# 85 El Camino conversion



## ngrimm (Oct 19, 2007)

I keep wrestling with the idea but don't know how practical it would be. Here is my thinking for a in town comuter. I don't have any experience to back it up but I also don't have any interest in converting a small super light car to electric for a few reasons. First I don't want to drive a tiny cramped vehicle whether it is gas or electric and second, those kind of cars already get great mileage as they are, so imho there wouldn't be as much $ payback as say a roomier vehicle that only gets <15 mpg and gas pushing $4. I realize the cost goes up for the conversion due to more batteries etc. but heck compare the weight of the gas engine I would be replacing on a larger car to the that of a sub compact. Probably 3-400 lbs difference. I admit I am thinking about my El Camino because I like driving it and party because it has a storage area behind the seat that reaches 24" under the bed and is 55" wide. I think I could get twelve orbitals under there and another eight in the engine bay easily. It has a 1500 lb load capacity before I remove the engine and radiator exhaust etc. so 600lbs gas to 150lb electric motor would net 450lbs so that would allow for passengers and more batteries. Am I crazy? (crazier than usual?)


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## Mastiff (Jan 11, 2008)

Nothing is impractical to convert.

I think an '85 El Camino would be a seriously sick conversion and if you love driving it, then that's one of the best reasons to convert a car.

It all depends on your budget and how resourceful you are.

What kind of performance do you want to achieve and what is your budget?

EDIT:
Here's an El Camino Conversion on the EV Album:
http://evalbum.com/470


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## the slashmaster (Feb 24, 2008)

ngrimm said:


> I keep wrestling with the idea but don't know how practical it would be. Here is my thinking for a in town comuter. I don't have any experience to back it up but I also don't have any interest in converting a small super light car to electric for a few reasons. First I don't want to drive a tiny cramped vehicle whether it is gas or electric and second, those kind of cars already get great mileage as they are, so imho there wouldn't be as much $ payback as say a roomier vehicle that only gets <15 mpg and gas pushing $4. I realize the cost goes up for the conversion due to more batteries etc. but heck compare the weight of the gas engine I would be replacing on a larger car to the that of a sub compact. Probably 3-400 lbs difference. I admit I am thinking about my El Camino because I like driving it and party because it has a storage area behind the seat that reaches 24" under the bed and is 55" wide. I think I could get twelve orbitals under there and another eight in the engine bay easily. It has a 1500 lb load capacity before I remove the engine and radiator exhaust etc. so 600lbs gas to 150lb electric motor would net 450lbs so that would allow for passengers and more batteries. Am I crazy? (crazier than usual?)


I don't think a 85 el camino would be that heavy, you already have plastic inner front fender wells, and a fiberglass front end right? You can probabley get fiberglass fenders and hood for it can't you? If your willing to live dangerously you could probably even get fiberglass doors. A lot of cheap little foreign compacts are just all steel and you can't get fiberglass anything for them. Can't be worse than a full size pickup. Just don't do it the way roland did because it looks like he spent a lot of money for poor results.


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## the slashmaster (Feb 24, 2008)

I just took another look. Wow that guy sure has made his car complicated! Much more so than if it were stock! I'm trying to figure it out. Can anyone figure out what those 3 pulleys under the hood are for? I'm guessing one is ac, one is power steering and one is a vacuum pump all being driven from a motor below? Wonder why all those buttons and gauges are necessary?


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## Coley (Jul 26, 2007)

If that is the vehicle you have and have the budget for it, then that is the one to do.
I didn't mind taking a small car with a shot engine and converting it for very little money, because I wanted to drive it to work and SAVE money.

It has worked out well, and actually better than a matching car that we ran to compare with the EV.


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## ngrimm (Oct 19, 2007)

Didn't mean to imply anything negative about others converting smaller cars. You guys have done an excellent job on your conversions and the best thing is that you didn't just talk about it, you did it. I just grew up with the muscle cars and owned several myself including a 70 Cuda and a 69 Charger so as you can see I have wasted more than my share of gasoline in my lifetime. I think the last small car I owned was a 69 Toyota Corona with a 1900 cc engine but that was 30 years ago. I have had some smaller pickups though. an 84 S10, 82 Datsun 4x4 and a Suzuki Sidekick and I really enjoyed all of them but I suspect they didn't weigh that much less than my El Camino. Since I got out of drag racing the performance doesn't matter as much. I still haven't figured out the voltage/amps combo to give the best range. Searching the evlist I have been trying to see a pattern as to what combo gives the most miles per charge and not take 20 seconds to get to 60 mph. Am I correct in assuming that lower voltage with higher amps is the way to go? Also I don't know how accurate the range examples in the Evlist are since those with the most power probably tend to accelerate faster etc. I know the turbo cars I've had could have gotten great mileage but I liked the feel of the turbo spooling up too much.  Norm


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## the slashmaster (Feb 24, 2008)

ngrimm said:


> Didn't mean to imply anything negative about others converting smaller cars. You guys have done an excellent job on your conversions and the best thing is that you didn't just talk about it, you did it. I just grew up with the muscle cars and owned several myself including a 70 Cuda and a 69 Charger so as you can see I have wasted more than my share of gasoline in my lifetime. I think the last small car I owned was a 69 Toyota Corona with a 1900 cc engine but that was 30 years ago. I have had some smaller pickups though. an 84 S10, 82 Datsun 4x4 and a Suzuki Sidekick and I really enjoyed all of them but I suspect they didn't weigh that much less than my El Camino. Since I got out of drag racing the performance doesn't matter as much. I still haven't figured out the voltage/amps combo to give the best range. Searching the evlist I have been trying to see a pattern as to what combo gives the most miles per charge and not take 20 seconds to get to 60 mph. Am I correct in assuming that lower voltage with higher amps is the way to go? Also I don't know how accurate the range examples in the Evlist are since those with the most power probably tend to accelerate faster etc. I know the turbo cars I've had could have gotten great mileage but I liked the feel of the turbo spooling up too much.  Norm


You should have kept that charger or that cuda, they make fiberglass everything for them, even entire bodies! And the cars are totally awsome! On the other hand you don't have to feel bad about not having that toyota, suzuki, or datsun anymore. THey suck! Now by evlist you mean evcalculator right? If not please show me cause it's new to me. I think low voltage high amps gets the car rolling at low speeds better.


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## ngrimm (Oct 19, 2007)

Actually I was just looking at various cars in the list at trying to figure out a pattern based on the size motor, number of batteries, voltage etc. Norm


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## ElectricElkie (Aug 1, 2009)

Try this link:

http://www.tdlelectronics.com/EV.shtml


I have done a conversion on our 1981 El Camino.

Lithium Ion batteries with about a 200 mile range maximum.

email me for more details, and good luck!

Tom
[email protected]


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