Authenticating A 1970 El-Camino SS

[Marco]

My buddy purchased this car off Ebay (44K original miles) and is trying to determine if it's a factory SS car.

Is there a 3rd party documentation source, that can provide you with all factory options when supplied with a VIN?

Any special cowl codes to look for? Build sheet locations?

TIA

[BUICK528]

www.chevelles.com/elcamino/index.html

or for more info > dcarr@chevelles.com

very few people know as much about Camino's as Dan Carr does, he's the man to go to..

J

[oPh]

Few things to look for...

'70 ElCamino SS with a big block will have 7/16" main fuel line. Of course the El could have been "frame-offed" & lines swapped, but that would be somewhat odd on a 44K mile car... at least one that was supposedly never restored.

Believe only 300Hp 350's & bigblocks were avail in the '70 SS ElCamino (no 6cylinders or 307's in the '70 SS ElCamino). With either, the rear should be the correct coded 12 bolt Chevy rearend. Upper lh rear control arm is 12 bolt only, & will have the large thumbnail shaped reinforcement pad where the control arm bolt goes through to mount to upper lh perch on the r/e.

As an SS, the '70 El, should have the SS dash asm. This has been a major expense item for many years for cloners & restorers, so most clones will only have the std left to right sweep speedo & std plastic dash assembly.

Roger

[BUICK528]

the '70 SS only came with a BB. In '71 and on, you could get a SB SS car.

J :cool:

[Marco]

Thanks guys!

[69GS400s]

J - Is that the same Dan Carr that has the Sha-Weeeet '69 SportWagon ??? ...and was also featured on My Classic Moustache with his '68 Calif. GS ???

thanks....

[gscalifornia]

I'd guess it's the same fellow.

Dan and I emailed back and forth several years ago when he bought his GS Colorado and was verifying the GS California/Colorado emblem swaps and background/history. He also had several El Caminos at the time that were very nice!

[GSXMEN]

BUICK528 said:the '70 SS only came with a BB. In '71 and on, you could get a SB SS car.

J :cool:

I got my 3.31 12 bolt posi out of a '70 SS 350 4 spd. El Camino. Rough shape...sure seemed stock though.

[Tim Clary]

In 70 chevelle and elco only 402 or 454 in the SS models.

[Ken Mild]

This one is interesting too!

http://www.chevelles.com/elcamino/ec_gp.htm

[Ken Riebel]

I went to the Barret Jackson that year and saw that car. It is pretty neat. The sellers were claiming that it was a Pontiac engineering car. A 1966 car with Vega wagon tail lights? Doesn't sound right to me since the Vega came out some 5 years later.

[Dave H]

I recall how pissed off the management at Oldsmobile was when they didn't get a Vega spinoff car. Poured salt in the old wound that started when they didn't get a Firebird/Camaro like GM led them to believe years earlier.

Just think, with a Vega Olds they could have gone out of business 20 years sooner! :laugh:

[Shortymac83]

With a vega olds, there'd be an even teenier car to stuff a 455 in! WHOO!

[SmallHurst]

Personally, I would love to stuff a 455 into about a '76 Starfire/Monza. Don't laugh too hard, but I can remember when my folks bought their Starfire brand new in '76. Orange with white vinyl interior and the v-6. Unfortunately, they got rid of their '68 Barracuda to get that car!:af: :ball:

[Dave H]

Run low 8's with a small block Olds.

[oPh]

Dave H,
Just imagine what Olds fans would have felt like if Hurst had not lined up with Olds & built the Hurst Olds. In '97 when the Hurst Firebird was built, a lot of info came to light, on how Hurst approached GM & Pontiac to build a Hurst Firebird in the '67 time period. As it would be, Pontiac recieved their own version of the F-body in mid '67, & as Olds did not receive an F-body, GM mgmt encouraged Hurst to pursue Olds to build a special Olds :Brow:

Roger

[oPh]

Speaking of '76 or so Starfires, does anyone remember the Buick cousin, the loaded out Skyhawks with the deep tinted Astro(?) roofs. Believe that was the name of the option. That was one of the coolest options I can ever remember from that era of car. Had a girlfriend in HS, that had a new Skyhawk, it was a '77, & I can remember spending the night in just such a car. Of course it had a 3 spoke black wheel :pp In heavily hitting yards all over the south in the late '80's through mid 90's & pulling tons of 3 spokes, I never ran across another "Skychicken" with the special roof :(

Roger

[Dave H]

oPh said:Dave H,
Just imagine what Olds fans would have felt like if Hurst had not lined up with Olds & built the Hurst Olds. In '97 when the Hurst Firebird was built, a lot of info came to light, on how Hurst approached GM & Pontiac to build a Hurst Firebird in the '67 time period. As it would be, Pontiac recieved their own version of the F-body in mid '67, & as Olds did not receive an F-body, GM mgmt encouraged Hurst to pursue Olds to build a special Olds :Brow:



Roger:


Also pushed heavily by Olds people after the 442 factory and dealer teams put on their war paint, and marched on Lansing with torches when they got their 68 400's. Boy were they pissed. The W31 Ramrod got quickly released and the Hurst 455 program went full steam really quickly. Dave Landreth of Hurst was wired in very heavily with Olds Engineering (after the high volume production release of the Competition Plus in the 66 442, so an easy sell. Hurst Hairy program also helped that.

Olds management and GM management had a lot of friction back then resulting from the tripower edict and the way Delorean made them all look stupid by building the GTO "within the spirit of the rules". Where've I heard that before? :grin: