Hello,

I wanted a place to post photos and info about my 69 Camaro restoration, so this forum seemed natural to me.

Anyway, I was looking for a 69 for some time before I found what I thought was perfect to me. The intention was to get a car at a reasonable price, use it as much as possible, and do a complete restoration in a couple of years.

Well, I'm from Norway, and we have quite strick rules when it comes to importing cars (or cars in general), and there was a few things I needed to fix. These were small stuff like wipers, heater, gas tank, pluss a few things. So, I had a friend of mine in Florida go get the car, and put it in a garage there where they would fix all those small things.

After a few days they called me and told me the engine was "dead". It would be cheaper to replace it than to fix it. Arrrgghhh.... So, that was the start of more or less a complete restoration.

 

After some weeks in the garage we've got a long LONG LONG list of parts to replace:

- Gas tank
- All the suspension
- Power brakes
- Brake discs and drums
- Fuel lines
- Overhault the axle (got 4.54 now, replacing with 3.56 or so)
- Wipers, wipermotor
- Heater
- + a lot of stash

And of course a new 383. We've decided to go with the Patriot Performance 383, 450bhp.

And while at it, I'm replacing the 4 speed manual with a TH400. So, the 4 speed is for sale

Some photos from the garage:

At first glare the car looks great. Actually the body is great (just some surface rust), but the engine had me fooled. Looks good, but doesn't help much when running on 6 cyl

 

The engine is now out of the car, and new parts are ready to be installed:

 

Well, since the engine is out, and a lot of parts are taken off the car now, this is the time to paint it. I need to fix the surface rust, and I need to remove the vinyl top, as there's rust under it. The thing is that the price for painting the spots where there used to be rust, and the price for painting the whole car is more or less the same. So, that means I'll do a complete paint job.

The question now is, what color?

My initial thought was Hugger Orange with black stripes, but I'm starting to have second thoughts. My brother thinks I should go for mate black, with glossy black stripes, which would look killer I guess, but pain to maintain.

Anyway, it would be cool to get opinions from others, so please shoot...

Hugger Orrange with black stripes:


Mate black without stripes (I want stripes):


Blue with black stripes:


Dark gray with black stripes (cool, but reminds me too much of Mustang):


One I couldn't find a picture of is Black with really dark gray stripes.

 

I also have to decide which hood to use. I have both the cowl hood, and the standard hood (with the chrome "air intake" things).

I'm not sure at all which hood to use. Both are cool. I think the original is very classic, and I like the chrome air intake things, while the cowl hood is a bit more matcho.

So, again, it would be cool to hear your thoughts about this.

 

I like a semigloss black, but not a fan of stripes so of those choices you have there i'd go with the orange.

 

I am guessing your interior is black. Are you going to keep the same wheels?

 

Actually the interior is ugly as "#¤%"!, so I'm gonna replace the whole interior. I haven't decided yet if I'll go for the ProCar Rally 1000 seats, or original. I would like original, but they are so extremely expencive, and hard to find a decent good pair.

Anyway, if original seats, then I'm concidering houndstooth (black/white) seat covers, if not it's gonna be black vinyl. The rest will be black.

 

Ohh, and yes, for now I'm gonna stick with the wheels.

 

Well, if you are considering houndstooth, I remember that there is a black and orange available for the 69. That would look good with the Hugger Orange and the black racing stripes.

I am personally not a big fan of the orange but it was the first of your picture examples.

Lots of good examples.

Joseph