Hello everyone, and thanks for stopping in to see my baby.
Please indulge me for a moment while I explain the importance of this car to me. Although I do not have the original bill of sale for confirmation, I am told this car was bought in September of 1981- the same month I was born. It came into my life in 1987, when my mother met my step father, who was the original owner from the dealer. I basically grew up in this car. I remember sitting in my step fathers lap at about 7-8 years old and steering around empty parking lots while he worked the pedals, I remember that leather thing on the steering wheel... I even remember the damn Stetson aftershave balm I found in the glove box lol. With that said, the marriage ended in the mid 90's while I was in my high school years. I fell out of touch with him for 3-4 years, but re connected with him in 99' and actually ended up living with him twice in the early 2000's however, I never saw the Camaro, as it was already gutted interior wise, and in storage... the interior was not original because in the 90's, I recall someone broke into our garage and knifed the interior as well as the paint. It was re painted the original color, however aside from that- remains in all original condition. I should mention at this point that it has the good old "Boat anchor" 305 with a 3 speed auto. His dream when he put it away was to one day drop in a 350 crate engine, while converting it to manual, and redo the interior to the original color.

As I stated above, we re connected and have stayed close over the last 2 decades, and a couple years ago he approached me and asked me if I would like the Camaro. I was stunned.
People always used to say "when you die- I want your car", and he would always reply " when I die, I'm getting buried in my car". Not to mention the fact that after not having layed eyes on it since 1995- I had forgotten all about the car.. no one ever really mentioned it for years.
He explained to me that he is in his 70's now, and after a spinal surgery that sort of turned him into an "old man", he said the time for him to rebuild this car has slipped by and he no longer has the strength to turn the wrenches and do the work- he needed me to turn the damn crank and make sure it wasn't seized when we went to dig it out of the barn it was in. That was a sad and humbling moment for me, as he was always the biggest and strongest man I had known at 6'9". So to sum it up in a nutshell.... this car has a MASSIVE sentimental value to me.






The car sat in storage until last winter when I moved and now have a garage to keep it in. Over the last year or so my step father and I started discussing what I would like to do with the car, and I have a pretty extravagent wish list on both year ene as well as summit.
I will get more into build details later as an engine swap is still a long way off. but I will say that I will "settle" for a 350 crate engine, but the main goal is to get a 383 with a 5 speed manual, as well as a full hotchkis suspension, and 4 wheel disc breaks. There are lots of other goodies I both need and want, but these are the main 4 expensive ones.
Unless I win the lottery, I'm a few years away from starting such a build, however in the time it takes to save some money, it would be nice to drive this around, and even nicer still to return it to my step father in running condition so he can enjoy it as well.
I have a few bins full of parts, and all of the interior panels. at a quick glance I know I need door skins, and a roof liner. I have the seats, however they are not the original red ones that the car originally came with, which got knifed as mentioned above- these ones were white, however, after 20+ years in a barn- they smell like ***, to put it quite bluntly. As well as the fact that aside from flipping forward to allow passengers into the back seat- the drivers seat is not reclineable\adjustable, and I feel like I'm laying on my back while I sit in it.. so new seats front and rear will be needed as well. I have a carpet, which is black, but I recall- and have pictures showing an original red carpet. I'm thinking of keeping it black and using the carpet I already have... I remember that the floor always looked really dirty and stained when it was red.
As far as the engine is concerned, when we dug it out of the barn, we had it running... BUT... after driving about 3 feet, the car stopped moving, and acted as if it was in neutral. once we pushed it out, we discovered that the transmission had dumped all of it's fluid on the floor. I'm assuming after so many years sitting, lots of seals and things of that nature have dried out and are no longer usable. I intend to order lots of new seals\gaskets, hoses etc, to try to refresh the engine a bit. I have a new set of wires kicking around.. some new plugs.. you get the idea. flush all the fluids, and just drive it for a year or 2 as a weekend car. I also need to replace the door and trunk locks as the key no longer works, and there are more parts in the trunk, so I'll be drilling the trunk lock sooner or later to get access to what's inside.

So yeah. that's my plan so far. I haven't even really started yet, aside from de greasing the engine bay. I have other projects at home right now that for the moment keep me from doing more than just tinkering, but I'm super excited to get started, and will be getting my butt into gear on this project in the coming weeks. I'll put up some pictures of the car in the barn, as well as how it sits in he garage now, and will continue to post pics of my progress and setbacks as I go.

 

Engine bay before and after de greasing

 

Interior

 

Paint and body condition














the pin stripe overkill totally needs to go.

 

Some old pics when it was new, please forgive that I took pictures of Polaroids

 

Welcome to CF,there's a wealth of knowledge here.
Very cool the car basically has been in the family since new,looks like a good solid project.