(first posted 6/1/2018) For today’s CC, let’s look at something from the mysterious end of the spectrum. My last CC was on a white pickup that generated some distinctly articulated feelings and today’s is, well, a white pickup that could be equally controversial but in a different way. We do know it’s a 1974 El Camino. Might it prompt all type of reaction also? We shall see as any controversy will erupt once we delve into the circumstances of the mystery and uncertainty that envelopes it, much like that coat of white paint.
So let’s dive into the weeds to see what we can find out. Like all mysteries, this requires some unraveling because there is no proof of there being any actual, bonafide Spirit of America El Camino.
What We Know:
Chevrolet began celebrating the American Bicentennial of 1976 a couple of years early, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Their initial volley of commemoration was the 1974 Spirit of America trim optionally available on Impala, Nova, and Vega coupes.
As outlined in a brochure for the Vega Spirit of America, it came with white exterior paint, red and blue stripes, and a tape badge on the front fender denoting it as being a Spirit of America model. Inside, one would find white upholstery and other miscellaneous doodads.
More specificity is by the GM Heritage Center. The General’s information for the 1974 Impala provides an entire page specifying what is included with the Impala Spirit of America package. Here’s a screenshot showing what GM put into the package on Impalas.
It is also debatable whether this was transferred to the factories verbatim; note the availability of blue exterior paint.
With this being an internal document, likely a lesser number of people were concerned over the use of the word “Spirt”.
The information continues.
Doing a similar search among GM Heritage Center information kits for the 1974 Vega yields no similar information. There is no information yet available from the Heritage Center for the 1974 Nova.
The brochures at oldcarbrochures.com contain a three page brochure on the Vega, two-thirds of which is shown between here and the picture above. Neither the 1974 Impala nor the 1974 Nova brochures have any reference to the Spirit of America models.
The eagle headed figurine in the lower right hand corner of this pamphlet is a copy of the decal found on the front fenders of the Nova and Vega Spirit of America models. Each was customized for the vehicle they were used on.
Apart from the name at the top, they are just like the one found on each of the front fenders of our subject El Camino.
This particular El Camino has a white vinyl seat. For the Classic trim found here, which mimicked the Malibu trim used on passenger cars, GM says the interior was colored either black or blue when equipped with the white vinyl seat; it’s dark blue on this example despite what looks to be black in this picture.
We also know by looking at the lineup of Spirit of America models, the Malibu / Chevelle is conspicuously absent. Granted, the Monte Carlo, Camaro, and Corvette are also, but it certainly appears Chevrolet had this series aimed at the bread-and-butter passenger cars.
Let us not forget the El Camino was considered to be a light truck and all El Camino information is found under light trucks on the GM Heritage Center website. Any advertising for a Spirit of America El Camino is nonexistent in numerous internet searches. Similar is the case for product information.
Although the article was about the Nova Spirit of America, we’ve touched upon the existence of the El Camino Spirit of America here. Various internet discussion boards provide no definitive conclusion about the El Camino Spirit of America being anything other than a creation that originated…somewhere.
The dealer tag on the tailgate reads Brown Chevrolet in Devine. A quick search reveals a Brown Chevrolet in Devine, Texas, and they have been in business since 1966.
So was the El Camino Spirit of America a factory offering or a dealer concoction?
What We Don’t Know:
One key thing we don’t know is at what point in the year the Spirit of America models were introduced. Given GM’s production of sales information on the Impala series prior to the start of the model year, it is obvious it was planned early on; might the Vega and Nova be later editions which could, in turn, reflect toward similar being the case for the El Camino? At whatever point the Nova and Vega were released it was still early enough to allow advertising with the Impala.
Another unknown item is the trim on the seat. While we know white vinyl came with either black or blue interior trim, with blue being the color here, there is no mention of contrast piping. There is blue piping on these seats. Without a doubt the seat could have been reupholstered sometime along the way, and that’s another item we don’t know.
Should this Spirit of America El Camino be a dealer creation, we do not know if this was a local, regional, or national endeavor. If it’s a manufacturer creation, we know nothing about option codes, cost, content, lead time, and time of introduction.
We also don’t know the size of glass barrier Chevrolet had between cars and light trucks in their advertising and brochures. From all indications it seems the chasm was fairly wide at that time.
Observations
The picture above is from another Spirit of America El Camino found in the comments of an article that appeared in these hollowed pages. The placement of the tape stripes and badges appears to be identical to our particular example. If the “Spirit of America” package was a dealer add-on for the El Camino, it appears there was some very specific guidance on interior and exterior options for the recipient vehicle. It would be inconsistent, not to mention weird, to have the Spirit of America package on a black or green (interior and/or exterior) El Camino, would it not?
It would also appear there was very specific guidance on color, length, design, and placement of the graphics. This gives the indication of there being a strong desire for uniformity regardless of where the vehicle was ultimately trimmed.
If one thinks about another, contemporary dealer option, how much uniformity is there amongst the vinyl and/or canvas roofs that are dealer additions? With the various Caliente, Executive, Admiral, El Presidente, and Le Barf Bag editions, there isn’t any consistency. Perhaps this isn’t the best example, but hopefully this illustrates my thoughts.
Earlier the blue piping on the seats was mentioned. It took some effort to find a white interior in a different 1974 El Camino, but there is one in this video. There is no contrasting piping.
Given its wear and butt indentations, along with the overall condition of the vehicle itself, it leads one to think these are likely the original seats, but that is speculation.
This El Camino has spent some time in Texas having been sold in Devine at one point. It is 25 miles southwest of San Antonio, where the sun works undesirable wonders on paint and graphics. It strongly appears to have been parked inside for a portion of its 44 years, giving the appearance of it being entirely original.
General Motors provided cars nearly every year during the 1970s for use at the Indianapolis 500. It was sometimes the case for replicas to be shipped to a dealer with the graphics uninstalled.
About This Particular El Camino:
I’ll admit I cheated just a bit on this one – it’s sitting at a dealer who has older cars in his inventory. It’s parked between a 1947 Chevrolet and a 1960 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 which I wrote up a while back.
It’s advertised as being a project car and its 350 V8 is reported as being seized.
With this dealer being one that is close to the house, I’ll pop in there occasionally to see what he has. There had been a ’60 or ’61 Valiant there a few days earlier, which is why I had stopped. While the Valiant was gone, this El Camino was a terrific consolation prize.
My Conclusion (not to be confused with anything else):
The Spirit of America El Camino was a factory supported endeavor. There is simply too much uniformity in the graphics among El Camino examples and similarity to the Vega and Nova to not have been given some type or degree of factory support.
With the dearth of advertisements or factory information for these, one should not reflexively think this was a dealer option. General Motors has a history of various special editions that may or may not have received any type of promotion. A much later example of that would be the Chevrolet Corsica XT.
A lack of promotion for the Spirit of America El Camino could also be related to it being classified as a light truck, not a passenger car. This package arguably added bling to a pickup during a time when additional bling was not the norm. GM may have been going for a subtle approach given the clientele in their pickup showrooms generally had different outlooks and goals than those in the passenger car showroom. Having this sitting next to a stripped six-cylinder Cheyenne might not have sat well when Farmer Bob, Plumber Pete, or Contractor Charlie went pickup shopping.
While I’m saying it was factory supported, I’m not saying it was necessarily created at the factory either. My reference to the Indy 500 cars was a reference to how graphics could have been shipped with an El Camino that been built to meet prerequisites for color and options with the graphics then being installed by the dealer if the customer desired. As such it isn’t really a dealer option as much as it was dealer outfitted.
It would also seem that for the effort Chevrolet went to for the Impala, Nova, and Vega, it would be counterintuitive to have Spirit of America insignia on just any run of the mill El Camino. There is uniformity in appearance, and it’s highly doubtful this would have happened if delegated to the interpretation and creativity of umpteen local dealers spread over the continental U.S. One can’t help but think Chevrolet would want the same appearance for any El Camino Spirit of America had it been sold in Devine, Texas, or Bend, Oregon, or Corning, New York.
For that matter, would Chevrolet have wanted to run the risk of a Spirit of America El Camino sold in Devine, Texas, to possibly be parked at a Burger Chef or Howard Johnson’s next to another vastly different appearing Spirit of America El Camino sold twenty-five miles away in San Antonio? Not likely.
Thus my position on this being factory built or, at the very least, dealer outfitted. The Spirit of America El Camino was supported by Chevrolet. There is simply too much uniformity for it to be anything else.
Finale:
That’s my take on this highly intriguing and refreshingly different 1974 Chevrolet El Camino. Frankly, while I’ve never been an El Camino fan, am not particularly fond of white vehicles, and of the opinion the Colonnade bodies are an acquired taste (particularly in white), something about this particular Elky captivates me immensely. Go figure.
So what is your hunch on the origins of this El Camino?
What a thoroughly absorbing read. Can ‘accents’ be interpreted as ‘piping’, or is piping a specific term used by GM at the time? My call… factory initiated at the very least.
Thank you.
The first use of “piping” I encountered was used by the British. Building myself a Bentley online, there was the option of coordinating or contrast piping. That’s when I learned it’s the trim on the seats and it’s used primarily where there is a 90 degree bend. If you look at the armrest in the middle of the seat, it’s got blue piping outlining it.
Never in a thousand years would that tidbit have caught my attention otherwise!
I’m pretty sure this is a generic upholstering term, not an automotive term. One can buy rolls of piping to sew into any upholstery project.
Am I missing something? Isn’t piping the trim on the edge of a seat, and shaped like a pipe, or looks like it was “piped” as in a cake decoration?
I have one
What do I have here 1976 and has original paint
I would suspect that the styling studio did the Impala, Vega, and Nova which got approval from the higher management For mass production. They also did the El Camino which did not get approval for mass production. Most likely only a hand full of examples were done and because it was only an appearance upgrade the trucks that didn’t get approved were sent to dealers for disposal rather than being destroyed.
This seems factory or at the very least dealer done. In those days you could pretty much order a vehicle in and with anything you wanted. so i can see a customer wanting to order an El Camino with this package and being accommodated. The El Camino was basically a Cadillac pick up and could be outfitted as one.
The El Camino was basically a Cadillac pick up and could be outfitted as one.
Really? That’s news to me. I’m glad to be educated though.
In other words, aside of some conversions done on actual Cadillacs of the era, the El Camino was the closest you could get to a luxury pick up truck. not that it was actually a Cadillac.
Show me the options that back up your statement “could be outfitted as one”. As far as I know, it could only be outfitted as a Malibu. Hardly Cadillac territory.
Look up the El Camino classic. it was available with all the options of the top line Chevelle (upscale Malibu Classic) The 1974 El Caminos sported an elongated, Mercedes-type grille. Inside, the new top-of-the-line El Camino Classic featured luxurious interiors with notchback bench seats (or optional Strato bucket seats) upholstered in cloth or vinyl, carpeted door panels and woodgrain instrument panel trim. The 350 V8 became the base engine and a 400 V8 engine was new this year. The 454, the top engine, was available with the Turbo Hydra-Matic 400 automatic or 4-speed manual transmission.
You come off ass autistic, are you on the spectrum?
Saying something could be outfitted like a “Cadillac” is a pretty innocuous opinion. They were certainly more “luxury” than comparable pickups in that era.
Yes, I’m “ass autistic”. It’s a very rare diagnosis. I can be both an ass and autistic at the same time, unlike the ElCamino, which cannot be an ElCamino and a Cadillac at the same time.
I think I know what you are trying to say about the El Camino being a Cadillac pickup. I would not go so far as they were close to equal to a Cadillac, but they were usually more upscale than most of the pickups of the time. As the former owner of a ’75 El Camino and before that a ’73 Ranchero I noticed something when these were still being made. While not being a luxury vehicle, I would say they were more like ” the Boss’ truck”. The owners of businesses that used a lot of pickups often drove one of these sedan pickups themselves. My ’75 originally belonged to the owner of a cement contracting company. When I bought it I had to use a pressure washer to get all the concrete slag off the undercarriage. Come to think of it, both my Ranchero and El Camino were “the Boss’ pickup” when I owned them since I was the operating partner of our business at that time.
Wow that’s a new one on me. I have to say factory made. Was there any interior badging? My Spirit of America Impala had special emblems on the door panels like the ones on the C pillars. Perhaps the other cars were all decals .
I own a 76 Elcamino and Monte Carlo. I would be interested in this prodject. Is this recent? Is it in Jeff city? I ‘m an hr or so east oh there.
What a neat find. Thanks Jason.
Rich, it’s good to hear from you. And I remember the county you live in!
Yes, I just found this El Camino last weekend. It was still there as of Wednesday and is located at Governor Motor Company on Missouri Boulevard in Jefferson City.
I made a second stop to check for interior badges but the aftermarket dash cover has anything on the dash covered. I saw nothing on the doors.
I agree in that this looks like a dealer package. I too have a mystery car that I saw in Cocoa Beach, FL in early 1979. It was a very light grey 1979 Chrysler Newport without a vinyl roof but with red pinstripes along the upper body crease. The car was wearing Ontario tags, which was not unusual in east Central Florida in the wintertime. However, here’s the mystery: Bright letters spelling “Three Hundred” were located just aft of the front wheels and the round tri-color 300 badge was on the hood ornament and trunk lid. “Newport” was nowhere to be seen. I believe this was before Chrysler came out with its Cordoba-based 300.
I’ve never been able to find any information about this car on the Internet. Was this a peculiarly Canadian model? A dealer special? Anyone know about this? I’ve been stumped for 39 years.
Had to be a dealer-special, or maybe the owner did it.
There was nothing special about Dove Grey with red pinstripes, that was normal.
“I believe this was before Chrysler came out with its Cordoba-based 300.”
1979 was the last year of the B-body based Cordoba, and was also the only year for the Cordoba based 300.
You’re right, but the 300 was introduced in spring 1979, not at the beginning of the 1979 model year.
This is a very curious case, and I can’t say whether or not I more strongly believe this was a factory or dealer special edition. Working at a MINI dealer, where many customers choose to customize their cars with OEM stripes and other accessories, I’ve seen dealer-done jobs look as good as factory-done jobs, so I’m not sure. Either way, this Spirit of America El Camino looks pretty good.
You’ve hit my dilemma with the entire thing. And I agree with you how some dealer work can rival anything from the factory.
FWIW, I’ve found one Elky SoA in person, one left in comments here, and a third online. All three are identical. Looking at various message boards, others have surfaced with their descriptions matching elements of these. A single website, that offered absolutely no proof of anything other than a picture of a possible fourth example, added the Elky SoA with the Nova, Vega, and Impala editions, saying the Elky was the most rare.
Could someone have been at the dealer, seen one of the other SOA vehicles while getting their El Camino, and asking the dealer for an SOA Elky? And that said dealer having some extra graphics from a customer who wanted a white impala, but without the stripes? “The world… may never know.”
I’m going to go with Jason’s very well thought out assessment.
I’m basing this on a distant recollection that at some point in my youth during the 70’s I seem to recall coming across a white Cheyenne pickup in short bed guise with white painted road wheels and some semblance or Spirit of America badge. This might very well be a figment, but it feels very real to me.
I would most definitely not rule out some kind of loose but still restrictively guided factory sanctioned but dealer applied package program.
Then again, a little googling found these…which might actually be what I was remembering. A whole ‘nother thing, it seems.
Interior
Badge
And yet somehow this particular image doesn’t quite jive with what I was sure I’d seen way back when. But who knows? I turned 50 last year and according to my 29-year-old partner I’ve clearly got early onset dementia. (Of course I’m convinced he’s gaslighting me for nefarious purposes, but if I share that theory I may run the risk of being committed for anything from paranoid schizophrenia to alzheimer’s) Now, where the hell are my keys? Shit, I hate Mondays;)
I’m going to go with dealer-added package, and here’s why. It’s the addition and location of the ‘CAMINO’ wording above the ‘Spirit of America’ decal but directly underneath the factory ‘EL CAMINO CLASSIC’ fender emblems. I seriously doubt anyone in GM marketing would have the word ‘camino’ duplicated and placed so closely together for a factory package.
Add that they use the word ‘Camino’, not ‘El Camino’. That makes it an ‘El Camino Camino’. If it was a factory package, it would have just had the ‘Spirit of America’ decal underneath the fender emblems. I seriously doubt even GM would do something so grammatically incorrect.
A dealer, OTOH…
For me, I would say that this is NOT a factory job. That front fender is the “giveaway”. You have El Camino, then under it “Classic”, then under that a decal that LOOKS genuine but all you see is “Camino”.
If this were a factory job the Classic would not be present and the decal would be a bit different.
I do have to admit that I like “cars” like this: factory what ifs, as I call them.
I can’t think of any other white vinyl interior in a Chevy that carried the dash/carpet color onto the door cards; usually they were white. Pontiac used color there, but not Chevy, which makes me suspect this Elky originally had an all-blue interior and the white seat was swapped in.
You indeed have a mystery going here.
First, I have never, ever seen a GM vinyl interior of that era with contrasting piping. But a reupholstery job would not be uncommon at this car’s age.
Second, the typeface on the “Camino” decal is maddeningly different from those on the Vega and Nova decals. However, it is has more letters and would need to have narrower letters to fit. But leaving off the “El”? Or would the “El” have been above “Camino”?
Third, Chevrolet in the John DeLorean era was all about memorable advertising and publicity. I suspect that if Chevrolet had offered a SOA Elky it would have been either promoted with the SOA cars or there would have been an SOA C series pickup or van to go along with it if Chevy Trucks got in on the SOA action.
Final answer: as popular as Chevys are, I have to believe that if this had even been a genuine Chevrolet package available for dealer order, it would be well known by now. I am betting on either a dealer who ran off a couple of them or just a fan who wanted to give his white El Camino some extra flavor and then got copied by another fan or two over the years. The stripe material from the other cars would have been available as well as the main emblem. The “Camino” is the only custom decal and anyone with some graphics skills could have run off a handful of them, even in the 70s.
But all in all I like it. Chevrolet should have built this and promoted the bejabbers out of it. Why the SOA line did not get wider application is beyond me.
This El Camino interested me so much, I bought it to restore. Into it for about 9 months now, I’ve been digging and have found a total of 6 survivors – all almost identical.
I have zero interest in pick up trucks or special-package El Caminos but I enjoyed every bit of this little mystery story. What a great read!
Was only Vega, Nova and Impala, period. There’s no advertising or brochures showing Elko, and the badges on this one are as fake as Loch Ness Monster.
I bought this El Camino, as it really interested me – I now have it running and have been restoring it, (keeping it original) – in the past 9 months we’ve uncovered a total of 6 – identical examples.
I once owned a 74 SOA with black swivel buckets. Lost it when it was repo’d but was a great ride. Love to see your finished product! Will have to lookup some of my old pics of it..
My father owned one of these SOA El Caminos when I was a kid. This was around 1978-80. Ours had a red vinyl interior (no white seats) and the same decals and stripes as the subject vehicle. It was a low mile used car when he purchased it. The tape stripes had already started to fade/crack and he replaced them using readily available pin striping tape. I was only about 6 years old, but I remember it pretty well. We lived near Atlanta, GA at the time.
My favorite “Spirit of America” package from back in the day was a Mustang, but not the kind you’re thinking…
I have to agree with you on that one, Retro. I would also say that it is the fastest Mustang, too.
450 MPH in a dive… Oh yeah…
I had one of those Cox flying models of “Miss America” when I was a kid, the kind you fly in a circle with strings. Yeah, that didn’t work out so well. Crashed her on her maiden flight. I was so bummed. I glued the wing back on, and displayed her as a static model. High impact plastic my a$$!
Anyway, even trying RC planes years later, I can honestly say from experience that it is easier to fly a real airplane than a model airplane.
~ Rick
Ironic that we both have the same name, both have black Mustangs and both crashed our “fly by string” planes on the maiden flight! Mine was a little biplane racer called the Little Stinker. I tried the glue bit too. I still have it here someplace. I have built a balsa P51 but have never tried to fly it. My crash was due to sudden wind direction shift which resulted in a slack lines and a nose dive into the ground.
My P51 was done in by the mistake many student pilots make… Over Correction.
Much later in life, when I got behind the controls of a real airplane for the first time, I did not over-correct as I flew. The instructor was impressed. He said that most people on their first flight are white knuckled to the yoke. I asked, “Do you drive your car that way?” as I used a light touch with one hand as I made a throttle adjustment or two with the other during a semi-steep turn. (He said it was a bit too soon from me to try a real ‘steep turn’.) I did admit to cheating a bit by learning to fly in Microsoft’s Flight Simulator 2004 before going up for real.
I never got my license, but enjoy going up from time to time. And yes, as I said before, it is MUCH easier to fly a real airplane than a model. Same goes for driving a real car vs driving an RC car. It’s all about visual perspective, I suppose.
I am liking that 60 Olds next to the El Camino.
Me too…!
“So what is your hunch on the origins of this El Camino?”
You see Timmy, when a car loves a truck very much they give each other a special hug and…
The upholstery screams “redo” to me. It does not look original.
And the package screams “dealer job” to me. The dealer might have gotten some support from the factory (quite likely), but if this was a factory job, there would be more of them out there and more info on them. Also, the terrible badging on the front fender would never have left the factory that way. Which makes even the notion of factory support questionable.
Gotta be a factory deal whether factory or dealer installed. There is no way that a dealer would have a Camino sticker made that matched the material and inks on the coat of arms so well that they share the same patina over 40 years later. Since the coat of arms would have been available for order it would have made no sense to have those made locally.
It is possible that it was limited to a specific region in which case the advertising might be rather thin as it wouldn’t have appeared in national publications.
A bit of googling at Chevy forums seems to answer the question quite logically: the consensus is that it was a dealer-installed package available from the factory. Which makes by far the most sense. It looks “factory” but was never advertised and there is no documentation for it coming from the factory already applied.
I wonder if this wasn’t an attempt at saving face for the guy who petitioned to put the SoA packages into production thinking they would get the jump on cashing in on the Bi-Centennial. So when it didn’t sell to expectation and someone asked how many of those stupid stickers did we buy they quickly whipped up the Camino package to try and dump some of them. Of course it could be that enough dealers asked why can we get this on an El Camino?
I am betting that there was a vendor, probably a tape stripe and decal vendor who offered these to dealers as a package, Thus the similarity of thos discovered. The vendor likely offered suggestions for a dealer to do other work to make the SOA look consistent across the product like.
^This. I would imagine that the SoA decal is authentic; I’m sure it was available across the dealership parts counter since the Vega, Nova, and Impala all had a separate name decal.
So, all that would have been needed is to locate a vendor (maybe even the same one who did the other, original name decals) to create one that said ‘CAMINO’. It would then be a simple matter to advertise in the auto industry trade magazine Automotive News. There would have been more than a few dealers chomping at the bit to slap a few decals and pinstripes on a white El Camino, then charge a healthy mark-up for the ‘package’, at least as much as Chevrolet did for the real SoA cars.
There is no way Chevrolet would have applied or produced any decals without the proper name of the vehicle.
A most excellent find, accompanied by fascinating points and counterpoints to Jason’s basic premise. I don’t have an educated guess as to the origin of this “SoA” El Camino, but I want to believe that even if dealer-installed (and not from the factory), that it was at least GM-sanctioned.
I, too, was always baffled as to why GM couldn’t just wait the two years and bring out the “America” versions for MY ’76. I can imagine that a Spirit Of America Monza 2+2 would have looked smashing.
Are the snaps for soft tonneau cover installed at the factory or by the dealer? It looks like the thinner stripes framing the bed were in place when the snaps were attached.
One key clue to the answer might just be where this Elky originated, Texas. There seem to be a few other SoA Elkys, where are they now and where did they come from originally is the question I would try to answer next. Maybe this was just a regional thing Chevy offered, I can’t see them selling real well in the NE or Midwest, but Cali or Tx they might be more popular.
Here’s a Lubbock Chevy dealer advertising one, with all the details—-April 1974. Doesn’t sound like a one-off done to please a customer:
George I knew you’d come through if there was information to be found!
You are correct, and it’s what I’ve been maintaining – there is no way this was a one-off.
Thank you, kind sir!
Tickled to be helpful, Jason—-thanks for being our author-investigator with this one!
George, that’s a great find. I looked quite a bit through historic newspaper ads on Friday trying to find something like this. I was confident that someone, somewhere would have advertised one of these. Thanks for digging this one up!
George – any chance you have a higher res copy f this – or the newspaper it came from? I own the El Co in the article now. It runs and stops and almost ready for the road in the spring of 2020.
And, in the same Lubbock paper, here’s a private sale of one a year later:
Tucson, Feb. 1976 (I also found private sales in Monroe LA and San Antonio, mid-1970s; Port Arthur 1979; then the newspapers get quiet):
With all of this activity around Texas and Louisiana, it makes me wonder if this might have been promoted through a Chevrolet sales zone office or a regional dealer association. Remember that 1974 was an awful sales year for the industry so it is not hard to imagine that some dealers were trying to gin up buyer enthusiasm in any way possible.
Yep, the SoA El Camino most closely resembles a couple of the more obscure, regional Mustang Special Editions, specifically the High Country and Blazer.
The Mustang High Country was sold exclusively at Colorado Ford dealers from ’66-’68. For the first two years, it was pretty much the same as the SoA El Camino, being nothing more than a couple of decals. But for 1968, it became a version of the California Special Mustang hardtop, which had a few more options, most notably Shelby-style fog lamps, rear brake scoops, and rear spoiler.
The 1967 Blazer Limited Edition Mustang is even more obscure. It was limited to a few Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio Ford dealerships and consisted mostly of Lime Gold paint and a black vinyl top, along with the requisite special emblems and a dash plaque. It was probably the closest to the SoA Camino since there were also a few Galaxie 500 Blazer Limited Editions, too.
Then there was the 1970 Mustang Twister Special sold in Kansas, although it’s not really in the same category since it had some actual performance upgrades specific to the basic Mach 1 it was applied to.
This era of El Camino is the only Colonnade body I like at all. The rest of them, to me, range from blah to hideous. IMHO, it’s the worst era of GM styling in my lifetime. They had finally equalled Ford in the ugly department.
Jason’s conclusion is plausible but I have 2 queries.
One is that the upholstery has almost certainly been replaced, so the piping could have added, and the second is why the fender badge with the eagle says “Camino”, when surely a full factory specified badge would say “El Camino”? Or am I missing something due to lack of exposure to El Camino?
The lack of the “El” was something I struggled with, but then this was about to run before I realized I hadn’t looked at, or taken a picture of, the other front fender to see if there might be a difference. My initial thought about the missing “El” was it may have simply disappeared over time, figuring it had been placed above the Camino lettering.
If someone could zoom in and read the dealer emblem on the tailgate, it might provide a clue, or at least show the origin of this particular ‘Spirit of America’ El Camino.
Looks like you may have missed that piece of information, my friend…it’s about midway down in the article. 🙂
I currently own my daddy’s Spirit of America El Camino and according to him it was the dealership that outfitted each one. Mine came with strato swivel bucket seats in white vinyl ( no piping) navy blue interior.
Do you have pictures ? We’ve documented three, is your’s one of them or a 4th?
I bought this car from Rick just recently – arranging shipping and I’m going to restore and drive it. Long story, never was a Chevy guy until I lost a son alomst two years ago. He was a Chevy kid, I was a Ford guy – to honor him – I said I’ll drive Chevy the rest of my life – this looks like a fun project
That is awesome! I’ve been keeping an eye on it and I’m glad you are purchasing it. It doesn’t look like it will need a tremendous amount of work.
I am the owner of the El Camino featured in this article. I got her started today 8/16/19 ! New starter, plugs and battery and came right back to life! Last registered in 11/2009, she hasn’t run in ten years. I pulled the plugs, did the marvel mystery oil in the cylinders, hand turned the motor and attended to some minor bit and pieces. Need to do the front differential seal and the master cylinder for the brakes.
On my Vega Spirit of America the emblems (decals) are all one piece. The word Vega and the graphic are one decal, not like on this El Camino. It looks like someone cut out the Vega or Nova and put in the “Camino” Also on the Vega and Nova,the decals replaced the metal nameplates on the vehicle.
https://www.facebook.com/MatttheSpincoach/videos/10220143012665707/
Here’s a video a made this week of the Spirit of America El Camino here in the article. I’m in the process of getting her running, stopping and probably keeping the car as original as possible.
This is absolute proof that the El Camino was a factory sponsored model. From the April 26th 1974 – Fort Worth Star Telegram.
She’s running and driving, made a few short drives and all there. I brought her back !
My Grandfather, who passed away before I was born, owned the 74 and purchased it brand new from the dealer in either Waco Texas, or Temple. I know this because my mother lived in both cities as a child and vividly remembers riding around in his delorian, 280Z, and specifically, his rare 74 Spirit of America El Camino. I stumbled on this story because I’ve always dreamed of being able to build my mom an el Camino once I have the proper funds to get a full restoration of one. It wasn’t until earlier today that I came into this page and understood just how rare it actually was, even if GM really did just send them decals to put on the car. It feels pretty cool to know that my grandpa owned one of three known to exist today, not gonna lie..
I had a 1974 El Camino Classic Spirit of America. I purchased it in 1979 on the used car lot at a local Ford dealership in Jackson, MS. It was like the El Camino in this article, white exterior, blue interior with white vinyl bench seat. It had standard Chevrolet “pie pan” wheel covers. It had factory air, cruise control but the windows and door locks were manual. It did have factory air shocks on the rear with electric air pump under the hood to adjust air shock height. The air shocks had been replaced with regular shocks when I purchased it, but still had the pump under the hood and control knob in the cabin. I don’t remember the body stripe, but it did have the Spirit of America badging (decals).
At the time I didn’t know what the Spirit of America El Camino was. Shortly after I purchased the vehicle I custom painted it and installed Cragar SS wheels on BFG Radial T/A tires. I sold the truck about 1983. Sometime later I purchased a 1977 El Camino SS that I still have today.
Billy Swan could have used his extremely popular ’74 tune, I Can Help, to help sell the versatile Camino. If he had known then, he’d be largely remembered as a one hit wonder.
Tape and decal packages on white cars, became quite popular with GM in the 1970’s. And they generally looked good. The rarity of white paint in the market, lent their appearance, a unique freshness.
Seeing factory production cars repeatedly in volume on the road, will help normalize unusual styling, or design elements. IE: The Ford Edsel. The 1974 Malibu faux Mercedes grille, looks absolutely ridiculous, on an otherwise typically US ranch or farm-associated automobile.
While the industrial-like bumpers, with prominently displaying bumper bolts, seriously undermines otherwise smooth and well-integrated 1970’s exterior styling.
Thinner striping, located slightly higher on the bodywork, may have looked more elegant.
There’s a few ads from 1974 online indicating it’s a factory produced option.
Maybe I’m missing something but to me, it should be fairly obvious how to determine if this El Camino is the real deal or not. Check the SPI label. It lists the codes for EVERY option Chevrolet/GM put on the car. The tape stripes will have a specific code. The option package has a specific code. Just find the SPI label and check it!
Me? I’m over hear in the corner trying to visualize an El Cameno with tilt/telescope steering, automatic HVAC and an outside mirror with a thermometer built in
There are several pics of SoA El Caminos online (besides those posted on this site). I don’t know if these had nationwide availability but they certainly existed and appear to be from the factory. Was there anything other than badging and stripes that weren’t available as options on any Chevy from this time period? I was looking for, say, a mix of red carpeting and blue seat belts, but can’t find any.
…and this one: