SEMA 2013: Super Rides by Jordan’s ’59 El Camino SSR Breaks Necks

What we have here is a ’59 Chevrolet El Camino body mated to a Chevrolet SSR cabin and drivetrain on a custom chassis, which is further off the beaten path than what we’re used to seeing. Don’t take that the wrong way – this thing is awesome in more ways than one. 

Built by Jordan Quintal of Super Rides by Jordan, the crazy part about this project is the attention to detail and how much modification was needed to fit the El Camino body to the SSR’s cabin.

The SSR’s cabin was more than five inches taller than the El Camino’s body to begin with, which made for a great starting point for all of the fabrication. A new chassis was put together in order to get the SSR’s cabin to sit lower and match the cabin dimensions of the El Camino.

Getting the cabin to sit lower in the chassis was the first obstacle overcome by Quintal; now he just had to get the wide body of the El Camino to fit around the much narrower cabin of the SSR. In order to do that, Quintal had to narrow the body of the El Camino eleven inches up front and seven inches in the rear, which is no easy feat because the body lines had to kept consistent to appear factory.

The only aspect of the body that is obviously not OEM at first glance is the tonneau cover, but other than that, it looks like the body hasn’t ever been narrowed in the first place. After all was squared away with the body, it was shot with House Of Kolor’s three stage Blueblood Red by SoCal Paint Works in Santee, California, and damn is it red. The engine bay and engine cover pieces were also matched with the same rich Blueblood Red.

To finish up the chassis and get it rolling, a Heidts front suspension was used as well as a Heidts differential and rear suspension assembly. The SSR’s LS2 powerplant and transmission were fitted to the custom chassis to truly make this an El Camino SSR.

The wheels are custom one-offs by Larry Dove of EVOD Wheels and are cut on a CNC machine out of T6-6061 aluminum. Being aluminum, the wheels polished up great, and the black pockets on the face of the wheel really set off the mirror finish. Continental ExtremeContact DWS tires were the weapon of choice as far as grip goes. Paired up with the Heidts coilover suspension, this El Camino SSR should handle quite nicely with the Continental tires and machined aluminum wheels.

We specifically liked this build because Quintal seamlessly integrated the full interior of the Chevrolet SSR and all of the modern electronics as well as the factory retractable hard-top. We were caught off guard at SEMA until reading the plaque next to the car, but from that point on, it was full intrigue. There was a lot of hard work put into this beautiful creation and as it may not be everybody’s cup of tea, we have a lot of respect for this build, because after all, it is the first known collaboration between a Chevrolet SSR and an El Camino.

 

About the author

Josh Kirsh

Born in Van Nuys, Raised in Murrieta, Joshua Kirsh is a SoCal Native. With a love for anything on wheels since the ripe young age of two, Joshua Managed to turn his love for automobiles into a career. As Power Automedia's newest writer, he plans to bring you some of the industry's hottest news topics while he's not out in the shop wrenching on some of our badass in-house project builds.
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