1965 Chevelle/el Camino One Of A Kind 2 Owner Very Special Car Garaged Cared For on 2040-cars

I am Super Sad as I do this...my friends and family disagree as well knowing very well that I will regret this. I'm done with the restless nights, I never thought this day would ever come but it has, I've made up my mind and the car must go. I'm afraid to do a no reserve auction, so I have set a reserve of $15,000.00.

For the people that want to look at the pictures and not read a long story...

I bought this car 22 years ago and would show it on weekends when I restored it to factory original 20 years ago. A garaged car with me and before me. I'm the second owner, Car is mostly original, 197770 miles on the body and chassis, engine is a 383 super stroke (long rods) with less than 200 miles break in time, transmission is a B&M 350 3 speed auto with a shift kit, rear end is a positive traction with 411 gears. Car has a lot of torque is Very quick, and Very throttle responsive.15" older style American racing rims. Rest is pretty much stock (other than the black interior, flat paint and small items such as the radio antenna and cigarette lighter) including the manual drum brakes. The underneath of the car looks just as nice as the rest, shocks are new too. The original AM radio works but the hi fi sound system was removed a few years back, all that's left is the custom box in the glove compartment, An empty Alpine detachable face case, a Pioneer remote control, an older Alpine CD changer and the cables that were run from back then.

I have a huge file as you can see in the pictures from 1965 starting with the original invoice, owners manual, protect-o-plate, available options back then, service manuals that Mr.Wogec gave me and ones that I acquired over the years. Original hub caps and a box full of good take off parts from the restoration in the 90's.

I also have tons of pictures from the day I purchased the car from him so the new owner can see that the car was straight and accident free. There was  

Flaws....

Very small chips in about five areas on the paint, small chips in the dash paint around the ignition, right side passenger interior door panel has a warp section from moisture, interior seat and carpet has faded over the years. Interior green is the factory color, I had only the steering wheel and exterior painted a few years back a Sea foam green from Hot Rod Flatz (two different colors). Two front 'Eyebrow" moldings right and left were bent when installed the second time around.

What the car needs....

Bell housing cover plate, very minor clearance to header on driver side do to slight contact to steering shaft (touches at cold idle) (new engine slightly bigger) and the interior dome light lens cover.

What the car deserves....

A power disc brake conversion kit, A complete new Hotchkiss suspension kit and a stereo system.

Please ask any and all question, I will be more than honored to answer back in detail as this car was my pride and joy.

For those of you who are looking for a one of a kind second owner pampered investment, please take a few minutes to read the history of my beloved El Camino, myself and why I've decided to sell something I planned to keep forever. 

I was raised around classic cars, my grandfather and father were mechanics, my uncle was a collector of 1920's and 50's cars. I myself have a passion for the 1960's era. I have only bought original owner cars, brought them back to life put them back on the road and enjoyed every moment of it.

I was the first one out of three people that showed up to Mr.Wogec's house when his wife put in an ad in the newspaper for this El Camino in 1994. The car was  all original, aged, torn seats, last registered 1988 with a very straight original body. Mr.Wogec had torn the carpet out and was getting ready to restore the El Camino before getting ill. He had also bought two service manuals that were sitting on the seat in the car that I still have until this day. (see pic)

I rushed to pay his wife as she called him on the phone not knowing which one of us to sell the car to. I was the lucky one. Mr.Wogec sold me he car over the phone making me promise to restore the car to factory condition just like the day he drove it of the lot and give him a ride to a specific drive-in movie theater.

I worked on the car every single weekend, I would talk to Mr.Wogec and give him progress reports. 

It took me about 9 months working to fund the project at my job, and working on the car on weekends to have the car back to a show quality off the showroom, down to the factory stickers on the engine restoration, with only one exception that both him and I agreed on which was to make the interior black velour rather than the factory light and dark green. 

The car was complete and I hadn't talk to Mr.Wogec in over a week. I normally would have called but he was anxious and so was I. I decided I would surprise him so Saturday morning I drove in my Sparkling El Camino (please see last picture) getting thumbs up from just about every one on my way to Granada Hills, parked the car in the driveway, knocked on the door and Mrs.Wogec was in tears.

I missed Mr.Wogec by two days. (still get the chills and tears till this day)

That was the day I decided I Will Never Sell This Car.

I gradually started to take it out on weekends after keeping it parked in the garage for a long period of time,(1995-1997) I went to car shows every time I had a chance. Numerous times I had thousands thrown on the hood and I would always just smile and shake my head. People would ask me to pull over to get me to sell or at times they wanted it form the movie studios, I always refused. Call me stupid but this was my one and only car that I would not let out of my site.

One day in and around 1999, I woke up and told myself that I was going to make it a high performance car.

First thing I did was take it to the muffler shop for full exhaust system, the next week off with the power glide and in with the B&M 350, the week or two after I had the rear end changed to a positive with 411 gears. From there I took the car into Tyerman's in Burbank to get the car lowered, sway bar installed and bushings replaced.

Only thing left was the original 327 engine that was rebuilt in 1982 (Mr.Wogec kept receipts of every single thing, and I do too) but it ran so good I was just waiting for something to happen to it so I can replace it. For years nothing happened so we pulled it out to rebuild it and replaced pistons, cam, intake ect.. to get more power out of it.

So as the years passed the car was driven on weekends and special occasions and was garaged. Eventually the paint faded over time and I liked the look of flat painted cars, so about five years ago I decided to get the exterior and the steering wheel painted sea foam green. 

In 2002 I opened up a restaurant in downtown Los Angeles, I put every nickel and dime into it, at some point I needed a loan for a few thousand dollars and my brother opted to lend me the money in return for the title to the El Camino as collateral. We agreed that it would be the title and not the car. So I had possession of my car he had the title. 

To keep this short in 2004 our ways separated , when he decided he wanted double the loan amount to sign the title back over to me.

Meanwhile the car driven every so often and stored in a warehouse, In 2010 I took it for a spin came back revved really hard and the 327 finally gave up. I was sad but excited.

I had the car brought home and in the garage it sat with a blown engine in non-op status.

Last year I asked my daughter to make one last attempt to buy back the title from my brother.

After NINE years of playing tug of war with the title of my car I got it back.

But the over all out come put a bad taste in my mouth and this is how I came to the conclusion to sell the car. 

I had made myself a promise that if and when I get the title back in my hands, I will drive it and wash it one last time.

As far as the 1966 Chrysler in the driveway....

It was a gift given to me by the original owner as a project to work on to make up for my loss.