I contacted my body-shop guy and shared your concerns, along with pics of both my pre-restoration engine compartment (clearly showing a small block solution) and the big block picture I mentioned earlier. He replied with pictures of the new heater core and heater core box that they have already purchased, and assured me they also have the seal for the area of the firewall that would be occupied by small block hoses. These guys are on top of it, like you, and more than like me. Makes me feel taken care of. So, liked your stereo display above. My comparable from early 70’s cost $12K+ back then, was fairly exotic, as I was selling stereos in a high-end store for a living, and could buy comps at half price. At the time, I had over 5000 records, a couple of 10” Teac reels, and spent my time making ‘various’ tapes, first on reel, then copied to cassette, all for “archival purposes” per the big lawsuit. For security purposes, I would store those cassettes with various of my friends… Now, lets get back to Chevrolet, in a slightly different way. You might have noticed a motorhome behind my Camaro in the picture. That beast started out life in 1964 as a Streamline Countess travel trailer, but only was a travel trailer for 7 miles, the distance from the Streamline factory to an acquaintance of mine who owned an automotive machine shop and parts house on Santa Monica Blvd at the time. He had his mechanics remove the bottom shell of the trailer and set it on a brand new ton and a half Chevy frame and running gear. The windshield came from a 1960 Peterbilt blunt nose, the steering from a large International truck, and the dash is from a 1963 Corvair Monza. A luxury automobile, 26 feet long, and once again, fully equipped with a complete line of extras, in this case designed with my mind in mind. Jay put maybe 350,000 miles on it through the years as he collected an amazing fleet of brass cars, including the king of the fleet, a 1914 Locomobile that originally was built and owned by R.J. Reynolds, of the tobacco company. The Loc had ove 600 ci in 6 cylinders, and dual ignition systems, one a mag and the other one of the first coil systems ever made. The coil took up the entire space under the front seat. Anyway, Jay ended up selling me the motorhome because his new wife wanted him get rid of it and build her a motorhome for her. Which we did, but that’s a whole ‘nother story. Anyway, I was a road warrior for maybe 15 years, most of which my wolf-dog lived with me. A peculiar pack to be sure. Here’s a picture of the pair at the beginning of a job transfer:


So, here's the Chevrolet punchline: In California at that time, a manufactured vehicle assumed the make of its frame. He bought the Chevy frame brand new, so my motorhome is titled as a "Chevrolet HC' where 'HC' stood for "Home Camper". To the best of my knowledge, Chevrolet never made a motorhome, so I refer to it as "Serial Number 1 of a production run of 1".

 

Way cool,what was in the engine bay? 348 maybe?

 

Well, when it was first built, it was a very under-powered 327. It was upgraded to a 396 (in fact, the one going into my Camaro now) which suffered an oops somewhere in America but limped home to Santa Monica, where he found a 350 4-bolt and that lives in it still. Also a bit underpowered once I put the Camaro and my car trailer behind it, but I think I put three hundred thousand miles or so on it beyond where it was when I bought it. Altogether, over 1/2 mill on a homemade motorhome. Not bad. Every time Jay got back from a trip to buy another brass car, he would indicate to his mechanics that it still wasn't quite right in its suspension, so now, when you crawl underneath and check out the springs, you will find that every corner has a different number and thickness of leafs, but I can tell you that countless times, I would be driving the whole package down the freeway and get an urge to go to the refrigerator to get something to drink, as the motorhome seemed to be driving itself. Fortunately I shook off the road buzz each time and restrained myself until the next rest area. It was always an event when we stopped for gas, as nobody knew quite what they were looking at, but would sidle up to us with questions. Those were the days, my friend.

 

I can relate to that,been driving truck for a living the last 11 years,got out of the over the road stuff as soon as I could but still did long hours and miles for years despite being home every night (or day,did 6:00pm to 06:00 am shift hauling woodchips for a year). Still driving but mostly around the Portland/Vancouver area and usually 10 hours a day and a couple Saturdays a month. Start at 04:45 every day but I get up at 03:00 because it's 40 miles to work and I need coffee and a shower to wake up.
Driving for Schnitzer Steel and will retire from it in a few years.

 

Oh hey, since this is the section where we are asked to post 1st Gen. pictures, here is an alternate view of Ricky when I had first purchased him. Other than gaining a front bumper, and changing tires to Cooper Cobra Radial G/T's, black wall out, he will look just like this still, when I get him back. Once I do, I'll insert a 'stare and compare' here to see how close they got the color. The new restore is actually using Cordovan Maroon mix codes, and this paint job perhaps came from amateur-painter land so they probably won't be very identical. We'll see. In any event, I have gone down and viewed the new version and I am quite happy. So THIS picture is from around spring 1983:

 

67 SSRS, 396, 4spd

 

Pic of my '68 Seafrost Green, 327-2speed, cheers!

 

Hey, revisiting this interesting conversation from a couple years ago, to note that FINALLY, I have unboxed my records, and here is my vinyl stash of the Firesign Theater, all in very good shape:


Also glad to note that the turntable is in perfect shape. It cost a bit over $2000.00 back in mid 70's, and the joke of it is all it does is turn. Perfectly, it's true, but NO automation. Plus very custom tonearm and cartridge. The theory was, and is, that the sound does not get any better than it starts, and back then, it was vinyl, baby, or go listen to it from the audience, preferably first row.

By the way, I'll be posting some recents of RIcky in his build thread in the next couple of weeks. He kind of stalled out in the upholstery shop, at a government permits level (new building), so I've been in "hurry up and wait" mode... But damn, he sounds good! Here's why:

 

327 V8 Engine (bored 0.30 over), Camel hump 64cc heads (3917291) Edelbrock Air-Gap RPM intake manifold, Edelbrock 600 CFM carburetor, MSD 6AL ignition (HEI), Power steering, Power brakes, Front and rear disc brakes, 700R4 Transmission.

But you know the old saying,about never buy the first year model, believe it. Chev made a lot of improvements in the 68-69 Camaro's . Still fixing and upgrading.

 

All original numbers matching 68 Camaro produced April in LA factory- Body Color Grotto Blue with Blue Deluxe Interior,327/210


0 HP,3 speed Power Glide, drum brakes, no AC and smog pump removed but saved. We are the 2nd owner with 60,517 mile when purchased in 1992.This car is the closet example of a Barn find out of Cailfornia. Always for sale for the right price so says the wife!