Car Craft - July 2005 - Vintage Wheel Works

------------.--- -------.-.I bought the carfor $1,800 from afriend in highschool back inNew York in 1985.As delivered ithad cast-off '605-vintage Torq­Thrusts (not coolin the '80s), a GMcowl hood, andblack spray-bombI took the Camara to collegein Pennsylvania where I blewup the "new" used motor I'dinstalled. I pulled it at mypart-time gas station job,and then the '69 sat derelict,as seen here circa 1988. Atthis point the front end isbattered thanks to a run-inwith a drunk driver twoyears prior, though thewheels had yet to be stolen.the car for street·0•OUon't••Perfect-.That's HRoad i a•IX·unnln'6 9ras

TThis is what I wasleft with by 2003.Hard to believe Iwas ridiculed forhanging on to thiscar. Actually, if thevalue of '69 Camaroshadn't gone throughthe roof, I'm sure the, criticism would stillrun thick. Regardless,I somehowmanaged to hold onto a vision of thisgem's potential fornearly 20 years.Automotiveartist and GM styl·ist Jeff Angeleri took ourthoughts and penned the Camarawith a stylized version of the factoryhockey-stick stripe incorporating the CarCraft logo. Stripe colors discussed included offwhiteand silver metallic to tie in with either the white interior or the argent grilleand wheels. Since this would not be a forever paint job, we CQuid get a bit loose .•As I pulled the last box off the hoodof the '69, all hopes that it wasn'tactually as bad as I recalled weredashed. It looked like hell. I'd been toting thisCamaro around for more than 15 years. eversince it had ceased to provide transportationwhile I was still in college. and being draggedabout the country and stored in dusty. dampQuarters hadn't helped a car that alreadylooked haggard in 1985. Most people scrapcars when they're no longer useful. but this justwasn't the sort of car that got junked.But once the car didn't run anymore, its conditionworsened despite my efforts to maintainit The spraybomb primer continued to fadeinto an ever more blotchy. chalky mess; theinterior steadily became more musty: and itsarch nemesis, oxidation. quickened its pace.Adding insult to injury, thieves made off withsome of the Camaro's best remaining bits inseveral separate incidents, leaving it up onblocks the last time after absconding with therally wheels. I hadn't had the means to get thecar running again, nor to store it securely, butonce stuff started disappearing, I scraped andscrounged and screwed it back together withjunk parts so it would move under its ownpower. Finally, it returned to the security of myparents' garage-the first of many storagespaces it would occupy in the coming years.Through it all, I was determined to somedayreturn the Camaro to a level of glory it had notseen since sometime prior to my ownership,though I wasn't thinking that I'd have to waitfor nearly as many years as I"d then been aliveto get it there. Probably a good thing: I didn'thave that kind of patience at 19.Back then I had developed typical teenagepie-in-the-sky visions for my pride and joy, seeingpast its many faults to envision what thecar could look like with "just a little work." Thetrouble was. I wanted perfection. So even afterI'd finished school and started earning a littlemoney. I kept the car stashed rather than combatingits immediate problems and getting itback in action. In my mind. the car deservednothing less than a full-on rebuild.In retrospect. I was being stupid. waiting forthe perfect combination of time, money. andsuitable work space to come together for atotal rebuild when I should have been chippingaway at it so that it would be on the road andin some way useful, even if it fell way short ofmy ideal. It took until I was over 30 and livingin California for the foolishness of my ways tohit me: I realized that sitting on the car was awaste, both of time and of a Camaro.At that point my thinking finally shifted tothe here and now, and I formulated a new planto make something happen soon. The revisedphilosophy was based on the notion that evenwith a limited budget and timeframe, it shouldbe possible to return a car to some sort of usefulstate-not necessarily daily-driver useful,but at least cruise-night useful.I took some inspiration from the retrarodderswho bolt cars together in their mostSpartan form, with functionality the main motivator,just like they did after WWII. If doneright. the patina of old parts and primer is brutallycooL so why not take a similar approachwith a muscle-era ride? Spend the moneywhere it's most needed, reuse the decent parts,fog it with some kind of uniform finish, thenworry about making it better later ... or don't.The ball was set in motion by tackling thecar's worst feature: the dented. rotted body.We covered the installation of Goodmarkquarter-panels in the April '04 issue and soonafter ordered more Goodmark sheetmetal forthe front end. With that handled, the car beganto gan;1er more respect: it was now a solidfoundation for a project. Shortly after, during astaff meeting, Freiburger suggested I take the'69 on Anti Tour. though it was implied thatlimping it there with its Sanford and Son vibewas not what he had in mind. The rest of thestaff chimed in and the "intervention" was infull swing. So, with a mixture of peer pressure,a six-week deadline. and some extra hands forhelp, the Camara was officially underway.The accompanying photos tell the tale,though in the end. the car fell just short ofmaking the Tour. I blame the California DMV.No biggie, as the Tour was merely the carrotthat fueled this project and got the Camarolooking and running better than it ever has duringmy ownership. Now it's on the road for thefirst time in over 15 years and evoking a bit oflust from onlookers rather than contempt.Meanwhile, I feel like I've got a new toy, whenactually I had it all along.JULY 2005 CARCRAFT.COM 41

Up front it was IT\Of"e of the same,though less of the original stuff wassalvageable. Goodmark provided thegrille so the Camaro would have onefor the first time in nearly 20 years,and we installed it using the originalstiffening brace and headlightbezels. Another new bumper, alsofrom Goodmark, was installed,while the original parking lampswere polished up and reused. For afew extra bucks we also ordered afactory-style chin spoiler fromGoodmark.-+Base·model '69 Camaros usedargent grilles, as did standardZ/28s, while only SS models got ablack grille from the factory.We hadn't really thought much about the interior, figuring if the car would run and drive we'd sit onwhatever to go to Phoenix. But as the body was getting better, the interior started looking worse.We cleaned up the original white seats, but the door panels were still at the folks' place in NewYork, and not worth shipping costs. A call to Year One and we had a fresh set of assembled whitedoor panels and installation hardware. We also picked up a set of window felts while we were at it.The crowning jewels of the project were thenew wheels, one of the areas we felt shouldn'tbe compromised. Vintage Wheel Works producesclassically styled wheels in traditionaland contemporary sizes; we selected a set ofVintage 45s in 17xB and 17x9.5. To wrap therims we went to Toyo to try out its newProxes T15 high-performance street rubber(P255/45Rl7 and P275/40Rl7). The guys atFlip's TIre took their usual care while mountingour gems.Freiburger wasn't digging the slick '80s-vintageaftermarket steering wheel, nor was anyoneelse for that matter. I took the hint and theopportunity to order a repro version of the factorysport steering wheel I'd lusted after foryears. Year One offers the wheel in kit form,including the mounting hub, hardware, homcontact, and hom cap. I'm still Clinging to theSun tach, though.48 CAR CRAFT JULY

-+Yes, we know this makes us Camara Craft again. Get over itWe'r also working on an AMC, some Mapars. and a couplePontracs.."Wow. You really saw the jewel in a pile of dog dung."Henry D.Afterdark Signworks; Torrance, CA;323/595-6781; afterdark03.comAmerican Musclecarsj Ontario, CA;909/605-7731: americanmusclecars.netBaer Brakes; Phoenix. AZ; 602/233-1411;baer.comClassic Tube; lancaster. NY; 800/882-3711; c1assictube.comDynomax; Jackson. MI; 734/384-7806(tech); dynomax.comEdelbrock; Torrance. CA, 310/781-2222;edelbrockcomGoodmark Industries; Lawrenceville,GA; 770/339-8557;goodmarkindustries.comFlip's Tire Service; Van Nuys, CA;818/786-8686; flipstires.comJohns Customz & PerformancejTorrance. CAl 310/808-0005;johnscustomz.comMade For You Products; Pinon Hills. CA;760/868-6962; made4uproducts.comOptima Batteries; Aurora, CO; 888/867-8462; optimabatteries.comPerformance SuspensionComponentsj Phoenix. AZ; 800/572-3768; performancesuspension.comStencils & Stripes Unlimited; ParkRidge. IL; 847/692-6893;stencilsandstripes.comToyo Tires USA; 800/442-8996; Nearestdealer; 800/442-8696 (West Coast).888/444-8696 (East Coast); toyo.comVintage Wheel Works; Whittier. CA;562/906-8600; vintagewheelworks.comYear One; Braselton. GA; 800/932-7663;yearone.com50 CAR CRAFT JULY 2005