76 El Camino Interior

I set about figuring out where and what I would replace. I decided to do it all! I ordered the seats from "C hoo Choo
Customs" along with the carpet. The interior will be Carmine Red. I got the door weather stripping from OPG I and
The El Camino Store. I re-colored the plastic trim and the new dash cap, that was ordered from J.C. Whitney catalog.

I later purchased a new steering wheel from Pep Boys automotive store and then some 4" x 6" speakers for the back
of the cab. I purchased a new stereo receiver and CD player, from Fry Electronics, and some 5 1/4' round Pioneer
speakers for the doors at Best Buy.

I removed the dash and set about re-coloring the dash in Carmine Red and in the process I also repaired the
ductwork for the heating and air-conditioning systems. The door panels were removed and discarded. The original
door panels (bottom) were marred with a bad attempt of installing door speakers so they were considered unusable. I
removed the armrests and Donny got some door panels off another 1976 found dead in a junkyard south of Alvarado.

The El Camino Store furnished us window felts - Original GM Parts - at a premium. While Donny was taking parts
off the other 76 he got the rear bumper, hood release cable, and all of the marker lights and housings. "If its good!"
there are two types of automobiles in the junkyards: the type where they were badly wrecked, and the type that got
too costly or ugly to keep. 1976 Chevrolet is not considered a "Muscle Car" but to me it was a really worthwhile
project. It is a good looking year and being the middle baby it turns out to be quite unique in its chameleon type
appearance. Customizing the way the body and paint look turns out to be very optional.

Outside looking in! Carmine Red Plush Interior
with Dark Cherry and Oak Center Storage.

The upper door panels are in good condition and they are dark mahogany really nice El Camino Classic pleated panels. The new window felts are to be pop
riveted into place on the upper door panels. I plan on putting in the sound dampening material in the upper and lower door panels. It looks like the truck
originally came with the sound material in it but it had been removed. A lot of stuff had been removed or improperly replaced / modified on this truck since it
had been sold in Albany OH, back in 1976.

Behind the passenger side panel (inside) I found on old factory invoice for this truck. It is in fair condition, but it is still readable for all of the options. The
truck was manufactured in Freemont Ca. and shipped to Albany, Oh.

Old Interior - What I started with:

The following list is the options I found on the invoice: A Negative view

1C C60 AIR CONDITION
2A 36L LWR-F/THORN
2A 36U UPR-FIRETHORN
2A I1R WHITMID BDY
2A*B96 WHL OPNG MLDG
2B B93 DOOR GUARDS
2B BX8 BDY SIDE MLDG
2B D35 MIR O/S CSTM
2B*B80 ROOF DRIPMLDG
2D A01 TINTED GLASS
2E*J50 POWER BREAKS
2F U35 ELECT CLOCK
2F U63 AM RAIDO
2G U76 WINDSHLD ANTA
2H AK1 CUSTOM BELTS
2I N33 TILT STRG WHL
2T 74I TRIM DK MAH
2T 74N VYLTRIMD/MAH
4A F40 FIRM RD&HDLG
4A GU2 AXLE 2.73 RAT
4B 6JD FRT SPRING LH
4B 7JD FRT SPRING RH
4B 8US RR SPRING LH
4B 9US RR SPRING RH
4C K76 61 AMP GEN
4C L65 350-2B V8 ENG - Now it has a 400+ Hp. 383 Stroker
4C M38 AUTOMATIC TRN
4C*N41 HYD STRG
4D D1C SPEEDO GEAR
4D E5Z LESS ADPTR
4D E6E SPEEDOSLEEV
4H QDR TIRE GR78X15W - Now they are American Eagle Alloys 203 W/ BFG P235-50 15
4K N84 DELETE S/TIRE
4K V01 H/D RADIATOR
4M VE5 F/R BMPR PADS
4M-V30 BUMPER GUARD
4R 749 D/MAHGSBELTS
5E 1FS TIRE PRES LBL
5N K30 CRUISE CNTRL
5P A65 SPLIT FR-SEAT - New Buckets from Choo Choo Customs (Now - "Honest Charley Custom Components") now occupy this space.
6W B37 FLR MATS F&R - Just front ones now OPGI supplied these.
6W CJ7 SPEC WHL&CVR
6W VK3 FRT LIC MOLD
6Z D91 PAINT-2 TONE
6Z E9Z LESS SPKEY

Pretty cool? Of course most of this is changing, I'll still have records.

I got in new ignition lock and door locks for this truck also courtesy of the The El Camino Store and some window molding clips for the front and back
windows. The old ones were completely rusted off. I also got some more rivets for the body molding. Some were missing and some were damaged during the
paint removal and bodywork process along with the nylon molding fasteners for the small chrome trim.

Lower door panels were found for the truck. These door panels were pulled out of another 1976 Elky. These door panels were intact but were black. So we
cleaned them up and attempted to color them. The first try they rejected about half the paint. Something was in the plastic that caused a reaction and the
paint/coloring "fish eyed" in several places.

This time the panels were soaked in hot soapy water then scrubbed. Just to see if that cleaning did any good, I first sprayed the inside portion to see if there
was still a reaction and there was. So I set out and used some "oops" paint spot remover. Then I purchased some Dark Red vinyl coloring. Starting with the
driver's side door I cleaned it then colored it. The new color was now taking. After getting the door panel the correct color, which by the way took many
coats, I gave the panel several days to dry. The morning after the application the surface was still tacky feeling. I thought that this coloring might have to be
removed and another type of coloring used. Later the evening after they were colored the panel was mostly cured. So I figured that I'd give it some more time
to see. I think the oils in the remover cause the drying time to be much longer than the stated time on the coloring.

I had Mitch Muse make me a new headliner. The old one was damaged while I was removing it. No surprise here, after twenty-three years of constant
exposure I expected that. It was a miracle that it survived as long as it did. Later I removed the headliner that I had made. It took away about 2" of headroom
in the cab and I began to feel a little cramped. I reapplied the fabric over the insulation on the top of the cab and it looks like I have a factory made solid
headlined. I re-gained a good 1.5" just doing that.

I had not left a place for the overhead light (Dome Light) I am not a big fan of bright lights. I installed dual under dash lights and a center light on the rear shelf.
This lighting gives the cabin a nice soft Carmine Red Glow at night with just enough lighting to let you know what is going on. I used the wiring for the
overhead light.

I had to reorder the Roof Rails and Door Weather Stripping from J.C. Whitney and lo and behold it made it in less than a week. So now fully armed with the
essentials I can re-assemble it.

Making the Air Cold!

The way this AC is designed makes me wonder if they ever had this thing working properly! I have to say that out of all
the systems to screw up, design wise, the AC is not a good one to pick, well I guess in those terms, none of the systems
are good candidates! But come on lets get real, they didn't need all this POA Regulation and garbage like that. So, this is
all about me upgrading my 76 El Camino's Air Conditioning system. I couldn't make the old one work with R12 and had
even worse luck with R134, up till now. This was the quest to make the air cold!
My idea was to make this trucks AC hook up and function like the 1980's AC system. I needed to fit a dryer
accumulator and an Expansion orifice. That is the down and dirty basic differences between the two. On the 76, the
Dryer / Accumulator and the Orifice Expansion valve are combined in one device and that was suppose to handle
regulating line pressures and what have you.

High pressure line off the 1980, compression
Oriaface New Dryer

It didn't really work very well. I checked to see if the dryer accumulator off the 80 would fit the 76's connections and it did. So, one down and three more to
go. I looked at the manifold off both the 76 and the 80 and the 80 was the one that I had to use. Since I was using a Serpentine set up that relocates the AC
Compressor to the opposite side so new hoses were going to have to be made. The long side was too long now and the short side was way, way too short.
The 80's hose ends worked perfectly. They had been rebuilt, the 80's AC Manifold hoses, so it wasn't a great big challenge to remove the hose ends for
re-use.

This wasn't fun at all. I ended up having to pull off the Evaporator core and that was a mess. The core was
clogged by years of debris that had gotten sucked down into the box. I also had to clean out all the lines, the
evaporator, the condenser and had to come up with a way to block off the POA Capillary tube. Removing
the POA setup, the control was no longer needed and since this one had that built onto the Evaporator I had
to block it off if this was even going to start looking like it would work.

Once I got the system rebuilt and all the pieces I needed collected I started putting it all together and it went
back pretty well. I used a good quality flush while it was in pieces and it was flushing clean through every
piece. I blew out all the extra flush I could. I added 5 Oz. of PAG. I put 2 in the Condenser and 2 in the
evaporator and one in the compressor, which was a new compressor.

Compressor Manifold off of a 1980 El Camino has been modified
to fit.

I had a lot of leaks to chase down some of the compression fittings needed to be set really well especially the orifice housing. But after all was sealed I
pulled a vacuum and it held it. I used 2 cans of 134a to charge the system and had it blowing out good cold air in no time. I still needed to purchase a AC
compensator solenoid to go on the carburetor but for now I set the idle up to 1100 RPM. That keeps the engine from dying at idle in gear. It is still a little
low but I didn't want my idle too high when I decided not to use the AC on a nice evening or morning ride, without having to go under the hood and adjust it
down first.