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Building a '70 Chevrolet El Camino?


echoxrayniner

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Okay, here are some shots of my unfinished conversion that might help you along. I cut everything a bit long and used the Chevelle hood to locate the headlight surrounds. The Chevelle grill is too narrow to fit so in the pics is the grill from the 70 Monte Carlo which I don't really like. I need to dig out the Chevelle grill again and see what it would look like to add strips in between the lights and grill because it's only about 1/8 inch too narrow so a couple thin strips might fix it up.

 

20161125_161743_zps1qb2rie6.jpg

 

20161125_161759_zpsykn77xzt.jpg

 

20161125_161815_zpsd6on4ydj.jpg

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Okay, here are some shots of my unfinished conversion that might help you along. I cut everything a bit long and used the Chevelle hood to locate the headlight surrounds. The Chevelle grill is too narrow to fit so in the pics is the grill from the 70 Monte Carlo which I don't really like. I need to dig out the Chevelle grill again and see what it would look like to add strips in between the lights and grill because it's only about 1/8 inch too narrow so a couple thin strips might fix it up.

 

20161125_161743_zps1qb2rie6.jpg

 

20161125_161759_zpsykn77xzt.jpg

 

20161125_161815_zpsd6on4ydj.jpg

That doesn't look bad at all! If I had that thing that far, I'd widen the hood a little with styrene to better fill the gap, and Drive On!

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Why bother? The '70 Chevelle was one of the ugliest Chevelles ever.

The '68 and '71-72 styles were the Ultimate.

However, if you want a '70...go for it!

We're on the same page, My Brother. Of the 3rd Gen Chevelles, I'd rate them, best-looking to worst, '69, '72, '71, '68, and the '70 last.

This thread is giving me the idea to graft a Monte Carlo front end onto an Elky. Now THAT might make a pretty-looking car (truck?)!

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We're on the same page, My Brother. Of the 3rd Gen Chevelles, I'd rate them, best-looking to worst, '69, '72, '71, '68, and the '70 last.

This thread is giving me the idea to graft a Monte Carlo front end onto an Elky. Now THAT might make a pretty-looking car (truck?)!

Image result for Monte Carlo front end onto an Elky.

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That doesn't look bad at all! If I had that thing that far, I'd widen the hood a little with styrene to better fill the gap, and Drive On!

Yeah, when I dug it out it looked a lot better than I remembered. I need to try to find the Chevelle grill again so I can get it to fit right now that my skills have improved.

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Okay, here are some shots of my unfinished conversion that might help you along. I cut everything a bit long and used the Chevelle hood to locate the headlight surrounds. The Chevelle grill is too narrow to fit so in the pics is the grill from the 70 Monte Carlo which I don't really like. I need to dig out the Chevelle grill again and see what it would look like to add strips in between the lights and grill because it's only about 1/8 inch too narrow so a couple thin strips might fix it up.

 

20161125_161743_zps1qb2rie6.jpg

 

20161125_161759_zpsykn77xzt.jpg

 

20161125_161815_zpsd6on4ydj.jpg

Hey, that doesn't look to bad at all. Your work, of course.

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We're on the same page, My Brother. Of the 3rd Gen Chevelles, I'd rate them, best-looking to worst, '69, '72, '71, '68, and the '70 last.

This thread is giving me the idea to graft a Monte Carlo front end onto an Elky. Now THAT might make a pretty-looking car (truck?)!

God I'd love to do it, the main reason I'm gonna do a '70 is largely due to the fact that I still like it enough to be worth it(not a giant fan of the '67 and earlier), but getting my hands on a '72 Chevelle kit proved to be INSANELY costly, I mean think into the 150 dollar range for a new one and up to 70 for a used one, and that's not even counting the 30 dollar shipping. I do love me a '71 and '72. Hell even the '69 is nigh impossible for me to find, eBay automatically filters out sellers that won't ship outside the States so that doesn't help either D:

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God I'd love to do it, the main reason I'm gonna do a '70 is largely due to the fact that I still like it enough to be worth it(not a giant fan of the '67 and earlier), but getting my hands on a '72 Chevelle kit proved to be INSANELY costly, I mean think into the 150 dollar range for a new one and up to 70 for a used one, and that's not even counting the 30 dollar shipping. I do love me a '71 and '72. Hell even the '69 is nigh impossible for me to find, eBay automatically filters out sellers that won't ship outside the States so that doesn't help either D:

Do you have friends in the USA that can re-ship to you?

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Any of the Chevelle SS kits should already have the round gauge package that was shared with the Monte Carlo, and I'm assuming, the El Camino SS (as opposed to the basic Chevelle/El Camino gauge package with the "strip" speedometer).

Monte Carlos always shared the same dashboards as their equivalent Chevelle/Malibu/El Camino, and always had the round gauge arrangement like the Chevelle SS (I believe full instrumentation with tach, ammeter, etc. was a separate additional option though, same as the Montes).

Same goes for the 73-77 generation.  El Camino SS had round gauges standard.  Full instrumentation was optional for lesser El Caminos (was a pretty common option).  Starting in 1975, the Econominder package offered a vacuum gauge in place of the tach.  The tach was still available, but very seldom ordered.

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Yeah , but didn't all the Monte Carlos dashes have the wood burl trim overlay and all the SS dashes were black with silver trim.

Yup.  Luckily in 1/25 that's pretty much a non-issue.

Not sure about 70-72, but for the 73-77 generation all the round gauge cluster surrounds were molded with the "camera case" pattern, which was GM terminology for a leather appearance.  You're correct that for the SS models, this was just molded in black - no woodgrain.  The Montes did have that woodgrain overlay glued over it (seems almost like those overlays are vacuformed).  Same for the Malibu Classic and I believe the 74-76 Laguna Type S-3.

I once tried to pop the woodgrain overlay off a Monte gauge surround because I thought it would look better in my Malibu with just the black leather grain finish.  Learned the hard way that they used some tough adhesive for those.  Couldn't find a way to get it off the plastic without destroying it.

Eventually I lucked out and stumbled across a 74 El Camino SS 454 in a local junkyard and scored a perfect gauge surround, probably the only decent part left on the whole truck...

 

 

Edited by Robberbaron
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  • 2 months later...

Just got back from Walmart, where I bought a Motor Max diecast '70 El Camino in bright red with black stripes, SS (Mag 500) wheels. 1/24-ish. Hadn't seen these before. Looks good in the box, but I haven't taken it out and played with it yet.

If, like me, you'd like a '70 Elky on your shelf, but not enough to trash two whole other kits and do all the work, this just might scratch your itch. I think it will mine.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just got back from Walmart, where I bought a Motor Max diecast '70 El Camino in bright red with black stripes, SS (Mag 500) wheels. 1/24-ish. Hadn't seen these before. Looks good in the box, but I haven't taken it out and played with it yet.

If, like me, you'd like a '70 Elky on your shelf, but not enough to trash two whole other kits and do all the work, this just might scratch your itch. I think it will mine.

And here it is. Not perfect by any means, but not horrible for what it is and its price. It'll look better after I Snake-slap it with some Model-Fu.

[URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Snake45/media/Model%20Cars/Diecasts/70ElCaminoDC02_zps3li8zb9n.jpg.html][/URL]

 

[URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Snake45/media/Model%20Cars/Diecasts/70ElCaminoDC04_zpskb9nkriz.jpg.html][/URL]

 

[URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Snake45/media/Model%20Cars/Diecasts/70ElCaminoDC07_zpsbeqpkzsp.jpg.html][/URL]

 

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