Cars on The Corner: Dakota's 1970 Cheverolet El Camino

*This article originally was published in the McPherson College newspaper "The Spectator" *

Most of the restoration student have had their love for cars their entire life and have had favorite cars since they were little kids. For student, Dakota Logan, he had dreamed of owning a 1970 Chevrolet El Camino for as long as he could remember, and he was able to turn that dream into a reality during his freshman year of college.

He found the car in Indiana and was able to buy it and make it his new project car. He started the project by pulling the original engine and transmission out in favor of a more powerful setup. He already had a 396 V8, which happened to be made in 1970 so it would match the car. He knew he wanted to convert the car to a manual transmission, and he wanted to use the Muncie M22 “Rock Crusher” four speed transmission. It took 8 months of browsing the classifieds, but he eventually found one and was able to start the process of swapping the new drivetrain in.

The swap was recently completed, and he was able to take it on its maiden voyage this month and was able to show it off at the last cruise-in of the year. He plans on just enjoying the car how it is and not bothering to fix the rust or tackle any other major parts of the car until after graduation. Eventually, he would like to apply what he has learned here at McPherson college and restore the car himself. He wants to do a frame off restoration, leaving nothing untouched, and repainting the car dark green.

Dakota is currently a senior in the restoration program and hopes to start his own welding and fabrication shop after graduation.

*This article was originally published in the November 2020 issue of "The Spectator"