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Ashyukun
Ashyukun GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
11/7/16 10:02 a.m.

After nearly 5 years of working on this, it's time to let it go- and in hopes of it going to someone who will finish what I started and bring it to the Challenge I'm offering it here at under Challenge price in addition to the sell-offs that should be possible.

The build thread on the car is here: Build Thread

It's a '79 El Camino ute with a built 350 small-block V8 (technically a 355 I think given it's bored .030 over) hooked up to a TH350 transmission. It comes with pretty much every brace/reinforcement ever made for a G-body including the factory rear sway bar, a full spare rear end, a posi rear diff (needs to be installed into one of the rear ends). The factory power steering rack was replaced with a S-10 manual rack allowing the power steering to be deleted. It comes with two steering columns (maybe three, I think I may still have the original one) and a Jeep steering half-shaft that replaces the much flimsier original G-body one.

Comes with a camper top for the bed, as well as two extra tailgates (the original one is banged up). The interior is currently completely out, but I believe I've collected all of the necessary parts to complete it over the years. Comes with two different seating options- a black and orange bench seat that it came with and a set of bucket seats from a Monte Carlo. All the glass is in good shape. Comes with a set of S-10 wheels with questionable but usable tires.

The engine is at its base a roller-block 350 SBC bored .030 over that came out of an '89 K1500 truck that was in an accident a few hundred miles after the engine had been completely rebuilt. The top end has been completely re-done- it has refurbished Vortec heads off a late-90's Vortec 350 (don't have the head numbers handy, can get them later) and the full GM Performance 'Hot Cam' package including the roller camshaft, springs, and rocker arms. A knockoff 'Victor Jr.' intake manifold made for the Vortec heads feeds them air and an Edelbrock 4-barrel carb handles the fuel. The exhaust is handled by a set of headers to dual mufflers. An electric fan handles cooling.

There are a number of things that need to be done to finish the car- most notable is fixing the driver's floor which was all but completely rusted out. I'd started on the prep for it by cutting out the bad metal, and it comes with two pre-formed panels for the front and the back and a section cut out of a junkyard car to handle the middle that the panels don't cover. There are also two other rut holes to be fixed, right behind the doors where the G-bodies typically have problems. The car comes with all the metal I cut out from another junked Elky rear-end that should be more than enough to handle patching the holes. The interior will need to be re-installed. Right now the heater core is bypassed and not installed, but I do have it as well as what should be all the provisions to put air conditioning into the car if you wanted it down the line. Comes with a trailer hitch.

The transmission will need to be checked out- when I moved it into the garage I had to rev the engine a lot higher than I thought I should have to get it to move, but I was having troubles with the linkage so I'm not sure where exactly the problem is. The transmission cooler lines were damaged when the engine was pulled- at the moment there's a bypass loop installed, and it comes with both a separate transmission cooler that can be used as well as the radiator having an integrated cooler.

It comes with a whole heck of a lot of additional parts- if you're bringing a truck to tow it (which it will need at this point), you'll likely fill the bed up pretty well in addition to stuffing things into the Elky's own bed.

I'm sure I'm leaving off info, but I'll be more than happy to answer anything you can think of. I'm really hoping to get this out of my garage ASAP since I now have an additional unexpected large project to deal with.

Ranger50
Ranger50 UltimaDork
11/7/16 1:27 p.m.

Oh I would NEVER be forgiven.....

KyAllroad
KyAllroad UberDork
11/7/16 2:21 p.m.
Ranger50 wrote: Oh I would NEVER be forgiven.....

Do eet! You know you want to

eastsidemav
eastsidemav SuperDork
11/8/16 9:40 a.m.

If only I had the time, space, and motivation. But I'd just end up parting out most of the stuff so I could use the drivetrain.

Ashyukun
Ashyukun GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
11/9/16 12:59 p.m.

Something I left off of the description (one of many things to be honest, I hope to get into making a better list of everything this evening) is that I have a T-5 5-speed transmission that might go with the car that came out of an S-10. I believe the bell housing unfortunately is a GM Metric pattern and not the SBC pattern.

I have had it up on Craigslist for a little while now and had some interest, so it's possible it will sell on its own before the car itself.

Ashyukun
Ashyukun GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
11/11/16 9:51 a.m.

Going through the garage, I also have a Tuned-Port Injection (TPI or 'Fuelie') setup that I picked up early on to convert the engine from running a carb to fuel injection. It's something that I will also likely be putting up for sale on its own but could also be negotiated for to be included with the El Camino. It would need a whole new intake setup though, as the TPI was made for the old-style head setup and not the Vortec heads that the engine has on it. They do sell the new runner & intake setup though, and you'd just transfer over all the injectors and such.

It should include everything needed, including the computer from the vehicle it came out of- I've not dug through the boxes it's in for a little while though.

Ashyukun
Ashyukun GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
11/15/16 9:10 a.m.

Dropping the price to $1500 for GRMers- it's a considerable loss on everything I have in the project, but it would be worth it to have the garage back and able to work on other projects sooner than later.

AClockworkGarage
AClockworkGarage Reader
11/17/16 11:05 a.m.

Too... far... away...

Ashyukun
Ashyukun GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
11/18/16 9:07 a.m.
AClockworkGarage wrote: Too... far... away...

Yeah, Washington (either one :P) would be quite a haul...

Ashyukun
Ashyukun GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
11/21/16 9:35 a.m.

Since I've still got the Elky and really want it and all of the parts out of the garage (and my yard- I don't want to just move it out onto the lawn...) I'm going to entertain parting it out.

The engine & transmission are likely already spoken for by another GRMer, as well as possibly the manual steering rack. The main thing I want to have gone is the car itself- so will entertain any offers on the El Camino as a roller.

It would include the patch panels to fix the floor, all of the interior pieces that I have, all of the steering columns, both the bench seat and the bucket seats, and the section of bed from the parts car to put the bed back to normal (a previous owner decided there wasn't room for a big enough sub so cut out a portion of bed to make a large metal box accessible from behind the seats). Would also come with the 4 stock wheels & the tires on them.

The camper top would be a bit extra, as would the extra rear end with the sway bar, the additional G-body braces, the posi rear diff, etc.

eastsidemav
eastsidemav SuperDork
11/21/16 9:42 a.m.

Someone buy the whole thing and bring it to the challenge!

Ashyukun
Ashyukun GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
11/28/16 6:52 a.m.

Well, so far the only remotely serious interest I've had is a guy wanting to trade a '91 GMC 2500 4x4 with a 454 in it for the El Camino. It's an interesting prospect- if it's in pretty good shape, I could keep it to use over the winter and as a tow/hauling vehicle and potentially sell the Jeep Patriot I had picked up and fixed up for the winter instead.

Ashyukun
Ashyukun GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
11/30/16 8:53 a.m.

Now have two trade offers- the second is a 1999 Old Bravada, the upscale version of the Blazer I had over last winter. Ironically despite being 8 years newer its Blue Book value is solidly less than that of the older truck- and honestly I'm leaning more toward the truck for its overall utility compared to the Bravada as well. Would of course still be nice to outright sell the El Camino and all of its parts, but getting a good vehicle in trade wouldn't bother me at all.

SVreX
SVreX MegaDork
11/30/16 10:40 a.m.

I'm interested, but I need to dig through your threads. I'm at work right now, and won't have time till probably tomorrow.

Ashyukun
Ashyukun GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
11/30/16 10:54 a.m.
SVreX wrote: I'm interested, but I need to dig through your threads. I'm at work right now, and won't have time till probably tomorrow.

No problem, I'll not be doing anything until this weekend at the earliest anyway. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask either here or over email- I'll give you as much detail as you want.

SVreX
SVreX MegaDork
11/30/16 11:24 a.m.

In reply to Ashyukun:

OK.

I'm trying to find a few decent overall pictures of the current condition.

Ashyukun
Ashyukun GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
11/30/16 12:16 p.m.
SVreX wrote: In reply to Ashyukun: OK. I'm trying to find a few decent overall pictures of the current condition.

Unfortunately I'm not sure there are any recent, good pictures up of it- it's been in the garage for the last year and a half or so and difficult to take pictures of.

The Photobucket folder with all the photos I've got at the moment is here. By and large it doesn't look much different than in the early photos other than having the dash out, having pulled off the tape & ground down through the bondo on the rockers in front of the rear wheels, and having cut out most of the rusted section of the driver's floor. That and having the camper top on it. I've done essentially nothing on the exterior other than the grinding on the sides to the exterior.

I'm planning on spending the afternoon/evening after I get back from work sorting through the parts so I can have all of them together for whoever takes it, so I can see about getting a few pictures while I'm doing that. Is there anything in particular you'd like pictures of- if so, let me know and I'll get them.

SVreX
SVreX MegaDork
11/30/16 4:28 p.m.

In reply to Ashyukun:

OK, so I read your thread a little more carefully. I think I'm gonna have to pass- didn't realize the motor and trans were already gone.

eastsidemav
eastsidemav SuperDork
11/30/16 5:28 p.m.

In reply to SVreX:

Unless something's changed, they're still there.

SVreX
SVreX MegaDork
11/30/16 6:47 p.m.

In reply to eastsidemav:

Well, the 11/21 9:35 post appears to have changed a lot. I'm not stepping in front of another GRMer. I'll wait to hear from Ashyukun.

eastsidemav
eastsidemav SuperDork
11/30/16 6:54 p.m.

In reply to SVreX:

Ahh - I think I'm the other GRMer he was talking about. If he parts it out, I probably have dibs on the drivetrain, but I'd rather see it go to someone else in one piece.

Ashyukun
Ashyukun GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
11/30/16 7:29 p.m.
SVreX wrote: In reply to eastsidemav: Well, the 11/21 9:35 post appears to have changed a lot. I'm not stepping in front of another GRMer. I'll wait to hear from Ashyukun.

eastsidemav is correct, he's the other GRMer that was mentioned but was only interested in the drivetrain if I parted it out, and even then we weren't sure that a fair price for it would fit in his budget. I'd prefer to have it all gone at once though vs the time parting it out would take.

At the moment it's all together- and for the first time in pretty much the entire time I've owned it I think I have all of the parts that go with it (excepting the spare rear end & the pumpkin with the posi diff and the partial bed to replace the cut-out in mine) sorted out from everything else in the garage.

I put up the pictures I took of it and the parts on the Photobucket page I linked earlier- hopefully they give a better idea of things.

SVreX
SVreX MegaDork
11/30/16 8:31 p.m.

In reply to Ashyukun:

Gotcha.

I'll drop you an email tomorrow- I'm still working, and can't see straight (18 hr days are rough).

Ashyukun
Ashyukun GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
12/1/16 7:47 a.m.
SVreX wrote: In reply to Ashyukun: Gotcha. I'll drop you an email tomorrow- I'm still working, and can't see straight (18 hr days are rough).

Sounds good!

Ashyukun
Ashyukun GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
12/1/16 5:38 p.m.

Since it's been quite a while since I did so and I'd expect anyone coming to consider buying/trading for the car would want to be able to hear & see the engine run, I headed out to the garage after I got home- and happily came back in about half an hour later. And most of that time was spent getting things moved around and figuring how to hook the column up temporarily- and realizing that the battery I grabbed was not fully charged and I'd need my jump pack. But after that and running the fuel pump for a bit to fill up the carb, it fired up without any issues and scared the crap (thankfully not literally since he was in the house) out of both our dog and SWMBO (she was never home the times I've had it running before...).

Per SWMBO, "That sounded scary." Me: "It's kind of supposed to." (especially since the back half of the exhaust isn't hooked up...)

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