1960 Chevrolet El Camino Could Be the Steal of This Century

By Arison Knapp - July 21, 2016

A lightly restored, solid-running 1st-gen, 2nd-year 1960 Chevrolet El Camino waits patiently in Pennsylvania for a romantic mid-Summer road trip back home. When the weather is fair is the best time to buy classics for future restorations simply because you’ll be able to crawl around the vehicle for an up-close inspection. Restoration experts at Hemmings have this interesting piece of Chevrolet history up for sale and honored it with “Hemmings Find of the Day” award followed by a briefing. While they did not say much about this particular example in Boyertown’s ownership nor did the ad from the owner but the listing’s thorough set of pictures makes up for it and is much appreciated. So let’s take a look at what we find.

Today with just over 90K miles on the entire package it looks as if the powertrain and cabin have be lightly restored whilst the exterior has been preserved. Seller reports, “great interior, no tears, runs and drives great, asking $22,500.” Examining the pictures of the exterior I could tell it has been kept up over the years witnessed by the chromed bits still intact. Might’ve been rechromed but doubt it as the crisp red paint, white top, flatbed and engine bay look just as aged. Surprising the two-barrel 283 V8 looks quite nicely detailed too with little to no grit on the mill. The bay is a bit grimey leading me to believe it had an out-of-body overhaul. The 170-HP must feel smooth with what I think is a new-era tune cycling out an optionable automatic transmission.

The upholstery also looks like it was updated with the now perfect running powertrain. Two-tone in black and white offer quite a luxurious modern look to the antique cabin still brandishing era-correct gauges and controls. Looking around the web all other 1960 models at this price are buckets until the $30K range where you start to recognize El Caminos although most are tricked-out, not OEM. Low price, kept close to factory is a Summer steal.