be too large, so they were filed in one of my many "may come in useful" boxes and I had another go at ordering, successfully second time around.

Made up the pipes to join to the flexible hoses



Threaded them into the rad, tightened up fairly gently as I didn't want to strip the aluminium thread, but felt as though the end of the copper had probably compressed slightly, so hoped for a good seal.

Added a little fuel to the carb as it was bone dry and tried to start. Second time she fired and ran cleanly straight away. Got out to check for leaks and immediately jumped back in and turned off - petrol everywhere from the fuel pump. Also some small drips from the trans cooler unions

Fortunately I had ordered a fuel pump after running last time, as it was dripping a little back then.

Dug out the new pump and removed the old pump, easy two bolts and two jubilee clips. Removed the threaded union from the old pump to transfer to the new one, hmmm...

That's not perspective, the thread on the new pump is quite a bit bigger than the old one.



Then it struck me - it looked about the same size as the unions I had consigned to the "may come in useful" box...



Perfect!

Buoyed by my good fortune, I fitted the fuel pump, and put an eighth of a turn on the two trans cooler unions



Re-started and checked for leaks. Fuel Trans-cooler, still a little weeping but better.

At this point, I really should have removed the cooler unions and checked the mating face of the pipe ends for burrs etc., stopping them sealing.

What I did instead, was put another eighth of a turn on each of them, still really very little torque as I was only using a short, open-ended spanner.

However I was rewarded with the sickening loosening feel of a thread going past that point of no return!








My own fault and I suppose the risk you take buying cheap Chinese goods is that the material quality may not be great. Certainly I wouldn't have expected the thread to strip given the torque I was applying, but hey-ho.

Options

- remove rad and try to re-thread it, no guarantee of success or clearing it of metal filings completely afterwards
- remove rad, bin it and buy better quality
- fit external trans cooler

Went with option three as a small Mishimoto is only £36 delivered and will do the job fine, there's plenty of room to fit it and it has the benefit that if the rest of the radiator turns out to be junk, at least there is no risk of ruining the transmission with coolant.

How the day ended up



At least I got the engine running (and running well it has to be said) with no leaks, and I'll plumb in the Mishimoto when it arrives.

Ran it up to temperature without issue and was able to check out the interior heating / ventilation and fan operation with heat for the first time since putting all the dash back - all seems well, so a mixed bag update but I'll call it a overall - just!!

[99t]

Thought I'd better bring this up to date after something of an absence!

Despite many hours wet sanding and buffing, I was never really happy with the paint finish I achieved on the roof, despite getting it to a standard that seemed to impress casual observers.

The thought of re-doing it didn't really appeal, and the prospect of doing that and then starting to prep the rest of the body, let alone paint it, just felt like an unending chore. Rather than do something about it, I stayed away from the garage, generally procrastinated and found other more pressing things to do, like collecting several expensive RC cars!

Finally, I was forced into action towards the end of last year when I discovered that my parents' garage, in which my '67 Camaro was stored long term, had become quite damp and as a result it was suffering badly. A plan was thus formulated.

Part 1 - re-assemble the Elk as-is, fit windscreen and make basically weatherproof and roadworthy. Move it to my barn storage, drive it a bit when the weather allows and see whether I rediscover any love for it.

Then based on that, make a decision whether to sell as running project needing paint, or get it professionally sprayed and keep / use / enjoy.

Part 2 - move Camaro to my garage, stabilize its condition, do welding, start LS conversion. DON'T attempt to paint it myself beyond primer! Progress on this can be viewed here

So to the Elk - fortunately I had already done much of the work needed to make it drivable - I think had the interior still been fully stripped out, I would have been very close to throwing it on eBay as-is and taking a hit just to get shot.

Fitting the screen was the biggest challenge, never having done a bonded screen before. Watched many videos first and then went for it! Due to the width of the car, I needed the assistance of Mrs 99t to help drop it into position, otherwise it was a straightforward process. I didn't refit the trim around the screen at this stage since it is very hard to fit without damaging the paint, plus I'm conscious that I may be stripping all the trim again fairly soon if I send it off for a respray later this year.

The bonnet was easy to refit with the help of a strapping stepson, and all the other little bits that had been removed or disconnected took a while but were otherwise without issue.

I taxed and insured the car, checked the levels and brakes, and took the Elk for its first drive since December 2016!

Amazingly I only discovered three small issues - the brakes are incredibly grabby when cold (to be fair, they were exactly like that when I first got the car, I have new shoes to go on the front, must fit them), secondly there is a small weep from the PS pump and thirdly the radiator fan was catching on its shroud under heavy load.

Removed the shroud to elongate the holes, allowing it to be repositioned in relation to the aftermarket radiator.



Thought I'd make a previous repair to the shroud less hazardous whilst it was off



Hardly perfection, but refitted with better clearance and at least now I shouldn't rip my hands on the repairs and catch Tetanus!



After that it had a brief chance to rest in the barn. And yes, I should have covered the bonnet and bumper better whilst they were stored in the garage as they are covered in 2k paint mist!



A few days later, I used it to help a friend dispose of a large "American" style fridge freezer, which fitted snugly between the wheel arches in the bed.



Air shocks pumped up to max on the rear, it barely noticed the weight.



It was a decent 50 mile round trip doing so and pleasingly it ran and drove very nicely with no problems at all

[99t]

No worries, I'm definitely a Chevy guy these days but I've had a 68 Mustang coupe and a 70 Mach I previously, as well as a dog of an early 80's GT that was as gutless as it was soggy handling!

Definitely start a thread on your 66, great shape the early ones!

[99t]

Jhonno said:

I want to get into a '69/70 Fastback

My '70



Sold just before prices really started to rise for them!

[99t]

Slowly working through the inevitable niggles arising after a long lay up, plus some that were already there and haven't improved with age...

In the latter category - super sharp brakes when cold, nearside front especially. So much so that any pedal application, no matter how gentle, resulted in full braking / a locked wheel on that corner depending on speed and surface. Certainly made maneuvering it between other vehicles getting it in and out of the barn an interesting exercise!

Strangely it always improved after the initial few (embarrassing) nose dive applications of the brakes.

Hoping new shoes would resolve it, I pulled the front wheels and drums, and took plenty of pictures of the location and colours of the various springs and linkages.





Pleased to see that both wheel cylinders were operational and leak free



Issue fairly obvious upon stripping down, the lining was well separated from the backing and presumably fully applying itself to the drum upon contact. No idea why it would improve with a little warmth in the brakes though...?



Cleaned the adjusters and fitted the new shoes, managed to get all the springs back eventually, some were a bit of a battle. Tweaked the adjusters until the drums just rotated freely over the new shoes.

Completely forgot to take any pictures until I'd put the wheels back on!



A test drive proved that the excess sharpness in the brakes had gone and after a few decent applications to settle the adjusters equally, the brakes pull her up strong and straight

Edited by 99t on Wednesday 26th July 14:26

[99t]

A sad farewell to the El Camino yesterday - off to start a new life "down south".



Impending loss of storage and lack of time to do the bodywork justice were two key factors in the decision to sell. In addition, having used my C10 a few times recently to shift pretty heavy loads, the Elk's relative lack of payload was probably the deciding factor.

I will miss the way it sounds and drives, plus simply no longer having an El Camino in my life.

The funds will be poured into my Camaro build, so that is at least some consolation.

[99t]

Jhonno said:

Sad.. Looks like it was collected on a retro transporter though!

It was indeed - this wonderful beastie, a '58 I believe



In a "small world" moment, it turned out the owner of the transporter had also purchased it from Jim at Rock and Roll Motors, the very same place that the Elk came from!!