El Chop and UNION 2013

I am a few weeks late in posting this, but I made it to my car clubs premier gathering, Union, in Los Almos Ca. with my latest project El Chop. Although I started this project almost 13 years ago for a customer/friend, I only recently got it running. Only the chop and El Camino conversion were done when the original owner lost interest in the car and it sat idle in my back yard for years. November 2012 I decided I needed to drive this car to Union and with a lot of help from my club members, success! This car came to me without a motor or transmission and the week before Union I discovered I was missing the hood latch too! That's the reason for the bungee cord.
                                    

I had a motor and transmission from another build that I decided I could use, I had the rims and tires and sometime back I picked up a powerglide rear end with 3.55 gears. This means I can cruze at a respectable speed on the freeway with the original 3 speed trans and torque tube. I had 5 months to pull the body, rebuild, air bag, and paint the chassis, install the motor and trans, re-wire it, and put the body back on. No problem, right?
Obviously there were concessions made due to my deadline and those will be addressed now that to show has come and gone. Like filling that huge hole in the rear fender where the original gas door was, finishing the inside of the "bed" area and about a dozen other things. More custom tricks are in the planning stages so it will be a rolling work in progress for some years to come.
It was very rewarding archiving my goal and driving this into Los Almos Ca after more then a decade of watching deteriorate in my yard. Although I had my doubts, I did not allow myself to quit. When I was tired, I worked on it. When I was not inspired, I worked on it. Too hot, work. Too cold, work. When I just didn't want to work on it, I dragged myself outside and I worked on it.
HUGE thanks Larry, Shaun, Munster, Nobu, Rob, BigE, Travis, My entire car club "Panel Beaters" those that helped me take the body off, then put it back on, then off again, and back on, etc. sorry!
And my long suffering wife, Lorry who recovered the seat and gave me a comfy place to sit.
Thanks Coby Gewertz at Church CHURCHEQUIPPED.COM for the photo, you rock!



                                       No, its not done, Yes, it will get paint, someday.