A few months ago we received another Camaro for restoration work. This one was a 1969 model that the owner (Steve) had since he was in high school. Steve suffered through one of the classic resto-shop nightmares that left his car in pieces. Some sketchy work had been done to the car but none of it resulted in permanent damage. He was also very fortunate that he was able to recover all the parts. Financial pain aside, Steve faired a lot better than some.
We picked up the pile of Camaro parts and went to work.
We were starting with a very solid body shell. The rear quarters had already been replaced and the rest of the shell had only minor rust areas. We did replaced some steel on the original fenders. The sub-frame was stripped and painted. There was already some new suspension parts on the front end so we enhanced what was already there with drop spindles and disc brakes.
Steve and his brother did some drag racing with this car and the rear end showed evidence of the abuse. We rebuilt the differential and put some street-friendly gears in it. The axle was topped off with disc brakes and hung on a set of lowering springs. We also modified the fender lip and did a shock relocation to allow for larger rear tires.
The next step was to reassemble the body. All of the panels were repaired, rust treated and painted on the back sides. The underside of the body and the inner fenders were treated with a textured undercoating material. The Camaro was originally Hugger Orange. We painted the cowl and fender areas before doing the assembly. This was the first time that the body was all together in quite a few years.
The turbo 350 transmission was rebuilt by Jimmy’s Transmissions and we handled the engine work. This is the original 327 that was installed in 1969. It was in good shape so preserving it only involved some light machining.
A final shot of the underside showing the new fuel and brake lines, rebuilt drive shaft and header fitment.
This is another restoration that we planned to do in stages with the owner completing some of the work. At this point we sealed the entire body in urethane primer and delivered it back to the owner so he could do the next steps himself.