Doing Things
The first response to Donnie Martin’s idea of retrofitting his motor boat with some fins and tail lights to match his 1959 El Camino was met with: “Are you crazy?” Donnie’s response was this: “Well, probably, but I like to do things differently.” Admittedly, it was a pipe dream for sure, but, hey, Donnie is in the plumbing business. He knows lots about pipes – real ones and the dream kind. “After some cutting of furring strips, sheets of Luan plywood, fiberglass matting and resin, along 30
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with some PVC pipe, we had this project well under day,” he glows. El Camino’s Brief History The Chevrolet El Camino was produced in 1959, 1960 and 1964 to 1987. It was Chevy’s response to Ford’s Ranchero, a combo car-truck with a car front interior and back pick-up truck style bed. The vehicle is officially classified as a pick-up truck, and similar models built on a car chassis were the “roadster
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utility” or “roadster pick-up” trucks manufactured in the 1920s. The early El Camino adopted the mid-level Bel-Air’s trim for the exterior and the low-end Biscayne on the inside. One conjecture on poor sales was seating, as only three people could fit into the front seat, and there was no back seat. The vehicle endured many variations and upgrades inside, outside and under the hood. It was discontinued in 1987, shortly before Ford’s F-150 became
2022
