El Camino project car

[hotrodalex]

If yonder gauge moveth not at all, check ye sender ground.

This is what it looks like right now:





Most likely a ground issue, so I'll check all the wiring when I pull the tank and replace the sending unit (I'm assuming it's not in very good shape. If it turns out to be okay I guess I can always return the new one)

[Eye of the Tiger]

I think your gasoline is overheating. Might want to check that out.

[hotrodalex]

I think your gasoline is overheating. Might want to check that out.

Dude, I know. It keeps asploding in my engine!

[cawimmer430]

Neither, it was its own niche.

Must have been pretty lonely there.

[Soup DeVille]

Must have been pretty lonely there.

I think part of its purpose was for Chrysler to prove they could build everything off of 2 or 3 platforms.

[shp4man]

This is what it looks like right now:

It looks to me like the gauge has gone past it's limit on the full side. which would suggest that the gauge itself is bad. Take the sender out of the tank and check it's resistance through the full range of motion with an ohmmeter.

"(With key ON) Unplug the tan wire on the sender, gauge will go past Full. Ground the same wire to frame, gauge will go to Empty. If this happens gauge and wiring are good. Puts problem into sender or ground of tank.

Sender 0 ohms = Empty, 90 ohms = full."

[hotrodalex]

It looks to me like the gauge has gone past it's limit on the full side. which would suggest that the gauge itself is bad. Take the sender out of the tank and check it's resistance through the full range of motion with an ohmmeter.

"(With key ON) Unplug the tan wire on the sender, gauge will go past Full. Ground the same wire to frame, gauge will go to Empty. If this happens gauge and wiring are good. Puts problem into sender or ground of tank.

Sender 0 ohms = Empty, 90 ohms = full."

Thanks, I'll try that and see what happens.

[Rupert]

Must have been pretty lonely there.

Brat.

[cawimmer430]

Brat.

What in gods name made Subaru decide to call that thing 'Brat'?

[Madman]

Neither, it was its own niche.

Don't forget this one......

[cawimmer430]

Don't forget this one......

Now that's a Caddy. 

Are you listening, Cadillac? 

[hotrodalex]

Put the new starter on today and drove it around a bit to check out the new springs. They seem to work great, doesn't seem to be underdamped. Need to bolt the passenger seat all the way down, though; it was crashing against the floor a little bit (I only have the front two bolts in right now). Hopefully that's what was causing most of the noise.

[Rupert]

You must be pretty close to finished (or as close as any car project ever is) by now, eh?

[hotrodalex]

You must be pretty close to finished (or as close as any car project ever is) by now, eh?

Not even. It's close to being able to drive every day, but there's still tons of things I want to do to it. Need to get the gas gauge working, then put in the insulation and carpet. Then I'm probably going to start the custom interior work like a center console and door panels. Then there is some body work (smooth out all the dings, get rid of any rust, shave marker lights and emblems, relocate reverse lights from tailgate to rear bumper, install a flush-mounted third brake light at the top of the tailgate) and paint.

And the list gets longer every time I go to a car show.

[hotrodalex]

Need to talk to my friend to see if he can bring his welder over for when I replace the gas tank straps. Until that happens, I'll just continue messing with other little things, like the front turn signals. The driver's side is a little crooked, so I went to fix it, but found out that the bracket isn't correct. It's the same as the passenger side, but it needs to be the exact opposite (mirror image) for the light to be mounted the same way. I looked in a couple of catalogs and it's $70 for one assembly ($140 for the pair) - way too much to just buy a new one. Of course the ones on the car are actually from a regular Chevelle, since the replacement '69 El Camino ones are a different style. Guess I'll look around for a used bracket; if not I might have to cough up the $140...

[Secret Chimp]

Need to talk to my friend to see if he can bring his welder over for when I replace the gas tank straps. Until that happens, I'll just continue messing with other little things, like the front turn signals. The driver's side is a little crooked, so I went to fix it, but found out that the bracket isn't correct. It's the same as the passenger side, but it needs to be the exact opposite (mirror image) for the light to be mounted the same way. I looked in a couple of catalogs and it's $70 for one assembly ($140 for the pair) - way too much to just buy a new one. Of course the ones on the car are actually from a regular Chevelle, since the replacement '69 El Camino ones are a different style. Guess I'll look around for a used bracket; if not I might have to cough up the $140...

Can't you just make something out of a tin can and speed nuts?

[hotrodalex]

Can't you just make something out of a tin can and speed nuts?

I could, but I'm trying to put the car back together the right way. A previous owner did crap like that and that's why the car is such a pain.

I'm gonna see if I can just drill different holes in the existing bracket, though.

[hotrodalex]

Finally got an alignment! Had to replace the upper ball joints because they were super loose. But now the car handles a lot better, especially over bumps.

[hotrodalex]

Took out the gas tank today. I think I now might be on the EPA's top-10 wanted list for crimes against the environment. That thing was dirty.

I'm going to try to get my friend to come over tomorrow to check it out. I don't have a welder, so he's gonna weld in the new brackets/straps and I'll probably have him patch up some of the stuff down there. There's one rusty spot in the frame and then the "frame" for the bed is pretty wasted in some spots too. Some new sheet metal and maybe some anti-rust paint should make it a little nicer.

Good news is that we hooked up the new sending unit to try it out and it all works. The gauge needle returned to the right position and went up and down correctly, so there's not a short in the wiring like suspected.

[hotrodalex]

Got the gas tank cleaned up and ready for paint.

While I was doing that, my dad decided to take the dash apart. Apparently I'm not going to drive the car for a bit longer... We have a new dash to install and we're going to repaint the dash pad. Most of the interior bits used to be tan, but a previous owner painted them black and didn't do the best job, so we're redoing it. Also got new light bulbs for the instrument panel and going to get new speakers for under the dash. That should be nice since I can then install the radio instead of waiting until I build the center console and door panels and get the majority of the speakers. Two little four inch speakers aren't much, but it's better than nothing.

[Gotta-Qik-C7]

Got the gas tank cleaned up and ready for paint.

While I was doing that, my dad decided to take the dash apart. Apparently I'm not going to drive the car for a bit longer... We have a new dash to install and we're going to repaint the dash pad. Most of the interior bits used to be tan, but a previous owner painted them black and didn't do the best job, so we're redoing it. Also got new light bulbs for the instrument panel and going to get new speakers for under the dash. That should be nice since I can then install the radio instead of waiting until I build the center console and door panels and get the majority of the speakers. Two little four inch speakers aren't much, but it's better than nothing.

What type of speakers?

[hotrodalex]

What type of speakers?

Probably something like this. Should work to listen to the radio until I get the other larger speakers set up (probably 2 6x9s, two 4-5 in. speakers in the door, two tweeters, and a sub). They can go with those speakers as well. I'm going to look at speaker set ups sometime to see what I want to do. I went to a Kicker seminar on car audio when I was at a car show this summer, which has swayed me towards them. I'll have to do some research, though.

Might snap some pictures of the cleaned up gas tank and ripped apart dash tomorrow.

[Rupert]

BTW, although Crutchfield has a good selection and a good website, I find that most speakers, etc. on there can be found for way cheaper. I have at least $300 of speakers in the 944 that I paid, like, $120 for.

[hotrodalex]

Yeah I usually just search on Crutchfield and buy somewhere else. Thanks though.

[Gotta-Qik-C7]

Yeah I usually just search on Crutchfield and buy somewhere else. Thanks though.

Same here.

[hotrodalex]

Gas tank is all painted!



Here's where I got the new bracket welded in. It's only temporary, it'll have to be redone eventually since a lot of the metal under there is rotten. But I just want to get the thing running for now - it'll be fine for quite a while.

[Cookie Monster]

Work on y0 welds, son.

[S204STi]

Work on y0 welds, son.

It's really hard to weld rusty metal.

[hotrodalex]

I wasn't the one that welded it, my friend did. He's a great welder, but had a fun time with that since like Ringe said, it's pretty hard to weld it to rust. There was also a pretty sizable gap between the new & old metal, so he had to connect the pieces a little bit.

[Secret Chimp]

It's really hard to weld rusty metal.

Wire wheels and high speed drills, nigga