01.28.2007---Summary of recent work: Car has been painted solid white by the first time car painter at Maaco. Heh. It will have to go back somewhere else to have the black paint put on the car. Maaco did a really shitty job. Spray can paint would have less problems I do believe. Of course they blamed the problems in the paint on the preparation work---which is bullshit. I can duplicate the problems that are in the paint by wiping a primed surface with some degreaser or other evaporative chemical, then spraying it with paint before the degreaser or other chemical has fully dried or evaporated. I will use them again as another test, but I know now that Maaco successfully replaced Earl Scheib as the cheap and crappy paint job place where the jokes comes from. Here are some pictures of the car in all white.
07.15.2006---I have been working on the body....getting it as good as I can get it before I hand it off to someone else to blame for the imperfections. It is going slowly. I find myself working on old spots that at some point I said "to hell with it." or "This is good." . It is a never ending ordeal. Today I took the truck to the local Line-X place and they put the super tough goo in the bed. It looks a billion times better now for sure. Hides most of the dents in the bed anyway. I did take the time to go through and remove as many as I could before it was taken. Most would have been hidden anyway, but hey, it is only my time spent. Below you will see pictures of before the Line-X and after. The sunlight makes it look weird, but that is because of the shadows from a tree. There is also a crappy picture I doctored up with a possible stripe scheme for the car. I have not decided yet....If I do the stripe, it will be flat black....and the paint along the bottom will be flat black too.
06.05.2006---Lately I have been working on the rear bumper still, as well as getting some new tires, some new exhaust, and cleaning and painting the front suspension area. I also replaced the aging shocks in the front and put in some air shocks in the back. The rear tires were replaced with 275 60 R15 BF Goodrich Radial T/A's. The fronts will be 255 60 R15. I think the rear will fit 10" rims easily with the right offset. 8's in the front 10's in the back would be sweet. Here is the most recent picture taken.
05.22.2006---Been almost a month since I have updated the website. Here is what I have been doing. Still working on the front bumper---probably will continue until it is painted. Removed the rest of the paint from the passenger side door jamb. Disassembled the rear bumper, moved the brackets and support onto the new fiberglass one, melded it all together. Attached the tail light housings, figured out the bad grounding problems, made all the lights work--turn signals and brake lights anyway, and then reattached the rear bumper to the car. The fiberglass and disassembly/cleaning of the old parts is what has taken the longest. I now need to find some new brake light lenses...The ones I have are pretty ratty looking. Here is the most recent picture taken.
04.29.2006---Been a while since I last updated the site and work....There has been work going on though..I just have not updated the site. Here is a summary of what has been done since my last update. Been working on fitting the hood and hardware---making it close and latch and easily reopen and stay open. Been working on the fiberglass front bumper---melding the brackets and other hardware to it as well as adding in the turn signal lights...Lots of small work that takes a long time to do with limited time in the good weather and daylight zone. The car is progressing for sure. Here is the most recent picture taken.
12.18.2005---Been a while since I last updated this thing. Let's see how far behind I am. Well I have not done anything to the car lately I believe....so I am just lazy. Today I did tighten down the bolts to the fiberglass cowl hood and lined it up half assed enough to sort of close. I still need to move the hardware to the new hood from the old one so there is a spring and a latch. I removed all the stops and rubber bumpers so it would fit down into it's little hole. hehe
09.19.2005---Ok, so I have been lax with the updating of the web pages lately....But progress has been made on the beast. Not very noticeable progress, but it is fair to say that I am very annoyed with the bugs and am just about ready to pass this off to someone else to finish the body work. It is coming along though. Since I have not updated in quite a while, I had to rely on my memory on the dates stuff was done. I have not taken near enough pictures to show what was really done in the previous 2.5 months. I did break down and decide to replace the tailgate. Paid for it today. It should arrive within the next week. Tailgate has been a constant source of goo problems for a very long time. That problem should soon be rectified.
Here is the last image from the other day....09.18.2005.
09.18.2005---Did some test painting on the driver's side door jamb areas. Painted it white. It turned out ok. Not sure if I will do the passenger side as well, but I might.
This is the last image for today.
09.10.2005---Time for more full body pictures I think.
08.26.2005---Worked on the driver's side door jamb areas today. Cleaned it, made it light gray, then dark gray. I received a used rock shield today from an e-bay auction--It is the part that goes between the grill and the bumper on the front. I mainly wanted it for the little rectangular pieces that are painted body color below the headlights. I think that I may make them into templates to make out of metal. They are made of fiberglass and do not have a very long life.
This is the last image for today.
08.18.2005---Today I switched to the passenger side to do some work under the car. Time to take care of all four places where the tires meet the road...and where the pieces of the road get thrown up into the car.
This is the last image for today.
08.13.2005---Today I worked on the undersides a little as well as reassembled the front clip---headlight retaining rings and other fun trim. Lots of hardly seen work was done in places where not too many people look---except for mechanics when they are changing the oil. It says something when someone offers to buy your car based on how clean it is underneath. hehehe.
This is the last image for today.
08.11.2005---Today I focused on cleaning up and making ready some small pieces of the El Camino. The following are some pictures of those various pieces.
We have side mirror pieces, and grill emblem pieces....
We have rear window pieces, front window pieces, bed rail pieces, side marker pieces, headlight pieces, all kinds of pieces.
08.10.2005---Decided it was time to work on the rear window area today.
Here is the last image for today.
07.05.2005---Time for a few whole body shots of the car as it was on this day. It is good to do this every now and then to see the progress....or lack there of.
It threatens to rain.....
Then it rains.
07.01.2005---Today I avoided the scattered thunderstorms and cleaned and primed some trim, and then reassembled the front clip. I removed the eyes from the El Camino so they could be cleaned tomorrow....then primed, then reassembled. It will be painted without it's eyes. Then the eyes will be replaced with new eyes. Somehow these things collect water. Not sure how as they are supposed to be sealed. It was a nice day of progress. I also did a little work in the cowl area. Cowl has been cleaned. Tomorrow it will be painted shiny black and the screen cover will be put back on the car. It is always a good idea to clean out the cowl area on occasion. Judging from the looks of it, I have done this in the past, but it has been a long time. There was not too much debris that washed out from the drains at the lower fender. Water ran quite clean. Today I was thinking a little about the bumpers and the fact that they are hard to find. I am thinking a little about the fiberglass ones....They are easy to find. They can be painted body color. They might break, but they don't dent. It may take months to have the ones I have re-chromed. I am not sure I want to wait that long. Fiberglass ones will be ok. I will consider them when I order the fiberglass cowl hood.
Here is the last image for today.
06.30.2005---Today I continued work on the front end area. Removed all the header panel and gas tank door. Then primed them. I also cleaned up and painted the grill support structure and the radiator support. These are parts that will more than likely need to be painted again after the car is painted....because of white overspray. I intend to have everything that should be painted on the car when it is painted. The only exceptions may be the side mirrors....But I may put long bolts in them with little washers to keep them off the body so they can be sprayed too. Tomorrow I should be able to reassemble the header panel and surrounding trim. Then I will get started on the grill prep work. It should not be too hard. The grill will be hard to make perfect for sure, but on the front sections, paint should stick fairly well.
Here is the last image for today.
06.29.2005---Today I finished with the inner front driver's wheel well. I also jumped around to the front of the car to work on the front clip section and assorted parts. Removed the grill and trim, sanded and primed. Removed the header panel....that will be dealt with tomorrow using chemicals. Next few days will be spent taking care of the front end and getting it ready to sit there waiting to be painted.
Here is the last image for today.
06.28.2005---Today I decided to remove the front driver's wheel and clean the goo from the frame and the wheel well area. Lots of goo to be removed. It is better now. Tomorrow I will prime it and then paint it. It should be a great improvement...Although today's work was not too bad.
Here is the last image for today.
06.21.2005---Today I removed the gas tank door and cleaned that area up and primed it. Then sanded the goo piles from the tailgate door. Lots of work will need to be done to make that piece straight. Oi, what to do what to do. Too much work really. Maybe I will find another tailgate to put in it's place....If I could only break the bolts free. Maybe in another life...Or with an air hammer...hehehehe
Here is the last image for today.
06.17.2005---Have not done much over the past couple of days. Had my webserver decide to take a permanent vacation so I fixed that and did a little work on the car. I will consolidate the missing updates into a single day. Let's see if I can remember what all I did. Made the rest of the bed dark gray. Removed all of the old paint from the ass end of the car. Removed some more bondo that was applied a few days ago from the driver's side door and made it dark gray again. Time will tell if the dent removal was a success. It is a success, but not a complete success. I will bet that they are still not where I want them to be and will have to work more on them. So the dent removal score card says driver's fender and door are theoretically dent free. I am sure after some spot putty they will be....Or after more sanding because the spots are now high instead of low. We will see in the near future for sure.
Here is the last image for today.
06.13.2005---Today I focused on the bed and tailgate areas of the El Camino. Primarily the flat bard of the bed. It became a little more dark gray after some scotch brite and some rubbing. Also removed the remaining paint from the tailgate. So there is not anymore white paint on it. Still have the quarter panel side of the hinge area to strip and prime. Tomorrow I should be able to make the rest of the bed dark gray and the tailgate interior including hinge areas dark gray. The recent theme has been dark gray.....
This is the last image for today....
06.12.2005---The past few days have been relatively uneventful....except for today sort of. I managed to touch a little all over the car. Re-priming some poorly primed gray areas, making some areas more black. Removing some white paint from the from of the car. Did a little bit of everything and a whole lot of nothing at the same time. I worked on the front end, the tailgate, driver's fender, Passenger fender, drivers and passengers quarter panels, both doors and the bed. Lots of insignificant changes were made. A little color changes, but that is the norm when you are stuck in de-denting limbo land.
Here is the last image for today....
06.04.2005---Guess what? It did not rain today. This could very well be the most productive day in the history of the El Camino. It was pretty warm outside though. AC is now on in the house. El Camino does not have AC. Boo. Anyway, today I worked all over the driver's side. Fender, door. and quarter panel. With special attention paid to the fender. I even changed the fender's color today, although there is still a little work to be done. Whole side of the car got a little work over I do believe. We will see if I can make the same level of progress tomorrow. That would be most excellent if I can. When the major body panels are done on this side, I think I will pull a wheel off and work on the wheel wells....Then the door jambs....Basically make this whole side of the car done and ready for real paint. I will also need to get new tires as these are cracked and needing air on a more regular basis than should be. It is just a matter of time before one goes pop out tooling around somewhere.
Here is the last image for today....
06.03.2005---It has been raining the past week I think. Today was the first day I could get my clean little hands on this monster. I did a little work on the drivers side fender. Tomorrow should be a productive day.
Here is the last image for today....
05.30.2005---The past two days have been rain days, so nothing has been done. It does not look good for progress in the next week as "scattered showers" or "scattered thunderstorms appear to rule the forecasts. The really fun part of the project begins soon....That is the filling of the little dents that remain as well as filling of the holes where trim/emblems were a long time ago....I did make some sort of progress recently though....I registered a little domain name for the El Camino project....http://www.feartheelcamino.com. Nothing really to fear, except the fact that once it is done, it will be seen on the roads more often....And those that remember the car or remember me driving it, will surely feel a little fear.....as if seeing some sort of ghost is out of the ordinary.
05.28.2005---Today I completed the remainder of the major body panels in making the El Camino gray. The hood will be left alone....I will get a nice fiberglass one with 69 camaro type cowl induction instead of using the old rusty one. I only worked on t Driver's side door today. Tomorrow I may start working on the driver's side fender and filling/removing dents. I will have to go out there tonight with the flashlight to mark them....I am sneaky like that.
These are the last images for today....And since it is a milestone day of sorts, there are a few extras.....
Hood will go away....Grill and front trim will be prepped for painting.
Driver's side is all gray now. Front tire is going flat. Poor tires will have to be replaced. That makes two slow leakers.
Passenger side all gray now. Tailgate needs so much love, it screams for it.
05.27.2005---Today I ran out of critical supplies for making the car gray. Namely razor blades and light gray primer. Went to the store and gathered more of that stuff, and then stripped some paint and sanded a little. Nothing was turned gray. That will be saved for tomorrow.
This is the last image for today....
05.26.2005---Today I went after the Driver's side door....well at least a part of it anyway. The usual...Scraping, grinding, priming.
This is the last image for today.....
05.25.2005---Today I worked more on the driver's side quarter. Spread some paint killing goo on it and then attacked it with a razor blade and then the sander. It is now all gray. The door remains as a body panel that is still white and black. It will be shaved and shredded tomorrow maybe. Whole car should be gay by the end of this long weekend. Then the finishing work will start....or I will find some other project to start and never seem to finish.
This is the last image for today....
05.24.2005----I did not get as much done today as I did yesterday, but I did make some gray progress. Removed all of the18 year old paint from the Driver's side quarter panel. Attacked a section of the original pain underneath with paint stripper, wire brush, razor blade, thermonuclear devices, a hammer and of course, some duct tape. Then primed that section gray. I think that by this weekend the majority of the car will be gray. I will skip doing the hood. I think a nice fiberglass one with a first generation Camaro type cowl hood will do the trick. There might even be enough clearance under there to hide a pretty roots type of supercharger. I have always wanted a blown car instead of one that just blows. Ha.
This is the last image for today....
05.23.2005---Today I stayed focused on the same piece! It was an amazing thing. I managed to strip all of the paint off the driver's side fender and then sand it and remove all the goo that could be removed, then primed it. It is nice and gray now.
This is the last image for today....
05.22.2005---Today saw the bed being reassembled. The access panel was hopefully successfully sealed up. The remaining unpainted section was primed so it is now gray. All that remains to be done in the bed area is the silicone around the edges of the rest of the bed....Once that is done, I think it will be sanded a little and then primed with the dark gray primer. Then it will be sort of black. I decided the ass end of the truck was done enough to rotate the car so I rotated it to get started on the driver's side. I removed the 400 emblem from the driver's side fender and the side marker light and trim. I also removed the driver's side rear side marker light and trim. They will be stripped and made gray in time. I got started on the driver's side fender and used the razor blade to remove the 18 year old white paint. It came off really easily. The remaining original paint under the primer will be removed with paint stripper tomorrow hopefully.
This is the last image for today....
05.21.2005---Today was a pretty productive day in the bed of the El Camino. I even worked on a small part of the passenger side fender. A very small part. I managed to remove all of the goo from the bed access panel. Fill in some holes----although not completely. I sprayed the underside with primer and then some nice rubberized undercoating. I spread lots of silicone around the edges of the hole to make a nice silicone like seal for the panel when it goes back on tomorrow. I sprayed undercoating all in the inside of the sub box. Once it has been deemed water tight, it will be filled with the equivalent of acoustical foam or some other cloud like material. I located and tested an old Ungo Box siren that I had mounted in the driveshaft hump and then sealed with fiberglass. It works still. It may be used on alarm system in the future some time. Bed access area is ready to be reassembled. I hope it will be nice and sealed up this time. I am giving it lots of room for error this time for sure.
This is the last image for today....
05.20.2005---Today I finished removing the goo from around the walls and flat part of the bed where the access panel goes. I also scraped, sanded, wire brushed and primed it....Then covered it up for the night.
This is the last image for today....
05.19.2005---Today I removed all the remaining fiberglass, bondo and silicone from around the bed access panel and then proceeded to remove the panel. Scraped a little on the front of it and then primed that small section. I also made some new silicone type gaskets for the rear side marker access panels....Those are the large non-rust holes in the sides of the bed.
This is the last picture for today....
05.18.2005----Today I finished making the passenger side wall of the bed gray....and even made a small section of the bed floor gray. Only one picture for today...It is found on this page and on the bed page.
This is the only picture for today....
05.17.2007---Yesterday was an off day in El Camino land. But today was an on day. Today I managed to make the rest of the passenger side gray. Once that was taken care of, I applied some paint remover to the passenger side of the bed and then did some scraping. I think that the bed will be taken care of and be all gray shortly. I am a little behind in my bed schedule. As a special bonus, I have included a few extra pictures on this page....The half car pictures....
Passenger Side All Gray
Driver's Side A Little Spotty
Driver's Side From Behind, Sort of.
Tailgate still has some goo that needs to be taken care of....It will be taken care of before the car is rotated.
This is the last image for today....
05.15.2005---I failed in my attempt to make the bed gray today. I worked on other parts of the car when it was not raining though. I worked on the passenger side door a little and the passenger side fender and of all things....the hood. It was almost a pretty productive day. Lots of rain delays.
Here is the last picture for today....
05.14.2005---Ok so today I worked more on the bed. Then I distracted myself and started working on the passenger side door, then I distracted myself again and started working on the passenger side fender. Then I went back to working on the bed for about two minutes.
Here is the last picture for today....
05.13.2005---Friday the 13th. Fun day it was. Today I spent some time in the bed. Did not do much else.
This is the last image for today.....
05.12.2005---I actually did some work yesterday and today, but did not update the web page due to laziness. Yesterday I mainly sanded the goo from the car....focusing on the roof. It was a mess. Today I skipped working with the goo and worked on parts of the bed of the truck. The access panel in the floor is leaking lots of water into the sub box. It needs to be removed and resealed. The problem is in the amount of goo that currently covers that panel. I hope to have the entire bed in a nice shade of gray by the end of the weekend.....If I do not make this goal, blame it on the weather.
This is the last image for today.....
05.10.2005---Today was a goo day. I gooed all over the place. Mainly the roof, But also the driver's side quarter panel and the passenger side fender. I guess you could say I touched the corners and the middle.
This is the last image for today.....
05.09.2005---Been a few days since I last updated. I have been making some progress....It might be lateral progress, but it is progress nonetheless. I have worked on parts of the tailgate, the roof, the passenger side quarter panel, and even bounced around to the front passenger Fender. Excuse me if I cannot stay focused. I made a caulk based gasket for a part that never had a gasket on for the tailgate. I stripped the rest of the remaining paint from the passenger side quarter panel. I removed the remaining original paint from the hinge areas on both the tailgate side and the quarter panel side. I even scraped a little in the bed, but not enough to warrant a picture.
This is the last image for today....
05.06.2005---Ok so today I bounced around to different sections of the car. Yesterday was a rain day so nothing got done. Today I removed the remaining original paint from the top of the tailgate and primed it. I also cut away half of the vinyl top and applied paint removing goo to it then scraped, sanded and primed some sections of it. There are many little rust holes in the roof I am afraid. I also went to the place that will paint the car to have them give me an estimate. They said that I should bring the car back when I am through screwing it up so they can properly give me a number to make it pretty again. Hehehehe
This is the last images for today...
05.04.2005---Today I worked more on the bed of the truck. Attempting to correct my mistake of yesterday. I made a little progress.
This is the last image for today....
05.03.2005---Did not get much done today. Started a part of the project that should have been left alone....Or I should have done a smaller section of it to start with. I am talking about the bed area of the truck. It is a part of the ass end, and must be taken care of before the front is taken care of. Seams need to be cleaned and refilled with goo so water does not invade my body panels-----which it has been doing for a while now. Anyway, it is a mess and will take a while to work on for sure.
This is the last image for today....
05.02.2005---Today I cleaned up the goo from yesterday....Or tried to anyway. The dents in one section are harder to make disappear than originally thought. I will have to add more goo to them in the near future....I will know more tomorrow after primer is nice and hard after baking in the sun all day. I only working on the passenger side quarter panel and small section of the roof. Roof area is looking better than it ever did I think.
This is the last image for today....
05.01.2005---It rained the past couple of days so not much was done. Today is a different story though. I removed the paint from the majority of the tailgate and primed it. I also worked more on the passenger side quarter panel. Removed a large percentage of the remaining original paint....discovered some older plastic filled dents....Removed all the old goo, pulled the dents with the dent puller and then filled them in with much less goo. Dent puller is my friend I think. Also uncovered a little bit of the roof and scraped, grinded, then gooed the rust spots that were lurking underneath.
This is the last image taken for today.....
04.28.2005---Today I removed the good from the passenger side quarter panel, worked a little on the tailgate---fighting the rusticles, and fought some of the rust in the bed from where the evil tree branch fell across it. Overall today was a pretty productive day.
This is the last image taken today......
04.27.2005---Today I sanded the rest of the dented sections on the tailgate and passenger side quarter panel. Once it was nice and bare metal, I then applied lots of goo on them, then primed the mess. Tomorrow I should sand off the goo and make lots of pink dust. A few minutes ago I went out with the flashlight to see how well I have been doing on the dents of the past few weeks. A few are high and a few are low. They have been marked accordingly and will be worked on again at a later date.
This is the last image taken today.....
04.25.2005---Today I worked on the tailgate, passenger side quarter panel and driver's side quarter panel. It was lots of sanding and goo removal mixed in with some fine, fine, chemicals. Yum.
This is the last image taken for today.
04.24.2005---I have updated the El Camino site with new sections and other assorted crap. Today I was working on the tailgate area and the driver's side rear quarter. You can click on the links on the left to see those sections and the work that was done.
Last work picture taken on 04.24.2005: Pine Tree branch dent removed and covered with goo.
