Tow truck came to pull it off as rear wheels are seized and there are no tires on the front

Touch down


Recently removed from its grave and pushed onto a trailer by tractor

Offenhauser motor

Offenhauser motor

In its grave of 35 years

In its grave of 35 years




Hey y’all. Got another one! My MIL ‘68. She’s the original owner and it’s been sitting in her back yard for 35 years. I finally convinced her after seeing half a gas tank rusted away to rescue it as I projected another 10 years it would be absolute toast. I have a lot of questions for y’all to come.

 

Mine looked about as good as that one does. Hope you get yours done faster than I have,
Bought it in '81, still not close. Doubt I'll ever get it all done. Gonna be 72 in NOV.

 

1968 SS396 - Mine since early 80's
New to posting, but not new to Ricky Camaro. I bought him in early 80's for $3000.00 and drove every day for 5 years, at which point I parked him, planning a restoration. Now, 40 years later, he came out of the garage and is going through frame-up total restore. I can't wait to take possession.

 

Very nice looking car,I read your other post and it made me wonder if you know for sure this car was an SS396. No power steering or brakes is a red flag,should have both with discs up front unless ordered without which would be unusual.
The big block cars had a different heater core and bigger radiator among other things,I'd like to see a pic of the engine bay and heater core although the core may have been swapped to a small block core since you say it was replaced.I had to swap cores in my '69 when I put a 427 in it in place of the original 327,it was a plain jane car with no power steering or brakes and drums up front. Had a T-10 4 speed in it when I got it so that was not original and the car was only 8 years old. lol
I never SS cloned mine,just drove it like I stole it .

 

Well, since we don't time travel very well at present, who really knows. I certainly don't. I probably should have added, 'or cares'. What I do know is that once we began the restoration, we found that this car had been in a MASSIVE crash, and the sub-frame was no longer a rectangle, but what can only kindly be called a parallelogram, in 3 dimensions! This included a 2" hole punched through the firewall, over 1/2" of bondo on fenders, and fenders that popped away from the sub-frame when released. In essence, the entire front end was probably pieced together from who knows what. I was oblivious to all this, just bought the car, loved the 327 with steel-tube headers and true glass packs, and drove it until we moved to SW Washington, where you and I have been near-neighbors until a year ago, when my wife and I escaped to VERY NW Washington state. I say "or cares" not to be disrespectful, it's just at 72 I care less and less about provenance and more and more about enjoyment. This restoration has been brutal both financially and structurally, but once I got my son'’s permission to spend part of his inheritance (he said, at 28, "I always wanted to learn to drive a stick" as his way of saying "yes") it has been a constant voyage of discovery. To date, we have replaced all four corners, plus the right rear inner-fender, the belly from firewall to front of trunk, put $8K into the 396, and there is a new subframe, new control arms, disc brakes, power steering, and my smile grows as the account decrements. Last week we finished the 6th layer of high-solids primer and it should be painted any time now (including all 3 layers of Lizard Skin inside and under hood), after coming off the rotisserie, rejoining its front sub-frame with 396 and Muncie M20, new Hurst Competition Plus shifter, also rejoining its rear end with new ring and pinion (3.42) and Eaton Detroit Trutrac differential, and becoming what my body-man calls "a roller". So NONE of that is original, but essentially true to the original design. I purposely did not create 5000 HP, kept it around 425 as suits my age and reflexes. We are adding extensions from front sub-frame to rear perch, to stiffen things up structurally, but mostly, this car is being made to be driven, appreciated by those who care, but mostly, to make me smile a lot. My "Old Guy" present from me to me. Oh yeah, when Ricky Camaro is done, same color, same vinyl, same rims (restored). And a second 'oh yeah' the name "Ricky" is based on the reality that for reasons that pre-date me, our family always named our cars, and when I was in high school in the late ‘60’s, those of us who could only afford a 36Hp Karman Ghia (Name: Gutless Wonder) always referred to the hot rodder crowd as "Ricky Racers". And then, I bought one.

 

Don't crush that dwarf hand me the pliers.
Maybe you should have Nick Danger Third Eye (sponsored by dead cat soap a real dead cat in every bar) investigate it's history>
Nothing wrong with a clone SS 396,in some ways I like them better because you're not wearing out a rare classic.
I'm not too far behind you at 65,the older I get the less I care what other people think.

 

Well, a very wise man once said "Beauty is in the eye of the beer-holder". And whether it is or isn't an original SS396, Ricky still sports the correct hood, correct gas cap, correct black paint on the back panel, and SS steering wheel… And I still find his appearance "beautiful", although I’m usually holding a shot glass with Don Julio 1942 when saying so. Nothing against beer, it just only tastes good to me when it's really hot out. I forgot about 'Nick Danger, Third Eye' and his ability to time-travel. "I spell my name DANGER". Actually I think Nick (and my quote) was in the record named "How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All" and subtitled "All Hail Marx and Lennon" with picture of Groucho Marx and John Lennon reviewing the troops in Moscow Square.

However, I gotta say "Don’t Crush That Dwarf" with George Leroy Tirebiter was always my favorite Firesign Theatre album. But anyway, the extent of the crash he was in, which resulted in a total re-work of the front engine area makes it difficult to say one way or the other. Maybe before the crash there was power steering and power brakes, maybe before the heater core rotted out all over the salesman's shoes, it was big block sized. Don’t know, really don't much care. Reality says once he's complete, he's mine and I get to drive him whenever I feel like it. One of the Perks of Retirement is that every day is Saturday…

 

Well we're all Bozos on this bus,you might care about the heater core if you are going big block,the small block core will end up with the hose connections behind the cylinder head so you want the big block core.
I have this album on vinyl “How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You’re Not Anywhere At All”
I'm a bourbon guy myself.

 

Well, re Bourbon vs Tequila, I just have to say that’s fine. And regarding vinyl, I still have around 1800 vinyl records plus a really good turntable, so yay for vinyl! Analog is noisy but more real. And regarding heater cores, the restoration outfit had committed to replace the heater core on general principals ("A job worth doing is worth doing right" as my Papa used to say), but I will give them a heads up. I have pictures of the engine compartment with the 327 in it and I do see how the heater hose would be buried behind big block valve covers. Also I have a picture of a well-restored ’68 SS396, and clearly the heater hose has been shifted toward the exterior end of the firewall, so thanks for the heads up! Looks like they will need a different firewall panel. Regarding the Firesign Theater, my vinyl collection includes not only '2 Places' and 'Don’t Crush that Dwarf', but also "We’re All Bozos on this Bus", "Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him" and I think I have "Everything You Know is Wrong". Plus,"Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death" on CD. Those were the days, my friend.

 

Indeed,I have quite a lot of vinyl myself,I plan on cleaning and sorting for something to do this winter.
I bought a Nitty Gritty record cleaner and a bunch of new sleeves.
I have a killer 1970's vintage separates system based on a Marantz pro series 510M power amp conservatively rated at 256 wpc,had a tech go through it last year and do a full boat recap,he tested it and got 305wpc.
I also have of course a Marantz preamp/control unit and a Marantz tuner and a nice Marantz turntable and a Marantz cassette deck all classic 1970's silver face stuff as well as a Thorens turntable a Teac reel to reel and a Pioneer CD player.All this and my PC piped into the system,sound comes from a set of the legendary Klipsch Kornerhorns as mains and a set of Klipsch KG4's as secondaries.
I like to say I can rattle the windows.....in my neighbors house.
But wait there's more! There's nothing like the sound of tubes so I also have a 1962 HH Scott 335 tuner preamp/208 power amp set rated at 40 wpc a considerable unit in it's day and still fine sounding today. Also a nice set of vintage EPI 100 bookshelf speakers which sound great with the Scott.
I have most of it torn down right now,moving it all except the Klipsch speakers from my upstairs TV/music room into my den in the next room and running wires through the walls to the speakers.It'll isolate the turntables from the big speakers more and keep the grandkids away from the gear,a major winter project.
Somehow I also need to find time for my motorcycle project too but then that's another story.