My daily driver project 81 ElCamino

[1evilregal]

I loathe holley carbs, never had good luck with them. had a 600cfm on my old 79F100 with a stock 302. 2 weeks after rebuilding it, the float hung up and basically flooded the engine, and upon trying to restart, it caught the engine on fire big enough that the vacuum wouldn't pull the flames in.... only thing I had to put it out was my fresh cup of coffee.....

what a waste of coffee......

 

[HAFROD]

My custom seat cover came in today from Dixie Monte. Immediately removed the seat from the El Camino and stripped it. You literally feel like your sitting on the floor. The seat foam is just sagging on your butt areas and the middle of the seat backs. I used some scraps of 2" dense foam and spray glued them to the seat bottom and seat backs. An electric knife works fantastic for this. This seat feels awesome now and will probably be easier to climb out of the truck now. Here's a repair in order on the seat back.

 

[ssn696]

This is a 'Makin' It Happen' restoration project. I'm glad to see you surfaced from the Pit of Despair and are showing us how to Get It Done. Keep up the informative posts!

 

[HAFROD]

I'm really bummed (burnt) out on the Salon problems. It was nice to take a break from it

 

[clean8485]

Looks good! As the old saying goes, "sometimes, a change is as good as a rest".

 

[HAFROD]

The snowball effect of JUST putting on a new seat cover. "I might as well do this, oh and while that's out, I might as well do this" Lol

 

[Injectedcutty]

The snowball effect of JUST putting on a new seat cover. "I might as well do this, oh and while that's out, I might as well do this" Lol

View attachment 53711

Lol, i completely understand that as most of us guys do! That's how my cutlass has turned into an almost 5 yr resto project! Lets put on some suspension parts, oh and lets make this rust hole bigger via the foot tool, hell with it lets take the vinyl off, ahh sh*t let's just tear it down and rebuild it lol!
At least you are gaining some solace with the salon issues.....temporarily that is!

 

[clean8485]

I'm kind of in a snowball situation with the Malibu, although its not major (just yet anyway), so I understand what you're saying.

 

[HAFROD]

I have been driving this truck without most of the interior plastic trim parts since I bought it. I painted everything today with SEM burgundy. All the chrome plated trim screws were rusty so I bought packages of #8 oval head stainless screws of many lengths from Lowes. I polished the heads on my buffing wheel to a mirror shine. It got dark on me but I'll post pics tomorrow. My rear lower side plastic trim panels (seat belt slides through them) were sun bleached and sluffing. I blasted them with my portable blaster and there were a few deep pits left. I used body filler and putty mixed together and filled them. I used Dupli Color bed liner in a tall aerosol and sprayed the majority of them. After the SEM burgundy paint, they turned out pretty good. I will have to do this to the Salons rear plastics too but I plan on sanding the bedliner down just a little to give it more of a factory grain look. SEM makes a texture coating but my paint store did not have it in stock. I have the seat bolted in but still have the passengers side seat back to foam and recover. My drivers side retractor seat belt was faded and had some light fraying on the edges. I used a lighter and ran it quickly up and down burning the edges. I then dusted the SEM paint on it and it turned out presentable. Will replace with new ones later when I restore the truck. Sitting in it with the new dash cover, new carpet and new seat cover really made a big difference. Now I need to do the upper door panels. I had bought a couple extra yards of the brick cloth to do them when I ordered my seat cover.

 

[HAFROD]

I need to go to the salvage for a headrest. Mine is collapsed. Looks like it was ran over on the end where the seat belt guide goes.