Winter.

I parked the el camino in november for the winter. Today i tore it the f**k out of its perch and parked it amongst the other,lesser cars in the driveway. She still can't stop,she has some kind of rodent living inside her i'm sure,and the battery wore itself down trying to start,in addition to the already-bad rust problems on the right side having gotten no better because of the ice and high winds that whip thru my neighborhood. It took a few tries,but we busted the old girl loose and got her moving again under tow.

During the process,garrett killed his battery,Chris stubbed his assbone and the el camino broke her rear bumper. We'll get to that later. The elco sits lurking amongst the other three cars the family owns,waiting for her chance to fire her engine and scare the neighbors once more. Can you dig it?

When times get rough,you...

Call speedway. I had the car in functional condition up until about a week ago when a brake line burst. With ohio,the frontier,and other horrible things under my dome right now i've left the el camino on the back burner. Sorry. I'll resume normal posting if and when i get everything sorted to do things right,or if it takes that long in spring when i can get a spot and do it.

Ranting time

Hello! I'd like to take this time time to rant a bit about the brake line HELL i've been through. i'm about 85% done with the rear axle (AT LAST) and the other section is pretty beat up,but usable. the problem i have today is that flaring brake lines is such a tedious pain in my ass that it's taken me three days to do it. which has me really angry and annoyed,but going through three flaring kits drives me insane as well. nobody has really thought of a better way to do it,which also gets me pretty low. Somebody should build an electric system to do the detail on this job,and save me time,effit(effort),and money.

At last! Brake lines!

Well holy shit. i must be busy or something because i havent updated in a FAST minute. So here's my update in four small parts.

1.Engine stuff. -i've begun working on trying to cease the oil leaks into the pistons and try and improve compression.
2.Wheels-i've begun painting and cleaning the rallyes since,as i predicted,my buddy fell through. they're a grey off-primer color with a heavy clearcoat
3.Brakes-Are about 80% done,i need to finish the lines and put the drums back together.
4.Body-Has been primed and painted back to blue for the sake of appearances.

the [in]famous 'halo stripe'

When it comes down to it,I've been going nuts trying to cover up the rust that's formed all over my el camino. I started thinking of creative ways to try and cover the rust atop the bed and on parts of the body without having to do the dreaded calico paint job,which generally came to little avail,until i thought of something creative. Why not use the existing body rust as an excuse to customize my car? If only for a short time,at least. The halo stripe is indeed the solution i've found to this very problem. It has a decidedly cool factor to it,without the overly bondoed look. I laid down some tape,sprayed two coats of primer,and a coat of rust-tough enamel by krylon. The end result looks ok,i guess. i'm pleased with the result to some end,but the paint didn't come out exactly perfect. It sure as hell looks good,but it's not as good as it can. i'm not a very good painter. Given the problem with spray painting cars,it's not overly bad. it just needs some finishing touches.The next job is gonna be to try and ditch those bullshit,rusty ass rallye IIs. I'm hoping to get a set of monte carlo rims with hoosier tires off my boy jason in trade for some work and the rallyes,but he may not come thru for me. Anyway,i'm off on more Crazy adventures for the moment,and that's my update for the day.

It's a doozie this time....

No,not really. As far as updates go,i'm going to try and keep this one short and sweet. first of all,i'm going to keep the drum brakes for the time being. the local scrap yards i called only have the axle,with the brakes,for a price i can't pay. So i've begun banging out the drum brakes and getting together the rear for now,with the promise that the line for the new brakes will arrive at some point in the near future.

On a side note,the body rot is worse then i believed. PReviously i had thought that only the upper surface was rusted,but it seems that in some spots the rust has gone completely through the body. Seeing as how i was told that body work was done to the car,which i discovered was in fact just bondo. i hate bondo. i loathe it. tommorow or monday i'm going to start painting the bed,and sand out the rust on the forward panel.

Paint,Parts cars,And brake hell

Not much improvement on the brakes front today. i'm looking for a second gen S10 to rip the brakes out of so repacking the axle won't seem like a monumental waste of time as it would for drums. It's a huge pain in the ass but i'm feeling that the end result is going to be an undeniable improvement over the existing setup of no brakes in the back and half-ass brakes in the front. the problem is finding one of said units. Two junkyards i have checked out of three local yards do not have them. i'm about to go out and check the other one,who does not have a website,or a reliable phone,so i have to leave manually.

Painting on the other hand is going quite well. We've got most of the trim ring around the top of the together. July 1 is a seriously doable deadline with some parts money. bed primered and i'm waiting on some uniflat black to do finish the job. She still doesn't run because i can't find a good battery cheap,But it's gradually coming together.

I came across a really groady old parts car for someone who might want it. I can't afford it but i can help someone get a hold of the owner. she's an '80,and she's feeling even older then 27. The rims are flat,dry rotted to the ground,and barely hanging on for dear life. The interior is sitting in pieces on the driver's seat,and the rear bumper managed to run to the moon. She is,however,a parts car. Most of the trim on her could easily be salvaged,and the door cards and everything looked intact,but tis rough overall. If somebody really wanted to,they could probably even risk bringing her back from the dead,but it'd probably
cost a fortune.