Thanks again for sharing Duane. Ate this thread up. What an under taking and an amazing product by the end of it. I truly appreciate your message of keeping the project, goal at the forefront of your mind, work on it every day. I think I’ll hang on to that.
It was my pleasure to ttt the thread for you. Glad you liked the story. You know it took a lot of people’s help to get this done. Their help included, but was not limited to, finding parts, giving me a 70 GS 455 parts car to strip, including the title, painting the car, buffing chrome pieces, giving their time freely, dealing with me when I was totally focused to the point of having extreme tunnel vision, giving me encouragement when I needed it most, helping me get the car to the GS Nationals, I can’t even list all the things people helped me with. I have a great set of friends. Duane
The Judge of The Judge would note the quarter panels (bedsides) look like untouched El Camino - no shaping has been done to contour them to a GTO quarter. Duane in post 41: "There are a couple of guys that did "conversions" like I was attempting, but none of them did anything from the middle of the doors back. The resultant cars simply did not look right and I could not have that."
One of the things I forgot to mention was that I got an added “push” from a couple of guys at the GS Nationals. I knew these 2 guys for years from coming to my booth and buying parts and interiors from me. Anyway when I did not bring the “car” to the Nationals the next year they asked where it was. I told them I ran into some problems and had to stop for a while to figure them out. Well they heckled me a little and said they knew I would not finish it. This bothered me a bit and made me want to finish it even more. The next year, when I brought the car, they came up and said they knew if they teased me I would get it done. Duane
A very similar thing happened to me. I worked at a friend's rod shop part-time while I was laid off. One of the guys hanging out there made a comment to a customer, that was admiring some fabrication I had just completed. He said "Yeah, he can restore cars but he's not much of a custom car builder"..... That is when I went home and built my pro-touring 57 Belair.
I know you have lots of other priorities but if we tease you will we ever get to see it again someday? That thing would be a big hit.
First we need to move the majority of our things into the new house, we just bought it today….then we need to finish up our old Victorian, and continue moving the rest of our stuff. Then we need to extend the 2-car garage into a 4-car garage, and finally have all the cars in one place. Then the Chevelle gets finished. After that I want to go back through the X- Camino. It was done 25 years ago and has a few issues. After that then maybe……….but if you want to see it sooner, then show up at the door next year sometime and we can go for a ride. Maybe even get a ride in the 69 Motion Equipped car. That one is a beast. Duane
