T-Type/GN front end on El Camino?

[aea257]

Will the front fenders,nose,hood from an '84-'87 T-type/GN fit on to an '80 El Camino?( No offense to the Buick puriest)

 

[Red Regal T]

No offense to Buick owners. Offensive is when you put a chevy motor in a Buick. Yeah, put that nose on...............doors too! Just change out the door glass.

 

[Billdogg]

Are you sure? I thought the camino was wider? Plus, the rear wheel arches on the camino are more squared off compared to the front fenders on a Buick which are round.

 

[REDS HOT AIR]

lot more to it then that

it will bolt on but body lines are way off

nose wont fit without the fenders fender body lines wont line up with the doors if you change the doors to match they wont line up with the body lines on the 1/4's

the way it is normally done is to cut the front half off buick fenders and back half of elcamino/malibu fenders and join the 2 together

believe me its a pain to do ...I was going to do it to one of my el's but a friend of mine tried it and I decided it was too much work for me

 

[Red Regal T]

Originally posted by aea257
Will the front fenders,nose,hood from an '84-'87 T-type/GN fit on to an '80 El Camino?( No offense to the Buick puriest)

Here's the original question. The answer is YES, although only part of the job. I'm curious why you would have to cut the front fenders in half. What's the problem with installing the complete Regal nose and doors without any cutting?

 

[arista5]

 

[Red Regal T]

Oh.........I see.......... Keep all the el camino body lines.

 

[GDNF2ET]

Wouldn't it be easier to go with the regal front clip and doors , then cut that quarter panel line out that doesn't match ? Most el camino doner cars probably have bad quarters anyway. Cut the quarters or morph the 2 fenders, there got to be less work and figuring in doing the quarters..That is if the doors and front end DO fit like we seem to believe....

 

[wagon]

I talked to a guy that was doing this years ago, and saw the car. He swapped to a GN nose and doors, using the Camino's glass. the Regal's have a body line that the Camino's don't. He solved this by having a friend who is a body man add this line to the rear quarter, just an inch or so, and had it curl up to the rear side window. Looked good, and is probably much easier than blending two fenders together. That is the way that I would do it.
By the way, the El Caminos are the same width, but they are longer. If you want to change one over, you will have to use the rear and driveshaft from the Camino, or if you put the 8.5 in, then you will have to have a custom driveshaft.