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By Tommy Parry
By trading an old rifle for a rather rough example of an El Camino, David saved this car from a certain end in the crusher’s jaws. The former owner, so pleased that someone would pay for an old rusty Chevy, drove the car to David’s and did the engine swap on his front lawn to save its new owner any transportation hassles. The fomer owner could recoup a little cost with the motor, and David had a new project sitting on his lawn, ready for tinkering.
Unfortunately, priorities got in the way of turning this rusty machine into something special, but he held onto his dream during the three-year interim and collected a bunch of interesting bits for when he could finally start hacking away at the car.
Among other things, he picked up a 5.3-liter motor from a truck and a 6-speed gearbox from a 2002 Camaro. Things then seemed to fall into his lap; a friend upgrading his Chevelle sold David a Global West suspension setup, ATS spindles, a Moser 9” rear end, and a slew of miscellaneous parts from a 4th-generation Camaro.
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With all the large items checked off his to-do list, he started fitting the recently refreshed motor in its new home. With a larger F-body oil pan underneath it, he found he had to raise the engine and gearbox an inch from the original mounting location, but the rest went in relatively easily. Well, for David, anyways. As the photos show, he has a gift when it comes to metalworking.
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Then came time to clean up the firewall, most of the exterior panels, and even the floor pans. Rather than pay a man thousands, David set aside the time to grind, cut, and sandblast the car into presentable shape. Lots of sheet metal and a pair of sore shoulders later, he had turned the once corroded El Camino into something very pretty.
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With an emphasis on improving rigidity, David added all the reinforcements to keep this old rusty machine from flexing. There’s more in store; once all is said and done, he will weld the body and frame together to make it more like a unibody car only with a frame.
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Then there was a set of mini tubs for the rear to house the 2011 Corvette wheels measuring 18" x 10.5" with 295-section tires. Between those two humps in the bed, he cut a massive hole to expose the crucial visual point and horsepower provider.
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Behind that, he fabbed the remainder of the exhaust in a very conventional fashion. Twin bullet tips and a Y-pipe made from a fourth-generation Camaro’s old exhaust system and some leftover 3” tubing from another project.
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David proved what an ambitious builder can accomplish with a rusty old car-truck, a box brimming with spare parts, a wild imagination, and many hours of uninterrupted focus. With the rate of improvement visible in these shots, we have to imagine the final product will be a true head-turner. To keep tabs on David’s progress, you can follow his build thread here.
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