1983 El Camino

I purchase this El Camino around 1987. I was lucky to come by this 1983 fully loaded El Camino. The person selling it had to sell the El Camino immediately and sold it to me for thousands below retail. Though it was somewhat rough here and there it still was a solid vehicle. Unfortunately, after I used it for a few years and then restored the truck, my son totalled it by smashing up the complete front end. Fortunately, he was not hurt. The next day is when I started my affair with a 4 door sedan for the next few years while looking for a replacement El Camino (see below).

The pictures here aren't the best but are all that I can locate at this time. The mags are Keystones that came with the car. I think they are still the best design. Considering that they originally came out in the 60's with this design.

Here is what was done to fix it up. I replaced the worn out 305 with a rebuilt 305 HO bored .040 over. Many things in the engine compartment were replaced. And a new paint job was added. The original color was black.

I finally found what I was looking for and drove 200 miles to pick it up. It is a 1986 El Camino that I purchased in January 1999. It was a two tone black over gray that was in fairly good shape. But I wanted a different color and to restore it too. The engine had about 150,000 miles on it and would need attention soon.

You can see the finished 1986 El Camino. Click here

My best friend owns the body shop and we started going over what was going to be done and discussed color choices. The customization decisions were easy. However, chosing a color is painful. I went from blue to metallic black (BMW and Mercedes), and finally decided on Mitsubishi 2000 "Patriot Pearl Red".

With a smile I must say that I hate my best friend for what he did. Just look at all the sanding and body work to make this a perfect paint job and customization. It will be 2004 soon and the paint job still looks flawless. Not one ripple and the paint is like glass.

He even painted the bed, but only after sanding that down too. The bed never again has seen me slide in my john boat to go fishing.

You can see the finished 1986 El Camino. Click here