1976 El Camino

[Gregor 4,846]

My son in law bought a 1976 El Camino. He bought it from his cousin. It has electrical issues, and I am going to try to remedy that. Some people, like my son in law, and his cousin, ought not mess with things like this.
Here is the car, such as it is. Notice the fire extinguisher. That was behind the seat, with good reason I believe.

The odometer has 37K on it. If that means anything.

With this fancy tach, I guess someone thought they were going to go racing.

I'm not sure how well you can see it, but that is the firewall side of the fuse box. It looks a little toasty.
He said the turn signals were acting funny, so he replaced the turn signal switch, that didn't help. I'm not surprised.

Here is a better look

I have the entire wiring harness out of the car. I am replacing it with all new. I was originally going to go back just as far as I thought I needed to, but after looking under the dash, and in the engine compartment, I decided I needed to go all the way.

After 50 years of squeezing between seats and dash boards, I wasn't going to do that again. I took  them both out.

Now I have all the room in the world. The heater core, and theAC evaporator coil will get replaced while I have it this far down.

I'm not too impressed with the compression numbers on the engine. They range anywhere from 150 on #1. to 120 on #6. I am trying to determine if this motor is original to the car. If it is, I would like to keep it and rebuild it. If not, I think a crate motor would be the way to go. Then again, I don't know if his budget will allow for either, but if the motor is going to get replaced, now is the time to do it.

 

On another note.

A friend and I went together and bought a small storage building. It's just a large shed, sitting on a lot. It was originally part of the local lumber yard, years ago. It is 60 X 25. It has 3 bays in it. He has 1 , I have 1, and we share the other. I have 8 of my tractors in there. My wife told me this was NOT an excuse to go out and buy more tractors. I of course disagree.

 

Edited January 2, 2023 by Gregor

[Sparky-(Admin) 21,318]

  “Small storage building”…60x25 doesn’t seem small to me! How big is the lot that it’s on? Do you own the land as well? 

  

[953 nut 55,229]

By the time you finish rewiring the El Camino and replacing the heat/AC system your son will owe you BIG TIME. If it was a big block special edition like a Yenko  or Choo Choo Cowboy Cadillac then matching number would be a big deal but not so much on a plain Jane one.  

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,297]

Good luck on the El. Had my Choo Choo for 21 years and finally decided it needed a new servant . A couple of good sources for parts and one the eats you alive with freight cost s. PM me with you need help.

[WHX?? 48,815]

I'm gonna give it a like as the body looks to be fairly decent and rust free. 

[ebinmaine 67,502]

2 minutes ago, WHX?? said:

I'm gonna give it a like as the body looks to be fairly decent and rust free. 

Agreed.  

 

@Gregor Great to see someone getting after that "wiring (?)".  

 

I'd likely want to keep the original engine if possible but you'd probably be money ahead to search out a reputable source for a crate engine.  

Stock is fine if that's what you're after but the HP of a 76 anything is going to be deplorable. 

Excellent running reliable engines are readily available and producing great torque for less emissions.  

 

Excellent idea to remove the seats. 

The time to remove a dozen bolts is well worth the ease of movement.  

 

 

[squonk 41,118]

Most bulkheads of that era looked like that. They came with a black tar like mole-asses for insulation (Electrically and thermally). Not saying it didn't get toasty but it looks pretty normal in the pic.

 

 

Someone has definitely tinker toyed with the engine. I see an aftermarket carb and intake manifold. Would not be surprised if that engine has seen life in multiple automobiles. Probably pretty tired. Distributor is way advanced or off a tooth.   Old GM guy here. 

[ebinmaine 67,502]

6 minutes ago, squonk said:

aftermarket carb and intake

Edelbrock. 

[CCW 1,295]

Good for you attacking that car.  I for hate working on them.  Used to think I did and have learned otherwise.  A couple of tech ed teaching jobs ago I was asked if I taught auto shop.  Told that if I were hiring me I would not be myself in an auto shop.  They hired me and had me teach a class of auto repair.  Ugh.  

 

[Pullstart 62,882]

Cool old ride!  Are you doing a Painless wiring method, or going to build the entire harness?

[Gregor 4,846]

10 hours ago, Sparky said:

  “Small storage building”…60x25 doesn’t seem small to me! How big is the lot that it’s on? Do you own the land as well? 

  

Yes, we own the land as well. I don't remember the size of the lot, but plenty of space outside for boats, campers, whatever.

 

5 hours ago, Pullstart said:

Cool old ride!  Are you doing a Painless wiring method, or going to build the entire harness?

Painless. Yes

Edited January 2, 2023 by Gregor

[Gregor 4,846]

In 1977 I was 22 , traveling the south, and southeast, installing bowling equipment. I was making $8 an hour. That was pretty good money in 1977. I came home in Feb. of that year for a 2 week vaca. The boss sort of wanted everyone to have a truck, to help haul equipment from one job to the next. I had a 1968 Impala convertible at the time. Nice car, but it wasn't a truck. I went looking for a truck and found this.

1976 El Camino Classic. I figured it was close enough. It was a beautiful car, exactly like the one pictured. The day I bought it, I drove to a friends house to show it off of course, and we went for a drive. He dropped his cigg on the seat and burnt a hole. New cars don't stay new very long I guess. I really loved that car. I still had it when I got married in 1977, but traded it shortly after,

[davem1111 2,030]

Thought I'd add my El Camino story here too.  My Dad bought one brand new back in the day - I thought it was older but it looks like it had to be a 1978 or newer because the body style changed then. I'm thinking maybe it was a 1980. He had it for maybe 10-12 years, then either sold it to me or gave it to me. I thought it was awesome, drove like a car and was as comfortable as a car, lots of smooth power, but still had the bed to haul stuff in. I don't remember what happened to it but I probably drove it till it needed more work than I was willing or able to put into it at the time. I've often still wished I had it, or one like it.

 

It looked a lot like this but was red with white trim:

 

[Gregor 4,846]

Remember the El Camino project? After doing a compression test, and leak down test, I thought the car needed a new heart. I ended up buying another engine for the El Camino. I was told it came out of a '75 Buick, with only 70K on it. I swapped the intake, carb, added an electric fuel pump, and a couple other things. Put the motor in the car and it fired up with just a bump of the key. I spent a couple days fine tuning things, and reassembling the car. Started it up one fine morning, ran it for about 5 minutes, and WHAM ! It spun a rear main. I haven't a clue why, but it did. Maybe the motor simply sat too long, I don't know. It ran perfect for about 3 days. I reverted to the original motor from the car. I tore it down, checked the block, and the numbers really weren't that bad. I decided to do a re-ring job. I am also going to have a valve job done on the heads, if time allows. I think the valves is where it was loosing compression. I have been looking for some high performance heads, but they seem to have gotten a bit cashy since I last did something like this. I also ordered a slightly bigger cam, new lifters, push rods, and rocker arms. Turns out someone has been in this motor before. It has been bored 40 over, and it appears a very good job was done by somebody. Today I finally TOOK time to start on the motor. I have been busier than a one legged A** kicker. My wife REALLY wants this car out of the driveway. I can't understand why, it's only been there since January. 

As I said, I have kept busy. You have any idea what kind of damage a tree can do to a 36' pull behind camper when it falls.on it?  It break roof trusses, crush walls, rip out the wiring, and cause a whole host of problems. 

 

Hope everyone is doing well !  Greg