Bargain Pickup? 1966 Chevrolet El Camino

If Chevrolet built an El Camino Super Sport in 1966, this beauty could be one. But that didn’t happen until 1968 when the whole Chevelle family (inc. the El Camino) was redesigned. This Regal Red pickup looks like it has been painstakingly restored and enhanced, but there is no mention of any of that (just standard dealer marketing-speak). Located in Osceola, Missouri (we assume), this truck is surprisingly priced at just $14,300 here on Vista Auto Sales. Hats off to JDC for this cool tip!

Like the mid-size Chevelle it was based on, the 1966 El Camino got a facelift (which would carry over largely into 1967). Sales remained flat, but they may have been because the only competition, the Ford Ranchero, moved up from compact to intermediate in 1966. So, the El Camino had some real competition for the first time since 1959. Both the El Camino and Ranchero were based on station wagons and were considered “Utes” – utility coupes.

So, what’s the story on this Chevrolet? Besides telling us it has just shy of 90,000 miles, the dealer is pretty silent. And that may be because they don’t know. But their business specializes in muscle cars, so I would think that it would be SOP. A 327 cubic inch V8 resides under the hood, and it’s got more bling than it would have had when new. But has it been rebuilt? Is it original? Has it been modified?

An automatic transmission is on board, but is it a factory 2-speed Powerglide or has it been upgraded to a Turbo-Hydramatic or something else? The body, paint, bed, and interior all look stellar, which speaks to a restoration. But the cost of restoring this wagon would have cost way more than the seller’s online price. So, what’s the deal here? An optimist would say, “Wow, what a great opportunity”, while a pessimist would say, “What don’t we know?”