I finally picked up my new "diamond in the rough" I guess I will call it. I have been trying to find time to take the trip to pick up the 1968 Camaro I looked at a month ago. Now the project begins. Spent the day sorting out the good and the bad. I will post some starting pics in the morning if I can figure out how to. I will be posting a lot of questions about various items since my background with Camaro history is about..... 6 hrs long now.

 

Here is the beginning:






So plan is (correct me if there is a better way):

• Get the car moving, it has the disk conversion front but the rears are drums still. After sitting for years, they are kindof locked in place
• Make a list of all of the missing parts (entire front end, rear window, etc.)
• Get the motor running correctly
• Replace the floorpan
• Replace the broken parts on the steering column
• Put the car together for paint
• Rebuild the interior
• Hopefully put a Hotchkis drop on it and put 18" Boss 338s (Thanks tazinhawaii for the inspiration)
• Oh, and sell my first born to pay for everything

What are some potential remedies for the engine? He said it was fouling plugs every week or so and they cleaned them. I have heard it could be a fuel problem. I hope the motor is good, makes life easy right now. Its a 327, bored .060 he thinks, mild cam.
Are the rear drums even worth keeping or should I go with disks all around? I have seen full kits from CCP and they are not too bad, I just do not know if they are garbage. I grew up in the import world (no FWD) and there were millions on knock-off companies you had to watch out for.
Hopefully they will work right now either way so money can be spent on getting the car operational.
Thank you for all of the help and not laughing too hard at the current condition of my new pride and joy.

 

FWBSupermoto – Welcome to Camaroforums. It looks like you have a great project car to start with. Did it come with doors and front sheetmetal?

Have you performed a compression check on the engine? That will tell you a lot about the condition of the rings and valves.

If you’re going to drive the car fast and want to handle well with larger diameter wheels, you should consider upgrading the brakes to 4-wheel disc brakes. The larger wheels are harder on brakes and take more effort to slow down.

Thanks for considering Hotchkis parts for your project.
Keep us updated to your progress and have fun.

 

haha you forgot the step of getting the car sand or soda blasted and then discovering all the rust and or bondo that's hiding under the paint. Then comes the cutting and welding and this should then be about a year or 2 into the project. lol Looks like a great start. Looks allot like mine when I started it. It only took a year to get it restored and painted. Goodluck with everything and be sure and post lots of pics. Love watching a car come together.

 

Hey orocker, isn't that about how young you were when you started your Camaro project?

 

Yeah my son definitely likes the new addition. I am hoping that I can get away with less cutting. I did forget the sand blasting part, then replacing the floorpans. There are alot of layers of paint, though. Is it easier to replace the entire floorpan or to replace the LH and RH sides? I know it is cheaper for the full pan but maybe because of difficulty. Hopefully the build picks up, we are putting our house up for sale so it will free up some money. Trying to get it finished before I get orders to somewhere else.

 

haha seems like it.....lol........

teach em to work on em young fwbsupermoto

 

Are you doing the work yourself? You should really tear the motor down so you know what your working with. Just because a motor starts and runs does not mean its not worn out. Seals do not like to sit for a long time. They may seal for the first half hour but then clow out.

I would also be very worried about a car that was changed to white. It is a well known fact that white hides bad body work and it was pretty common back in the day if you where just going to putty up the car it was best to paint it white after. I hope that is not the case with your car.

 

Best to start by getting everything turning and moving, because you wont get things apart easily if they don't move! I'd see if I could pull the access plugs to the rear backing plates and back off the shoe adjustment to try and free up the drums. The front discs are easy, as they can be compressed and removed easily.
I'd also check the engine to see if it turns over by hand with the plugs removed prior to connecting a battery and cranking it. You don't want to damage anything if it's sat too long. Be sure to squirt some motor oil in each cylinder after pulling the plugs, and prior to trying to turn the engine over. Once you know it's free, then do a compression check on the cylinders to determine if the rings and valves are holding well, and that there's not a huge difference between readings on all 8 cylinders.
The plug fouling could be many things, and without knowing if they fouled with fuel or oil there's no way to say for sure how to cure it. Fuel fouling is easy to address, but oil fouling means engine trouble, and probably a rebuild.
I'd spend time cleaning and stripping things down so you can get a good look at it all, and then assess what it needs to get started.

 

I will hopefully be removing the motor soon, to do a teardown and to make it easier to work on and move the body. I will be doing alot of the work myself but trust me, I definitely know my limits and I know it is cheaper to pay someone to do it right the first time than it is to have them fix what I break. I know a few people that can hopefully help me with some of the process as well.
As for the motor, I hope that it is in running order but a full rebuild would open the door to many opportunities. I have been pricing some of the parts I will be needing and it is amazing how much cheaper it is to rebuild classic cars than newer imports.
As for the body, I also hope that the white was just a personal color choice, not a cover up. Only paint removal will tell.

I do have a question though. I checked the VIN and the trim plate and the numbers match up execpt for the one that specifies that it was a 6 or 8 cylinder. The VIN matches the car, but it starts 12337 (6 cylinder) and the trim plate is 12437 (8 cylinder). Any ideas?