1980 El Camino

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foamypirate

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First Name
Jake (Mr. Wilson)
Truck Year
1980
Truck Model
El Camino, baby!
Engine Size
5.3L/4L60E
Hey guys,

Long time, no see! Figured I would drop in and show off my latest project.

I picked up this 1980 El Camino from my high school friend up in Utah. He rescued it from a field back in 05' or so, swapped a SBC 350 in place of the Buick 3.8L V6, and drove it all through high school. Once college kicked in around 08', the car got abandoned back to another field. Sometime between then and now, the passenger window got broken out by a weed eater (which is ironic, since when he pulled it out of the field in 05', it had a broken passenger window). I've now rescued the car from a field, for its 2nd time. Because of that, I named the car Deja Vu.

I flew to Utah on January 8th, we prepped everything, and then left 10:30am on January 11th, cannon-balling 26 hours back home to Texas, over 1,350 miles. Ran into a little snow at 10pm Friday night outside of Albuquerque, but otherwise it was smooth sailing!



The car is a 1980 SS Royal Knight. There was definitely nothing "SS" about this SS, though! The original engine made 115 HP. The interior is pretty rough from baking in the sun for the last 10 years or so, but the paint really isn't bad. It's a floor shifter auto car (with a weird linkage to the column for the shift indicator and steering wheel lock). Other than a bashed passenger rocker, the body is in incredibly good shape for a 39 year old car. The frame just has mild surface rust.

Surprisingly enough, the 350 fired right up after we threw on an Edelbrock carb, and the car drove off the trailer and into the garage under it's own power.

My first goal is to tackle the interior. I need to get the seats re-installed, and start procuring good condition trim parts for it. Pretty much every plastic piece just crumbles into dust, at this point.

Anyway, on to pictures!

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82sbshortbed

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1500 shortbed, 1500 longbed
Engine Size
454, 305
Nice ride. Buddy here at work has one with a BBC 454 in it. Yours is in much better shape than his tho. The BBC and craiger ss rims he has on it are the best things about it. Lol
 

CSFJ

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You don't see too many of the Royal Knight packages, hell I'm not even sure what it was supposed to include, other than stickers. I can only think of about two that I've personally seen. One of those was in a pick n pull.
I did get an lol out of the name you chose though, up here, there's a chain of strip clubs called Deja Vu. Kinda fitting for an Elco.
 

DoubleDingo

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Bagoomba
Truck Year
1981, 1965
Truck Model
81-C20 Silverado Camper Special-TH400-4.10s; 65-C20 with 4:57 gears and Borg Warner Overdrive
Engine Size
Carb'ed Vortec 350; 1972 L48 350
Cool caruck! It even has all the snaps for the tonneau cover. My cousin had a '69 with a hopped up 350 in it, was a fun vehicle until he wrecked it.
 

bucket

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K5 thru K30
Engine Size
350-454
I like it! A friend of mine has an '81 Conquista with the 3.8 but it's the Chevy 229. He started yanking the engine out, but seems to have lost interest in it. Another friend of ours is plotting a buyout, lol.

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Old77

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Engine Size
350/350/454
I like it! A friend of mine has an '81 Conquista with the 3.8 but it's the Chevy 229. He started yanking the engine out, but seems to have lost interest in it. Another friend of ours is plotting a buyout, lol.

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Always saddens me when people start tearing into a vehicle and then abandon mid way through :(
 

DoubleDingo

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Truck Year
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Truck Model
81-C20 Silverado Camper Special-TH400-4.10s; 65-C20 with 4:57 gears and Borg Warner Overdrive
Engine Size
Carb'ed Vortec 350; 1972 L48 350
Always saddens me when people start tearing into a vehicle and then abandon mid way through :(

I'm guilty of that with one of my trucks. No garage and lots of foot traffic and homeless and etc. So things could grow legs and I don't want that to happen. But I have another '65 3/4 ton that is a blank canvas!!
 

CorvairGeek

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In case anyone wonders the reason a normally aspirated Buick 3.8L / 231ci V6 was in a Chevrolet, is because it was the base engine with California emissions. The Chevy 3.8L / 229ci was the base 49 state engine from 1980-1984 in B and G bodies.
 

foamypirate

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Jake (Mr. Wilson)
Truck Year
1980
Truck Model
El Camino, baby!
Engine Size
5.3L/4L60E
Thanks for the comments guys!

I dug in on Friday after work and removed the carpet to take a look at the floor. Have to say, I'm not surprised by what I found, but I was really hoping it would be OK (fat chance! No windows for 9 years...not good, lol).

I'll be getting some practice doing rust repair. Shouldn't be too difficult, other than drilling out 50,000 spot welds to remove all the bracing, so that I can remove the section of floor pan I want to replace. Got a few life things eating up money, but once I get those knocked out, I'll order up a replacement floor pan section and get to work!
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foamypirate

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Location
Central TX
First Name
Jake (Mr. Wilson)
Truck Year
1980
Truck Model
El Camino, baby!
Engine Size
5.3L/4L60E
Picking up a 70k mile 02' 5.3L/4L60E, LS6 intake, F-body accessory drive, PCM, aftermarket wiring harness, and a Mast Motorsports swap pan for this thing next week. Friend of mine got it in a trade and doesn't need it, so the El Camino will be getting a new heart!
 

foamypirate

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Location
Central TX
First Name
Jake (Mr. Wilson)
Truck Year
1980
Truck Model
El Camino, baby!
Engine Size
5.3L/4L60E
Picked up the 5.3L and 4L60E (and a slew of goodies to go with it) last night.

This thing is CLEAN inside! You could eat off of it.

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