Thanks for the clarification. One of the things I enjoy about owning one. There's always more to learn. I do think however this was likely an RS due to the grill and especially the rear valance, tail and backup lights. Sure someone could have replaced them but that's quite a job and attention to detail compared to how they set up the bumblebee stripe.

 

yeah it would be safe to say its an original rs car but i cant really get a good look at the vacume hoses, valve and all the 68 rs stuff for the headlights. i dont think someone would run the vacume stuff on a cloned rs when there are better electric motor systems now. thats the one thing i hate messing with on mine is all the hoses. and my valve is very tempermental. im also pretty sure its a fake ss with the lack of the correct underpinnings. my 68 i guess would be a clone since it wasnt badged an ss car from the factory but it got all the good ss stuff under it from the factory.

 

So the holidays have slowed me down a bit but I am making some progress. I have a buddy who has a number of early 50's cars (merc, chevy, & some sort of muscle station wagon) who has been helping me out a bit with this. He has a friend who is a camaro "expert" - at least in his group.

It turns out my friend, knows the guy who did all the body work on the sellers car & he even remembers seeing the car in primer when one of his was being painted. My friend stopped by the shop last week to take a look in himself & speak to the seller on my behalf. We are planning on making an offer/test drive later this week - if we can get these things straightened out.

So his perspective on this is to make sure that I dont overpay for a "plain jane" camaro that happens to be dressed up as a SS:

The bad or questionable:

1. The engine - the seller says he 'thinks' its a 327 however, it doesnt look like the other 327's (to me). My friend says it could be a 327 block but it could be a 305 too. We are trying to figure how to get to the bottom of that mystery.

2. The 10 bolt rear - the seller says it needs to have a wheel bearing fixed. The seller also doesnt know what gearing it has as he has never opened the rear. The seller will fix the rear himself.

----- Since I dont know if I want a 12 bolt or to keep the 10 bolt my friend figures I should leave the rear end as is with plans to change it out to a 12 bolt for a reduction in price.

3. Door scratch - The seller is going to have a door touched up before the sale.

4. Exhaust leak - The seller will fix the exhaust leak before the sale.

You probably wonder why this seller (who is a mechanic) doesnt just fix this stuff? It sounds like he has a bunch of projects & doesnt want to put money into this car until he is ready to sell it in the spring - unless i buy it now of course.

5. Front stripe / 396 part - It sounds like the seller is willing to get the front stripe fixed when the door gets fixed. For some reason (probably you guys) the stripe bothers me as an obvious flaw. Why the 10 bolt, wrong engine, SS emblems or any of the other flaws dont bother me so much, i dont know.

The seller has extra paint from when it was painted 6 years ago. My friend is concerned that when the front stripe is fixed, that if the clearcoat isnt pretty exact, that the clearcoat could start to chip off (he showed me his work van after a 5 year repair started to fall apart with the clear coat).

Basically my friend doesnt want the stripe fixed as he is afraid the front end could look like crap in a few years & had I left it alone (though it looks incorrect) it would look the same as it does now (with the clearcoat looking fine). In the end he feels its just a plain camaro that looks like an SS & I shouldnt worry about it.

Any ideas of what is actually important? None of these repairs will add to the cost of the camaro but I dont think he is going to go down much - if at all if we skip the repairs.

Again I mostly think it looks amazing & I am a bit more emotionally tied than my buddy.

Thanks,
Rich

 

Hi Rich,

If I were you, I'd make a prioritized list on what's important to you and work from there. As long as it's mechanically sound and there's no big ticket items that need addressing, have him fix what bothers you. It sounds like he's motivated to make some repairs.

Digging into clear coat can be a pain but, it's done often during body repairs. It's not a huge deal if done correctly.

Get the VIN off the engine block. That should at least get you some basic information on the motor. If the seller is a mechanic, he should know what size motor is in his Camaro.

Personally, I drive mine on the weekends and for pure enjoyment. Does the rear end have anything to do with that? Not for me. Again, it's really up to you.

Door scratch and exhaust leak. Have him fix those so you don't have to. Think of it this way, anything he doesn't fix, you're going to have to.

The stripe is a big deal to me. Again, to me it's just is a detail issue and it looks a little sloppy. If it doesn't bug you then let it alone. That would be the first thing I would fix cosmetically though. I'm pretty sure your car started life as an RS due to what was mentioned above. It most likely came with a 327 and the SS badges were added later. It has a great SS hood on it too.

I wouldn't worry about what any of us, or your amigo think about what's important or not. You're buying a hobby, not an investment.

I'd run a magnet around the panels though just to make sure you're not buying a headache.

Good luck!

JV

 

rich,
as to figureing out the motor in the car there should be a pad on the front of the passenger side that has numbers stamped on it. also there is also some other numbers on the back of the block that will lead to what it is.

from the pictures though that are shown i can tell that is not a 305 block due to the fact it has no pcv valve in the valve covers and the oil fill in the intake. if its not a 327 it might be a 283.

 

Is it safe to say that a 283 is slower than a 327? The frustrating part is that when I looked at it last time, I couldnt see anything stamped into the engine. I think it was pretty much covered with paint.

I guess being that the guy is a mechanic, shouldnt he know what engine he has? Or better yet, when he was buying parts for the engine shouldnt he have known what engine he had, or is small block chevy good enough information to order parts?

 

I guess the two things that stick out to me are the stripe & what engine is in it. I am not looking to beat on it so the 10 bolt should be fine. I dont need it to be all original & being that its an "SS" fake, it could at least try to be proper. I really do like the D91 vs the D90 look.

 

Even though you now know it is an SS/RS clone, it's still a nice car. Obviously, someone went through a bunch of work to at least make it look like an RS, which wouldn't have been the first time someone has done that. The SS "clone" part on this one is the badges, as there's more to an SS that car doesn't have.
Here's how to decode the engine: Camaro Decoding help on Chevy-Camaro.com

 

Here is what is important to me, resale value. I am not looking to make any money on the camaro. I think it looks great, the engine doesnt bother me personally, the stripe would be nice to have fixed, but at the end of the day its not a 'real' RS, SS or anything but a plain jane camaro.

A collector won't be interested in the car & I am ok with that. I do want to enjoy it.

So with that all being said. I want to drive it, take the kids out for Ice-cream in the summer, have some nice times & memories. I also want to make sure that if I get 'into' camaro's & need something more collectable that I can get out of this one without taking a bath - IE buying it for 22k & selling it for 18k.

I plan to keep it at least 2-3 years & possibly longer. It is a toy to enjoy but if I want to move on to another toy, I want to be sure someone else would buy it in that price range.

The possible 283 motor, 10 bolt & stripe are things I think the next buyer will beat me up on - or i may keep it forever.

I have a 1999 Jeep that I have strong sentimental attachment to. I dont see myself ever selling that Jeep & I am trying not to fall so far in love with this Camaro that I end up toting around a jeep, camaro, my DD, my wife's DD & two motorcycles.

 

I wouldn't say a collector wouldn't be interested in the car, just somebody who wants a "real" SS or RS won't look at it. But someone who wants the RS look without being as concerned about originality (like you) will give it a look. The car looks like it's been nicely done, top to bottom, from the pictures anyway. A nicely restored "plain jane" car, especially a convertible, still has a good value. Imo, at $22k, you're at the high end of what that car should be worth in today's crappy car market. Will you get that back in a few years? Wish I could predict the future as much as the next guy. $22k is asking price, and if I were interested in that car, I would hit the seller with something in the $17k range to start with. But that's just me, I'm a tough negotiator. Find out how hungry he is without trying to be insulting. Good negotiating is all in the "delivery". Hitting him with something like "$22k, are you effin nuts?" ain't gonna fly!