In 1989 I sanded off the really ugly stuff by hand and applied OSPHO Rust killer. More sanding then a good cross coat of Laquer primer. The fenders, doors and other parts were just primered over. I continued to drive the car that way until that gutless 307 finally gave up in 1992. The car sat for a couple more years, and during this time I began to disassemble it to "do it right". Yeah, right. I took everything off the front of the car and all work stopped. There it sat for almost 2 years, fading in the sunlight while other projects took precedence . . .

In 1994 we got another great donor car, a 73 Impala 4 door with a real bad sunburn. It ran great, but we wanted, and needed, our truck back. While the El Camino still had the front end off I rebuilt the suspension and installed the donor engine. I reassembled everything I needed to drive it safely. It ran great and handled like never before!!!! A couple of tires, brakes and a few other things and the car was as dependable as ever!

Sometime in 1995 my neighbor, Jonathan, gave me a new gallon of Ditzler DAR 9000 he said he wasn’t going to use it and maybe I would. I had a great compressor and I just bought new paint guns for the aircraft assembly I had just finished. Thank you DeVillbis for your JGA model spray gun, I’ve used them in many applications before and after the purchase of my own. Could you invent something to stop the operator from making rookie moves? I think I’ve made them all!

Suddenly, a once in a lifetime event occurred! I found myself with the time, materials and equipment to paint the car. There was only one BIG problem -- I needed the car to drive every day. There was no way I could disassemble the car to do a full-on restoration quality paint job.

I decided to paint the car in sections. I was fortunate in the fact that I had extra body parts, most of which were already installed on the car. I decided to use as many of the original parts of this car as possible, but still be time conscious.

I figured on two spray sessions, the first being the rear quarters and right door, second being the rest of the body parts. It ended up being three spray days during the process.

I already had most of the quarters flat but went ahead and sanded a little deeper than necessary to check for rust. I filled in a few dings and waves then began priming and blocking. I used black laquer primer on the panels and at the end of the day, I’d wash the entire panel with SOS pads. This served two purposes, it cleaned the car very well and made the primer shine making it much easier to spot imperfections. Which made for more sanding and priming.

Another very important tool that made this task much easier was the long flat sanding board. Used wet or dry, it was very effective and produced great results.

I thought the day would never arrive but it finally did. I was tired of laying awake at night, going over and over how I was going to do this! Everything was ready and so was I. The primer looked to be perfectly smooth and I couldn’t see any waves looking down the side. I shot three coats of color, the first a light tack coat followed by 2 full wet coats. I was thrilled! No runs, no drips, no errors. There was a lot of dirt in it, but I knew there would be, the car was only half in the garage.

It sure looked funny in shiny black paint with a white front clip and a primer left door. One of the neighbors wanted to know if I was having trouble making up my mind.

I began prepping the rest of the parts that were on the car and on saw horses. The saw horses helped out immensely, they made everything much easier to access when sanding and to cover evenly with paint.

I was beginning to run out of time. I guessed in the beginning that it would take 3 weeks to a month to finish. I was already 2 and a half weeks in to it. This is when I started committing "painting sins". I was rushing the bondo in the door and tailgate, not giving the primer time to dry and shrink before sanding and finally, overlooking small imperfections. The results are evident to me, nobody else notices!!

Many of the parts were ready to paint and time constraints were closing in and the decision was made to "shoot what I had" and finish the rest later. The car was driven that day, Friday, with no hood or right fender. Hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do!

The door, hood, and fenders were done in the second spray session. I had my first run on the left front fender, a big ugly hanger right over the marker light. Apparently the gun wasn’t clean either and on the same fender, spit out what it was choking on.

Spraying was done by 10:00, and by noon the parts were ready to move out in the sun. It was near 90 that day and the black color helped in drying. Except for the normal orange peel and that left fender, everything looked GREAT!! The rest of the body panels were removed and reassembly began on Monday

Monday morning the final painting was done. More mistakes, a drip on the tailgate and the prep on the gate just wasn’t good enough. It has slight waves and looks awful to me but again, nobody else notices.

By Wednesday afternoon the car was completely reassembled and we were thrilled with the results! The entire project had taken twenty 9 to 12 hour days to this point. And, I managed to drive it all but 2 days during the entire process.

All was well until I saw the car in a parking lot at night under the lights! IT LOOKED AWFUL!! The orange peel picked up and refracted the light. The car looked bumpy all over.

When using Acrylic Enamel and hardener, color sanding can be started two weeks after application. This was a long 2 weeks for me looking at the dirt and mistakes wondering if it would sand out, especially that fender! Color sanding is actually sanding the surface of the paint with 1500 or 2000 grit paper on a flexie block and a lot of water to make it smooth. Since the paint on the rear of the car was 8 days older than the rest, the roof was the chosen starting point. Starting lightly at first, the top was completely sanded once and dried. Against the hazy sanded finish, the portions that still needed work were very evident, they were still shiny and stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb. The color sanding continued over the next 4 months or so, doing the "key" areas first.

The left fender turned out good enough, but I’m looking forward to redoing it along with the rest of the car sometime in the future.

Rubbing out and polishing was all done by hand. I took a buffer to it one time and skimmed the paint off a high point on the door. 3M Perfect it was used for the initial rubbing followed by a fine scratch remover and finally, Meguiars polish. This car has not been waxed. I tried wax but didn’t like the slight haze that was left on the surface. So this paint has been fed a steady diet of polish only, with yearly rub outs and touch ups. After nearly three years and 25 plus thousand miles, she’s still pretty but has the normal wear and tear of daily driving.

In the winter of 97-98 the original headlight buckets were painted and reinstalled. Also added were original options: AM/FM 8 track, Wood grain dash bezel, Clock, Interior lighting package, Dual horns and Restored bed trim.

Other options and upgrades that I have and are planned for the future are: removing all dents from and painting bed, power windows and locks, white interior with buckets and console, posi, and the Tailgate!!!

Recently the car has enjoyed the pampered life. It doesn’t get driven in the rain, has its spot in the garage and is sometimes covered. I always tell everyone that the car will be a trailer queen someday, but when I drove it for a distance the first time this spring, I realized that I have to drive this car. I have other El Caminos, cars and trucks that I can drive, and I do enjoy them, but this car holds a special place in our family and will continue to be refined. But it will always be driven.