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Cool? Yes, No? Thoughts on styling.


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1 hour ago, JFranklin said:

A lot of work went into it but it needs the '57 roofline.

 

 

^This^  The modification appears well done and the styling isn't horrible, but a more 57-ish roof looks better:

 

57-chevy-el-camino-yellow005-801x572.jpg

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That craigslist car is either good for '78 El Caminos or bad for  '57 Chevies...I can't decide which. I shouldn't talk, I'm the one who posted a T-Bird /Vista Cruiser hybrid a while back and even liked it. I think Tri-Five Chevies would've made good El Caminos and could've been done up to look as good as '57 and '58 Rancheros, but joining together two radically different automotive styling eras - mid 1950's and late 1970's - and making it work is difficult. The builder was inventive and skilled, though.

Edited by JamesR (see edit history)
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5 hours ago, zepher said:

Not my cup of tea but there is no doubt whoever assembled it has some skills.

Styling is not one of them.

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The steering wheel cover looks really bad. I think the car looks good. They did a lot of things right.

 

The yellow one doesn't look as good. That one looks like the cob jobs that were around in the early to mid '60's. All the farmers had a welder and lots of spare time in winter.

Edited by 60FlatTop (see edit history)
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Ouch! Tough crowd on here. Looking at it from a custom stand point. The problem, as I see it. The front end is to heavy. The blending of two cars that are very different in size. Throws the proportions out of balance. Looking at the car from the front three quarter view. The size of the front end dominates the overall design the builder was going for. The side view is again thrown out of balance by the front end from the front wheel well forward. Front end needs to be on the scale of the stock El Camino, with the looks of the 57. As some have said, very hard to blend different styling years together. Shrink the front end, and the rear quarters may look to large. Overall I like it, I would walk right past a red 57 Chevrolet to look at it. Might have been built out of two cars that were headed to the crusher in the sky. And now parts are still on the road. Love reading the comments, makes me laugh drinking my coffee.:lol:

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Though I don't like the car overall, there are some things the builder did right (in my most humble opinion.) I'm guessing the reason he chose the '78 El Camino as the platform for his '57 Chevy ideas was that the B pillar has a backwards and downwards swoop somewhat suggestive of a Nomad, which (in the case of the Nomad) really works well for that era of Chevy. (I kind of see '57 Chevy styling as a bit over-rated, but I do admire the Nomads.)The problem is the backwards and downward swoop of the El Camino is too angular and severe for the rest of the car. (The other thing he did right was to not butcher an intact '57 Chevy platform. I'm assuming/hoping the body panels were stand alone pieces from a salvage yard, or better yet, after market.)

 

In the Late 70's - early 80's, Ford took Fairmont, added a downward swooping  B pillar from the same era Mercury Zephyr and made pickup ute that they called a "Durango" (before Dodge got a hold of the name.)  They actually made it in conjunction with a coach builder, and only produced less than 300 units. Not a very attractive car...a little too short, IMO. Looks a little like something Bubba made. With those low production numbers, though, I bet they could be worth some money in the future.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Durango

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7 hours ago, 60FlatTop said:

The steering wheel cover looks really bad. I think the car looks good. They did a lot of things right.

 

The yellow one doesn't look as good. That one looks like the cob jobs that were around in the early to mid '60's. All the farmers had a welder and lots of spare time in winter.

 

 

"cob job"?  Yeah, OK, whatever.  :rolleyes:

Edited by CHuDWah (see edit history)
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1 hour ago, Lebowski said:

 

That one was done in a quonset hut for sure.

 

If you ever heard of Hamlin, NY where all the orchards and wheat fields are; and the old Hojack Line railroad went to the Duffy Motts canning factory, that's where I bought a 1955 Pontiac with the rear doors welded shut and the roof shortened like that Macauley Panther Packard. All the Tri Five Chevies had straight axles and Pontiac engines, too.

 

That's the town where I lost my............... desire for applesauce, too.

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3 minutes ago, 54vicky said:

in the description it states turns heads no wonder they forgot to mention the heads were turned away.I am sure it turned stomachs also.being as it is from la la land the smog may have affected the assembler

It is not from LA read the ad closer it is in Ocala Florida

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