‘66 Olds El Camino, Olds El Cutlassino , hmmmmm

[Steve H]

Hi all, and a very merry Christmas to you and your families. 
 
I have had this project rattling around my brain for several years now. I have always liked El Camino’s, but recently have really been into them. So the plan is to kit bash a ‘66 Olds 442 with a ‘68 El Camino. Most of the inspiration came from my own head, however there was a similar build on this forum a while back that really got me enthused. Sorry, I forget the builders name, I will dig it up again and thank him by name  in a later post. 

It will be somewhere between resto mod and pro touring. I haven’t decided on the power plant yet, but big block for sure, 396...454...hmmmm                                  
Of course it will be low, that’s how I roll. For colour, probably a Teal similar to the factory colour available for the Olds 442. 
 

So, here we go....

 

 
 

I feel like the lines of the 442 are a natural for an El Camino conversion. I want the area below and behind the B pillar to be “fat”, to me that is an important part of the El Camino look. The roof of the ‘68 is about 2 1/2” too narrow at the top, but too wide at the bottom where it meets the body. So I added some styrene to widen top, cut some relief notches at top of B pillar to help narrow bottom. I also slightly stretched the body while attaching roof. 

 

I removed the top of the “bed” caps from the 68 as well, and attached those.

I added a few small bits of styrene to blend the roof line to the bed. Again, I wanted this area to be on the fat side. 

Still some smoothing to do, but I am pleased with results so far. Now that roof is on, and blended to the body, it is a good looking Elky! 
Thanks for looking, and as always comments welcome. 
 

Cheers, Steve

[Claude Thibodeau]

Hi Steve!

Best wishes to you too!

This is interesting surgery. I'll follow. I made something similar a few years ago, with a 65 Continental, a Dodge Sidewinder interior, and a scratchbuilt box. You'll have fun, I'm certain!

CT 

[Misha]

That’s impressive work blending it all together Steve. Looking forward to your progress as the final goal will be quite attractive. I’ve always liked the El Camino over the Ranchero.

Wishing you and yours the very best for Christmas and the New Year, cheers Misha

[Steve H]

2 hours ago, Claude Thibodeau said:

Hi Steve!

Best wishes to you too!

This is interesting surgery. I'll follow. I made something similar a few years ago, with a 65 Continental, a Dodge Sidewinder interior, and a scratchbuilt box. You'll have fun, I'm certain!

CT 

Hi Claude!

Thanks for having a look. Very nice as always, I love your builds. That one is a beauty, thanks for sharing. 
Hope you have a wonderful Christmas sir! 
 

Cheers, Steve

[Steve H]

33 minutes ago, Misha said:

That’s impressive work blending it all together Steve. Looking forward to your progress as the final goal will be quite attractive. I’ve always liked the El Camino over the Ranchero.

Wishing you and yours the very best for Christmas and the New Year, cheers Misha

Thank you Misha! Always nice to hear from you. Hoping that one or two more “fill/sand/prime” will get the body close. Once it’s in final prime, I’ll post a few pics. Then figure out interior, bed, chassis....  I think I will use the Elky chassis as the wheel bases appear  identical on both kits. Still need to “play” a bit with logistics though before final decision on that. 
Have a great Christmas and holiday season, see you in the new year.

 

Cheers, Steve

[Danno]

This is good stuff, Steve!  Great concept, great conceptualization. Looking forward to seeing this one.

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[TarheelRick]

Going to look like something GM will be slapping their foreheads and saying, "Why didn't we think of that."  Looking forward to updates.  Really like the way you are massaging the panels to line up.

[espo]

Nice job blending the roof to the Olds. body. I was going to suggest using the '66 El Camino for the roof and bed. But that would have made it hard to get the "fat B pillar" you wanted. I'll follow your build as this is the type of car/truck I enjoy and have owned two different early El Caminos. 

[AmericanMuscleFan]

This is a super cool idea Steve, you have a very active and boundless imagination my friend.   The Oldsmobile looks more robust than the Chevelle (in my opinion...) and will obviously be a good candidate for your conversion, how GM hasn't thought of that...lol?   Maybe you can call it "Oldcamino" but that's just a suggestion, I see you are handling the conversion very well so far!  I don't want to steal Claude's punchline but it's "fun with styrene"...!  ?

[Steve H]

1 hour ago, AmericanMuscleFan said:

This is a super cool idea Steve, you have a very active and boundless imagination my friend.   The Oldsmobile looks more robust than the Chevelle (in my opinion...) and will obviously be a good candidate for your conversion, how GM hasn't thought of that...lol?   Maybe you can call it "Oldcamino" but that's just a suggestion, I see you are handling the conversion very well so far!  I don't want to steal Claude's punchline but it's "fun with styrene"...!  ?

Hello Francis, and a very merry Christmas to you and your family.  I like “OldCamino”,  I was kind of fishing for suggestions.  By the time it’s built, hopefully one name will stand out as THE name. And yes, the body seems like a natural for Camino conversion as it is quite “robust” looking. 
Take good care sir.

Cheers, Steve

[Steve H]

I just realized this should probably be in the truck section. Oops... perhaps a moderator can shuffle it over? 

[Steve H]

9 hours ago, Danno said:

This is good stuff, Steve!  Great concept, great conceptualization. Looking forward to seeing this one.

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Thanks Danno! 
 

 

7 hours ago, TarheelRick said:

Going to look like something GM will be slapping their foreheads and saying, "Why didn't we think of that."  Looking forward to updates.  Really like the way you are massaging the panels to line up.

Hi Ricky, thanks for the comments, it does look like a natural Elky to me.

4 hours ago, espo said:

Nice job blending the roof to the Olds. body. I was going to suggest using the '66 El Camino for the roof and bed. But that would have made it hard to get the "fat B pillar" you wanted. I'll follow your build as this is the type of car/truck I enjoy and have owned two different early El Caminos. 

Hi David, thank you sir. 
Car.... truck.... hmmmmmm, what is it? ?

Merry Christmas to you all. 
Cheers, Steve

[Claude Thibodeau]

Hi Steve!

Since we are juggling with possible "names": Caminolds.

Oh well... too much wine for xmass at my end?

CT

[Steve H]

5 hours ago, Claude Thibodeau said:

Hi Steve!

Since we are juggling with possible "names": Caminolds.

Oh well... too much wine for xmass at my end?

CT

Ohhhhhh.... I like that. Well played. We’ll see what others get tossed around. Just getting into the wine myself, cheers!!

[Steve H]

Quick update, since there was no family entertaining today, had some desk time.

The bodywork around the B pillars is close. Very pleased with the overall look so far. I will start playing around with wheel choices and fitting the inside of the bed over the next few days. Still have some work to do on the “tailgate” too. 

I might even remove the support that says “remove” ?

Hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas. 
Cheers, Steve

 

[Dr Cobra]

Very nice work so far, you might look into moving the rear wheel well back just a little or shortening the bed between the wheel wells and the tailgate. Going to be a cool ride !!

[Bills72sj]

1 hour ago, Dr Cobra said:

Very nice work so far, you might look into moving the rear wheel well back just a little or shortening the bed between the wheel wells and the tailgate. Going to be a cool ride !!

I agree. Visually the rear overhang it a bit too much. But since you obviously can do body work, you could probably pull it off. It is simply the question if you want to put forth the effort. Since the wheel arches are actually circular, you could cut them in such a way that you could swap them from side to side while maintaining the body line.

[Spottedlaurel]

What an excellent idea Steve, great progress on it so far.

[lordairgtar]

I like this.

 

[Lunajammer]

Beautiful work on the body. Keep it going.

[Steve H]

17 hours ago, Dr Cobra said:

Very nice work so far, you might look into moving the rear wheel well back just a little or shortening the bed between the wheel wells and the tailgate. Going to be a cool ride !!

 

 

16 hours ago, Bills72sj said:

I agree. Visually the rear overhang it a bit too much. But since you obviously can do body work, you could probably pull it off. It is simply the question if you want to put forth the effort. Since the wheel arches are actually circular, you could cut them in such a way that you could swap them from side to side while maintaining the body line.

Ok, you two trouble makers have got me thinking now.... I definitely don’t want to shorten the body, move the rear wheel openings back 2-4 scale inches. Hmmmm?? I will do some layout and play around with that. What’s a little more fill/sand/prime repeat. Thanks for the input!

[mchook]

I don't think it looks too bad myself. The Ranchero had a pretty long overhang.

[mchook]

I forgot to say, I love it, great job!

[Bainford]

Nice lines.

[Claude Thibodeau]

Hi Steve!

Obviously, if you move the wheel opening back, by flipping the lower quarter-panels, you will also have to stretch the floor pan. As they say: any action creates a reaction...

To my eye, having owned a 1/1 73 Ranchero, I can attest that the rear overhang in the quarters was substantial. Your mash-up looks just fine (OEM)  to me!

Just my two cents...

CT 

CT