about a year ago i was looking on ebay and saw someone had put the front of a camaro and the back of an el camino together! the resulting sight was quit cool it was basically a camaro with an elcamino bed on it. has anybody else seen this thing or somethis similar to it? I would love to see the pics again.

I definitely saw one of those around here... only seen it once and from a distance. Would be interested to know how they went about doing it.

google shows a 94 camaro

yeah i saw that. i decided to do an image search after i posted the thread. that looks much more extensive and complicated than what i had saw before. i would like to know how everything meshed together. the 94 just looks like a total custom job to me. most of the time it just looks like they took the doghouse off of a camaro and stuck it on an el camino.

GM did a prototype elcamino. I believe it had a cap on it, looked like a station wagon. It was based on the 4th gen, but I believe it was a pontiac.

Mathius

not quite, it was called a kammback. gm made one for 2nd,3rd, and 4th gens. was no different then a regular bird, just had a new hatch except the 2nd gen was a whole new back half. search for it, theres a new thread about it every other day

This thing?


I came across these, although they both turned out ugly as hell. Not the best designs:



Mathius

Or did you mean one of these?


Because if you look close enough you'll see that only two of them are the same design.

Or how about this old 2nd gen style one?
typek3.gif

Mathius

GM also toyed with the idea of offering an Impala SS with a truck bed, instead of the station wagon body (which they did a concept of too).

I'd do a Kammback hatch on my GTA in a HEARTBEAT!

ME TOO!

We've talked about this before.....GET OFF YOUR *** & BUILD US 2 OF THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mathius, I dont think the second one looks so bad. its at least a start, if a lot of planning was put into something like this i think the outcome could be something totally beautiful and original and would have people gawking for miles around!

Whomever wants to build them, I'll take one for my '84 Trans Am.

the el camaro was a kit cant remember what it was called but i did one for a buddy it came with fenders and front facia also ground fx and iroc decals

i saw one at a car lot during the summer front clip of a camaro on an el camino look really sweet i wish i had the money i would have brought it never seen one since pretty cool i saw a few kits on ebay a few months ago i heard it was alot of work to line the body panels

How about a 5th gen?





Anyways, I still think trying to turn a third gen into an el camino is a bad idea.

You're better off buying a 4th gen el camino (78-80 whatever..) and putting a third gen camaro or t-bird front end on it, and then swapping the interior.

Truckin had a nice 80's el camino that had a lot of styling cues to the third gen camaro. It was probably the nicest camino I've ever seen. If I can find a link I'll post it here. I know I have the old issue somewhere, but locating it could be a PITA, it's probably in storage. It was a candy blue el camino with a custom interior. I believe it even had a caddy emblem on the tail gate.

Mathius

Well, I did find an exterior picture of it:


But that's worthless without seeing the pictures of the interior. The car was just really really nicely done. That one picture doesn't do it justice at all. I'm not usually a fan of el caminos, but that one is just super nice.

The owners name is Eddie Stokes. Here are a few links I found on it, but that's the only shot I could find on the net.

http://www.truckinweb.com/features/0...ino/index.html
http://www.sporttruck.com/featuredve...ino/index.html
http://sporttruck.automotive.com/756...ino/index.html

Anyways, I think you'd be better off finding one of those and trying to mount a third gen front end to it than trying to modify the rear of a camaro or firebird.

Mathius

Yeah, that kit was based on the same idea I was recommending. It didn't make your third gen have an el camino bed, it gave the el camino a third gen camaro nose.

The kit is by Lauren Engineering: http://www.laureneng.com/1216260.html

They have several stages available:





Mathius

Thing is, if you look at the pictures I posted above, the el camino just has a smaller roof line than the third gen and people who don't take that into account in their build are losing half the battle right there. The el camino is a two seater. The third gen has a small back seat, but its still a 4-seater.

That black one that you like has a typical third gen roof on it. If you compared that picture to a notchback, I would almost guarantee they have the same roof line. So the bed area came out short and bastardized like a Ford Sports Trac or something. The design itself is ugly as hell as well. They didn't make any effort to incorporate the actual lines of the camaro into the bed. Instead it looks like they removed the hatch, and just built some bed sides that fit down inside it and added a tailgate.

Mathius

Was going to say those look like an Aussie UTE and the filename has that in it lol

Yeah i noticed that after i thought about it for a while. im kinda digging those camaro body kits for an el camino though. the pics of those actually look really good. they should make some sort of interior conversion kit too. maybe if they actually made el caminos like that instead of going with the malibu body, they may have been around throught the 90's. i doubt it though. most people found a car with a bed unappealing. I on the other hand love them and next to 3rd gens they would be my next choice to drive.

Here's another build. This front end is similar but from "choo choo customs" not lauren engineering according to the build documentation. But you can follow the whole build here: http://www.chevyasylum.com/80elky/Welcome.html On second thought, maybe closer to a Monte Carlo front end?




Mathius

your correct. it actually is the same front end as a monte. with a few mods for the lights and stuff the nose will actually bolt right onto an el camino. its hard to find original "certified" ones and as a result they will fetch a pretty penny. i like the camaro nose better though!

i love el caminos and i love camaros, but i don't think they should be put together. some of those designs look really cool. very original. I just like the style of the el caminos. actually, my favorite year of the el camino was the '69. it looked like a chevelle so much, but it wasn't. I think the back end of the later generation el caminos look terrible though.

i disagree. i loved how the back lights were integrated into the bumper instead of the body. it gave them a very clean look and was something fairly original. i think el caminos were very simple body design(no gfx or anything) yet somehow retained a sporty look all throught their life span. honeslt i think its all because of the "swoop" from the cab to the bed. its sort of remenicient of a coke bottle style car while most cars went "square" in the 80's. know what i mean?

There was a El Camino SS in the 80s and it had the same nose as a Monte SS. Finding an original one though is probably going to be a chore these days though.

Choo choo customs did the ss el camino in the 80s used the monte carlo ss front end and some fugly fake side pipes.

oh god, that sounds awful, might wanna lay off the acid if those look cool to you!

thats awsome I have a 91 rs that im parting out and just bought a 81 El camino ss I dont want to but the lauren kit. I wonder if I can make my camaro parts fit it?

Ive also made a new thread on this

Thanks for my first good laugh on a saturday morning! Love the ram air hood and downward nose angle (down force I guess) on the top pic.

i think i just puked up my breakfeast

That's freakin' hilarious!!

There's a white one like the last one pictured running around over here.It's pretty nice.What wasn't nice is the guy driving it through the salt and sand in the dead of winter.Why do people do that

Put all your money into one vehicle and not have money for another one. Or maybe he lives in an apartment and has limited parking spots. I had to get rid of my Camaro and my Ranger when I was 23 and my dad and I lived in an apartment. Only 2 parking spots. I could have parked one on the street and rotated them, but it would really have been more hassle than its worth. You can get a ticket parking on the street and not moving your vehicle every couple of days.

Mathius

Ok, so I was going through my old magazines and came across my Truckin Fall 2003 issue. Inside is two el camino's by Lauren Engineering, but the one that kept tickling the back of my mind is the red one on page 114. It belongs to Dave Mock who I guess is part of Lauren Engineering, an owner or something.

But they took an '87 GTA donor car and used it for the drivetrain and interior. The rear end they got from a Grand National.

The only shots I could find on the net don't show the interior: http://www.laureneng.com/1530897.html

But you can see the TPI drivetrain under the hood:


They used the entire dash, console, door panels, and seats from the '87.

If I dig my old scanner out of storage and get it set up, I'll scan the shots of the interior.

But basically looks like you can really make a third gen el camino if you bought the right kit for the body and used a third gen for a donor.

Mathius

*** that is purdy!

Diggi' the nose on that one, any clue who makes it?

Smacks forehead: nevermind, I see it is Lauren...

just heard they made something called a Choo Choo El Camino. had the camaro nose on it. only made less than 1300 a year at the most. very interesting.

actually it used the monte carlo ss front end and was made by a company called choo choo customs. we already talked about it. scroll up and read.