I have an original 1969 Camaro that I just bought that I am restoring. The owner bought this car way back in 1974 and it was original and nothing has been done to it to change it.

The problem is the car is a 6 cylinder, not a V-8. On Ebay, AutoTrader Classic and everywhere else I see 1969 Camaros for sale, they are mostly V-8s. Is that because V-8 are more popular or people have taken the 6 cylinders out and put in V-8s or is there not a lot of 6 cylinder cars.

Obviously this car is just a plain jane Camaro but should I leave it original and is this a number matching car. I am not really sure what "number matching" atually means. Does that mean every panel and part on the car or what?

What would you do?

 

numbers mathcing means that the last i think 5 or 6 digits of the vin # of the match the last 5 or 6 on th engine id #. and yea alot of people dump the 6 cylinder becaue they want more horsepower, but it is getting kinda rare to see a complete stock 6 banger in camaro nowadays. but the cars yours and you can do whatever you want to. if you pull the motor keep and store it because if you sell it to someone who wants to restoreit then you can give the orginal motor with it.

 

Just save all the old stuff and you can put it back to original later if you want. Anything you bolt on can just be unbolted later, as long as you don't cut stuff up or weld stuff on you can just put it back the way it was.

 

I think that this is strictly a matter of what you want to end up with.
Based on the statistics, V6 are not as popular as V8s. But truly that is irrelevant. If it is an original V6, i.e. correct S/N with the correct transmission and factory installed parts. etc. etc., it is probably worth maintaining it that way.

If you don't care about originality and want a nice driver that has a little more get-up and go then a 350 is probably a good project.

Numbers matching will likely mean different things to different people. In the strict sense it means the car has the S/N of all the components that it came from the factory with. And, where there is no S/N, the date stamped and date codes must be appropriate to the build date of the car. (These are rare and highly desirable cars...and unless you actually own one, restoring one to that state is a difficult, expensive and extremely time consuming endeavor).

I think you need to consider the following:
What do you want to end up with when you're "finished"?
How much money are you prepared to spend?
How much time are you willing to invest?
I think once you have a clear answer to these questions, you will know what YOU should do.
What I would do and what others would do may not be relevant to you.

I'm not sure if my post has helped you. I hope so.

Vic

 

I have a numbers matching 68 straight six...in my research a numbers match 6 is worth about the same as a none matching excellent condition V8 restoration...so when I eventually get around to restoring my 68 I will probably just make it fun as I don't gain any value by restoring it to factory spec (like I would if it was originally a z/28 or something)

 

I think you should keep it original, but if you decide to put in another engine, keep your in-line 6 like carguy68ssrs said.

 

Going thru the auctions the I6's do not do well. You have a very limited market. I would guess less then 5 out of a hundred would look at a I6 unless then could get a grat deal and pull the motor. If its numbers matching it can hurt the value because many guys can not bring themselfs to mod a original car.

Future value? only time will tell. There will come a point when these car start to go down in value. Example: You can buy an all orginal 32 pontiac for less money then you can buy a hot roded 32 pontiac that is done right. Why becasue the Hot rod market is MUCH larger then all orginal market. If only few people are looking for an all original version it has less value. Now if there is something rare about the car, something that makes it stand out and two or more rich collectors want it, thats when prices go nuts.

As stated above. Build what you want and keep all the orginial parts. Then when you sell it offer the orginal parts to go with.

 

My first 68 was an In-Line 6 and my first experience with setting points. I must have burned out the points every 2 weeks and kept a feeler guage duct taped to the air cleaner. Had the girlfriend well trained....o.k. hit it, hit it again, hmmmm alright hit it..stop stop..nope damn it, hit it again!

V-8's are such a kick in the pants over an I-6, if it were me I would pull it and drop in a V-8. Is it a column or stick shifter? Of course if you do pull the motor, there will be other things that you will have to replace to properly pair everything up for performance. Exhaust, tranny?, rear end?, front springs.

Worth it?... More money on resale...absolutely, especially if you balance the added items with the motor.