After seeing how much work so many of you have put in to restore old rusted and dented Camaros back into originals I'm almost ashamed to submit what I'm doing to mine.
In 1973 I purchased a 1967 RS/SS Camaro Coupe from the second owner. The car was a California produced factory SS/RS with a 350, 4 speed and a ton of options like fold down rear seat, vinyl top and a host of others.
The car had been stolen out of his driveway and when the police located it the original 350, 4 speed, hood, radiator, all four rally wheels and some other items had been removed and the car dumped. He was insured but spent most of the money elsewhere and the car sat in his garage for a while on some cheap mags and tires he had bought so it could be rolled,
I purchased the car from him in 1973 and detuned a bracket racer motor I had for my '66 Chevy II to use in the '67. Replaced the scatter shield and clutch with Corvette aluminum bell and flywheel and purchased a cowl induction hood from GM. Replaced the mags with 15" X 8" Corvette Rally wheels and trim.
I got it on the road in '74 and drove it as a weekend cruiser for a couple of years. Somewhere around 76'-'77 I was having trouble with the bad unleaded gas and the high compression motor and decided to make it into more of a street legal back road racer. Further de-tuned the motor with thick solid copper head gaskets, quick retard vacuum dashpot, recurved advance springs, water injection and a TRW hydraulic camshaft.
To make it handle I changed out the front springs to stiffer and lower, replaced the rear mono leaf's with stiffer multi leaf's, Koni shocks, a larger front anti roll bar and fat radial Dunlop tires. I also replaced the power steering with the quick ratio manual box and links that Chevy was using for the Gen 1 CanAm cars. "For it's Day" ('77--'80) it handled pretty well and it was a ton of fun and since it was just being used for exciting but illegal late night canyon carving even the cost of Moroso Fuel Extender wasn't a problem. Life and work got in the way, it sat a lot and it went into "temporary storage" in "84.
Fast forward to around 2013 and I've sold my business, I'm retired and have no warehouse to store the car so it gets sent to a mini storage unit. I get a few other projects out of the way and in early 2016 it finally "comes home" and hits my garage.
Now is where the purist will start to get bummed out LOL!
I have had the car so long and had driven it as a "basically stock" and as a "slightly road racer" car already and was at odds as to what I was going to do with it. Restoration?? I had "been there and done that" as that's what it started as with me. Back Road racer?? Not any more, no back roads left here in the SF Bay Area and I'm older if not a lot wiser now. Besides, new cars stock blow away modified old cars on a back road these days.
RESTOMOD! Yup, that dirty word is out there LOL. So here is where I went, more detail and pictures to follow but a quick overview. I have to get an old dead computer hard drive resurrected to get a lot of the early phots back.
Took the car down to a bare body shell with absolutely nothing left unassembled. Got rid of everything in the suspension, frame, interior category.
Purchased a complete set up from Total cost Involved. Their Pro touring IFS, Torque arm rear suspension and a narrowed Curries 9" rear. Upgraded larger Wilwood 6 piston front and 4 piston rear brakes, multi adjustable shocks and a few other of their optional parts. Detroit Speed rear wheel tubs so I can keep the outside body "stock" and run some serious meat in the back.
All aluminum LS3 and the matching TR6060 6 speed manual with aluminum flywheel and aluminum pressure plate with aftermarket hydraulic clutch actuator.

Things stopped for almost two years at this point as my wife, the love of my life for over 4 decades battled and finally lost a battle with cancer. I only went to the garage to think and pray.


I'm getting back to living my life again and most of that seems to be in the garage so progress is once again being made, slow, but being made.
I'm going to try to attach a couple of photos I found on some memory cards of various points but will actually try to get something a bit more linear once I get the old hard drive worked on and get the original car coming out of storage and the basic start of the build photos back.
More to follow as I get it together. Jim R.

 

No hate, mine has skewed just slightly from stock as well. lol. It's your car, do what puts a smile on your face. Sorry about your wife by the way.

 

Sorry about the wife. Don't ever worry what others think of what you're doing to your car. I lived in the City, in the 70s. Cruise the El Camino on the weekends, hang out at A&W root beer in San Mateo looking for runs. Is Gottelli's speed shop still in South City? That blue plate on your Camaro is around early 80's issue "Z" plate. I have the front plates from most of my cars hanging on the wall in my garage. My 79 Nova (daily driver) was a "W" plate ending in WEX. My 69 Camaro (which I still have) is a black "Z" plate. Still registered in California, driven in Florida.

 

No hate here, not like it was original anyway with the parts that were stolen gone.
Sounds great to me,I love LS power and reliability not to mention better gas mileage, should be an awesome car.
Sorry about the loss of your wife but life goes on so we have to live it right? Enjoy that car!

 

Glad to hear from a local, or ex-local! Yes, Gottelli's Speed Shop is still there and still taking my money LOL. Plate is second issue for the car. It was a stolen recovery and I used the original plate that was on it and that worked until it was discovered later that the DMV had mistakenly let me use the original registration and title (which had never been surrendered) but the car had been bought back by the owner from his insurance company as a total loss due to the cost of replacing the entire drive train, wheels and tires and most of the removable interior. Something the guy I bought it from was probably aware of but hey, he was getting cash LOL. Also the VIN had been pried off the door jamb when it was stolen but it was still on the chassis in two places so since it was not a "crashed" vehicle so it was re-registered in my name as a '67 with the original VIN intact. Of course the state wanted more money now because it was "improved" LOL. Good old California DMV! Same thing with my '56 Harley Davidson. I put the forked rod through the original cases and bought a set of R&R Drag Specialty cases. Went to the CHP as required and got told that it was no longer a "Harda" (DMV for Harley Davidson) it was now a "SPCN" (DMV for Special Construction) and it had suddenly become much more valuable and re-taxed. Wanted to keep it a '56 Hd but was told, Too bad, take it or don't ride it! Black plates are a "re-issued" series and an extra cost at registration. Seems like every other new car is a black plate now. My '58 Jag that I bought about two years prior to the Camaro still has it's original Black Plate. Only way you can tell an original now is the number-letter sequence AAA111. Original "Blue" 111AAA and the new stuff is seven digits but a "black plate".

 

"Good old California DMV!" I hear ya loud & clear! I can't believe what I pay for that little sticker, every year it goes up. Every time I go out to see my son in SoCal, I see more & more black plate newer cars.

 

"All aluminum LS3 and the matching TR6060 6 speed"

wow am i jealous! i would love that in my 68!!!
i just got a 2009 z06 and the ls platform and that trans are amazing. you will love it. build it however you want to!

 

A couple of "older" photos as the car has actually been mechanically put together and now is back apart and up on the rotisserie again so I can media blast and then start body work.
I'm not sure how these are going to load but here is what the pictures are about. The "blueprint" is for the two pieces I had to make in order to fit the Vintage Air compressor into the build. I wanted it to mount "low" and that is where the rack for the TCI front end is located so the Vintage air mount for an LS in a "stock" '67 wouldn't work. Kind of moved the compressor to where it cleared everything it had to and a belt would still line up and this was the answer. It fit up perfect. I got a 2012 Camaro shifter and set about cutting it up to move it to where it would come out of the floor in the right place to feel "right" I'll weld up the part that is temped with screws, just wanted to put it in amd both make sure it worked and that it felt like it was the right place first. Enough for today.
I'm about 40% done with media blasting the "body" and already have just about everything else blasted already. Slow going for an old man LOL.