İ Want to Buy An El Camino But I'm Not Sure. Help?

The El Camino is a popular restoration project car here in the USA, 1960’s versions are usually restored as a muscle car, but not always. Other popular 1960’s cars restored to muscle car status are the chevy nova, chevy chevelle, and of course the ford mustang and chevy camaro, probably the two most popular. If you google ‘hot rod magazine el camino’ you see a number of links about el camino restorations.

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What do your hot-rodding friends in Turkey drive?
How do they get parts?

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With modern safety equipment, I would rather buy a modern muscle car made in the last ten years than buy a car made 48 years ago.

Modern güvenlik ekipmanları ile, son on yılda yapılan modern bir kas otomobilini, 48 yıl önce yapılmış bir otomobil satın almaktansa almak isterim.

http://www.chevrolet.com/performance/camaro-sports-car

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Any GM muscle car of that era has readily available parts. It is all a matter of taste. As far as the El Camino it would be harder to find one with the big block since the base models came with a small block, depending on year a small as a 283.

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That may or may not be true in Turkey. Trade restrictions, trade barriers, export/import tariffs, and other factors may make availability in Turkey a question.

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The way I read it, OP is immigrating to Seattle, not buying a car to ship to Turkey.

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I believe OP said he’s relocating to the USA

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It is an interesting question, though, and I’m interested in the answer too.

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Y’all are right about his planning to move to Seattle. I missed that comment.
That changes everything.

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I agree that OP should take a trip to the dry southwest to buy the car, and preferably one that never left the area

Worst case scenario, the paint and interior will need refurbishing, but at least it shouldn’t be completely rusted away, I would hope.

Then again, if the car was parked its entire life near the beach, where the salty breeze has had over 40 years to take its toll . . .

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I met a guy in coastal Central California in the 1990s with an immaculate, original 1969 Mustang. I mentioned that the local climate was good to the car. He said the salt air in that area was bad and that he bought the car in West Texas while he worked there. He said West Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona were the places to look for original cars without rust or other weather damage. That said, I did see a lot of older cars in good condition when I used to travel too much to the Bay Area and LA.

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I’d buy a modern daily driver and then start attending local classic car shows, see what appealed to me. Who knows, it could be something completely different. And that’ll get him connected to the local classic car community, a great resource for cars, parts, and advice.

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I tend to agree

Once he’s made some contacts in the classic car community, he might get leads on a good El Camino for sale. I suspect many of the very good condition vehicles are not being advertised for sale, because the owners are enjoying them as weekend cruisers

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@db4690 … hope those Southern Calif wild fires aren’t adversely affecting you too much …

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Actually, they are affecting me

There are so many fires, that the air quality is atrocious. Lots of ash floating around, eyes watering, etc. Can barely see the sky, certain times of the day

I’m not in danger of being evacuated, though, because the most affected areas are often those which are more on the outskirts. Where I’m at is very densely populated

Thankfully, I don’t have asthma or anything like that. There’s always some poor guy that’s worse off than you :frowning_face:

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Just spoke with my son in Santa Clarita. It hasn’t affected him at this point, but he can clearly see the glow from his yard. My prayers and best wishes go out to all those affected.

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My prayers included.

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You could have either one, and there are lots of car sale magazines. If Seattle is anything like California, many of those are free every week. We had Photo Ad and Trade Express as well as one called Easy Ad. If you go into central Washington it is dry weather and there are lots of old cars on the road.

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I like the car next to it.

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Note to OP – Your english is very good. What I would do is just look for both vehicles you mentioned. Eventually you will find one that will make you smile. That is the one you will settle on. But before buying ask for all records on the vehicle, then take it to a good reputable shop to pay a mechanic to go over it for you. Don’t buy it on looks alone. A used vehicle is purchased as-is, no warranty. Also there are lots of specialty shops that work on classics and they know how to find parts. Good luck and welcome to the United States.

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