Well, while I am in there.......
 

As some of you have heard, I have a 1986 El Camino as my daily driver. It is up to 377,000 miles and I have had it for 30 years.

The seat belts were just worn out and fraying on the edges, and faded and ugly. The international headquarters for Seat Belt Planet is 4 miles from my house. So I walked in and talked to them. The could reweb my old seat belts, and all I had to do was bring them in. So I decided to do that. To get them out, the seat has to come out, and the floor trim has to be removed from the rear, but to do that the side panels and side of the roof panels have to come out.

Well, "while I am in there" I really should replace the carpet. It was worn and faded and I had replaced it once before, so no big obstacle. So out comes the seat, the carpet, and the trim panels, and the seat belts.

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There was some dirt that had gotten through the carpet, but that all cleaned right up.

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Real happy to see no rust at all. The black spots are from the factory assembly, and some sort of sealant that dripped onto the floor. There are two yellowed plastic like covers on the floor in the rear that seal up some assembly points I presume. All in all, I was real happy with the floor.

I brought the seat belts in to Seat Belt Planet on a Monday at 9:00 AM, and they called me on Tuesday afternoon and they were done. Fantastic service. They do the seat belts for many other companies like Singer, and others. International orders come in all the time. The rebuilt belts work great.

Well, while I was in there....

The sound system from the factory is two little 3.5 inch speakers in the dash. Never much to listen to, but it played music. I had the windshield out for replacement 20 year ago or so, and replace the speakers with high quality larger magnet speakers. The only way to replace them again is with the windshield out. The right speaker died and had a split and sounded lousy.

I looked for a solution, other than the dash location for speakers. There just is no other place except the door panels. So I found a new lower speaker panel, of course just black plastic. It can be painted to match. The only panels available have two speakers in each panel. So 4 speakers, and the wiring, drill holes in the plastic plugs in the side panels and the doors, grommets and all in heat shrink tubing, mount the lower door panels, and then, Well, while I was in there....

The driver side outside door handle has "felt funny" for a few years, but worked fine. I took it out, and discovered the spring that holds the handle down was broken. Gravity does hold it down, but it was not a tight feel. The Dorman replacement looked like a Dorman product level of crap. I just used the spring from it on my OEM handle and put it back in.

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The Dorman is on top. the OEM is on bottom. Just a spring swap and done. Getting the 100% analog mechanical levers back in place is a trick. Working with my hands in the door, looking through a slot for the window glass, and focusing my bifocals on the area was a trick. A few new cuts from sharp edges on the door openings, and the door handle is fixed.

Well, while I was in there.... I might as well paint some of the other trim pieces that had really faded.

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The guides on top of the seat were really faded, that plastic paint made them look like new.

It only took me 7 days in the garage total. I am slow. I had the car up on my lift, and that save my back. It is great to just bring the car up or down and not kneel on the ground all bent over.

The lower door panels have an area for carpet, like the OEM lower panels, and I have a order for some thin carpet of the right color to be applied to the areas where they go.

I used an adhesive promoter spray by Bulldog first, and then the paint for plastic. It looks like a factory finish, only the proper color match. Really neat technology. I will post a picture of the finished interior once the door panels get applied.

So when exactly did you get an ElCamino and when were you planning to tell us about it?

That's going to be fantastic, I can't wait to see some pictures of the finished interior.

Nice job(s).
Local Craigslist had 3 early El caminos for sale recently.

Did you find the ring you are wearing ....while you were in there? :D

The one total surprise was that I found a 10 MM socket!

It was under the carpet. How it got there I have no idea.

Where is the rust? Wholy cow that thing is clean . I assume we will be hearing about this elky for a long time yet to come

Good job! Like the way you work through things in order...

Yea, November will mark 31 years of ownership. I bought it before I got married, so I have had it longer than my wife. It does exactly what I need for it to do. Haul stuff, and be cheap to maintain. I spent a few nickles on this project, about two months of car payments for a new car of today. It continues to go up in value, unlike any new car I might replace it with.

There is not anything on the market at all that is a replacement for it. Chevy promised a new El Camino a few years back, and it was just a modified Holden Ute. That died when the Holden was shut down. I do not want another pickup like the 100 million other pickups on the road.

I like having a unique car. It does have one drawback, I can't go anywhere that someone I know will not see it, and me in it. I have friends tell me often they saw me in out and about in it.

No way I can have an affair, or go to strip clubs, or brothels without notice. So far that has not been a issue as I don't want to go to those places al all.

I lost a 10 mm socket. It must be mine.:D

How can you post all of this without photos of the end result??

I still have carpet panels to put on the new door panels. As soon as that is done it will be finished.

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Here are two "teaser" photos. The lower panels will cover some of the screws. The new panel uses screws and not the factory style plastic clip. I will paint the screw heads with the same paint as the door panels.

This is NOT at all a show car, and it is just my daily driver. The velour seat is getting kinda worn. I am glad I bought the center tunnel cup holder back when they were common in the parts store. The large cup is my trash cup, and junk storage tray.

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I think he's getting it ready so he can sell it. You know, he goes through cars like onewhippedpuppy. He's got a new car every couple of months.

The body looks great too! Never had to have any rust repair around the wheel openings or rockers? Keep on keeping on…pretty impressive. BTW, nice move on retaining the original outside handle.

Glen, that looks as comfortable as an old pair of blue jeans. I like the 4 speaker escutcheons. Get out the Golden Earring and Deep Purple and ZZTop and take a long, lonely drive at midnight on moonlit roads with no destination at all in mind.

Yea, I am planning on making a thumb drive with Deep Purple's Made in Japan version of Highway Star, Then some ZZ TOP, and then Thunderstruck by AC/DC and a few other rock an roll favorites and rock out with no Mrs. Carrera to tell me to turn it down. I do not have an amp, just the Retro Sound head unit. It is the 1.5 DIN size for the right look, and does Bluetooth, and will sync with my phone. I did hook up the speakers in the front to the front, and the rear to the rear output, so full use of the stereo power.

That is one great looking El Camino!

Does it have the original engine?

😂

Much better!

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This is a "before photo" of the old carpet. Worn thorough on the left side, and pretty bad fade on the upper parts of the carpet where there were never floor mats.

This was shot during a pain in the butt repair. The "turn-signal, windshield wiper, high beam, cruise control" combination switch broke. Damn switch only went 373,851.5 miles or so. Anyway to get it out and get and a new one in is a real chore. There are no mechanics around that will work on mid 1980s GM cars, they all retired. I have all the special tools needed to get to it, and do the switch replacement, but I cuss a lot doing the fiddly work.

As you can see, the old carpet was past time to replace.

Is that an 8 track player?