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Duane..GS Camino..WOW

Discussion in 'The Bench' started by 64 skylark mike, Jul 3, 2012.

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64 skylark mike Well-Known Member

Bill,

2 door sport wagon? Haven't seen that one. Bumad? Any body got info and pics on that one? Please post!

Michael

64 skylark mike, Jul 5, 2012

#41
urbancowboy0307 Silver Level contributor

64 skylark mike said: ↑

Bill,

2 door sport wagon? Haven't seen that one. Bumad? Any body got info and pics on that one? Please post!

Michael
Click to expand...

whoops, it is an Estate wagon not sport.
http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.p...on-Limited-Sport-Coupe&highlight=2+door+wagon
Sorry to hijack your thread Duane.

urbancowboy0307, Jul 5, 2012

#42
Duane Member

No problem,
the wagon looks great.
Duane

Duane, Jul 5, 2012

#43
69chevelless3964speed Active Member

That looks super cool!! Congrats!:TU:

69chevelless3964speed, Jul 5, 2012

#44
MikeN Well-Known Member
Assuming this is the same car? :beer
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MikeN, Jul 7, 2012

#45
Duane Member

Yep,
That's from the 98 GSCA Nats. See all the puddles.:laugh:
Duane

Duane, Jul 7, 2012

#46
Duane Member
I thought I'd post a couple of pics of the X-Camino build for the guys coming to see the "assembly manual" at the BPG.

These are of the driverside door. The white part is from a 70-72 Skylark/GS 2-door coupe and the green part is from a 70-72 El Camino. You can see where I had to cut/weld them together so they would fit the "hole" and make everything work.
Enjoy.
Duane
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Duane, Jul 29, 2012

#47
sriley531 Excommunicado

Wow Duane, the more i see of this car the more i am absolutely floored by the craftsmanship and intricate work done. Really excited to see all the pictures!

sriley531, Jul 29, 2012

#48
nickbuickgs nickbuickgs

Duane said: ↑

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?
Click to expand...

Duane

I was told there is one sitting behind a repair-body shop in a fenced yard Phila area . I want to say Germantown area ?? I will make a Call .. It has (So I was told) Buick gauges in the dash . Been there a while . I was supposed Tell you & go look but never did . I will find out where it is

Nick

nickbuickgs, Jul 29, 2012

#49
Duane Member

Nick,
I might have to check that out.
Duane

Duane, Jul 29, 2012

#50
Duane Member

ttt for someone.

Duane, Feb 1, 2013

#51
TDP New Member

Duane said: ↑

OK,
Here is the story and a few more pics.

What the EL!!!
My friends and I are into Buicks; we talk, breathe, and sleep Buicks. This has progressed to such a point that my wife refers to our annual trip to the GSCA Nationals as Buick Camp. For years one of our recurring topics was why Buick never built an El Camino, and if they had, what would it have looked like.
I have always liked the 1970 to 1972 Skylark based Gran Sports, especially the GSXs and thought that an El Camino version would look great. With this in mind I took photocopied pictures of GSXs and El Caminos and pasted them together. The resultant car, actually a truck, looked wonderful. I showed this picture to my friends and they all agreed that it should have been built. The more I looked at the picture the more I wanted to make one. Finally, after years of thinking about this, I told my friends that if one didnt show up at the next Nationals I would make one. Needless to say I was stuck.
One thing that everyone agrees about me is that I am an originality nut. I know this sounds strange, because here I am preparing to make a custom car, but thats how I am. The goal I set for this project was to make a stock appearing custom car. I wanted to create a vehicle that could have been built in 1970 and was so correct in detail it would look factory built.
I bought a nice El Camino shell from a junkyard and started fabricating the doors. I took Skylark Sport Coupe doors and grafted El Camino inner panels and window frames into them. Once this was done I mounted them on the car and then assembled the front-end sheetmetal. El Caminos have a wheel base that is 4 longer then 2 door Skylarks, therefore the distance between the back of the doors and the rear wheel opening is 4 longer. To fill this space, the front portion of a pair of quarter panels from a rusty GS were cut out and welded onto the shell, thus creating my own door gaps. Next, a pair of reproduction rear quarter panels were welded on. This left a space of approximately 1 foot at the rear of each quarter panel that required hand fabrication.
At this time the car took its first trip to the body shop. At Iron Hill Auto body the shell and major front-end sheetmetal was plastic media blasted and everything from the rear wheels-forward was epoxy primered. Next, the front-end sheetmetal was painted, cut in, and reassembled onto the shell.
Once the car returned from the shop I turned my attention to finishing the rear quarter panels. I figured if El Caminos used Chevelle Station Wagon taillights then a Buick version would use Skylark Sport Wagon taillights. The taillights and bezels came from a 1970 Sport Wagon that was in a junkyard. I altered the housings and then hand fabricated the pieces to finish the quarter panels. Another thing I noticed was that Skylark wagons had the backup lights in the rear bumper. To do this I removed the backup lights from the tailgate and welded the holes shut. Next I found a pair of 1968 El Camino backup light lenses with housings and installed them in the rear bumper. To keep the GSX stripes clean and unbroken the gas tank filler neck was relocated to the interior side access panel inside the bed area.
While this was being done I cut out the Chevelle dash and upper firewall and replaced it with a dash from a junked 1970 Buick GS 455 Sport Coupe. Next, the firewall was painted and the entire dash assembly installed. Years before I sold a GSX look-a-like minus the drive train, so the Stage 1 spec motor, Turbo 400 transmission, and 323 10 Bolt Buick positraction rear were incorporated into the project. With the major body panels completed and the car now in running condition it was ready to go back to the body shop for final painting.
This time, at Brandywine Coachworks, the rear of the shell was plastic media blasted and epoxy primered. Next came the bodywork on the rear quarters, quarter panel extensions, and tailgate. My friend Tim Garland then sealed, painted, and striped the entire car.
At this point it was 6 days before the Nationals and I was determined to take the car with me. The car had no glass, headliner, carpet, seats, door panels, dash pad, exterior chrome moldings, bumpers, lights, grille, hood tach, light wiring harness, etc. However, with the inexhaustible help of my friends Rich Garland, Jeremy Sprang, and Bill Jennings the car was finished in time to leave for the Nationals.
That year at the Nationals it rained, and rained, and you get the picture. Well the first night there every time we looked out our hotel room window we saw people standing in the rain looking at the car. We have a Restoration Clinic and try to bring in different vehicles every year. For me the highlight of that trip was when my friend Brad Conley talked me into bringing my car into the Restoration Clinic to sit along side his 1970 GSX Prototype. I said it was not a restored car, but he said, Tonight well have Prototype Night. I thought it was a very nice gesture for him to place his piece of Buick History next to something I pieced together in my backyard from 6 different vehicles, but thats just the kind of guy he is.
I call the vehicle the X-Camino. This name does double duty because it looks like a GSX-Camino while parts of it were an Ex Camino. Once the work was finished it came time to title the beast. With such heavy modifications it became necessary to title it as a reconstructed vehicle. With a Buick GS 455 Coupe VIN number and truck rear end it was registered as a 1970 Buick GS Truck. At car shows I hear comments like, It looks Factory. or I didnt know that Buick built a truck. but I explain that its not a factory vehicle and that I built it. Once, a professional Street Rod builder looked at the car, and told me he knew the amount of work that was involved and was impressed with the fact that it looked untouched. But the finest compliment I ever received was when a friend of mine asked me, How does it feel to drive a sculpture? I looked at him and said, I never thought about it like that, but it does feel pretty good.
by Duane Heckman, BCA #35259, Rutledge, Pa.

View attachment 231762 View attachment 231763 View attachment 231764

PS. I also believe I am the only guy that can go "tailgating" in his GS.:laugh::laugh:
Click to expand...

Hi,

I have been looking for you some time now. I would love to do a small article about your X-Camino in my 1970elcamino.blogspot.com blog and maybe a short story in our local car club magazine(www.gm-cruisers.fi )?

TDP, Aug 19, 2015

#52
Duane Member

TDP,
In answer to your PM, you can use the text from my article as well as my pictures on this thread. I probably have some more pictures if you are interested. You can ask the other guys that posted pictures if you can use their's as well.

The only thing I ask is that you let me read/see the article to do any editing before it is published.

I will answer your PM as well.
Thanks for the interest.
Duane

Duane, Aug 23, 2015

#53
TDP New Member

I tried to send you a PM, but system said your quota is full...

TDP, Jan 28, 2016

#54
Brad Conley RIP Staff Member

I speak with him just about every morning...I'll let him know you inquired. He's super busy with work and family obligations and probably won't see this post unless directed. I'll be happy to make that connection.

Brad Conley, Jan 28, 2016

#55
telriv Founders Club Member

Guys, you can't even fathom the attention to details that Duane has performed creating this ONE OF A KIND vehicle. It's absolutely STUNNING!!!!!

telriv, Jan 28, 2016

#56
sriley531 Excommunicado

I never did post back in this thread, but Duane brought a picture album full of photos of this car as it was built to the bpg meet and probably spent an hour with me going through them and talking about the build. I'm telling you guys, the process, ingenuity, and attention to detail he put into this car was out of this world. I knew it was nice just from the pictures, but after discussing it at length with him, it was absolutely unbelievable what went into it.

Thank you again Duane for taking the time to chat with me, it was awesome to learn more about this car!

sriley531, Jan 28, 2016

#57
moleary GOD Bless America

not intended to hijack or take anything away from Duanes master piece and I was suprised to know he did one as I had a 68 BUICKAMINO...ran high 11's and daily drove....many accolades from body men on the quality of it; looked like a factory job....like Duane's

http://www.v8buick.com/garage_vehicle.php?do=view_vehicle&id=83

moleary, Jan 28, 2016

#58
SmittyDawg Need another garage....

sriley531 said: ↑

I never did post back in this thread, but Duane brought a picture album full of photos of this car as it was built to the bpg meet and probably spent an hour with me going through them and talking about the build. I'm telling you guys, the process, ingenuity, and attention to detail he put into this car was out of this world. I knew it was nice just from the pictures, but after discussing it at length with him, it was absolutely unbelievable what went into it.

Thank you again Duane for taking the time to chat with me, it was awesome to learn more about this car!
Click to expand...

Ditto those comments, Shawn! I saw Duane's creation when I visited his home several years ago. Absolutely first class work and the car looks absolutely gorgeous in person!:beers2:

SmittyDawg, Jan 28, 2016

#59
Duane Member

Guys,
Thanks for the comments, and by the way I love the 68 BUICKAMINO moleary built.

A guy around the SE PA/DE/MD area built a 67 version years ago. I saw some pics of it and it looked really nice. The guy drove it everywhere and a lot of the guys around here remembered it. Supposedly it got really rusty and now resides in a junk yard, but the guy drove the wheels off it and enjoyed it.

Shawn,
Glad you liked the car and the talk.

TDP
I got your message from Brad, and will try to get my mailbox emptied by the end of this week and send you a PM.
Duane

Duane, Jan 31, 2016

#60

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