Re: How Many 69 L89 Chevelles?
 

--------Understand that from my viewpoint I didnt feel that I was pulling things out of "thin air". This was info from a very wealthy, very well connected in the automotive industry icon of sorts (Joe Hrudka, AKA Mr.Gasket). It was my thought at the time that he made a couple of calls somewhere within the GM umbrella and was told this fact. I may have been wrong to take his word. On the other hand, one could make the case that the number of L89 El Caminos would not follow the normal path of other 69 Chevelles as far as percentages are concerned. El Caminos were workhorses 95% of the time. They were normally bought for far different reasons than other Chevelle SSs. The 396s were desireable from a power standpiont for towing purposes, but the L89 option and L78 option wouldnt have appealed to the guy who needed an El Camino normally. It isnt too long a leap to imagine that the numbers of L89s in El Camino SSs would be far less than in other SS models percentage wise..........Bill S

Re: How Many 69 L89 Chevelles?
 

That makes sense Bill.....it makes sense someone like J Hrudka would order a truck with an L 89 !!

Re: How Many 69 L89 Chevelles?
 

I don't think Hrudka was the first owner,third I believe....... https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...ns/scholar.gif


Steve https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...lins/beers.gif

Re: How Many 69 L89 Chevelles?
 

Oops...first owner must have been a hi-po freak too...

Re: How Many 69 L89 Chevelles?
 

Another reason/s that people bought new hipo caminos was 1 if you were a farm boy wanting that kind of power you could buy it and write it off as a farm truck. Also it was an easy way to get around the killer insurance rates as it still was classified as a truck even with an LS6. Traction alway seemed to be a problem with them though. Would an elky have a different frt pad stamp than a chevelle for the L89 option? S.

Re: How Many 69 L89 Chevelles?
 

No...Same engine suffix & plants as Chevelles had.

Re: How Many 69 L89 Chevelles?
 

--------The original owner ordered the car from Slaton Chevrolet on Federal Highway (Rt.1) in Ft.Lauderdale. Slaton was a very high performance oriented dealership all thru the musclecar era. I bought a loaded 70 Elky SS 396/350/AC (White/black) from them new! Orig. owner owned a high perf shop in Oakland Park. Did a bunch of go-fast boat type work for a long time. Hes still around and a Corvette buddy of mine that has a shop right next to his recently told me he was doing some Harley work now. His idea was to have a rolling showcase of performance with his Elky, but he got sidetracked and only did a few things, fortunatly. He ended up storing it and driving his regular half ton all the time. By the time 75 rolled around it had accumulated 16,000 miles but it looked like 1600. The original paint was simply unbelievable. He had never had so much as a feather in the bed.
--------In 1975 when I heard about the car I wanted it so bad I went to a loan shark for the money. I then worked my butt off for a couple of months and paid him off. I used the car less than a 1000 miles in the next year and sold the car for a whopping $5500. At the time I thought I was doing pretty good as I only paid $4000 for it. Maybe three years ago before the present owner got the truck I heard Joes son was finally going to sell and I offered $35000 for it, but he wasnt interested. Wanted $50 large, and I thought it was to much. Oh well, wasnt meant to be!..........Bill S

Re: How Many 69 L89 Chevelles?
 

I made a mistake in my above post.
SS convertible production is roughly 2 percent of total 2 door V8s. (not 20 percent) so the total L89s would be roughly 8 of the 400 not 80.
I mixed this up with my "guess" for LS6 convertibles which is about 80 units.
El Camino production is roughly 10 percent of total 2 door V8s but I figured SS ElCamino was a lower percentage so to be conservative I used 5 percent. So my guess would be roughly 5 percent of the 400 L89s would be 20 L89 El Caminos in 1969.
I use conservative numbers to come on the low side of production. As I said this is my guess.
In my opinion any car with a mass production total under 100 units is an very low number.
If you use the percent of total to "guess" at production numbers at least you see where the numbers come from.
Often, I see low production numbers quoted but there is no explanation of the origin of the numbers.


Quote from Dan Carr's web site......
"In 1968, the SS-396 coupe, SS-396 convertible, and SS-396 El Camino were separate models, unlike later years where the SS was simply an option package. This means that the exact production totals for the different 1968 SS-396 models are known. Records show the 1968 SS-396 totals were comprised of 55,309 coupes, 2,286 convertibles, and 5,190 El Caminos. This equates to 88.1% coupes, 3.6% convertibles, and 8.3% El Caminos. This shows that the SS El Camino was probably a significant component of the SS total for any given year"

Re: How Many 69 L89 Chevelles?
 

Going by my experience with other brands, as well as brands that have more definitive documentation in regards to production figures, I don't think you can use a general percentage on a ragtop. I believe ragtops (and Elkys, too!) carry different weight. For example, it's not unusual for ragtops to have a higher percentage of AC installations than hardtops. While this would be contrary to logic (as one can lower the top for free AC!), there's also the factor that a ragtop buyer may have been more upwardly mobile and in a different life place than the typical hardtop buyer. We can assume people didn't want to go fast in a ragtop and would settle for a regular 396 or maybe there's a guy out there who wanted the best of everything. There's just no way to estimate. If you don't believe me, check out production figures of 442 sport coupes with the W-30 package versus ragtops. I think you'll be surprised on the skew.

Re: How Many 69 L89 Chevelles?
 

JoeC,

--------Im in general agreement with your percentages. But in the case of 1968 it should be remembered that this was the first year for the SS396 El Caminos. Earlier years could get the big-block but never the SS, although many SS hoods and emblems have been added to 66/67s after the fact. I think this pushes the number of 1968 SS El Caminos ordered up a bit, as there was some pent up demand to buy SS El Caminos in 1968. By 1969 this pent up demand probably had petered out and SS Elkys ordered may have fallen off a bit.
--------As I spew out my unsubstantiated theories it occurs to me that 1969 was possibly a longer production year for Chevelles and Elkys as well so maybe my drivel is just that!!!!!........Bill S