Hello all!

The car is a 1967 Camaro Convertible with a matching 327 2bbl, 3 speed on the floor, Butternut yellow with a white top and yellow deluxe interior. It also has the exterior trim option, center console with gauges and large rear bumper guards. The only thing that is missing off the car is that it had a bumble bee stripe on the front of it but it got removed over the years.

So I'm doing this mild restoration for a friend of mine. Her mother bought this car when it was a year old in 1968 then passed it on to my friend in the late 70's. It's the car she learned how to drive in so it has a ton of sentimental value for her and it's finally getting the attention it deserves

This beauty has been sitting untouched for the last 30 years. As you can see the body has some pretty bad rot on it. All the fenders and quarters are shot. Someone along the line decided to weld the fender extensions onto the fenders so they have to be replaced as well. The doors are loaded with bondo from prior accidents and are going along with the deck lid as it is rotted through. Surprisingly all the floor pans, trunk pan and frame rails are solid as a rock. Even the rockers are good to go.

The engine had been rebuilt not long before the car was parked but I was told it never ran as good as it use to. I pulled the plugs and soaked the cylinders in WD 40 for a couple days stuck a battery in it and it turned over fine so that was a good sign.

I've done a lot already to the car since I have had it and have tons of pictures so I'll slowly bring you up to speed over the next few days.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy my build!

Here is the car as it was the day I got it.




The original wheels were in the back seat with tires on them that had dates from 1973.

 

The original plan with the car was to totally go through it mechanically and make it safe to drive again. No body work or anything like that just make it a drivable car.

First order of business was tires that actually held air for more then a day. I took the 70's tires off the original wheels, bead blasted , painted them, and put some new rubber on.

 

Next order of business was brakes. All the lines were rusted to pieces. So on came the new master cylinder, wheel cylinders, springs, shoes, and all new lines from front to back.

 

Next on the list was the fuel system. New tank, pump, and lines from back to front.

 

I also did points, plugs, distributer cap,rotor button, plug wires, radiator hoses, heater core(which held a nice surprise), heater hoses, and carb. After that the car fired right up but didn't run very well. No ticks or knocks just low on power and nice back fires. Turns out after playing with the timing that whoever rebuilt the engine had put the distributer in 180 degrees off.

 

At this point I was pretty much done with the car so I decided to wash off the 30 years of filth.

 

Sooo... After all that she drove it one time and decided to restore the car to it's former glory. Since I've had the car close to a month at this point I had a pretty good idea of what I would need to get started on this unexpected project lol.. So bring on the first large parts order! $7500.00 worth.

You know you order a bunch of crap when a semi has to deliver it to your house.

 

That's it for today... Feel free to comment about anything! Hope you are enjoying it so far

 

Looks like a great find. Good thing the rockers are solid. So many rag tops have rotted rocker. The process to fix them right is very expensive. There is a connection under the front fenders just in front of the doors. That is where the rocker connects to fire wall. That area is critical to the structure of the car. Any extra protection you can put in there to keep rust out will be well worth it.

Its the triangle shaped part just forward of the vise grip.