Vintage 59 ElCamino Resto

[Tom Geiger]

Many of you know I collect old custom builds. I consider them the folk art of our youth. I have a pretty good collection of old customs that might have been built by teens in The early 1960s for their local hobby store contest. If only these oldies could tell their story!

I’ve owned this old ElCamino many years. I bought it for $5 from a dealer I knew who said he felt good it went to me because anyone else would smash it open for parts. 

This does appear to be an original issue, a car any 12 year old would be proud of! Brush paint job with Testors paints, and an interesting rack made from sprue takes it above an ordinary build. 

And of course it needed a blower!

Many cars of this era have unpainted chassis, but our youngster continued his creativity here.

He didn’t appear to have taillights so he detail painted them in. And then I saw the trailer hitch!

I try not to go overboard in improving these.. I replace missing parts like mirrors or spotlights, but those missing tail lights bothered me. I didn’t have a spare set of stock ones so I went for period custom with parts that would have been available at that time.  So I used large pin heads for lights. A bit of red paint and we are ready to rock n roll!

New taillights in place look like they belong there! And like all my cars in the collection, it got a vintage AutoWorld license plate. Now for that hitch..

I owned this old trailer which someone included when I purchased an old custom. It’s an AMT boat trailer. The builder added some velvet and chrome to make it special!   

This got my wheels turning.. yes! My Olde Kustom Kollection needed a shop truck!

Since I’d be transporting cars, it needed a deck. Sticking with materials available in that era, I went with balsa wood. And 

I followed Jim King’s advice and bought a 12x12 sheet of velvet paper at Michael’s for $2 and covered the deck. That would’ve gotten lotsa wows in 1966.

And our team is ready for its first mission.

And we’ve picked up a Vintage custom Valiant. Headed back to the shop!

Hey, I have some fun between more serious builds!  

Edited March 25, 2021 by Tom Geiger

[Sam I Am]

Great '59 Elcamino Tom.  One of my favorite cars of all time. I just picked up an original just for the camper.

Nice save by the way.

[PappyD340]

Pretty darn cool Tom!

[ChrisR]

Cool!!

[oldscool]

This is very cool and nice idea for the tail lights.

[espo]

I like that you saved this and respected the original builders ideas. The light bar and bed rails are an unusual design, but that is part of the charm.   

[cobraman]

I like it. Pins for tail lights, worked out well.

[Tom Geiger]

1 hour ago, espo said:

I like that you saved this and respected the original builders ideas. The light bar and bed rails are an unusual design, but that is part of the charm.   

Thanks guys!  The whole idea is that a 12 year old in 1966 would be very proud of this build!  It’s the folk art of our youth. It makes you smile!