I'm doing this on a budget of 2500.00. I have all the items I think I will need except for a seat, shifter, headers and a stall converter. The 455 and TH 400 trans I got from Toymobile. He can fill us in on the specs of that motor but told me it ran very strong in his El Camino. The trans is said to have a shift kit installed. I opened it up yesterday and cleaned it out then changed the seals and filter. The car, a 71 Lark I got from Kelly, the rest of the parts are coming from a wrecked drag car I scored for 500.00. It has a 8.5 rear with 4-11 gears and a full Hodgkis suspension set up. new shocks all the way around close ratio steering box.Nice rims and tires. Theres two hoods and scoops. one steel and one fiberglass. Hopefully I will have the engine and trans set in this comming week. I'm going to Webster swap meet on Sunday to see if I can pick up the rest of what I need. Hopefully on the cheap! If theres any interest in the rest of this Camino let me know before it goes to the crusher.
Those rear rims look to be the mates to my front runners on the Maggot. They are Cragar's Looks like a fun project.Are you planning on an aftermarket poly type seat?
I will go with whatever seat I find cheap. The camino was susposed to have a seat in it but the owner took it for his new car. The engine and trans from that Camino went into a Vega. Last time Chris ran it went into the 9's
Spent a few hours this afternoon pulling the engine and trans. If I score what I need at the swap meet tomorrow I will put the 455 in Monday or tuesday. Im thinking about sand blasting the front frame and related parts then a qick coat of rustoleum paint before I set it back in place.
Looks like fun! I've used late 80's early 90's Honda Accord seats before. Dirt cheap, light weight, easy to mount, and pretty comfortable!
try and sell the F/R tires off of the ElCamino, you should be able to get a few bucks to go to the current project :laugh:
Spent 5 hours at the swap meet sifting through mountains of Chevy and Ford stuff. Found next to nothing for the Lark in the way of headers. I did however score a NIB TCI 3200 stall converter for 100.00. Johnny(toymobile) sent a PM saying he has a set of recently recovered seats I could get on the cheap. I guess I will look to you,my Buick Brethren, for the headers. They don't have to be pretty just fit good. Id like to put them in at the same time I set the engine which could be tomorrow through next week. Any of you Fl and S Ga guys have a set I could come get let me know.
I can't wait to see the outcome!! I am glad to see this thing is still going! I cam calling dibs on the 350!!! :TU: KFD
spent the day Sand blasting the front frame and steering parts. etched primed then Rust-Olium. looks good.
Briz, I was just reading a post on here about carbs and remembered that I changed the jets in the rear of that 850, I don't remember what size I put in but I have the 208 jets I took out, will hold on to them for you, Toymobile :TU:
Today I got the engine and trans set in place. Lined up the mounts where everything was straight and tack welded them in place. Later I will un bolt the mounts and pull the engine back out drill some holes and bolt it in tight. Couple of things I noticed while under the car. 1, the drive shaft is to long by 3 or 4 inches. The shaft from the Camino is beefer but even longer. 2, the out put shaft on the TH400 is bigger in Diameter than the 350 which means I gots to blow whats left of the budget on a drive shaft. Looks like Im into this project deeper than i expected. Its OK. Only money!!!
Don't crush that El Camino! That roller is what's going to pay for the rest of your project! Just find a Chevy guy and sell it to him. You oughta get $1k out of it, at least...right?
