To Laguna or not

by Damon23 Sat Jun 17, 2017 8:33 pm

I found a great deal on a complete 75 Laguna nose not to far from me. It is cheap enough that I just need to grab it. I've been going back and forth on should I swap out the nose on my 75 or not. What do you all think? I may just need to stop screwing around and buy a Laguna to sit along side the Malibu.

by dynchel Sat Jun 17, 2017 8:47 pm

I wanted a Laguna nose for years, but finally decided to keep the standard nose. Choice is up to you.

by Limey SE Sat Jun 17, 2017 9:06 pm

If you have the means to get Both do it you will not regret Leaving that Blue one alone fr what your plans on it are

by Roadcaptain S3 Sun Jun 18, 2017 8:43 am

I would consider just finding a Laguna.
The swap isn't always as easy as everybody thinks. I looked into doing it too and found that sometimes it's almost impossible to get the nose to look right.
Bad fender and hood gaps, misalignment, missing brackets.
There's a real good write up on a nose install over at El Camino Central. The guy goes into pretty good detail about how hard it was for him. He had to do quite a bit of modification.
But he also thought that the problem was he was swapping a 74 nose onto a 77 Elky. He thought the problem was the 77 fenders weren't quite right for the nose.
You might not have that problem since the years are the same for you.

I've seen more than a few make the attempt with pretty crappy looking results.
But others have said it was easy and looked great when they were done.

by Roadcaptain S3 Sun Jun 18, 2017 8:58 am

Here it is.

http://www.elcaminocentral.com/showthread.php?t=10645&highlight=laguna+nose&page=14

"The major problem we encounterd was the Laguna nose-to-fender interface. Looking back, I would say if anyone is considering this conversion, make sure you get the fenders from the donor car that the nose came from, along with the nose. And the frame mounts too. Although we did go back and get the frame mounts, we made the mistake of not getting the fenders too. Here's why you should get them..."

by Limey SE Sun Jun 18, 2017 11:31 am

Roadcaptain S3 wrote:
I've seen more than a few make the attempt with pretty crappy looking results.
But others have said it was easy and looked great when they were done.

I have done two with Not an Issue on was a 1976 Malibu other was a 1977 ... I read that one Before and I believe he had more than just one Issue with the Elcamino swap LOL

by Roadcaptain S3 Sun Jun 18, 2017 12:49 pm

You did?

I didn't remember that.

I thought you started to but ran into a bracket issue.

Pics?

by Damon23 Sun Jun 18, 2017 1:35 pm

I hope he has the brackets. If not then I don't know if it will be worth it. I doubt anyone sells those brackets.

by Limey SE Sun Jun 18, 2017 1:56 pm

His Biggest Issue was he used the 77 Bumper shocks and should have used the Laguna shocks to begin with Esp when doing it on a Elky

by Limey SE Sun Jun 18, 2017 2:57 pm

Damon23 wrote:I hope he has the brackets. If not then I don't know if it will be worth it. I doubt anyone sells those brackets.

The fender brackets should be molded into the Nose already DEF GET the bumper shock's for the Laguna some will say they interchange between the Malibu and Laguna But I dont buy into that and have always used the Laguna bumper shocks and never an Issue

The first two Pics are the 76 Bu I had with the 73 74 Nose the 3rd and 4th are the 77 I had with 75 Nose

To Laguna or not Motor_10

by Damon23 Sun Jun 18, 2017 8:00 pm

The nose is a 75 so it wouldn't be the same shocks? I went to check it out and it looks like its going to need a lot of bodywork to get it smooth. Money I can put elsewhere for now. It had the brackets that bolted to the shocks but I couldn't see where any other brackets would go. It was nice to meet the young man and he has a real 73 SS 4 speed car we got to look over while we were there. I decided not to get it.

by JF74chevelle Mon Jun 19, 2017 6:31 pm

My swap was very easy going from my chevelle to Laguna nose, I did have to change out the shock mounts though.

by JF74chevelle Tue Jun 20, 2017 6:24 pm

Make sure to use flex additive primer if you choose To go with the Laguna

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