I bought my El Camino 3 years ago. After driving by the white with black vinyl top Elky for 12 years on my way back and forth to work it disappeared for a year. When it re-appeared it had a beautiful paint job; I later found out it was a Chrysler Fire Red with black hood stripes and three coats of Clear coat.

The car sat for a couple more years after it was painted; I never saw it move! One day, I finally got the nerve to stop and ask the owner if he was interested in selling his El Camino. To my surprise he indicated that he was thinking of selling it. I guess he had lost interest in it and my inquiry was all he needed to push him towards selling. I told him I was very interested and he started to fill me in on the details about the El Camino.

The car only had 60,000 miles on it, but it didn’t have the original motor; the remainder of the drive train was original. Under the hood was a very tired 235 hp 327 out a ’69 Beaumont. The 327 leaked and burnt a lot of oil; it was in desperate need of a rebuild. The rest of the drive train appeared to be in good shape; a Muncie 4 speed with Hurst shifter and a 3:73 posi rear end. The whereabouts of the original engine was unknown. After some discussion about previous owners, two of whom I knew, a deal was made and I became the fourth owner of the El Camino.

The car originally had a 4 bolt 350, 350 hp with 202 heads. When I got the car, the brakes and ball joints were all redone. The wiring and dash were shot, the polyglass tires were shot, and the center lines needed some help (some elbow work). The previous owner put a new tinted windshield and new headliner into the car. The seats were redone and new carpet was put in.

The first thing I did was put on some T.A. radials and fixed the wiring. Next challenge was to remove all the old undercoating and clean things up underneath before re-applying some new undercoating. Fortunately, there wasn’t any major rust. I replaced all the exterior chrome moldings and added new emblems, door handles, tail light bezels etc. I installed new weather stripping , dash pad, steering wheel and a specially fitted stereo into the car. Also to the interior a set of new gauges and tach were installed and the dash cluster repainted and refurbished. Finally a new speedo head was installed and everything on the dash was now in working order.

Then I found a 1976 4 bolt, 370 hp block in Thunder Bay, Ontario. I looked up the numbers and it was the L.T. block I wanted. The guy didn’t know what he had and I picked it up cheap. I had R&R Engine Rebuild and Machining in Thunder Bay do the rebuild on it.

They bored out the motor 40 over, put new pistons, oil pump, high performance cam , ground the cam, put all new bearings and seals in and shaved my heads. It was perfect. I added a new M.S.D. street fire ignition, an Edelbrock RPM Air gap manifold with a dual feed G70 Holly Street Avenger 4 barrel carburetor, a high performance fuel pump, a heavy duty alternator and water pump. To keep things cool I also installed a new 4-core radiator. I just broke the motor in; she’s go a lot of power, over 370 hp!

Future plans include new bushings and springs, power steering and a set of 202 heads. Also, I would like to add a cowl induction hood.

I would like to thank the following guys who have helped me with my El Camino: James Berze, my friend and mechanic; R&R Engine rebuilders in Thunder Bay, Wayne Frijek, the bodyman, painter and previous owner and Randy at Bumper to Bumper in Sioux Lookout, ON. Once the El Camino is completed, I am going to start looking for my other dream car to rebuild; a ’69 Chevelle SS 4 speed!

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