Today’s Truck Thursday posting by yours truly is a 1984 El Camino. It’s parked pretty much exactly where the black Rover 3-litre sat last autumn; there is a garage behind it and the forecourt often plays stage to a variety of cars in various stages of disassembly. Handily enough it’s also a stone’s throw from my apartment.

The El Camino might be a project car, but I’m convinced it moves under its own power. I first drove past it and thought I could get a few snaps of it later, as it was heavily frosted over and I didn’t think it’d move anywhere soon. That soon proved to be a false assumption, as I drove back half an hour later and the Chevy was gone. With a stroke of luck and accompanied by a chant of “Yes! Yes! Yes!”, it reappeared on the forecourt later on, just waiting for me to photograph it.

I was lucky with searching for an ad for the car as well – it’s been advertised for sale in September. The seller asked for a price of 1800 EUR, but mentioned the engine in the car made a “godless racket” and that the pistons and valves were most likely shaking hands. Car was said to be moveable, but the seller strongly advised against driving it. But this was in September, and it’s possible the matter has been rectified by now.

Speaking of the engine, in this fifth-generation El Camino it’s the 110-horse 3.8litre / 229cid V6. But if the V6 had piston/valve damage, it’s a good reason to drop in a V8, right?

Interestingly, the El Camino bears BMW-badged rims on winter tires. That’s probably down to the matching 5×120 bolt pattern.

The interior isn’t described other than having a wooden steering wheel and a rip in the driver’s seat.

The El Camino was also mentioned to be rust free, in all caps. If I were in possession of a rust-free El Camino I’d be diligent in mentioning that fact when selling it on. “American-style custom, not re-welded, no dumb ideas.”

Right now, all the truck bed is good for seems to be transporting and storing snow.

The reason for the previous owner to offload this load-lugger was his expanding family, and I quote: “Gotta sell away all my crap.” With an El Camino, that would be slightly faulty logic; there are few cars I’d say were more awesome in transporting random family-related crap than a light blue El Camino with wide white stripes. Of course, there’s that niggling little engine issue, but that’s mostly semantics…

Other cars mentioned in the ad were a “85 or 87 Caprice, without running gear but otherwise complete” and a “73 Coronet complete down to every little detail except for the lack of an engine”. The triplet of cars, with one bad engine amongst them in total, was advertised for 5000 EUR if picked up asap. How’s that for a deal?

 

[Images: Copyright 2012 Hooniverse/Antti Kautonen | Link to ad (partially in Finnish)]