Hi All,

I'm new to the forum, so thank you in advance for taking the time to read this.

I bought this 68 camaro about 4 years ago for $19K - probably paid too much because I was young and excited... but now I'm trying to determine what to do w/ her. This is not a numbers matching car. It's been sitting for almost 2 years now, and it's time to s*** or get off the pot, so to speak...

I have about $15K I can put into her, so my questions are twofold:

1. Is it worth investing the money in this car or should I sell and start over?

2. Is $15K reasonable to do the following:

BODY WORK: Car needs paint, as you can see in some of the pics there are some problem areas. Does it make sense to try to patch these spots or paint the whole car?

MOTOR: Has a 396 in there right now, however, it's a bit of a dog. probably has about 15K miles on the motor: Holly 750, Hooker Comp longtube headers (hate them because they scrape everywhere), mild cam, don't know much more about the the innards than that... Haven't had the car dyno'd, but can't possibly be putting out more than 350hp. Would like to get the car to as close to 500hp as possible, open to suggestions for a rebuild or sell the block and drop something else in...

TRANSMISSION: Has a Borg Warner T10 that's just about done... needs to be rebuilt no matter what, but would rather drop a 5-speed (Tremec?) if i'm going to do all this.

REAREND: Currently has a 10-bolt rear and is peg-legged... no bueno for putting down the power.

BRAKES: has disc all around, but they need to be looked at, as the car doesn't stop all that fantastic.

The car is currently located in Northern California, near Chico/Sacramento.

Would love to hear shop suggestions if anyone has reputable places in mind for any of this work.

In summary, I love this car and am happy to invest in her, but if I'm ever in a position I need to sell in a few years, I don't want to be upside down on her either.

Thank you for your time and input

Cheers,

 

to put it mildly your $15K is not going to go very far
depending how particular you want to get with the body and paint you could invest 10 grand right there
are you capable of doing any of the work yourself?
I have over 30 k in mine and not done yet

 

I appreciate your honesty

I was thinking around 7 to 8K for paint/body work... i don't need it to be a show car, but I want it done right.

I'm capable of doing the small maintenance stuff, but I'll need the body work and drive train addressed professionally.

I was thinking $3-4K for Motor work, $2-3K for Transmission, and $2k to swap to 12-bolt rear w/ Posi.

So maybe I'm into the car for closer to another $20K?

Real question is, do those changes make my car a near $40k camaro?

Or am I going to be losing $10k on it when I sell?

 

i know its a classic but 7 to 8k for paint seems high to me 3 to 4k out hear on the east coast would be acceptable ,i can paint mine for like under 2k ,but i have a friend that will do it for less, body shop $2500.00 or so,but i dont have any body work to do,like you said your not looking to make a show car ,but could still be there

 

Pretty sure it's not a true SS so that hurts the end value quite a bit.
You should look up the codes and find out what it really is for starters.
An SS would have a 12 bolt rear with multi-leaf springs and a T-10 is the wrong trans, a good trans but a Camaro SS would have come with a Muncie.
The hood is also wrong for a '68 SS,'69 was first year for that hood.
What the paint will cost is hard to say, looking at he pics I would not be too surprised to find out there's a lot of rust and bondo under the paint that's on there and who knows what else so you are probably not far off on the cost if not under what it will really cost to bring it back done right.
It has potential to be a real nice car but a $40K car I dunno,maybe if it is a real SS but you'll spend a lot to get it there and if it's not an SS you'd be lucky to break even on it.
Here's some reading for you that will make your head spin. lol
Camaro Factory Options

 

Good day to all, I am also in Nor-cal and would be interested in the car at about 14k needs a lot of work.. Your upside down now and its only going to get worse. The rear end alone is going to set you back about 3k to 3500 so plan on it. Paint and body 10k is much more realistic, I just did my engine nothing fancy was 3500 just for the engine and about 2k more in things you need I did the labor myself. Transmission is going to set you back 1k to just get it rebuilt the 5 speed conversion will run you about 5k by the time your done. Assuming the interior is top notch a realistic number is more like 30k to 40k and then you can sell it for about that... These things are money pits and if you love it the cost should not matter. If you want to make an investment this is not the thing to do.....

 

that is an entirely possible price, but, nobody knows what's under that paint. it could be flawless, it could be rusted and bondo'd together...

as far as paint, i would hold off on that until the end. do everything you want to do, and save up. along the way, you may need something else, or decide that since this is new, that THAT has to be new. it's what happened on mine. new radiator with electric fans - and i was cleaning and repainting the whole engine bay. and since the battery tray was out, might as well move the battery to the trunk, etc....

all in all, once your mechanicals are done to your liking, get paint estimates, and save. you don't need a 25k paint job like you are going to bring your car to SEMA, but, do NOT cheap out there. you'll always wish you spent more on the paint, and had it done "right" and by that i mean, make sure there enough coats of paint and clear so you aren't instantly getting chips from rolling over a pebble, etc. and make sure you invest to make the body perfect. in the end you'll be most happy, and it will be the first thing everybody notices and appreciates.

as far as, "is it worth it?" for investing into the car. no. it never is, and you'll hardly ever get dollar-for-dollar back that you invest, but, that isn't what it's about. you aren't selling the car right away.... if the budget gets way out of hand. ask some questions, make some friends, and tackle some of the projects yourself. it's much more gratifying that way as well.

 

Good advise so far on here. My car is "nice" but not a knock out. Thumbs up everywhere I go, but if I was on the outside, I'd find things to complain about it. Ha, I'm my own devils advocate. My own worst enemy. My wife wanted this car for just a couple of reasons, and we got it. Like Rytas I was switching out my old radiator for a new aluminum one I bought, but once it was out, there were some "things" to take care of. Now, 3+ weeks later I'm picking up my motor tonight (in about 30 mins actually) after having it machined and new pistons on a newly rebuilt motor when I got it. $1400 later and another $4k in the garage waiting to go on the car, I'm like you .... is it worth it to keep dumping money into it? Well, with a 375/400 hp small block tearing up the avenue and a **** eating grin on your face ALL DAY LONG I'd say it's worth another $10k to make it even more of what you want. But that's just me. YOU have to want the car. And that's hard since it's been sitting for the past couple of years. I know. I've got a nasty custom Harley sitting in the shop. It was fun when I bought it, but now, not so much. Buy another one and do the same stuff? Why?
Build it the way you want it or sell it so someone else can. You don't build these to sell and make money. I've always lived on the theory of making back $0.75 on the dollar. But it's more like $.50 and a whole lot of time.
Hope that helps you with the motivation. If so, great. I hope to see you out on the road. If not, well, show me the car and I may just buy it from you. The wife wants all three years 67-68-69 and I can't argue with that.
Nuff said.

 

Well I'd have to say she's a keeper! lol

 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - enjoy the cruise and let the next owner worry about other stuff.