El Caminos and Rancheros are a bit of a love it or hate it proposition. The cars have truck beds which aren’t everyone’s taste. One of the most iconic muscle cars is the 1970 Chevelle. This one-year-only body style with the LS6 package was the peak of muscle car performance in the 70s. This 1970 El Camino can be found for sale here on eBay with a current bid of over $6,000 and the reserve hasn’t been met yet. Although this car isn’t an LS6, it has a cowl induction hood with racing stripes which gives it a performance look. Located in Sidney, Nebraska, this car features a bunch of new parts, and although it has a rough/patina exterior, it appears to be a really nice car. Take a look for yourself.
The seller describes the engine as “nice driving.” The engine is a 350 cubic inch V8 backed by a rebuilt Muncie 4-speed transmission and 12-bolt rear end with 3.73 gears. A lot of new components under the hood include a new heater core and hoses, blower motor, radiator hoses, master cylinder, fan clutch, rebuilt starter and alternator, belts, battery, cables, radiator cap, fuel pump, and fuel system.
Like the engine compartment, the interior features a bunch of new parts including door panels, armrests, window cranks, door seals and weather stripping, seat belts, shifter, carpet, sun visors, turn signal switch, tach, and yet-to-be-installed headliner.
Other new parts include shocks, park light lenses, taillight lenses, door locks, hood pins, wipers, tires, etc. It sounds like this car could be a daily driver as-is. It could be driven until the body work and paint can be done or just leave it in the original patina. What would you do?
I would have to get rid of the holes, can leave it in a primed state here and there but no holes. They cut your hands, like these cars though.
Sorry… don’t want to drive a rusty car.Please paint it next owner.
This Diamond in the rough would look soooo nice repainted in its original Green. Sorry, Kids, thats rust and it looks like $hit on such a great car. 350 4 speed whats not to love. ONE can only hope thats an M-22 rock crusher with the gear whine. Good luck and happy motoring.
Cheers
GPC
I HATE patina! Fix it up and flip it.
I would certainly have to fix the rust , it’s not terrible yet. After that a nice repaint in the original green with argent lower body would me this camino really nice.
Run like hell the other direction, and then find a solid unrusted example. You’ll save yourself a lot of money and grief in the long run. I’ve owned 2 El Caminos, a ’72 and a ’73 (always garaged), and both dry-climate Southern California cars from new. Neither had any surface rust and no visible rust through anywhere, and both ended needing rust perforation holes repaired in the passenger compartment floors and the lower floor of the beds.
A Midwest (lotsa rain and snow) vehicle like his one, with the amount of visible rust-through, is probably going to need a ton of repairs .
That depends on the severity. If there are rust holes and any chance of rain seeping through the various places in the El, then I’d either fill the holes, or buy another El Camino. If there are no holes to see, the body is solid, as is the chassis, then I’d buy the car, and either drive it as is, or paint it a different colour. I’d keep as much stock original, while also personalising it.
There’s no “if” about the rust holes. Use the link to the e-Bay listing…there are a lot more photos; they can be enlarged and you can zoom in on details. The bottom sections of both front fenders (behind the wheel wells) are severely rusted through, and with that amount of rust the lower sides of the cowl, where the fenders bolted up, will probably be badly rusted too. Both rear fenders’ wheels show a lot of perforation most of the way around the lips and would require ‘patch panels’ (readily available from most Chevrolet and Chevelle parts sources), and it’s very probable that the outer lip portions of the inner wheel wells will need rust repairs also.
I agree there is rust however living in the north east my whole life this is not all that bad, yes it will take work to make right and the so called patina on this one has to go but this truck is very reparable.
Patina = Broke!
I like these vehicles. You see lots of Chevelle’s everywhere.
Something a little different can be way cool.
There’s a ’70 El Camino and other muscle cars coming up for auction on bigiron.com June 16th. The ’70 is a TRUE LS6 4 speed car.
https://www.bigiron.com/Listings/ButchSiebenalerEstateEstate
Patina sucks, and black wheels are way past their time.
$10,150 with reserve still not met.
Repair the rust IMO.
if it were a 60 El C, I’d say leaving it alone would be acceptable. But its not. 70’s cars should look nice. So head over the Maaco and spend $500 and get it shot the original green.
Are the yellow parking light lenses and steering wheel correct for a 1970 Chevelle?
The amber parking light light lenses are correct, for both the Elco and station wagon. If this was a Chevelle, the lenses would be horizontal (instead of circular) and amber. The SS396 had clear rectangular lenses. The 1970 Monte Carlo had clear round lenses. The 4 spoke steering wheel is not correct for the car, and from an early Vega GT, or more likely a mid-70’s Camaro since they made zillions of them.
I don’t think this car is as bad as it initially appears. I would like to see better photo’s of the bed, but the rust on the raised portions of the bed floor simply shows it was used! It seems to be free of the normal dents that occur. If the inner wheel wells and areas where the bed floor meets the walls of the bed (confusing, sorry) are not rusted through, the rest is relatively minor. The floor rust appears to be located in what would be the rear seat foot wells, (the El Camino’s used the station wagon floor pan) It is accessible through the front panel of the bed. That part is available in the reproduction market. The rust was likely caused by rust around the rear window, or the seal on the smuggler’s box (the removable floor section covering the footwell) The bottom corners of the front fender is a common rust area, patches and full fenders are available. the rear wheel arches are also available. The true Cowl Induction hood, complete with the flapper is fairly valuable if you wanted to sell it. All the new mechanical and interior parts, the 12 bolt rear, 4 speed, apparently an M-21 all add up to a pretty decent deal at the current price of $10k. If it had AC it would be an even better deal. Save the chrome reverse wheels for another project, add Rally Wheels or even the 69/70 SS wheels and it would certainly look better. I love my Elco, and I like it because they are not that common. They don’t have the ultimate value of a comparable Chevelle, but mine gets a ton of attention at shows
Repair holes and paint one of the coolest utes Chevy built show it some love
Brings back a few clear memories from the 1980’s. My philosophy was, “pretty don’t make a car run.” Keep the interior and ash tray clean, alcohol out of site. Make it fast but make sure it stops before you make it faster. I didn’t care what it looked like while I was sitting in it because I knew it would start with a turn of the key when I got in. I’d love to have something like this and relive a part of that blurry decade.