This is the third time I build this Camaro. The first was in high school I did it on the cheap. Car new was a butternut yellow, black vinyl top, bumblebee nose stripe and black interior. Other options were 327, 4 speed, console and steering wheel upgrade. I bought the car as a roller no motor, trans interior or a title. It looked like it hit a pole dead center of the grille and push the radiator core to the engine crossmember. It had also been raked down the passenger side front to mid door. I paid $400 for it which I had to borrow from my dad(Yes I payed him back). A friend and I went to where the car was and dug it out of the snow bank it was in and towed it home after breaking it free from the frozen ground. Had to do a lost title first thing. I still remember the officer walking around the car to verify it was the was the car in question. Then a friend of the family who was a body man helped me with The body work, vinyl top removal and sprayed it for me. The color I choose was Pepsi blue, white stripe and a red pearl in the clear coat. I had to find all the parts. I was a HS student athlete with very little money. What saved me was my dad owned a savage yard. But there was only one 1st gen firebird in the yard. I worked for parts on weekend. I put a 350 and Saginaw 4 speed. Changed the manual steering box to power. I got carpet & grill from Classic Camaro by making a bet with my dad. See we had a three room abandoned house on our small ranch that he wanted gone. He was going to Denver for the weekend. So if I got it down and ready to burn in the field he would buy them for me. Well it was down but not all of it was in the field but he bought them anyway. I think he won but so did I too. I bought it as a sophomore and drove it my senior year.
Next time I was in the Marine Corps and would spend all my money buy parts at Classic Camaro. I was station in Southern California so I could go to their small showroom. I replaced all the sheet metal of the front of the car. Then took it to Denver where a different friend of the family was a body man. He did some rust repair striped it down to metal and painted Daytona yellow, the tail light panel, bottom door, fender, quarter panel following body line with SS hockey stripe all black. I took out the Volvo seats and replaced them with 69 Camaro seats with head rest option.
I drove it until I was married with a two year old daughter. Someone came to the door asking me if I would sell her. I said no but with enough talking he drove it away with the promise to give me first shoot if he sold it. Well he did sell but I did not know he did until I got a call 20 years later from Kentucky inquiring about the car and why it had so many options. In the time above I put a date correct 12 posi with multi leaf springs rebuilt a 327 blueprinted and balanced with 11 in clutch. I asked if he would sell it. He said yes. I didn’t have enough to match the asking price. So you guessed it Dad lent me the money. I flew to Kentucky and trailered it home to California. I will never sell again.
