78 caballero

[The ghoul]

Hey all,
Noobie here (the ghoul from Xceed, ls1tech ect ect)
Unless the world ends Friday (I Really doubt it will) ill be getting my newest project. It's a 1978 gmc caballero (gmc el camino). My old man had one forever and a day so I got a soft spot for em.
Current condition is good running/driving, rust free body, doors are rotted, interrior is in bad shape, SBC 350 with an edelbrok 650 carb and torquer 2 intake.
I've been doing research and it looks like 89-02 (ish) 2wd s10 and jimmy 2 piston calipers is a good upgrade to the front and 2"drop spindles are avalible so I think I will go that route. Mustang 8.8" rear end (with posi and disc) seem to be a near drop in affair so that will happen.
I'm about 90% sure I want to t56 swap it but am unsure if I want to build the SBC that's in it or build up an lq4 block.
But all these things will come in time along with body paint and interrior work.
I'll keep updating as I go!

 

[The ghoul]

Wow!
I'm sorry, I totally forgot I posted this and therefore forgot to update
So here is the car as recieved

 

[The ghoul]

Pressing issues;
Dash that was one good wet fart from totally falling appart, interrior that was 4 different colors with what seems to be 4 cans worth of spray paint on each panel, steering column with a terribly shot upper bearing, and those rims! They aren't bad rims all around (centerline racing made in USA, some curb rash not pitted badly) they just look horrable on this car especially the drift style rubbers on the front... Terrible IMO so if any one wants some mini slick rims in exchange for almost any decent looking set of g body rims get at me!
I kicked things off by gutting the interrior
Wire harnes didn't look as hacked as I thought it was..

I was real conserend because there was 3 different sets of gauges in it.
My first bit of work was the dash.
As you can see, there are tones of cracks, chunks missing, and what you can't see the sags and divets at the edges and the center of the top of the dash

I started by ordering a full dash cap.
I was advised to smooth out any dips or cracks before installing it, as it's made of thin plastic and will eventually warp if not supported. So I attacked the dash with a worn out flap disk and a grinder, smoothed out all the curled cracks and even some of the stock details that were rased or created a sharp contour.

Next I slabbed lots of short hair fiberglass filler on her then leveled it out with the same flap disk and grinder. Just needed a few touch ups with a second round of filler

Now I play the waiting game for delivery of the dash cap.

 

[Fryguy302]

Neat car. Are those regular Malibu doors, or are they specific the the el camino/cabellero?

 

[The ghoul]

While waiting on the cap I started attacking the interrior plastics.
First step was stripping off the old spray paint.
Streight consentration pine-sol and a Tupperware bin did the trick nicely

After a good warm water scrubbing and letting it dry
I did a quick solvant wipe (asitone) to ensure no grease or soap was left behind; shot a base coat of Adheasion promoter then top coat of vinyl and fabric paint (cluster housing shown here)

I've been methodically processing parts in this manner starting with dash components first.
Speaking of clusters...
My friend got wind of me getting a g body and came up with some good stuff for it including this 120mph cluster

So after repainting every thing I reassembeled the full cluster with led lights (it's not perfect but I'm pleased and it's much better than it was)!

 

[The ghoul]

Neat car. Are those regular Malibu doors, or are they specific the the el camino/cabellero?

Thankyou! I have always loved them.
The only difference between the elky doors and the Malibu ones are the trim holes.
This car is rotted it the weirdest places (I suspect it really was brought over here from a tropical location)

As you can see the doors are too bad to even be re-skinned;
That asside the inside drivers c-pillar support metal is rotted out, the door jamb striker areas have been patched (badly) and the passingers hinge area is rotted out.
But the odd thing is asside from the passingers floor board patch the rest of the body is super clean?!

Lucky for me, an elcamino forum member reached out to me and is apparently parting a 79 cab right now.
So tomorrow I'll be driving out to mid-thumb area and picking up a solid drivers door as well as the hinge area clip and striker patches; all for only $100
(pic of his clip with my cutting instructions)

Now I just need another welder!

 

[The ghoul]

Only other interesting bit I've been working on are the seat belts. I plan on going all black and grey interrior (as you can see from the cluster surround) and light blue stained belts just won't do.

So last Monday I took a good stiff nylon bristled brush and some streight simple green and scrubbed the belts, then compleetly ringed them out, and hung them to dry making sure the water dosent run down the belts into the retractors. I was lucky that the belt adjusting mech is strong enough to hilt the full length of the belt out

I've researched it pritty well and seen the horror story's of belt dye attacking webbing of the belts compromising them, leaching out and staining cloths ect and decided just to paint them with the same fabric and vinyl paint I'm using on the rest of the interrior.
I have no doubt it will eventually wear off but I'll be happy if i can put off buying a new set for a year or two..

 

[The ghoul]

Dontcha love it when you get sick and tired of waiting for something to be delivered, complain about it at work, and you come home to find it waiting for you?!
Well my cheap forgen knock off eBay door handles and dash cap were waiting for me when I took my lunch break.

Rough fit of the eckler's dash cap seems promicing, dosent look like it will take much fitting at all..

I only have two complaints about it. First the undercut area (under the hvac and radio panel) is cut out to accomidate the ashtray would have rather had it a solid panel.
Second the cap isn't black as advertised, it's a very dark grey...
Which trows a wrench in plans because as mentioned before I've been painting all the interrior parts gloss black
(picture below shows one of the kick panels I painted last night in the fore ground sitting in top of the cap

you can see clearly they are not a match) I sprayed a test piece flat black and that wasn't a match either.
I perhaps could find a top quality interrior paint that will match (as there are air vents, glove box and cluster that need to match perfectly or it will look goofie) but those run upwards of $25 a can..
As I already have most of them painted I think the best bet will be to fit and glue the cap, shoot it with Adheasion promoter and shoot it with the same gloss black most the parts are painted with...

 

[sardeanie]

That's an ambitious project but you are makin' it happen! Very cool and kudos to you.

 

[The ghoul]

That's an ambitious project but you are makin' it happen! Very cool and kudos to you.

Done more with less before...
Thankyou tho.
This car is basically going to be the long run; winter projet/summer driver...
No big strip and full resto

 

[mikesfastss]

Cool project im a g body man myself i have an 85 regal with a sbc/2004r pretty much stock but its a nice cruiser.I want ti do a lsx swap soon though

 

[The ghoul]

Got the dash cap fitted, used an air hose to blow all the dust out of the nooks and crannies then wiped it all down with acitone ( including the back side of the dash cap).
I then sprayed the areas that the cap didn't cover with black fabric and vinyl paint.
After that dried I started applying the silicone supplied with the cap. Just about every one who's done this says use it sparingly as it will seep out the edges... I say F that! If it seeps you can always wait for it to dry and trim it off.
So to be on the safe side I picked up a tube of good quality household silicone (I know it's not the same, but the tube said it says flexible forever so that's good enough for me).

I then applied the silicone around all the features on the back side of the cap and around all the edges of it.
You'll notice below that insted of putting it on the defogger cutouts themselves I put it around the dash top section.
I figured the cap was going to do what ever it wanted to do and I'd drive my self nuts trying to bend those back to meet the walls of the dashboard (witch admittedly was rather rough after my attempting to smooth it out)...

I then spread silicone generously on the dashboard where I knew the cap would make contact.
I stayed away from crossing long flat areas (dash top, passingers dash face ect) this was to prevent it from adhering contracting and forming a very noticibly wrinkle in the cap.
I instead focused on any trim features and along corners/high details.

I placed the cap loosely on the dash sliding the radio/hvac surround into place first.
Using what ever c clamp/ spring clamp/ vice grips I could find along with 30 small spring clips I found at home depot for $.39 each I started working the cap into position and tacking it down.
For long noticible features I used wood stur sticks to keep the pressure spread out so there wouldn't be any noticible warps.
I worked from the hvac surround first to the passingers vent, glove box, cluster then dropped the defroster vents into place and the snugged down all around the edges (the logical order to me)

Result looks pritty good to me.
Seeing how this is sitting in my garage and it's damn cold out I'm going to give it till Sunday to set up before I remove any of the clamps (if that!)

 

[The ghoul]

5 hours of windshield time and we have a successful parts run!
-drivers door with functioning rally remote mirror
-passingers hinge clip
-drivers and passingers striker clips
-tilt steering column
-stock steering wheel with GMC medallion
-rear window sill/upper bed patch
-sail panel covers
And
-chunk of old grill shell to test a theory
(still amazed at the trunk space in out 2012 charger

 

[The ghoul]

As mentioned I wasn't pleased with ecklers definition of black.
So this morning I used a razor knife and trimmed all the silicone that ran out of the seams
Wiped every thing down with some asitone
Shot it with Adheasion promoter than with fabric and vinyl paint

BTW
I discovered yesterday (when visiting a fellow elky nut) that eckler's dash cap (bought via elcamino store) and origional parts groups caps are both produced by the same company

 

[The ghoul]

Went outside to pull the engine and get it on the stand for some freshening up and got distracted messing with the drivers door (had to swap all the mech and glass from the door that came with the car to the new one..
that was fun, those linkage clips are a pain

looks like just about every mile was had out of the old door

but I was successful in getting the drive train ready to pull (motor mounts and possibly trans cross member and it looks like I can pull the engine and trans as one)

i noticed this and found it rather disturbing..

It looks like who ever put this together used grade 5 bolts for every thing (including the intake manafold)

 

[The ghoul]

Gmc now with 100% less running gear.
Pulled the engine and trans together with no signifiant issues.

saw the tans pan and thought "gee that's special"

i didn't even know you could couple a SBC to a metric trans!
While I was working on sepperating the engine and trans I thought I would multitask and burn the oil off the headers with my heater.... That didn't last too long!

I did, however, open the door and windows and continue burning off the oil. I plan on knocking off the loose scale and painting them before re-install..
This whole car smacks of a father/son project, from the grade 5 bolts on the front side, to the metric trans than this!

It looks like they used a crank from a manual trans car and didn't bother pressing out the pilot bearing. Guess this wouldn't be an issue for most torque converters but this one has a centering snout that fits into that outer cavity, so basically the pilot bearing is preventing the torqueconverter from sitting all the way into that cavity..
Oh, speaking of being a hack..
i got around to painting the belts..
can and a half and it looks pretty convincing.

And this is the carpet that came with the car

obviously dark red won't work in an all black and grey interrior
So three cans of spray paint (btw key to painting any thing outside in the cold, bucket of hot water)

And I'm pleased with the results (I skimped on under seat area)

your not ever going to fool someone into thinking the origional color was ever black, but for the $23 investment I think it goes a heck of a long way twards making things matchie matchie

 

[ShadowRuleZ]

My monte came with a 200C it was stamped metric on the bottom of the pan. I'd recommend the nearest dumpster :lol:

 

[The ghoul]

My monte came with a 200C it was stamped metric on the bottom of the pan. I'd recommend the nearest dumpster :lol:

Trooth! But, it moves for now. T56 swap soon to come

 

[gdwrench]

Quite the little job you have going on there...my friend has a white one right across the street from me (big tire car). Good luck and keep on with the pics.

 

[beertestr]

Before you go any further with a T56 swap, decide if you want to do an LS swap. You won't be disappointed with an LS swap and you won't have to convert the trans later.

FWIW, metric trannies have been behind SBC's since the late 70's and are still going with the 4.3L v6's in the pickups.

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