This is a 1987 Chevrolet El Camino “Choo Choo” SS that has been given a major series of upgrades over its original specification. It’s now powered by a 430 bhp LS3 V8 – the same engine used in the 2008-2013 Corvette C6.
In order to better handle the new power output, which is almost 300% more than it had from the factory, the car has been given all new suspension including QA1 coilovers all around, four-wheel Wilwood disc brakes, and a 4-speed 200R4 transmission.
Fast Facts: The Chevrolet El Camino “Choo Choo”
- This 1987 Chevrolet El Camino Choo Choo SS started life as one of the original factory-authorized Choo Choo Customs conversions, a cosmetic package created for the El Camino in partnership with Chevrolet. These trucks gave the aging G-body El Camino a more aggressive look, helping GM keep the model visually fresh during its final production years.
- Choo Choo Customs began in Chattanooga, Tennessee, as a van conversion company and grew into one of Chevrolet’s best-known specialty partners. Its El Camino conversions added a Monte Carlo SS-style nose, custom graphics, badges, trim changes, and certification decals, but left the standard mechanical package largely unchanged from factory specification.
- The example shown here has been transformed far beyond original Choo Choo form. A 6.2 liter LS3 crate V8, rated at 430 bhp, now sits under the hood, backed by a 200R4 automatic transmission, QA1 coilovers, tubular control arms, Wilwood four-wheel disc brakes, headers, X-pipe exhaust, and cooling upgrades.
- Further refurbishment included fresh black paint with white graphics, new glass, upgraded interior trim, ProCar bucket seats, air conditioning, and modern audio. The seller also notes that there are a number of faults, including inoperative washers, parking brake, and gear indicator, plus prior accident history recorded on the Carfax report from before the rebuild.
History Speedrun: The Chevrolet El Camino “Choo Choo”
By the early 1980s, the Chevrolet El Camino was living on borrowed time. The coupe utility, once a practical workhorse that could double as a Saturday night cruiser or Sunday morning church transport, had been downsized onto GM’s G-body platform in 1978 and was quietly fading from showroom relevance.
Beginning in mid-1983, new El Caminos were shipped from GM’s assembly plant to Choo Choo’s Chattanooga facility for conversion. The finished vehicles were then sold through Chevrolet dealerships nationwide with full factory-backed warranties. Image courtesy of Choo Choo Customs.
Compact pickup trucks were eating into its market, and Chevrolet had no plans to invest in a major refresh. Thankfully though, the El Camino would get one last act, and it came from an unlikely partner – a van conversion shop in Chattanooga, Tennessee, called Choo Choo Customs.
Choo Choo Customs was founded in 1975 by John Rogers and Terry Rutherford, working out of a small Chattanooga garage. The company made its name converting stock Chevrolet vans into plush highway cruisers, fitting them with captain’s chairs, premium audio systems, high-top roofs, custom upholstery, and even the occasional disco ball.
The business grew rapidly through the late 1970s and into the 1980s, eventually expanding into customized pickups and Suburbans. By 1986, the company was based out of a 125,000 square foot facility and was Chevrolet’s busiest van converter in the country, turning out as many as 30 finished vehicles per day.
That success caught the attention of Chevrolet management, and a partnership followed that would produce one of the most unusual factory-authorized vehicles of the decade.
The Choo Choo Program Begins
Since 1978, Chevrolet had offered an El Camino SS option, designated RPO Z15. It was a cosmetic-only package that included a front air dam, two-tone paint, and decals. When Chevrolet decided to revamp the SS image for 1983, the company turned to Choo Choo Customs rather than handling the work in-house.
The conversion itself was strictly cosmetic. There were no performance upgrades under the hood. The centerpiece was a polyurethane aerodynamic nose modeled after the Monte Carlo SS, replacing the stock El Camino front fascia and giving the vehicle a more aggressive appearance. Image courtesy of Choo Choo Customs.
Beginning in mid-1983, new El Caminos were shipped from GM’s assembly plant to Choo Choo’s Chattanooga facility for conversion. The finished vehicles were then sold through Chevrolet dealerships nationwide with full factory-backed warranties.
The conversion itself was strictly cosmetic. There were no performance upgrades under the hood. The centerpiece was a polyurethane aerodynamic nose modeled after the Monte Carlo SS, replacing the stock El Camino front fascia and giving the vehicle a more aggressive appearance.
Choo Choo added custom parking light lenses, SS graphics on the fascia, doors, and tailgate, and a small chrome train emblem above the glove compartment. All vehicles received a “Designer Series” emblem on the door handles and a re-certification sticker on the driver’s side door jamb listing a sequential build number, year code, and the last six digits of the VIN.
Graphics were available only in black or silver. The 1987 models received an additional Choo Choo Customs logo with a train on both the front fascia and tailgate.
The program was not a dealer-installed option, and individual owners could not send their own vehicles to Chattanooga for the full factory conversion. However, Choo Choo’s own catalog from the period noted that the individual styling and restoration components were available for separate purchase by El Camino owners, allowing owners to replicate the look on their own vehicles.
El Camino “Choo Choo” Specifications
Styling details evolved over the production run – early cars through to mid-1985 had aluminum body side moldings with a machine-turned center and two vinyl inserts. Later models switched to a more rounded molding profile. Some vehicles had ground-effect-style side exhaust skirts with rectangular chrome exits, and many were fitted with aluminum wheels – early versions with center caps with styling holes, and later ones with solid caps.
This 1987 Chevrolet El Camino Choo Choo SS has been significantly modified from its original factory spec, and it’s now vastly more powerful, and has a number of other upgrades to the suspension and brakes to better handle the new output.
Under the hood, the most common powertrain was the 5.0 liter (305 cubic inch) small block V8, producing up to 150 bhp depending on the model year, paired with an automatic transmission. The Monte Carlo SS received a high-output version of the same engine rated at 180 bhp, but that option was never extended to the El Camino.
Total Choo Choo El Camino output was around 4,950 examples across the five model years, though some enthusiast communities, particularly El Camino Central, estimate the actual number may be closer to half that based on their analysis of sequential certification decal numbers.
El Camino production ended after 1987, the model had been produced from 1959 to 1960 and again from 1964 to 1987, and the Choo Choo SS program ended with it. Choo Choo Customs continued selling its conversion parts for several years afterward, but the company’s core van conversion business collapsed during the 1990 recession, helped along by the popularity of custom vans largely dying out around the end of the 1980s.
Choo Choo filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 1991 and was eventually purchased by two Knoxville investors, Kurt and Ross Faires, for $5 million. The company operated briefly before shutting down permanently in the early 2000s. Its remaining El Camino parts inventory was acquired by Honest Charley’s Speed Shop, also based in Chattanooga, which continues to sell them to this day.
The car began life as a Choo Choo Customs conversion, but it was extensively reworked in 2020 with a modern 6.2 liter LS3 V8 crate engine, a 4-speed 200R4 automatic transmission, QA1 coilover suspension all around, and tubular front control arms.
The 1987 Chevrolet El Camino “Choo Choo” SS Shown Here
This 1987 Chevrolet El Camino Choo Choo SS has been significantly modified from its original factory spec, and it’s now vastly more powerful, and has a number of other upgrades to the suspension and brakes to better handle the new output.
The car began life as a Choo Choo Customs conversion, but it was extensively reworked in 2020 with a modern 6.2 liter LS3 V8 crate engine, a 4-speed 200R4 automatic transmission, QA1 coilover suspension all around, and tubular front control arms.
Following the current owner’s purchase in 2025, additional work included a Wilwood four-wheel disc brake conversion, replacement of the front and rear glass, bodywork, and a full refinish in black with white graphics. The car rides on polished American Racing Torq Thrust wheels and has a raised cowl hood, a Holley EFI intake setup, headers with an X-pipe exhaust, and a Ron Davis aluminum radiator.
Inside, the cabin has been fitted with ProCar gray vinyl bucket seats, a floor console, replacement carpets, sound-deadening material, refinished door panels, a Pioneer Bluetooth/CD receiver, and air conditioning. It’s worth noting that the dashboard is cracked, and a dash mat has been installed over it. Power windows and locks are also installed.
The car began life as a Choo Choo Customs conversion, but it was extensively reworked in 2020 with a modern 6.2 liter LS3 V8 crate engine, a 4-speed 200R4 automatic transmission, QA1 coilover suspension all around, and tubular front control arms.
The car does come with some disclosed issues – the windshield washers and parking brake do not work, the gear shift indicator is nonfunctional, and the Carfax report lists front-end accidents in 2008 and 2016 as well as roof and front damage in 2020. As a result of this, any prospective buyer would want to investigate to make sure they’re comfortable before money changes hands.
It’s now being offered with build records and a clean Colorado title out of Portland, Oregon on Bring a Trailer. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Bring a Trailer
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
