Hell Camino | 350 ci of Attitude

1981 Chevy El Camino | The “Hell Camino” | 350 ci of Attitude

Shameless Self Promotion

This website was designed to be a diary (of sorts) to document the rebuilding of my El Camino project car. I'm not a professional builder, and my goal wasn't to build a "show car". I only wanted to show what can be done on a real life budget, with tools that most people can either afford, or have access to. Let's face it, there are lots of "how-to" shows that claim they will show you how to build a vehicle on, what they consider, a realistic budget. However, most of those shows receive so many free parts (simply for saying the vendors name on the air) that they end up using their "budget" to buy items most of us can't afford. I intend to do as much of the work as I can... at home... in my one-car garage or in the driveway, this is the way we common folk do things. The work I’m not able to do (machining the engine block for example) I’ve explained where I took the parts, what it cost me, and my opinion of the work.

I've done most of this work before, although never all on one car. This build started in October 2006 when I bought an engine that had seen better days, the car was purchased a few months later. The whole project has been about finding the right parts at the right time, I've spent only as much as I could afford when I had the cash. I've explained as much of the process as I could for those who are interested, and included all the pictures I have for those who just want to see how it turned out. My guess is this will be a never-ending build, one of those things I’ll always have to work on. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have, so feel free to email me using the link at the bottom of each page. If I don't have the answer you need, I'll try to point you in the right direction.

I submitted pictures of my car to Stacey David’s GEARZ for a segment called “What Are You Workin’ On?” The segment aired April 19^th, 2008 on Season 2, Episode 8: Ol’ Smoke Corvette. The show regularly airs on the Speed Channel Saturday mornings at 9:00 am Eastern and again on Friday's at 3:00 am Eastern. The “What Are You Workin’ On?” segment airs during the last 5 minutes of the show. You can see a video on YouTube titled "Steve on GEARZ". The picture quality on YouTube isn't great, but I'll take my 2 minutes of fame however I can get it.

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