Chuck Samuel's 65 El Camino

[keviiin86]

I took a 30 year old memory and a handful of old grainy photos and decided to build a replica of Chuck Samuel's 65 El Camino.  This car was legendary in the Chicagoland area in the early to mid 90s and is still talked about to this day.  He street raced it and also ran in the NMCA fastest streetcar shootout in the 90s which made its way into popular hot rodding and hot rod magazine.  I saw it a few times around the local cruise nights and it left a lasting impression on me.  Take a look at my build thread under the WIP drag racing section if you want to see all that I did to build this, but as a quick recap it's an AMT 65 El Camino body with the front clip swapped from the Revell 65 Chevelle.  I used the interior tub, chassis and big block from the Revell kit as well.  Also a bunch of resin, kit bashed and scratch built parts here and there.

[6bblbird]

Great looking model! True to the original and chock full of details.

[keviiin86]

8 minutes ago, 6bblbird said:

Great looking model! True to the original and chock full of details.

Thanks!

[Hemifever]

Nice looking build. Engine detailing looks great, fuel pressure regulator, braided lines and fittings are very well done. I had to take some pictures of the underside also for future reference, especially the fuel lines, and pump. good job.

[keviiin86]

3 hours ago, Hemifever said:

Nice looking build. Engine detailing looks great, fuel pressure regulator, braided lines and fittings are very well done. I had to take some pictures of the underside also for future reference, especially the fuel lines, and pump. good job.

Thanks man! I did my homework with all the available pictures of this car to try to get it just right.

[Quiet Eric]

Absolutely killer!

[Robberbaron]

Remember reading about that one back in the day.  Sticks in my mind that they said he always ran with the tailgate down for weight transfer.

Really like your attention to detail like the sumped tank and swapping in the TH400.

[Mike 1017]

Great build. I think I saw it race at Great Lakes Drag A Way

[stavanzer]

Awesome Replica of a famous Car.

What a Killer Machine. You've done it Proud.

 

Good Show. 

[keviiin86]

On 9/12/2025 at 11:30 PM, Robberbaron said:

Remember reading about that one back in the day.  Sticks in my mind that they said he always ran with the tailgate down for weight transfer.

Really like your attention to detail like the sumped tank and swapping in the TH400.

Yeah I considered opening up the tailgate for more realism but would have been alot of work to make it look right.  And thank you!..based on all the pics I have of it and the magazine articles, I tried to use the parts it said the car had.