Can someone tell me about 1975 Cheverolet El Camino's?

Question

I am a novice who wants to buy a 1975 El Camino Classic. I test drove and seems good and I am having Lemonbusters come out to inspect today. Can you tell me what I can expect from owning a car like this as far as upkeep and ease of getting new parts? I have searched the net for info, but have yet to find a good resource. Asking price is $4000 with 94000 miles on a 350 eng.

Answer 1

The 350 was a solid engine for GM, and they probably made millions of them over the years. There were performance parts available at every parts store in the country for this motor. But other parts, like body panels, etc, may be harder to come by. If the car needs body work, the shop may have to cut out the damage and make the new pieces out of sheet metal. That will cost you some money.

But the car is over 30 years old, so I'd be very leery of this if you want to use it as your daily driver. Cars made in that time frame was not GM's best work, quality-wise. A lot of people started switching to imports then for both reliability and fuel economy reasons. If you're getting this as a toy car to fix up, drive around on sunny weekend days, etc, then go for it. If this is going to be your only means of transportation, I'd reconsider.

Oh, one other thing - if you live in a northern climate, and get a decent amount of ice and snow, keep in mind that El Camino's were lousy winter cars. No weight on the drive wheels meant that they couldn't get traction. A friend had one from about this time period, and I saw him get stuck in a flat parking lot when both of the rear wheels were sitting in a frozen track made by another car. The track was not even 3/4 inch deep.

Answer 2

Pull the 4 barrel carb/intake off and bypass with a inventory 2 barrel carter like is on the 'seventy 5 4 door malibu. Get a sparkling HEI distributor, solid wires, new plugs, have a fluid/filter out exchange for the tranny, consistent with threat even exchange the tailpiece/output shaft on the tranny to a much bigger planetary kit (like is on the TH400 -you would be wanting a shorter force shaft) or a marginally taller rear end, get a marginally larger tire & wheel mixture (larger diameter) on basically the back axle, and finally, try a tighter fan grab so it does not drag down the motor lots. Thats all in my bag o' tricks..... those transformations could desire to shop you from getting gas yardage....

Answer 3

google it