Gained Some Ground

The Bolt holes line up pretty well after pulling the cowl forward.

The door latch is in, and a new door seal installed. Hinges haven't

been rebuilt yet, but this is the passenger side and is still in

fair shape, pin kit is ordered.

It still took close to 6 hour of work to get the fender and door to fit

this good.

The hood to fender fit is too close, the left door and fender

need moved out and should correct this.

The hood is just laying on the stops, there are no

hood hinges or latch assemblies installed at this point.

The body line reflections look pretty good.

This looks very encouraging, it has been a few days of pulling,

banging, cussing, etc. to get this to look good.

The gap looks wide in the pic, but it needs it for clearance when the

door is opened. We haven't seen any El Caminos

fixed up very well.

Perhaps someone could help us out here and let us

know their Chevelle, El Camino, or Malibu

door fitting experience.

This door edge is bent sight in the area marked.

This is a beefed up version of a Kansas Jack.

My father made this one over 50 yrs ago.

It pulled our El Camino cowl back into place very

nicely.

It was necessary to pull from several different points while

hammering the buckles and creases.

A bolt in the fender mounting hole now stands straight and

it lines up with the fender much better.

The spot welds in the flat area were pulled loose, they

have been drilled and tig welded.

They are also pulled loose here.

Front clip is starting to look a lot better.

Have replaced the bent up radiator support

with a straight used one.

The left fender is a bent up, welded up piece of junk.

Also the hood has a buckle on the right side.

Here is why it is so important to fit everything before doing

any body work, this fender mounting tab is bent down

and has gouged the door.

There may be other surprises before this is straightened out.

This could have cost a lot of time and materials later

in the project.

Just A Quick "El Camino For Sale Note".

You may have found our blog through a for sale ad,

it is obvious this one is not ready to be sold.

We do have a nice 69 hood and header panel for sale.

Also there are some very nice Chevrolet El Caminos

for sale at http://www.elcaminotrader.com/

72 El Camino Project, You Notice One Little Thing

The last post we were trying to align the doors and fenders
after the paint had been removed or stripped from our

72 Chevy El Camino.

In our opinion this is a very nice 1972 Chevrolet El Camino.

We have 3 others and they are rust buckets.

However, it is nearly a 37 year old automobile,

a classic, maybe even old enough to be an antique.

We had noticed the tab in the pic was bent slightly earlier.

Didn't think much about it at the time.

Then the right fender bolt holes would not line up.
Also, note the seam pulled apart.

The support for this nut plate is pulled loose from the firewall.

Now we finally see the big elephant in the room.

The radiator support is bent just forward of the radiator cap

and the radiator is not standing straight.

With the front fender removed from the El Camino, the other damage

shows up.

It has had collision on the front end, it took most of the hit above

the bumper, buckled the fender, and shoved the cowl back.

In the first pic of this blog you can see the bumper bracket mounting

holes are slightly distorted and that is the extent of the frame damage.

One more little buckle below the hood seal.

Strip Tease Is Almost Over

It has been a while since the last post.

Work has progressed with a few interruptions.

Pretty much all the paint has been removed, we haven't

decided which hood to use yet.

The hood that was on it is a very nice hood, however,

we have a SS hood.

It is time to assemble the sheet metal and align doors,

fenders, and hood.

The box is in super condition, we are leaving the most of the old

bondo in place here, it was applied correctly.

Although recently we have been informed that you can apply

plastic filler over expoxy primer. The MSDS sheets for Evercoat

Rage body filler approve of this method.

If the filler is applied to bare metal, and a scratch

penetrates the surface coating down to the filler, moisture

will work through the filler down to the bare metal and then

corrosion will begin to spread.

We have seen areas rusted through because of corrosion

between the paint and the metal.

Self-etching primer will inhibit this.

Door jams are clean, just need to hit the small area with the

portable sand blaster.

Hinges have been removed and sand blasted.

There will be new pin and bushing kits installed.

Left door and tailgate are cleaned up and ready for

body work.

The tight corners and areas have been blasted.

This side need touching up.

The portion of the fender in this pic has been poorly

repaired. It has been cut in a couple of places and then

reinforcements spot welded on the back side. The bondo was

deep. It would have to all be undone to straighten it.

This the fender that will be used. It is caved in, but we will be the

first to straighten it, and it really isn't too bad.

Floor boards are very good considering the back window

was leaking.

Right now it has a 305 and a 700R for economy.

Hence the hood indecision, SS hood looks cool, but not

over this.

The plain jane hood would look better, it would look

better than the SS hood if it had a 454 or 396 under it!