Hello from new member with a 81 El Camino

[bmwpaul1]

Just wanted to say hello from a new member
I recently discovered a 81 El Camino that I've decided to make my 'winter project' car
It originally came with a 229-6, factory floor mounted 3-speed, no clock or radio that spent the majority of its life in Jax, FL before I became its 4th owner
Let me start wth its good points first... 52K original miles, bone-stock and straight body with no rust except as noted belo., I received it with a recent 305-HO crate motor and it's previous owner really went thru the power-train with tons of new parts including a Edelbrock 4 barrel, headers, new dual exhaust and new tires... and I got it for $1,000
Now for 'little bit of work' it needs... interior from being sun-baked in FL for decades, warped hood, two doors with rusted out bottoms from the weather-stripping being gone for years, the 'ledge' around the rear window full of rust holes (which also 'toasted' the pan behind the passenger seat) and new paint because its gone too
Needless to say, I have my work cut-out for me
I'm looking forward to the expertise and advice of the members of this forum who've probably already have encountered and solved all the problems and projects I have ahead of me
I'll add a few pictures over the weekend

 

[SLICK79WGN]

welcome and the only advise I can give you for the sun baked interior it start checking craigslist, ebay and the forsale forum here as some of the parts are hard to come by....and good luck

 

[bmwpaul1]

I forgot to mention in my post that I've already started my search for parts and local salvage yards
For a couple of weekends I just used google maps and took a few saturday road trips to see what was available.
Long story short, I found a couple of local yards that seemed to have a few important parts
One was I visited yesterday. They had a '84 Cutlass Brougham (sp?) with the front seat gone but the complete dash (w/ speedo / tach / 4 gauges), a automatic tilt column and good door panels. They let me have the above three for $350 (I got to pull the parts) so got the complete dash with the wiring harness and heat/ac duct work.
I have another lined up who has 4 5th gen Elky's. He has 2 good doors and an excellent malibu hood that he'll let go for $600. He also said he'd cut-out a complete, very good rear window sheet metal piece for another $200. And while I was walking around the yard, there was a black on black '97 Grand Prix GT with an excellent interior and it had a pair of cloth bucket seats (driver = electric) that I could pull for $100.
I recently got myself a small 115v MIG welder so I could teach myself how to weld (I knew gas years ago). I have nothing but time all winter to put my Elky back together and get it road worthy

 

[SLICK79WGN]

cool and you might ask around (blake442) lol about what you have to do to make that dash fit right in the elkie

 

[bmwpaul1]

Here's a few pics of it before I started working on it

 

[SLICK79WGN]

glad your saving it you dont see that many stick elkies

 

[Blake442]

Welcome!

Manual trans and radio delete car! Good find!
My '81 was rotted out all along the back window too... Of course it was even more rotted everywhere else being a MN car...
I got your message and will try to get you a reply here later today.

 

[Caballero]

Nice find. Are you planning on repainting it white? Don't see too many Elkys with shifters on floor or center column. Which reminds me I need to see if a guy I know was for sure selling his Elky that had a center column shifter with bucket seats. Bucket seats out of that 97 Grand Prix should be cool. Are you going to try and wire them up for the electric to work too?

If you were closer I could help you out with parts, as I've got an 82 for parts. Although I'm thinkin I might as well keep it considering my Dad, uncle, and I each have one we're keeping.