project drivabeater 2.0: 64 el camino this time

so, budget first:

previous total: 7052.91

add $50 dinner tab

new total 7102.91

little update, but big news for me.

1st, I got my trim back from the powder coater. he's a friend of mine, and also my powder coater. as well as the guy that bought the original drivabeater. still daily drives that old truck, now with fixed back seats and more spring rate. I drove it again Wednesday. great little truck. kinda miss it....

anyway, I had him powder coat the bed moldings and the front/rear window moldings. the stainless was bent and gouged, and the pot metal was pitted, scraped, and peeling. considering what he started with, and what he charged me (dinner and his bar tab), I think I scored pretty good. close-up picture is the worst piece of trim I gave him, the rear corner bed molding. I didn’t believe it could be saved.

I would recommend him to anyone. name is brad, runs loudpedal performance in mocksville, nc. number is 336-306-0354

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and on another great note, my body man sent me the following pictures and information:

there is almost no bondo, and there was no hidden rust. should be in epoxy primer by Christmas. shockingly straight and rust free under the 1/4 inch of primer.

I'm stoked. he's already got the Chevrolet emblem holes on the hood filled, and the rust there fixed as well.

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y'all have a merry Christmas

still one of my favorite build threads. congrats on finding solid metal.

thanks!!

and just out of curiosity, why a favorite? closet elcamino fanatic?

because practical upgrades to classics give me teh wood. big brakes, overdrive, EFI, big bars, etc. and yes, i'm a closet elcamino fan.

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full updte when get a minute, maybe tomorrow

so, budget first:

previous total: 7102.91

add 60 for headlights

new total: 7162.91

so, I couldn’t get this idea out of my head.

I saw a late 80's bmw at the salvage yard on one trip. appeared to have 5.75 headlights, and the low beams were projectors. both housings made by hella, and had capsule bulbs. now, in my experience, BMW has always had some of the best factory headlights out there, and some of the best of anything. I did some looking around, found the low beams could be converted to HID for even more light output, and that they were great lights. found some evidence of other guys adapting them to Datsun's, so I figured what the heck, ill give it a whack. found a perfect looking set on my last junkyard trip, so I picked them up. were more expensive than I anticipated for a gamble, but spent it anyway. I even found 4 good silverstar bulbs, so that saves some money right there.

got them pulled, and this is what the assembly looks like.

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once you pull them from the backing plate, they look generally like this:

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the three tools I used are my jigsaw, air angle grinder with 36 grit disc, and my 3 inch cut off wheel.

start by removing the chrome trim from the headlights, cut off the mounting ears, and grind your way to a smooth round housing. be careful not to grind into the cylinder of the housing itself. they're pretty thin.

youll wind up with a big freaking headlight that will eventually fit into the elky.

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then, cut down the factory buckets so the housings will fit in, the retainer rings go on, etc. lot of trial and error here for the first assembly.

high beam:

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low beam (projector):

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then you take your bucket from the core support (this is for a 64. I guarantee others are different.) cut the crap out of it until both housings fit through with a 1/4 to spare all around. this is where I used the jigsaw. its still a little crude on my first one, but I wanted to make sure it would all work before finishing it. I don’t have any pictures of it unassembled to show how much I cut, but it was a significant amount. you can tell on the completed backside picture:

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so then it was time to make sure it all looked right and fit the truck. I used the 4 adjusters that weren't broken, and tried to assemble it all.

this is when I discovered that the factory used the back of the light bucket interfering with the mount to create tension on the spring. crap. my lights fall out.

little quick thinking, and I blunted the end of a pair of 3 inch long #10 sheet metal screws, drilled holes right beside the springs, and used these against the concave lip of the factory bucket to tension the spring. now they adjust better than factory, though much more cumbersome. no pictures of the screws, either, but ill get some when I get the next one done.

here's the final product, kind of. no paint or finishing yet.

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on another note, I helped out the body man some more yesterday. his push was to get it in epoxy primer finally by today. all that was left when I got there was the tailgate and taillights. it should not have taken 4 hours, but the whole tailgate was full of bondo. up to 1/2 inch thick in places. this thing is ROUGH. but the body man says that it was in much better shape than the bondo made it seem.

regardless, we finished getting the truck to bare metal. I got the taillights out, started taking off all the tailgate latches and straps only to discover that the factory had used fine thread screws, and someone had already stripped them out for me. so that’s a fight for another day, drilling them all out.

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that’s all for now until I finish the other headlight and get more form the bodyman. we had our hvac system crap out on us last week, and that took all the car fund, and the oh E36 M3 fund. so car stuff that isn't essential will have to stop until our finances are rebuilt.

Sorry about HVAC.

Great progress though! I want to check the lights on the GMC now, that seems like a great solution.

Great progress. What color is it going to be now? Proof that it was so cold last week that hell has frozen over, I (who monotonously goes on about hating flat and satin colors on cars) want it to be the same as you had it before. Or are you going black?

gloss black, red interior, with selective factory trim removed/powdercoated/repolished.

and yes, hell may have frozen over last week. i actually saw progress on my truck, and liked primer gray color.

the previous color scheme was pretty cool, but just not the vision i have in my head.

michael

Anything new from the body guy lately?

i am generally a patient, gentle man.

yesterday I lost my temper. he has had my truck for six months. he has been paid in full. he has been given money for all the supplies.

he hasn't touched my truck except to fill the bed with trash sice he primed it. on top of that, the only times he has touched it is when im there. ive done the majority of the work that has been accomplished so far while he screws around on facebook.

all ive gotten is one excuse after another.

I ripped him a new one, and also enlisted the Camaro owner (his boss/landlord) in assisssting me to get the work I paid for completed.

im glad I walked away before I got any more pissed and did something that would not be legal/looked upon well.

my next course of action will be small claims court. he made a promise to me, which I fully expect to not be kept, that I will be able to pick up the doors, hood, and front fenders completed and painted by next Friday. ill settle for them to have the filler and block sanding done.

as I type this, im doing my best to remain calm and practice restraint. he has cost me at least(based upon cursory inspection yesterday) a carb rebuild, windshield, headliner, radio, and battery in addition to all the reassembly, lost insurance/registration/taxes/time/gas/labor hours. I am not a happy man, and will continue to pray for hi, until my resentment passes, as my resentments have the power to kill me.

Sorryto hear it. Brush it off and move on.

Wow sorry to hear about that situation. I was in a similar one where I had to stay on a guy for a YEAR to finish paint and body on a car. In the end it worked out but there were many times I wanted to just break in and tow it back in pieces. Stay extra firm and in their face and let them know your attitude has changed and its not going to be acceptable anymore.

Crud.

I was afraid of that. The deal seemed awfully sweet, though, didn't it?

I'll relay three stories to make you feel better. They are all my Dad's and all related in one way or another. Then I'll get back to work (laptop in the garage tonight)

Dad won a wheelie contest. I wasn't there, but reports are that he was close to the bumper for a while, and when it came down it bent the frame something awful. He had a good frame guy to bring it back to straight for him. It took a year. I recall as a young kid, my Dad, who is a rough, crude, physically very strong, confident large man, telling us sheepishly to stay in the truck while he checked on the status of the car. Apparently the guy was a bit off, and he took the full year to do that simple job.

A guy painted the same car for my Dad. Apparently the same situation as you, paid in full, 8-10 months of body-shop-jail. Same issue with a different guy. I asked once, when Dad was examining a big chip "Dad, why don't you repaint that area?". The answer was simple. "Well, the paint is sort of custom mixed, I am not really sure what it is. The guy who mixed it is dead. He got mad at a guy and went after him with a 2x4. Well, the other guy took the 2x4, and now nobody knows what color this is".

Different car. Super Stock. A combination of getting the frame/rollcage/suspension ready meant that they had to outsource the engine to make the season. They went to a reputable Super Stock engine builder, who built them a 427 with custom milled pistons, brass filled runners (for maximizing flow in the same volume) and all of the goodies. It lasted something like ten passes before it spit the crank out of the pan. Evidently, 5 of the 8 pistons were hitting the chamber. That was fourteen thousand dollar that they'll never get back.

Now my Dad never outsources anything. Ever.

As I sit here in my garage, learning to weld my rear suspension up, looking up at the compressor that will paint the truck, I get the feeling that this path, as much of a pain as it is, may be the one for me.

Perhaps it's time to get your money back through small claims and start anew in your own garage on your own terms.

My opinion only, Michael, you need to do what's best for your situation. I'd be mad, too, spitting mad. It's understandable. Heck, if it isn't painted by the time the truck is ready, bring it over and I'll do 'em both if you bring materials.

Good luck, we'll keep you in prayer.

-Brian

Sorry to hear it. Sadly this is a fairly typical body shop story that involves anything custom. Body guys have a stereotype of being unreliable/drunk/on drugs for a reason. Be sure to get the car and parts back BEFORE taking legal action. Better to have it and lose the cash than to lose the cash AND the car because he locks the doors and walks away, burns it down, sells it for scrap, etc. (I've seen those things actually happen)!

I'm really sorry to hear that's what's going on.

One of the many reasons I hate body work. Good luck getting everything sorted.

Thanks for the support guys. It makes me feel a little bit better. We'll see what this week holds. I'm finally calm enough for the first time in a month to work on the trim and other headlight assembly. First time in a month that I've worked on anything of my own actually. It's been eating my head that bad.

so, budget first:

previous total: 7162.91

add 71 for wing window weatherstrip

new total: 7232.91

made a little extra selling some scrap mowers and bought the last weatherstripping I needed for the car from amazon.

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and apparently my come to Jesus meeting with the body man last week has paid off. his promise to have the front clip and doors in paint by Friday (which I knew wouldn’t happen) has resulted in a drivers door that is ready for final blocking and paint, a pair of fenders that have had considerable work done, and a hood that is almost complete, as well as a lot of bumping and beginning mud to the roof that was crushed by a tree and popped out by my boots, and both quarters.

he still has not touched the rust repair.

but hell, he touched the truck!! in my world, at this point, it counts. for a lot.

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and in other news, while helping my best friend get his long neglected 73 vette going yesterday, we stumbled over this:

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it’s a 72 vintage smith tach from an MG. looks like it will fit in the clock hole in the dash, and match pretty good. ill need to convert it to read a v8. but that’s already been documented and passed on to me by keith tanner.

thanks for the continued support guys.

michael

Keep it up! The Tunakids were horrified to hear of your troubles. They'll be glad to hear you're back underway.

Geez, no wonder you wanted to convert that tach. That thing is amazing and I want to live in the world it promises.

I'm glad the body work wasn't a total bust and you're at least a little further along than before. Hood looks surprisingly good.

Stopped by tonight and he was actually blocking the front clip and doors. Few low spots and sanding scratches to work out yet, and then its time to remove and paint the parts.

I figured out that the secret to working with art is to keep being in his head and bugging him every couple of days to see the progress he's made. Holding him accountable to what he said hed do.im hoping to see some paint this week.

alright, need some opinions/feedback: the truck is going gloss black. the firewall from the factory would have been gloss black, as well as the underside of the hood. rest would have been satin.

I will be refinishing all the core support/inner fenders/etc myself on this thing. therefore, I can choose the gloss level I want.

part of me wants to do the whole bay/underhood satin, part of me wants to do it factory, part of me wants to do it all gloss.

what would you guys do, and why?

in other news, my wife is AWSOME! she painted all the parts of the headlight bezels by hand for me.

ill post pics when theyre screwed to the projector headlight setup.

michael

I'd go all gloss because it should wipe down easier and probably look nicer.

I'd go factory, but that's tunawife talking.