Michael’s uncle bought this 1966 El Camino brand new off the showroom floor in 1966 in San Francisco, Cal. He owned the car for about 1-2 months before getting drafted to Vietnam.
He called Michael’s father and asked him to take over payments and take the car, which he did. At the time, his father was living in New Mexico. His father and his brother caught a ride to California, went and picked up the car. He told Michael, back then there was no speed limit in Nevada. So, when they drove it back, they had the needle pegged at 120 across Nevada.
Michael was born in 1966. He went to the lake, little league baseball, and numinous places growing up in the back of this 1966 El Camino. He also went to Mexico one summer in it with his Mom and Dad when he took it to be repainted and reupholstered in Juarez, Mexico.
When he turned 16 in 1981 and got his driver’s license, his father had the car repainted again and had an uncle “rebuild/tune down” the engine. He gave it to Michael, and he drove it all through High School. It ended up being too much car for a 16-year-old. He wrecked it twice and had to rebuild the front end twice from junkyard parts, which they luckily found locally.
He drove it after graduation regularly till 1989 and then off and on till 1990. At which point it got parked in a field at his sister’s house where it sat till COVID hit in 2020.
At this point, his dad is in his 80’s, and Michael is in his 50’s. They decided to pull the 1966 El Camino, out of the field and start restoring it as a COVID project. They retrieved it from its grave on Memorial day Weekend 2020, and they are currently about 3/4 of the way through restoration.
This 1966 El Camino came with the 327ci. motor, and the optional Saginaw 4 speed transmission. They are trying to keep the car original as possible. But when they dug into it, they found out that back when his uncle redid the engine, he pulled the original double hump heads off and replaced them with some cheap 350 heads. They spent months looking to find
