Car: 1975 El Camino Classic
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In 1979 I owned and operated an AAMCO transmission shop in Vernon BC. I was looking for another shop vehicle and on one of my trips south to Kelowna I spotted a black El Camino sitting in a used car lot. It caught my eye, so I immediately turned around and headed back to have “a look”. I talked to the salesperson and arranged to take the Camino out for a test drive. When I returned it didn’t take long to make the deal to purchase the new “shop vehicle”; a 1975 El Camino! I found out that the car was originally purchased by a dentist from Gary Hawe Chevrolet in Duncan BC on Vancouver Island. He had moved to Kelowna and traded the El Camino in. I was now the second owner.
The car was used for a shop vehicle until the summer of 1984. At that time the business was put up for sale and because the Camino had become my favourite I “decomisssioned” her from shop duties and decided to start a complete restoration before I sold the shop. The restoration included removing all of the running gear and sending the body and frame out to a shop to be completely stripped down and have the two rear quarter panels replaced and of course repainted in black. Four months after it left the shop it was back to my shop where a high performance 350, 3.43 posi and 700R4 tranny were waiting to be installed. Another couple of months working on the Camino and it was ready for the road; total restoration project costing me about $13,500!!
After the shop was sold I moved to Vancouver Island. I didn’t put too many miles on the El Camino over the next decade because I was often away working overseas in Africa, Romania and Ireland. When retirement came in March 2002, I had driven 43,600 miles in the El Camino. Retirement meant more time for car shows and meeting and talking with other club members at shows and events here on Vancouver Island. At the end of the 2003 “car season” my wife and I decided that another restoration was in order; this time the interior would be redone.
This restoration started off by sandblasting the undercarriage, repainting and undercoating the frame . This area had survived nicely over the years probably because the Camino was garage kept and had not been driven in the winter months. The next step was to get some quotes for some minor body work and a new coat of black paint. Unfortunately this turned out to be a disaster. The shop I choose to do the work went broke and I had an interesting time getting the car back. The paint job was also less than satisfactory; a serious fish eye problem. I learned a valuable and expensive lesson with this paint job. Rick Pawlas wrote a comment in the June ’04 edition about the enlightening experience he had with body shop estimates. I now know what he meant.
I now had to deal with the less than satisfactory paint job. I called a long time, recently retired autobody friend in Yarrow BC. He had me bring the El Camino over to see what he could do for me. He spent 40 hours sanding and polishing to clean up the mess. He also had to repaint a few spots. This was an additional expense I hadn’t counted on, however, as most of you know once you start a restoration there is no turning back.. During this time I had all the chrome redone at at a shop in Sidney BC. The next step was to have the AAMCO life time warranty used to rebuild the the turbo 400. The interior was completely redone; new headliner, seat covers, door panels, dash pad and carpeting. The last step was to replace the after market rims with the correct rally rims. The cost of this restoration far exceeded the original purchase price. For me it was worth it, because the El Camino has such sentimental value.
In June 2004, the restoration completed, we took the Camino to the BC Chevelle Club Show in Ft. Langley. Our El Camino came home with a first place trophy! Lucky for me that I have a wonderful wife who enjoys the car shows and the other club activities. If she didn’t enjoy our car I might be wondering “what’s up her sleeve” that she allows me to spend the money on our El Camino.