elkydragger

iTrader: (7)

Hello, and welcome to my new build thread. This is a father/son project, that I am doing with my dad. We only get to work on this on Monday nights "shop night" so it has taken about a year to progress. This was my,for fun, street car that I had swapped a 6.0l in a few years ago. We are using the same motor and trans for the drag car, but we have tweaked it some.
I also have a build thread on my turbo ls2 4link dragster in the forced induction section

Here is a run down of what we have so far.
ENGINE
LQ4 with katec rod bolts, melling oil pump, double roller timing set, comp ***** thumper cam, cnc'd ls3 heads, comp 918 springs, vic jr carb manifold, proform 850 carb, msd 6010 box, and edlebrock headers.

TRANS
turbo 400, fresh with manual, reverse valve body, trans brake, and a B&M ratchet shifter.

REAR END
12bolt, with strange axles, c-clip eliminators, spool, 4.33-1 gears

WHEELS AND TIRES
American racing saltflat speacials 15x4 & 15x8 with 26" hoosier front runners and hoosier 28-10-15 slicks
[IMG][/IMG] This is what it looked like when I drove it on the street.
[IMG][/IMG] The interior was not bad
[IMG][/IMG] I started putting in the cage May 2012
[IMG][/IMG] It took some work to get an 8.50 cage in an el camino
[IMG][/IMG] the rear outer wheel houses needed some love, but we got the 10" slicks in there.
[IMG][/IMG]
we have replaced the floor pans for strength
[IMG][/IMG]
we have plated the firewall for strength and saftey

redid the cross member for an fbody pan. I had the gm musclecar pan on it before, but it hangs way to low for me.



fast forward to now, the cage is done, the floor pans are 90% done, and the next thing is to get it rolling for chassis certification next weekend.
I will post some more pics tomorrow.

oldgoat69

Will it also be streetable? I had several 64-65 Chevelles back in the day, love the build.

1970 ls_c10

iTrader: (1)

sweet car, but it would be cooler if it still can be on the street!

elkydragger

iTrader: (7)

I had my fun, on the street, with it. We are building it for my Dad to drive at some nostalgia races. We are also planning a trip to the ls fest at Bowling Green

That was a cool street car. If I wanted to drive it on the street, I would have left it alone. lol

500+hp on the street was fun, but when we had our second kid 2 years ago, we never took it anywhere. 4 wide with 2 car seats doesn't work in an el camino.

This is my Buddy, he is 2 years old today. you can thank him for the drag car conversion.

elkydragger

iTrader: (7)

Got the front frame rails blasted and cleaned up today. Also finished boxing in the custom crossmember. Custom built for the f body pan with no mods needed for the pan.
[IMG][/IMG]

Blackpanther99

iTrader: (8)

Looking good.

zracer323

iTrader: (12)

Nice work. Looks like a cool project.

elkydragger

iTrader: (7)

Thanks to both of you. I am really looking forward to getting this thing done. I think I am liking it more than my dragster. We are building it for my Dad to drive but, I can't wait to let go of that trans brake and pull some gears in this thing. We have taken a bunch of weight out of it. I don't think I mentioned it before but, we have a one piece fiberglass front end with a pin on glass 4" cowl hood for it.

elkydragger

iTrader: (7)

Got a few more things done.

welded the mounts to the frame, and cleaned the 48 year old weld spatter off of the frame.

We decided to ad the supports in for the forward bars. It really stiffens it up.

We are making our own steering column, and welded this plate in to closeup around the new column.

1.5" exhaust pipe, and .75 id flange bearings work perfect for a cheap column.

Dad painted the area on the cage for the nhra cert tag. We have a tech inspector coming to our shop to cert this cage, re cert my 6.0sec dragster tag, and re cert my buddys 7.50 tube chassis beretta. Hopefully everything passes fine.

Camaro396

iTrader: (14)

Very cool project!

donedidit

Any updates on this? I just started building a 65 ElCo to do some drag racing

elkydragger

iTrader: (7)

Just got the cage tech'd today and got the coveted NHRA 8.50 tag put on it.
We also got the fiberglass front end mounted. I will try to get some pics on here tomorrow. I am interested in details on your build as well.

elkydragger

iTrader: (7)

more pics of the progress

This is the first full cage I have ever done. It is a great feeling to get the approval of the NHRA.

My Dad and I worked all afternoon Saturday and built a tree to mount the front end


We are trying to decide if we want to mold the hood in, or leave it lift off style. As you can see, we bought this front end from a guy that let it sit outside in the elements. The hood is from Glasstek and is a really nice piece.

BennyB

iTrader: (12)

Sweet build. I've always liked el caminos

donedidit

Nice, who made the front end and how's the fit?
My 65 is on the rotisserie right now, put all new pans in it peeping the body for paint the frame I just notched the frame 2" for tire clearance going to move the stock tubs in 2" hopping to be able to fit a 29.5 10.5w. I'm going to race WCHRA outlaw 8.5 the motor is 402 ls2 based motor single 106mm turbo on M1.

elkydragger

iTrader: (7)

Not sure who made the front end. It is older, but fits nice. my Dad picked it up for $300 so we saved some cash over a new one. The hood is from glasstek and fits great.
Your 402 with the 106mm is going to hall. what rear end and gear will you run?
Check out my dragster build in the forced induction section. I am building a 365" ls2 based engine with an s475 turbo on it.
Down the road, I would like to minitub the el camino and put a turbo on it. I hate to waste that 8.50 tag. lol

donedidit

I'm running a Moser 12 bolt with 342 gears in it. If you do want to mini tub yours someday I saved the templets for the frame notch, and ill proly make a few pre cut ready to weld in to sell.

elkydragger

iTrader: (7)

We have gotten a bunch more stuff done. I will try to post some pics tonight.
My dad was posting pics and build thread on the H.A.M.B. and some nimrods got there panties in a bind because that is a pre 65' traditional site. Even tho they have the HAMB drags, and there are very few differences between a 64-65 el camino. Anyways, he got banned for it, and there were a bunch of followers that liked it. I am going to post on there for anyone who was following to jump over here and check our site out.

65drag

Hello all, this is 65drag, elkydragger's Dad. Here are some more pics of the build. Because the trans blow shield adds height to the trans, we have to cut out the original trans tunnel and build a new from scratch. We could have used the piece we cut out and just jacked it up and filled in around the open space, but the previous owner had hacked it putting a 4 speed.



We have replaced the entire floor pan for strength and new sheet metal is always nicer to work with.

65drag

Here is the beginning of the new tunnel. Joe had a great idea to start this out with 1/8" rod for support of the panels. I started putting this thing together like a jigsaw puzzle by doing the rear standup piece to support the rods.



The patch under the loud pedal was to remove a weird bump out in the firewall that was interfering with the bellhousing.