That will buff out–not! It’s pretty obvious what happened to this 1970 El Camino (is it really an SS–apparently you cannot tell from the 1970 VIN?) and the tree won! However, I’ve seen worse–the question is are you willing to do the work to make this a driver again? It’s available here from Copart where bidding is up to $1,550. It’s located in Gaston, South Carolina. Thanks to reader Woodie Man for this cool but dented find!
The damage is a little more evident from this side. What a terrible shame! Maybe it wasn’t a tree after all, but it doesn’t look like the vehicle rolled to me. I do think, considering that Copart tells us it still runs and drives (interesting assessment considering the flat tire on the right rear) that you could section the top off another El Camino and bring it back to life. I suppose the question is whether it’s worth it or not?
The bed actually looks pretty intact, along with the doors, so you might get lucky and be able to hide the seams under the vinyl top. What do you think?
The interior looks pretty nice for the most part, although being open to the elements surely hasn’t done it any good.
Under the hood looks totally intact, although not necessarily original. I see an air conditioning compressor and what appears to be a cowl induction hood. Can any of you tell whether it’s a real SS or not? And if so, is it worth trying to repair? I’m looking forward to your answers!
Time for someone to make a convertible El Camino!
My thoughts exactly! Find the windshield header from a Chevelle ragtop and an El-Co whose body has rusted away, salvage the roof metal for “removable hardtop”. No need to fashion a soft top as there’s plenty of room in the bed to haul the hardtop with you.
Isn’t this a unibody car so to make it a rag top would require some reeforcement of under carriage to keep it from folding at the door openings. It would make more sense to brace it cut the roof and A pillars off and weld on a donor roof and A Pillars. It would be less work in the long run and worth doing. JMHO😎
All GM A-bodies had full frames, even after the ’78 downsizing.
I like the ‘vert idea, a lot!
I stand corrected they are a body on frame car I still wouldn’t make a convertible out of it. Not a big of convertibles.
My thought too as soon as I saw the picture.
Doesn’t look like a real SS if you ask me. The dash boards on SS models have pods for speedometer and instrumentation, not the long single window dash that’s shown here.
Correct! My 1971 chevelle has the same instrumention and it is not and SS. Also this car does not have the SS badge on the tailgate.For that price I think if paid good money a good body man could fix it with a donor car. I see it also has power brakes.
The long sweeping speedometer says it’s not a SS model , should have round gauges for an SS .
As does the lower trim and tailgate badging. Definitely not an SS and definitely not worth saving. It’s interesting to note that far more elCaminos of this era have A/C than don’t.
A friend of mine lost his wife’s ZO6, and his viper from an oak tree falling on his “barn” when Mathew hit our area in October. He got a check for over $200k. The tree hit the viper so hard that all four tires were barely touching the ground. Bent it in half…..he had owned it for a little less than 2 weeks.
Not a SS. Malibu sweep dash and a small block.
Dan,When Chevy started making the SS’s in all body styles you could order them with strait 6’s..So, just because this Elky has a small block would make no difference..The Dash should look just like a 70 MonteCarlo’s tho.. And imho, any 1970 Chevelle,Malibu or ElCamino is salvageable..The best year of the breed!
Kurt, you are totally incorrect, in 66 the SS was reserved only to big block powerplants for chevelles and El Caminos, the chevelle SS didn’t see a small block again until 72.
El Cabriomino
El Crunchmino! Maybe this was El “Karate” Chapo’s driver?
I agree with others here, it’s not an SS, just a 70 El Camino Custom with an SS hood and grill emblem.
From the pictures on Copart’s website, it appears that it might have been rolled. The tops of the right front fender and rear quarter panel, are all scuffed up too. Not something I’d expect to see from a tree falling on the roof.
I think it’s going to take more than a roof, to bring that poor El Camino back to life. The alignment of the left side of the tailgate, with the left rear of the body, looks to be off, leading me to believe that the whole body may be twisted!
Came here to post just that. Look at the fit of the driver’s door. The whole car is out of plumb. Shame.
Or just not fully closed. 6-8 hours on a good frame machine and you would be amazed.
Bent roof will often put tension on the whole vehicle, most if not all will come back when stress is relieved.
can you say it with me…….parts car
I had a 1976 Camino and loved it. Yes they are a full frame and rare to see now.
Great donor to upgrade your non AC, bench seat, drum brake, Malibu. Everything is there. Probably has 12 bolt (maybe POS), and the Vette rallies.
pos
Looks worse than it is. (Usually do) Its fixable, or combine with another but a LOT of good stuff on here so totally rebuildable. Just a question of can you get it for the right price.
All 70 Chevelle SS cars had big blocks. The dash is also wrong among a few other things. Great for a parts car though.
How many off you guys notice how many NON cowl induction hoods have the cowl induction emblem, I think every fake 70-72 SS Chevelle down here is sporting the emblem, but not the hood. instead a regular SS hood.
After the Corvette Museum sinkhole and the NASCAR Impala pace cars catching fire, I tried to convince people. Here is more proof, God doesn’t like Chevies!
el camino and chevelle wagons shared front ends.. their fenders and hoods were longer than sedans. Nice sheet metal to fix another car
hate to tell you this the . Only the fenders and headlight extensions are different. hood grills bumpers are the same
not
70 SS = Big Block
They are narrower than the coupes and sedans
I’ve been in the body business for over 40 years, They have the same frames. Many, many parts interchange. 68 to 72
I would think that fixing this would be easier than doing a resto on a northern rust belt car. On most of the project cars up here, the roof and upper quarters/fenders is the only good metal. I think it would be a real shame to scrap it. SS or not, still a ’70 Elco and needs to be saved.
My 1965 chevelle ss factory 327 4sp
The ’65 SS is my favorite Chevelle. Can you say Z-16. Your small block SS is VERY cool.
How about some pics?
This is not really a hard fix if the lower body and frame was not damaged, however what would worry me is, if this was an insurance settlement, it’s going to be on a salvage title which will significantly decrease whatever value it had. It’s not a real SS so it’s not likely it will be worth the effort.
It’s listed with a Salvage title from State Farm Insurance.
I had five of these. It’s worth saving. It’s a SS clone. I had a SS 1970 most had big blocks and SS on side door panels and tailgate. I could fix it just depends on how high it’s bid to.
I’d fix it, but that’s just me. Love to have it, but very far away.
This gives me the sads.
We had a hurricaine come through NC/SC in October this may have been one of the victims. Yeah it was a bad one for many areas in the region. Let me put it this way. Driving from Fayetteville NC to Laurel Hill takes about an hour one week after the storm I saw trees down every five minutes on my trip. We got slammed hard.