This iconic 1959 Chev El Camino, bought on E-bay from Buffalo, New York State, US, arrived here in July 2013. We were shocked to see the appalling state of the pickup in reality as the rust had been hidden under the hastily sprayed cover-up job by the seller – (looked reasonable from the pics) – didn’t think we would be able to repair it and doubted our ability to tackle this mammoth task initially.

The 454 Big Block Chevy, was built by Dave Corbett and 700R auto box refurbed by Nic from Steeledale.

Complete body-off restoration. EXTENSIVE RUST REPAIR was done throughout. X-frame chassis boxed and reinforced with the paneled rear bed discarded and replaced by a custom made 1 piece bed, designed and fabricated by Bern van Gass

Smoothed out dash with black leather throughout. Custom purple toner was sprayed over a white base. Electric windows and custom inner door handles. Recessed firewall,  CPP front suspension with rack & pinion and disc brakes all-round, 12 bolt Chevy limited slip diff. 2010 Chev Lumina wheels were widened in the rear & narrowed in the front, done by Cedric Saffy.  Ally truck radiator with twin Cyclone electric fans built by Barry van Niekerk. The wiring was done by Clint & Wesley Mann.

At least 1200 labour hours in this project. Believe only 6 of this model currently in South Africa, all of which were imported at some stage as these were never sold in South Africa.