Thank you very much for this one Steve. My best friend Lew ( R.I.P. ) Had one of these that he bought in Florida in 1971 or 2 while he was in the Air Force. I have no Idea how many times he drove it across the country from Florida to Colorado, Washington State, and Wyoming. He LOVED that car so much he never let it go. It is the 350 and TH350 auto. 12 bolt posi from the factory. He was a body and paint guy but he also built a 400 SBC that would let the smoke out of the tires really well. He was in the process of replacing the quarter panels and had the engine out of it when he got sick. So it lay under a car cover and tarps for a few years. Upon his passing, His wife told me that he had insisted I have his beloved El Camino. So it now sits in my driveway under a car cover. I did build up a 350 and put in it but it must sit on the sidelines until I get my wife's 1961 Cadillac painted and on the road. ( getting closer to that goal ). Anyway thanks again for all your knowledge and presentations. Miss my friend, but I will try to fix up his El Camino to his exacting standards.

My uncle who always bought new el caminos had a 69 396 automatic. My emerging inner car guy thought it was a cool car. I still recall the details.

so cool you could hand pick your options unlike the packaged options these days. I was able to do that with my 1987 chevy truck. I had 'the book" and knew more about the available options then the dealer salesman. Oh the good old days when you could order the swing away tissue box. LOL

My one and only muscle car was a 69 El Camino. I bought it in 88-89 from a classic car dealer in the town of Arundel, Maine. It was red with a black vinyl top/black interior. It had a tired 350 with headers that I did eventually have rebuilt 30 over and a th350 trans. I ended up getting laid off from work and owing my folks money so I gave it to them and that was the end of my muscle car days.

We're all pulling for you Steve. Hope to see you soon

One of the best things about Steve's videos is what the automatic captions think when he says his last name. This one is Steve Minaj 🤣

No VIN can't win, but it might be something: like 1 for Chevrolet, 36 for Malibu V8, 80 for pickup delivery body style, 9 for 1969 model year, possible K for Leeds, MO assembly, B for Baltimore, MD assembly, G for Framingham, MA assembly (more likely given it's a New England vehicle), Z for Fremont, CA assembly, 1 for Oshawa, Ontario Canada assembly, or A for Lakewood Heights (Atlanta), GA assembly and the rest is the production sequence. No tag, can't brag but might go something like: ST69 for 1969 model year, 13680 for V8 El Camino, K, G, Z, OSH, ATL, etc. for the plant assembly code, then a 750 type code for black interior trim, 50L 50U for Dover White lower and upper exterior paint, some sort of date assembly code expressed as a month and a week of that month, and some possible accessory codes, which are unknown without the tag.

Thanks for another great video Steve, learned a couple things this morning. I miss my 76’ GMC Sprint I owned years ago.

Steve, best wishes. Thank you for your great work...

Multiple references to the extensive Chevy options list reminds me of best friend in high school Parents were buying him a car. The only stipulation was it had to be a 4 door… so he could take his nonna wherever she need to go. We’ll we spec’d out a 4 door Malibu. 350 4 barrel turbo 300 rally wheels posi dual exhaust etc Quite the sleeper

They would STILL sell if they were made today, throw in a 5.7 and off you go.

Buddy had a built big block 69 Elco. Wed let the gate down, put about 80 lbs of sand bags, and it would lift the front tires off the ground.

I had a 77 with a 400 small block, the original owner had it equipped from the factory with an upgraded rear end and TH400 and the heavy duty cooling system. He apparently intended to pull a horse trailer with it, but never did.

The old "unloved" 307. My best friend had a 69 Chevy P/U in high school back in the mid 80's. It was a 307with a power glide. He pulled the engine, got a forged engine kit from P.A.W. (all the old guys will know exactly what I'm talking about) and rebuilt the 307 along with an Isky cam and a Torker intake and Holley 650. He also changed to a TH350. Believe it or not he gave 5.0 Mustangs, Z28's and Trans Ams from that era fits. He could beat most of them from stop light to stop light. It surprised all of us who thought they were just boat anchors. But a small block Chevy is always a small block Chevy and will respond to better parts.

I had a 1970 ranchero, I loved that car, it wasn't fast but a sweet driver, it was a real nice car, drove like a dream!!!

My very first car that I bought on my own, with my own cash, no help from my parents was a '69 El Camino. I loved that thing, although I suddenly had "friends" that I never even knew existed, but I think that's true for many people who have a pick up, or a pick up style truck, or station wagon as it were. I paid $1,000 for it back in '88, maybe '89. It was a 4bbl 350 with headers, TH350 column shift automatic, it had the 350 emblems on the fender, I want to say at the side marker surrounds, but for whatever reason, someone put an SS hood on it. Over the course of time that I had it, I went on a chrome goodies shopping spree, and after replacing the points and condenser once and it needing another set within a year, I upgraded it to a stock HEI distributor and I never took the distributor cap off again. I never checked to see what the original color was, but it had a tanish, goldish, copperish interior. There was no carpeting in it, but everything else was there, in good condition, bench seat, no tears or fallen out stitching. The exterior was in light gray primer when I bought it. It originally had a vinyl top, but it was gone before I got it and it was sanded smooth and all traces of the adhesive had been removed. I guess the previous owner was going to have it painted and had started restoring it, but ran out of money and had to part ways with it. After he realized it wasn't going to happen, he installed all the exterior chrome, which was all there and looked reasonably new. One of the first things I did was remove all the chrome around the roof for the vinyl top and the top of the windshield, sanded everything down again and gave it a nice, clean and smooth surface to work with. Then I masked it off and hit it with a couple layers of black primer, allowed it to dry for a couple days, then I hit it with a few coats of rattle can matte black. I allowed that to dry, made sure it was what I was looking for, then I reinstalled all the chrome trim, and drove it as my every day transportation for several years. Some other time shortly after I bought it, I decided that there was no way I was going to be able to live with the 14×6 or 7, whichever width they were, tires and wheels, so I found a set of 15×7 rally wheels, caps and rings for it, bought it a new set of tires, and life was perfect. I don't remember why I sold it, or exactly when, but I almost immediately regretted that decision, and I still do to this day, almost 30 years later. I don't remember there being anything majorly wrong with it though, so I really can't think of any good reason why I would have sold it and moved on.

Re: that boxed frame... My dad was an inspector for H.D. (they had a frame contract for GM). On the B-size vehicles, some frames were C shaped, some were boxed, some were .087 inch steel (6-cyl Chevelle), some were .225 inch (Grand Prix). When ordering a premium engine or sub-model, suspension parts and even the frame got upgraded with that line item. Dropping a 396 in where a 283 used to exist was not the same as scoring an original big-block SS specimen. As for his inspections, he'd write up a whole shift produced with an assembly hole (or 2) missing, but they got shipped regardless. It was cheaper to send a couple of guys to the assembly plant with drills and locator jigs to manually drill the holes in each frame (5 or 6 traincar loads) when they got to the plant in Kansas City or Pontiac MI (outside in January) than it was to stop the whole frame line until a broken hole punch got replaced. What a job!

Clean looking bed rails

Great video Steve! Your knowledge and dedication to this channel is exceptional!!!

Love my 71 El Camino.. It's a nice vehicle and Runs great! Great Video...

Always look forward to your content Steve. Thank you.

I had a 68 and 72 El Camino great vehicles to own!

Nothing wrong with the 307 . Had one in an '72 Nova with headers & turbo mufflers . Fun little car.

Cant we sue the Dot of Transportation for rust repair? (Northeast)

I had a pretty cool 69 elco back in the late 90s. Hot little old school build 283 someone else put in. Stock Muncie M21 Limited slip 10 bolt with 3:36 gears. No trim. No vinyl top. No radio. No extra gauges. No power anything. I thought I’d was pretty cool as a stripper model with a few perfect mods. It was pretty quick for what it was. It would pull half a car on a 4th gen SS Camaro or Trans am. I pulled on a typhoon from a roll one night. He was smoking me from a dig. It would mop the floor with 5.0 mustangs, (I had one at the same time). Fun car. Dropped a valve doing a 7200 rpm burnout for distance. Made a real mess of that sweet little 283. Cracked a cylinder wall. Trashed that piston and head. Real bummer. Sold the whole car for less than the Muncie would go for now.

Thank you for explaining the difference between the 307 and 302 I knew some of the differences but not all of what you said

My Buddy Shawn (God rest his soul) traded a 60 Chevy sport coupe for a a 68 El Camino in 1980. The 60 was clean other than the typical X frame massive floorboard rot but, he thought it was a great idea to trade for this El Camino straight up... Well... It wasn't! Anyone with a set of eyeballs could have seen that this thing had "Stay the hell away from me" written all over it!!! The El Camino was a 307 2V with a three on the tree that had been converted over to an Indy "Jam-O-Matic floor shifter. It had a hole in the floor that looked like it was hacked in with a dull bush axe. Street signs for floor pans, gold shag carpeting and a old Grant GT gold flake 3 spoke wheel with the sought after "short to ground" horn button option. The body was painted white to hide all the bondo that had been put on with a snow shovel and shaped to contour with a chain saw. The only original body panel (None of which were white originally) was the bed/roof section. The wedge shaped "Starsky and Hutch" dark blue stripe on the side was a nice styling addition to draw your attention away from the "Awesome Sauce" body work! The engine loped like it had a cam in it but it was really the worn out cam lobes with its concave lifters performing the magic! The worn out timing chain that was slapping the cover also helped to give her that whopin 10 in-hg of fluctuating vacuum at idle... She was a beauty alright! He had it for a month when he popped the clutch around a corner to do a one wheel peel, sadly he caught some oil on the road and fishtailed the rear into a curb.. That was its best and last display of performance for the old gal... The impact tore the upper control arm mounts out of that "Totally Rotted" fully boxed frame that Steve mentioned. We quickly found out that you cant find that frame hardly anywhere for a decent price and this was in 1980! So.... It was traded for an equally rusty bondo bucket 73 ford F-250 pick-up... But that is another story my friends! Love the channel Steve! Keep em coming!

I have one of the 69's with the 250 inline six,only 700 of them made. According to value anything with a 6 in it automatically makes worth less than an 8 cylinder. After so many years literally most of them had the 6 taken out and replaced with an 8 and since so many never cared,they dont care to run the vin to see if it in fact was a 6 car. With that being said alot of these guys have ruined the original cars for the soul fact of having a hopped up one. Now it's pretty special to come across a 230 or 250 inline 6 in a nova camaro chevelle or elcamino. Many of which just like the look of the classic car or truck,but not so much it's history or it's originality. Hot rodding ruined the orignality of these cars and now so many are just cookie cutter v8's or clones,there's nothing wrong with a Malibu non ss car with a the original 307. Each car was special ordered whihc many were low production,keep it orignal if you want something different. If you do end up getting a 6 cyclinder car,dont change the engine and keep it original!!

Fun thing about 307 is they can be bored over to whatever you want. Easily make a 327 with one. Another fun thing they are flat top pistons, so are 305's. Bolt on some ported 305 58CC heads from the 80's and they wake up nicely using nothing but junk yard parts, a cam and some hands on work.

Steve...buddy...please go on vacation again so we can watch your videos of beautiful cars while you are gone.

Morning Steve , Great review , many interesting fact 's most of which I had not been aware of . Keep up the great work . Mark Battista

I believe the frame was a convertible frame. Losing the roof would make it more prone to twisting. Also, your viewers would enjoy hearing about the hidden compartment in the bed.

Convertibles had boxed frames too I had a 69 Cutlass convertible in high school

I never knew about the frame on those, I owned an 87 Conquistador with the 305 4 barrel. Thanks 👍

My mom had a 1968 Chevy Nova with a 307 and a powerglide. It was a true muscle car… NOT! 😂 I always describe the 302/307 difference this way. The 302 is a 327 block with a 283 crankshaft and the 307 is a 283 block with a 327 crankshaft. I hope you’re doing better! Always thinking of you. 🙏🏼

It does not get "hot" north of the Mason Dixon. Its warm. When it's 90+°, 100% humidity, and not raining. That's hot

Just wanted to let you know I really appreciate your efforts doing these videos in 90 degree plus weather. I live in Massachusetts I know how hot and humid it's been. Thanks again and keep up the great work it is appreciated man.

Steve out here working harder than any TikTok influencer to date.

Looking back on automotive history the ability of Chevrolet to manufacture four engines of different cubic inch displacement using two bore and stroke dimensions is amazing. Ok, here we go, if you take the bore of the 283 and put it with the stroke of the 327 you get a 307, if you take the stroke of the 283 and put it with the bore of a 327 you get a 302 and if you put the bore of the 307 and put it with the stroke of the 302 you get a 283. And Oh yea before I forget, Who's on first?

Great video thank you.

We always love a ute here down under quiet a few here in nz great video 🇳🇿

I LOVE El Camino - all years - i had mine for over 30 years - a 1973 - from 1980 to 2011- thanks Steve - keep the vids coming !

Steve man slow down...catch your breath...you dont need to rush for us.....but as always thank you for a graet vid

Yes, vent windows were removed from the chevelle lineup for 69...however...lolol...still present on the Beaumont...just sayin...cuz you know how it is ...great vid as always, you have the crown as far as I'm concerned.

I've owned several elcaminos ranging from a 70 to an 84 model. One of my most favorite vehicles I've ever owned. I'd gladly pay 3k for one now.

Really enjoy all your videos Steve. Thanks.

My brother had one of those he bought used in 1976! He used it for his iron works business. He beat the hell out of it loading Wrought iron fences and some welding equipment. Great video Steve!😎👍

GREAT VIDEO STEVE!!!! THE PERFECT DAILY DRIVER. THANKS FOR SHARING!!!

Wow!! You know so much....thanks

4:32 I'm pretty sure the wheel / hubcap in the drivers side is from a 69 ish Datsun ( maybe Toyota ) pickup.

I had a white 68 with a blue gut and a 307. The exact same car was on GMG.

Keep em coming Steve

Thanks Steve when I purchased my Chevelle ahead of 307 and over the years local mechanic change the cam to a stock 302 cam with solid lifters. Did great one wheel burnouts.

A friend had a '68 El Camino, and tried to use a Chevelle front fender but it did not fit. The length was different from the cowl to the grill.

I had one of those. Was a factory 350 cid car with a th350.

I had a 71 Malibu, 250 with a powerglide

My buddy had a 1970 350 non SS Oshawa built 4 speed El Camino. Bought it from a former line worker at Oshawa. Sold it this year as he is retiring. Steve the RUST in Massachusetts is nuclear... Even worse than Ontario and they love to throw the salt here.

i had 2 79 elcaminos, first had a whipped 305, thing was pretty much beat when i bought it. the 2nd had a tuned 350 4 bolt, slapped a ram air kit on it, lifted the rear, and wide cooper cobras. car was absolutely awesome! would love to have another one.

A 307 is a stroked 283 they all got the little 2bbl. GM also used a large 2bb1 for larger V8's. It used the 327's stroke. The first 302's were L76 327, the Corvette fuelie engine with a 4bbl, and a 283 crank 2 bolt mains. In '68 the casting were machined like 350's with the medium journals and they got 4 bolt mains. Z/28 gets badges

I would have thought the 70 would have been the most popular

I’m building a 68 el Camino right now. Vortec 350 modified. All kinds of new stuff.

Love all your videos Steve

Steve Minaj 🤣 The captions will never get your name right

Awesome thanks 👍

Once again excellent content Thank you

awesome find nothing like a classic el Camino!

Absolutely love your knowledge you’re OK too ironic I look at this and I just purchased a 1972 GMC Sprint 350 four-speed unfortunately no engine or trans but I have those in my garage gather stuff out overtime I have the rallies purchase in a garage sale for 75 bucks for four with the centre caps and the rings pretty cool but yeah I love your show all your knowledge you’re a gift to mankind I got to say thanks for your time out there and I hope you didn’t lose too much weight keeps it centred bubble in the middle get it

Good stuff!

Thanks for the grind

Thanks for another great episode. I really enjoy your delivery. You've done this "tv" stuff before haven't you. 😁

Love your knowledge of vehicles all types my neighbor up central mass/north.

Great video thumbs 👍, Steve

Might also be a 327, also the 396 had the humped SS hood.

Tell me again how everything was " cheaper" in the old days. . . ( and how long cars lasted ) Also remember that most everything people take for granted was an option or not available. ( Power steering / Power brakes / disc brakes / delay wipers and such ) Going back into the 50's things like heater and backup lights were an option. 1969 2022 Using the CPI calculator car 2,786.75 22,871.11 396 661.75 5,431.04 dual exhaust 31.75 260.58 radio AM 62.45 512.53 radio AM FM 136.70 1,121.91

I like Bilbobaggins and beans automotive Steepz!

i would love to look through steve’s collection of old magazeens and dealer only training books! I thought I knew a lot about old cars but he makes me look like a tesla buyer! He might be my long lost dad cuz i’m nothing like my dad!

Come to Australia in late January if you think that is hot ! LOL

She would buff out !

Yeah but look at that Dodge Daytona over there.... Yeah baby!

always liked 1968-69 generation el camino.

10 or 12 bolt? We don't know what's under this. I didn't bring a weed eater with me, and I'll pass on the ticks and snakes. Also the rear end is still in this thing, so probably open 10 bolt. I hear ya Steve.

I knew someone that had one with a six cylinder engine. We called it La camina 😀

1969 I was listening to WROR on my then-new FM radio. What a great mix, I thought, not realizing it was one of the first area stations run by robot.

I like. Keep on crawling!

How else was waiting for the hood to slam down on his hands? 🤣

what a beauty

Always loved these however, one strange thing I found seated at the drivers position, the steering wheel always seemed slightly to one side of the drivers seat, very strange feeling.

finally you featured a car I actually own! I bought my SS 396 in 1982 for $1,100. It has the 350 hp engine and 12 bolt posi. However the factory rally wheels are the 5 spoke style not the corvette style

The Chevrolet El Camino out sold the Ford Ranchero by two to one, why this is, I do not know. GMC had a version of the El Camino called the Sprint, later on called the Caballero, that sold "sipo". Please reply. Dave...

Chevrolet engineering played around with stroked 283s in the late 1950s in several of the “factory” Corvette race cars. According to one of the books. In other words, 307s. But they had machine shop resources that made procuring that sort hardware easy. But lots of hot rodders and drag racers built “302s” by boring 283s .125 over and stuffing them with forged domed pistons and other available performance stuff. Those severely bored 283s were usually referred to as “301s” back in the day.

I have a 69 Chevelle, 2 door, 307/TH350 It's a project, and it will need a lot of work, but nowhere near this :- )

Is that a 1985 Chrysler Laser next to the Camino?

I always liked the '69 -'70 El Camino's & Chevelle S/Ss but ended up with a '68 Chevelle that ugly green with hopes of cloning it a blue with the white stripes at my buddies body shop we were helping him out setting up with electrical work on a booth, power & lighting which never happened, thanks for nothing Gary

We just finished a 68 SS 396 4Speed Garnet Red Bucket Seats Factory A/C car. Its for sale too.....

Hey Steve. Are you going to Mopar nats?

Sadly soon all combustion cars and trucks including classics will be banned from public streets in entire EU and Scandinavia :-( In Germany the Green Peoples Party gave order to shorten fuel supply from 2025 on by reducing all conventional fuel stations to only one state operated central gas station per city or county. Car washs will be forbidden too because they are climate killers, now they want to slow down all the gas station pumps from 20 litre per minute to 2 litre per minute...From 2027 on in the EU certain car spare parts will be banned too....as exhaust systems, turbo chargers and even some engine and gearbox oils...California and New York will do the same from 2027 on.... So no investments should be done in oil burning cars any longer....They even created a new kind of crime here, called emissions and smoke crime.!!! (BABVVEN & TEBBVEN & BEFVO laws)!!

I have a 72.

Did that Elcie have a sunroof?

Is there any vinyl roof cars being sold today? I don't think maybach even do a covered roof anymore.

Are people allowed to visit this yard to view for any type of purchases?