Bill fired up the big block, rolled the Camino out in front of the shop, applied a little brake and then floored it. The Camino moved hard, leaving two distinct black tracks and tire smoke behind it. Bill stayed on the pedal until the turbo 400 shifted to second, producing an audible chirp from the tires. We can't wait to try this with the 3:73 gears. Bill quickly turned the car around and drove back into the garage. We closed the doors, and turned out the lights. Someone suggested we test the nitrous purge again. Fortunately the bottle was empty.

After the test the trans sprung a small leak and is going back to the trans shop for a little tune-up.

One of the jobs that we couldn't scam was replacing the 30 plus-year-old interior that had obviously seen duty as the liner for a chicken coop. So, with much grumbling, I paid a pro to do the job. Unfortunately the upholstery guy, who got paid in advance, is still not quite finished with the job after over a year of working on it. So in the mean time we've installed the new rubber and felt we got from Gary Anderson's SoffsSeal Co. on the windows and doors.

While working on the interior we discovered that the controls for the heater-defroster were inop. Upon removing the whole assembly from the dash we found that the cables were all frozen up with rust and that some goon had broken one of the control levers trying to move it. We're working on repairing that unit instead of replacing it because after calling several of the resto house and being told that there are no new or repro parts available to replace it we seemed to have no choice. If any of you out there can offer help in that area we would appreciate it.

Also, some El Camino experts have told us that the car is an original big block car because of the numbers on the VIN tag and the factory posi. The Camino also has a bench seat and a column-shifted turbo 400, which another El Camino expert told us he had never seen before. Anybody out there got info about this or how to research it?

Oh by the way, the DRO El Camino gang has adopted its own version of NHRA's 90% rule. Ours works like this: if the temperature, humidity or heat factor get over the 90 degree or 90 percent mark in the St. Louis area, we have to stop working and check into O'Connells for re-hydration. It's July in St. Louis, call us at O'Connell's.

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