New “co” Owner

[WHYTLIE]

Just wanted to say hello and I look forward to reading old posts and picking your brains for tips and experience.

My son bought his first car about a year ago, a running and complete, 1986 El Camino with the 305 and 200r4 (I believe). Paint is garbage, but very minimal body damage and surface rust on the frame, otherwise solid. Interior was pretty wrecked.

Our plan was to improve the dependability for him to drive to high school and baseball practice/games, and for him to learn how to work on cars.

First big project (still in progress) was restore and update the interior from the grey/light blue worn out and disgusting interior.

Stripped both doors down to the shell and replaced or removed and cleaned everything, including door pins/bushings, and adding factory door bellows to run speaker wire and power lock wiring.

Haven’t got the new headliner to fit yet, plan to replace the dash with a re-pop, and still need to rebuild the seats (foam and seat covers).

Ended up pulling the passenger fender off to properly align the pass door and continued down what seems like the unending addiction of “while we’re in here” pulled the nasty HVAC box off the firewall and am almost done rebuilding and resealing it. (I’ll post a question about that in the appropriate forum later).

Long term plans (hopefully before he graduates High School) are 17” or 18” wheels with C5 brakes (already yanked a pair of the 2wd Blazer spindles from a Pick&Pull), replace/upgrade all of the suspension and steering, and finally drop a 6.0l 4L80e and a 9” in it. Already been collecting parts for the motor swap.

Brian (and Gavin)

 

[79 USA 1]

Welcome!
I had the exact same 86 El Camino years back. If you find the SPID it should have a Z15 code which was the non Choo Choo SS package.
Ended up doing a color change and 355 small block swap.
Looking forward to the updates.

 

[WHYTLIE]

Welcome!
I had the exact same 86 El Camino years back. If you find the SPID it should have a Z15 code which was the non Choo Choo SS package.
Ended up doing a color change and 355 small block swap.
Looking forward to the updates.

View attachment 228631

I haven’t found the SPID for it yet, however the VIN states it was built in Mexico, which is doubly “cool” as it’s an El Camino and my son is half Mexican.

There are no SS stickers or emblems anywhere on the car, but I was curious as it didn’t have the fender or side chrome trim, but the dual paint with the “stripe” between them is something I had not seen often, if it all.

Thanks for the info. Where is the SPID usually on these cars? And this one does not have a cowl tag, and by the looks of the holes in that location, there never was one.

 

[79 USA 1]

I haven’t found the SPID for it yet, however the VIN states it was built in Mexico, which is doubly “cool” as it’s an El Camino and my son is half Mexican.

There are no SS stickers or emblems anywhere on the car, but I was curious as it didn’t have the fender or side chrome trim, but the dual paint with the “stripe” between them is something I had not seen often, if it all.

Thanks for the info. Where is the SPID usually on these cars? And this one does not have a cowl tag, and by the looks of the holes in that location, there never was one.

Mine was also a Mexico build. Black dash inserts trimmed with silver pin stripes no SS badging anywhere.
The SPID in mine was found on the plastic floor panel on the passenger side near the spare tire "seat belt". next to the jacking instructions located in the "Smugglers Nook". Some have found them in the glove box, stuck to the side.
Mine also had the front spoiler under the bumper as well as blacked out window trim around the back window only, the G80 limited slip, F41 suspension with the thinnest rear sway bar I have ever seen on a A/G body (1/2-5/8 depending where is was measured) Tach and Gauges. Bucket seats (Reclining ?????) and Console. I believe the cowl tags were replaced by the SPID's.

 

[Sweet_Johnny]

Welcome to a wonderful community, that's a gorgeous El Camino! I look forward to watching this father/son project progress. You're already off to a great start and it's a time you'll both cherish forever.

 

[WHYTLIE]

Mine was also a Mexico build. Black dash inserts trimmed with silver pin stripes no SS badging anywhere.
The SPID in mine was found on the plastic floor panel on the passenger side near the spare tire "seat belt". next to the jacking instructions located in the "Smugglers Nook". Some have found them in the glove box, stuck to the side.
Mine also had the front spoiler under the bumper as well as blacked out window trim around the back window only, the G80 limited slip, F41 suspension with the thinnest rear sway bar I have ever seen on a A/G body (1/2-5/8 depending where is was measured) Tach and Gauges. Bucket seats (Reclining ?????) and Console. I believe the cowl tags were replaced by the SPID's.

His has the black dash inserts but had the red striping. We used SEM and color changed all the interior panels to black, and bought repro dash/shifter plate/radio pieces (black with silver). He wants to have the interior all black with charcoal seats. Even replaced the seat belts with new, black ones… although the inner “female” buckles don’t contour to the trans tunnel and center console well at all. Almost wonder if we got bench seat ones?

This car has polished trim around the windows, but oddly enough the rear window trim is black. I’m not sure about the limited slip, because it does the one tire fire, but occasionally will spin both, so maybe it’s just a tired posi? Does have reclining buckets with a center console and floor shifter. No clue on the suspension. Does have a factory tach, and we replaced all the gauges with new ones, including an 8K tach for the upcoming swap.

Funny story about the back window. When we first got the car the windshield was cracked and in bad shape. Our new neighbor down the street does auto glass and put a new windshield in. When I rebuilt the doors I took the door glass out, cleaned and sorta polished them, and put new window felts and all new weatherstripping on the doors. Also removed the rear quarter glass and cleaned and resealed them. With the new interior (with Killmat on the floor and roof) I wanted the interior as water tight as possible and wanted to remove the rear glass to reseal it anyway.

So the kid wanted to tint the windows. Our neighbor recommended a high end tint shop in the area. I walked in and talked to the owner (didn’t have the car there) and asked for a quote. When I told him it was an ‘86 El Camino he said, “no effing way!” Told me if he quoted me $10,000 and I agreed, he still wouldn’t do it. Then he offhandedly mentioned, “now if you pull the glass out and bring it in…”

So, my son talked to the neighbor who quoted him $100 to R&R the back glass. So my son and I show back up to the tint shop. I talk to the owner and say, “remember me?” He goes, “yeah, the El Camino.” I said, “well, you said if we brought the glass in… well it’s in the back seat of my truck.” He hangs his head and says, “ok, go get it”. Took 3 weeks to get it back, but only $100 for ceramic tint. We’ll take it back to have the rest of the car done later.

I haven’t pulled the carpet out of the smugglers box yet, so maybe we’ll get lucky and find it there. We’ve had the full dash and glovebox out (cleaned all the vents really well and made sure the vacuum pods and doors operated).

 

[moby92]

That's one cool project! Nice

 

[WHYTLIE]

Welcome to a wonderful community, that's a gorgeous El Camino! I look forward to watching this father/son project progress. You're already off to a great start and it's a time you'll both cherish forever.

Thank you. So far this community/forum has been awesome. I spent way too much time on the Forums back in ‘99-2007 with my (fast for then) ‘96 Z-28 (hence the user name as my plate was “WHYT LIE”, and my ‘02 Z06, and my wife’s ‘97 estoril blue M3.

I remember a lot of drama and trolls and haven’t seen any sign of that here.

He hasn’t enjoyed much of what we’ve done so far, all the tedious interior work. But when it comes to the motor swap and suspension and brakes I think he’ll enjoy that. And his first time down the drag strip should have him grinning for awhile. And our schedules don’t link up with me working nights and his school and baseball schedules. But I do hope he learns and has pleasant memories. He did let me know he’s been playing a “game” to see how long we’re in the garage before I drop an “F-bomb”.

 

[Sweet_Johnny]

Man, I wouldn't last 5 minutes without saying the most ubiquitous word in the English language! Working nights makes a "normal" life difficult to say the least, and what you're doing with your son in spite of schedule differences makes you an excellent father in my book. Respect.

I've got a question about your heater controls that I'm hoping maybe you or 79 USA 1 could answer. This might not be the correct place to ask but I'm fairly new myself and still learning protocols.

You've got the round, black/silver knobs like what's in S-10 trucks as opposed to the wedge shaped chrome ones that are more prevalent. Are you sporting an aftermarket (rebuilt) control unit that came with those or did they come factory on all SS models? Trying to research it has been fruitless because it contains "SS".

 

[WHYTLIE]

Man, I wouldn't last 5 minutes without saying the most ubiquitous word in the English language! Working nights makes a "normal" life difficult to say the least, and what you're doing with your son in spite of schedule differences makes you an excellent father in my book. Respect.

I've got a question about your heater controls that I'm hoping maybe you or 79 USA 1 could answer. This might not be the correct place to ask but I'm fairly new myself and still learning protocols.

You've got the round, black/silver knobs like what's in S-10 trucks as opposed to the wedge shaped chrome ones that are more prevalent. Are you sporting an aftermarket (rebuilt) control unit that came with those or did they come factory on all SS models? Trying to research it has been fruitless because it contains "SS".

I think my record was under a minute… not something I’m proud of, but I’ll own who I am.

Yeah, been on “mids” or “graves” for probably 8 of the past 10 years. Definitely feels like it’s aged me more than 10 years alone should have. And I fool myself into thinking that “I used to it”.

I grew up without a father myself, Air Force pilot that succumbed to Cancer when I was 2. I’m trying my best to raise a young man that is well balanced and will turn out to be a productive member of society and have a wonderful partner/wife that carries a heavy load at home supporting my career. And truth be told, having a 16 1/2 year old living in todays world… he’s a pretty great kid.

Your question here does not bother me. I’m brand new as well, so I’m not sure what the mods’ protocols are either.

So those round black/silver HVAC control knobs are what was on the car when we got it. The sticker on the HVAC control unit leads me to believe it was original.

I bought new electric switches for the HVAC control unit, along with a new faceplate and lense. It came with the chrome wedge shaped ones that are on there now. I also just bought a “rebuild” kit for the vacuum control module, that I have yet to install, because the HVAC unit was not working. Well having delved into the HVAC box rebuild I found the purple vacuum line was cracked and would have rendered the control head inoperable.

I’m certainly learning a lot about how certain systems of this vehicle work, thanks to this (and other) forum and YouTube.

I believe the El Camino’s (at least the ‘86 model) were built in three different plants (one as in our case, being in Mexico), and I have no clue if that may lead to some minor differences in parts either. Sorry, no answer here from me.