Hurd (bout that) caine called Ike?

So Hurricane Ike rolled through our neck of the woods last week. Which postponed any progress to be made on the building, which in turn postponed the El Camino.

But what was lucky was the tree that snapped in our yard missed the Camino by roughly 30 ft!

Progress

It's been slow lately, but it's because we have to clean out our building outback. There is an assortment of junk back there needing to be sold, burned or thrown away. Suprizingly enough we did get the burned part out of the way today, tomorrow is going to be more cleaning and sifting through items debating if they should be kept or gotten rid of.

The Building is 20x40ft, with a South end Overhead Door, and a West end Overhead door as well as a normal 3ft door. and the East has a double door. Here are some quick snap shots of it to get you an idea of where we plan on placing the Camino and just how much more stuff we need to go through.

The building

The Door we want to put the El Camino in.

Closer In

Angle viewing out.

We Finally hooked up this Water Fountain, it's been sitting around for about a year, great little thing comes in handy so much.

Well we need to get all that cleaned out, not sure how long it's going to take, but im thinking another two to three weeks.

Here's a Exhaust Video i made of my El Camino yesterday, along with my Grand Marquis too, did one couldnt leave the other out! :P

Suspension and Wheels

Suspension.

We took a floor jack to the underside of the front, and picked up the car. Turns out the previous owner took the 223ci Engine out, and dropped in a 305, i knew of this but what didn't cross my mind was the suspension. The Suspension is still from factory, they never touched it putting in that heavier engine. Thus the suspension is bottoming out when we jog the car up and down just a tad, not good.

Springs, and Shocks are definitely going to be replaced, as well as a front end alignment job. I'll probably let a friend of mine do the alignment, because he's a pretty trustworthy guy. The Springs and Shocks im wanting to do on my own, as well as re grease the ball joints, that needs to be done as well.

Wheels.

I currently have the "Chevy Rally Wheels" for an S-10, but they came original on the El Camino as well. They look like these, (except mine have no paint)



The wheels im currently interested in are the Vector SE Wheels or Turbine Style wheels. Ones very similar to the ones that appeared in the Dukes of Hazzard Series, on the General Lee. Not sure if it was my childhood memory kicking in or what, but i've grown fond of that type of wheel, here's a picture to give you an idea of what they look like.

Gas Cap Door [2]

So after doing a little research, i found that El Camino's did infact have that rear Air Bag Suspension from factory. The location of the fill valve is stock as well, and i do think I'll leave the door as is, opening upwards.

'More Trouble than it's worth' is what i deemed it to be. However i do need to get Bumpers for the door because if you inspect the "Before Shots" you'll see how far in the door actually sits, it's not flush with the rest of the fender.



Speaking of fender i need to get a quote on that body damage.


Suspension is the next objective, however it may take a few weeks. Placing the car up on blocks and taking the wheels off is no problem, it's the factor of having to lock the tools up at night, because it's bound to be a more than one day project for my father and I. So this leads me into why it may take so long, We have a 20x40ft Work Building out back, but, it's packed with junk! Ebay and a Hefty Garbage bag are quickly becoming used in this cleaning process. If all goes well it will only take a few weeks, Three to be precise. So perhaps in October- there will be a much more rapid development of the El Camino and it's restoration.