I for one would LOVE to see how this thing was built. Duane, You did such a good job on it back then I can only imagine how nice a job you could do on a 71 Blue X-Camino now knowing even more today.
Ryan, If you are going I will bring the book. I know one thing, I could do the second one in less then half the time. The first one took me 18 months, and at the time I figured out if I sold it for $40,000 I would have been working for $3.00 an hour.ou: This is the kind of thing that happens to me when I go on a "mission", I get complete tunnel vision, and nothing else matters. When I was building this and my friends would come over to talk I gave them 2 options; 1. Either help with the car or 2. Get the Hell out of my way. Oh, and in my usual very diplomatic way, that is exactly how I said it to them.:rant: Some of my friends thought I was insane, but you have to remember you can only be insane once.:laugh: Duane PS. Did I mention that my wife Beth is a saint?:laugh:
Duane, i will be at bpg and would love to see more on the construction of this car. One of my best friends first car was a 72 el camino and i always really liked that car. We had some good battles with that and my buick back in the day too! But the combination of the two, i think im in love!! Looking forward to meeting you at bpg and learning more about it!!:beer:
Duane, :gp: Thank you sir, for being gracious enough to put in the effort to post the info and pics on this project. That is a beautiful creation. The detail put into thinking how Buick would have done it is what made it work so well in my opinion. Most made up cars you see come out like the one posted last week with a Grand Am body and an old Ford cab piled on top that either makes you sick or laugh yourself sick. I am new to the Buick world, so I had never seen the X-Camino. What a pleasure. Would love to have somebody with your talent get ahold of my '64 Skylark!! Michael
Michael, Glad you liked it. Years ago at the BCA Nationals in Richmond Virginia a bunch of Buick Executives flew in to see the show. I was not there at the time but my wife said they were all checking out the car when one of them said "I don't remember building one of these." They all had a good laugh about that one. "Would love to have somebody with your talent get ahold of my '64 Skylark!!" Years ago I saw pictures of a 67 Skylark or GS made into an El-Camino. It looked really good and was from somewhere in the Southern PA/Northern Maryland area. The car was driven all the time and eventually became pretty rusty. Last I heard it was sitting in some junkyard or field, but the guys in the area still talk about it because for a long while it was everywhere. There is a 68/69 version on the west coast that I believe "Molary" put together. That one looks great and there are pics on the board somewhere. There are 2 other 70-72 versions that I know of; I have pics of one from Tennessee. The front clip is all buick, but I believe the dash is still Chevy, and they grafted Buick sheetmetal to the front of the Chevy doors, so it is still Chevy from the middle of the doors back. The 2 different designed side panels just do not do the car justice. Someday I might make an offer on that one and "fix" it. I saw the other at my shop years ago. It had a Skylark wagon front clip/dash assembly grafted into an El-Camino body. it looked good but again had the Chevy sheetmetal from the mid door back. I don't believe anyone else has done a 70-72 all the way down the line like I did. Its a ton of work to do, plus the vehicle ends up looking real "hippy", as in having full hips, due to how far the 70-72 GS style wheelhouses stick out from the quarters. (I could probably put 10" or 12" rims underneath it.) El-Camino quarters are flat, GS bodies are "coke bottle" shaped if you look down the sides. I got away with that due to 2 things, 1. I had to cut the quarter and build my own body line behind the rear wheels. This forced me to pivot the bottom part of the quarter panel "up" behind the tire, and made the wheelhouse opening look more rakish/sporty, and 2. The stripes force your attention to them and not to the bulging quarters. A Standard GS version would probably look too fat back there. Duane Hey Brad, What do you mean saying I'm not diplomatic?
Never said you weren't...just laughed at the thought though that you possibly could be. Everybody. You must understand in "Duane's world" . It's black or white, a or b, right or wrong. There is no in between with Duane. And he'll be glad to tell you just how wrong you are too! BUT. With all that said...he's still my best friend!
This is exactly why no one has done another one like this. The cost of parts alone would be high to do it right. The amount of time and skill needed to do this would cost most people a fortune. This is one thing and one thing only. A labor of love. This was not built to be profitable it was built because you wanted something different to enjoy. I for one would love to have a GS-Camino but like many here the cost and skill are out of my league. I tip my hat to your vision , skill, and dedication to building a very Cool Car :TU: P.S. Your wife is a saint and tell her thank you from many of us who you have helped many times with your knowledge and experience so freely. Thank you both very much for all you do for a hobby we all enjoy. :TU:
That thing is just beautiful.My dad had a 1972 GMC Sprint that was nice but nothing like that.Fantastic job!
Bob, Thanks. That was the cars first showing. Those year El-Caminos like to rot in the middle (where the rear seat passengers would put their feet) due to water drainage issues, so I sealed that compartment up. Because of it being slightly jacked up in the rear the bed kept filling up with water and we dubbed it "Lake Heckman".:laugh: Duane
Amazing Job! :TU: I can't believe this is the first time I've seen pictures of this. This and the 2-dr sport wagon have to be two of the coolest modified cars I've seen.
