Ok, pics are posted of both a two door wagon and a finished Bucamino, what do y'all think? I don't have time, nor the parts, to build both.
IMHO the two dr wagon ( the green primiered one ) dressed in all GS carb. 401/fender louvers/ " gransport " emblems on grill and 1/4 panels, paint in an original 65 color with black or white interior ! You asked :TU: :laugh: Moz
I agree with Moz, the first 2 door wagon has the cleanest lines. But if you could build a Bucamino with a removable rear cap that looks like that wagon....that would be the ticket!
Here are a couple of examples of how you could do that. These are for inspiration only. Please ignore the fact that these are Chevelles. The secret ,I think, :idea2: is to use El Camino doors. You could use a "Vista Cruiser" roof panel as Buick stopped using "glass panels" after 1969. The "C" pillar is very close in shape to the El Camino door. It wouldn't have the "hard-top" look like the 65, but would be just as nice. I have one more shot of a 70 Malibu 4-door hard-top wagon but I don't remember where I stored it. o No: Just one more option. Pic coming soon. Jeff in SW FLA
Here are two more pics. One is Photoshopped and the other is an in-progress shot. Not a 2-door but almost as nice
My friend Rich & I will be starting on a 1971 2-door Sportwagon next year. It will be done the same way as I did the "X-Camino" with cutting up a pair of El-Camino doors and grafting a pair of Buick doors into them. The idea so far is to fill in the open area behind the doors with metal, so it will look just like my "X" but with a cap. It should come out very clean looking, and knowing us will probably have stripes. Duane
Considering the recent posts, I can see this is a sickness that can only be cured by building a two door wagon and a Bucamino. While deep in thought about the projects an idea came to me; could the door rubber from a Skylark hardtop be used on the El Camino roof to make a Bucamino without the metal all the way around the glass? The hardtop door should bolt right on the 65 El Camino, other than the shape of the glass area is different. It would be really cool if I could just use hardtop doors, instead of the sedan doors and cut the glass in the El Camino shape!!! Obviously hardtop rubber would have to be used, anyone have enough experience with hardtops to know if this will work? I know where there are two hardtop doors just waiting for me to buy them, if this will work.
All glass on vehicles, with the exception of the windshield, is tempered glass. I don't believe you can cut it because it shatters. You also may have other conflicts with the door/quarter area. When I built the X-Camino the original body lines for the El camino quarter panel stuck out so far that I could not shut the "Buick" door, so I had to cut an access area out of the quarter to get the door shut. Once the door was closed, and lined up with the rocker panel, it was obvious that the entire shape of the quarter panel/door opening of the Chevy was different from the Buick. This forced me to cut the first 6" of a buick quarter panel off a car and graft it onto the chevy shell, thus building my own door gaps. Once this was done I continued grafting buick sheetmetal down the entire length of the quarter and finished the last 10"-12" of sheetmetal by hand. If you look closely at the majority of the car pictures posted above you will see that they altered the car's sheetmetal "around" the shapes of the windows. The only one that does not do this is the primered 2-door wagon with the red hood. When I saw the car/talked to the owner the windows were not in and he was getting them custom made to fit his application. You may not have as much trouble making the body lines work on the 64-67 style El Caminos then I had on the 70-72s, but here is one piece of advise. Whatever you do, don't put a buick nose on it, and leave the rear quarters chevy. A lot of guys do this by "blending" the different body lines in the door area. The resultant car ends up not looking like anything, and you will not be happy with it. (The pic of the 66-67 442 El has the entire sides being Oldsmobile and that's why it looks so good.) The only other piece of advise I can give is this, try to use original pieces wherever you can and only alter them when you have to. This makes the cars look more "original" and correct. Duane
Hi Duane, Thanks for the input. I didn't realize you had to modify so many parts make the X-Camino. I really like it and you made it look original. Hopefully my project will require much less fabrication. After much consideration and exploration (I bought a two door post car, El Camino shell and frame, and a flat top wagon for side by side comparisons) I have found the following be true for my project: 1965 El Camino Doors will bolt directly on a 65 Special two door, so the real difference, besides the skin of the door, is the metal around the roll-up glass. To make a Special sedan door bolt directly on the El Camino requires grafting on the curved section of the El Camino door window channel and changing the glass and probably some parts inside the door. The quarter panels on the El Camino must be replaced in the rear by the quarter panels off the station wagon and the front portion of the quarter panel off a post sedan that will be spliced together at the wheel well opening flair. The quarter panel will fit perfectly to the inside jam area of the tailgate on the Elky. There is also some filling along the top of the El Camino bed just under the chrome trim to cover where the posts for the wagon was attached to the quarter panel. The only part that must be formed is a small piece where the roof meets the quarter panel and a filler piece that could be cut from a second station wagon donor car or rolled from sheet metal. That piece would have to be made up for the quarter window section on the sedan being different in shape, it goes in, and the wagon/El Camino is curved out at the location. The El Camino tailgate will work perfectly, minus the Chevy chrome . There will be modifications to the inside filler from the bed to the bottom of the quarter panel as the Buick bottom line is probably different. All of that said, the hardest part of this project is fitting the parts together and not distorting the panels when doing the butt welds. Oh yea, the dash must be changed for appearance to make it look like a Buick. I have a whole firewall from a 65 Two door Skylark hardtop that is rust free, including the windshield channel, and I could splice it on at the front of the rocker panel and the windshield posts. The floors need to be replaced anyway so this would make it easy. So as you can see, it should look like a factory built car if I do a good job on the bodywork. My original plan was to make it 100% GM and the car that Buick should have made. At this time I can't wait to get started on one of these projects as I have been accummulating parts for two years, I want to start cutting a fitting now. Thanks again, Kurt
It's too late to make it a shortie as it already has a full cage in it! The biggest problem I see so far is that a 2-door door is shorter at the rear than at the front, and the wagon doors stay straight. If I do it I don't want it to look goofy.
Some additional info has surfaced about 2-door wagons. You may have to go through several links but it should all be here: http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?p=1332751#post1332751 Aw crap, now I WANT ONE !!! :laugh:
This might be of some help. http://www.chevelles.com/elcamino/index.html And this one. http://www.leverfamilysite.com/El_Camino_Mutations.htm SR66:TU:
Saw this one in person at Turner Buick in PA. It was a really cool ride, and i never saw anything like it before. I love these custom cars, really shows peoples imaginations at work. -Jason
Here's another option: You can see more on this link: http://rides.carcraft.com/ride/10020...lle/index.html ...and yes it's a Chevelle, but it's the same body style as our Buicks. :shock: Here's even more 2-door wagon stuff: :TU: http://www.chevelles.com/forums/show...Chevelle+wagon
There was a bad link in the last post. :shock: Here is a good one: http://rides.carcraft.com/ride/1002066/ex4door/1970/chevrolet/chevelle/index.html Sorry o No:
