Hello everyone,

My father in law has this Camaro sitting in the back yard right now gathering weeds and wasps. He's expressed interest in getting out of there and for some reason I've had the very strong urge to take it on. If I can get a place with a garage then I'm going to take it off of his hands. My question is, where would be a good place to start? The body seems to have had a little work on it and has a rough primer coat on it. The panels themselves look like there really aren't any flaws on them. The hood is missing however, along with the engine lol. The interior looks like a tornado went through it and seems to be all but untouched. It has its wheels and rotting tires on it atm as well. I'm not sure on anything beyond that as far as conditions go.

I was thinking that I should maybe at least take off the body and shelve/hang them and start with the suspension and work my way up from there? As I said though, I have no clue where to start. I've honestly never restored a vehicle but, I have good mechanical ability and can usually do what I start (I'm a hands on learner.)

So, any help would be appreciated : )

 

Welcome to the forum! You are starting the way many of us have; with a diamond in the rough. I would start by making a list. Put on there all the things you want to do, start with the small stuff: new tires, engine, hood etc... Then get the car out of the yard and find a nice place to work on it. You are in for a long journey, just sayin. Try to figure out the 'real' condition of the body. Ask your father-in-law about the history of the car. Check all around it, depending on your geographical location will determine the amount of rust you have. Decide what you want to have at the end and go from there. Don't spend any money on parts yet, buy some books first to give you some ideas of the direction of your project and to familiarize yourself with components and what-not. Keep us posted and post up some pictures when you get a chance.

 

I'm not sure he knows the exact condition either. He bought it from someone about 3 years ago (I helped him tow it into the backyard lol.) I have a decent idea of what I want to do with it and, even though its a ways off, I have an idea to try out different colors by buying some models and painting them. I live in eastern washington state as well. We don't use salt on the roads and not as much rain as the other side of the state. I see some rust on the frame in the engine compartment but its not bad from what I can tell. When I get a chane I'll take some pics and put them up.

 

I've got some pics and after some research I'm looking at, if I did my research right, a 79 Camaro (2nd generation so I'll have to move on to those boards next ) that had a 305 in it. That is based off of just the VIN though so unsure the total accuracy. Here are some pics as well:

 

Moving this to the 2nd gen section.....
It actually doesn't look all too bad, on the surface of things anyway. Be sure to take a good look underneath, as a car sitting on open earth like that can be exposed to a lot of moisture from natural evaporation, which can cause frame and floor rot.

 

Well as dry as eastern Wa. is you should find a good solid foundation to start from. I'd guess most the rust will be surface rust, and that's an easy fix.
Looks like an upper end model with the extra chrome around the top of the doors too.
Get it to a good place that you can jack it up, then inspect the underside, and pull the carpet to inspect the floors. After that you'll have a better chance of figuring out where to start.
Engines and trans are cheap, and you might even find a donor car or truck cheap enough to get a good engine and trans from, then scrap the rest out. I have a hood if you want to take a short drive to the rainy side of the state!

 

Welcome. If its not rusted to bad looks like a good starting point.

 

From what I can see of the exposed frame parts it does look like just surface. I couldn't imagine there being anything significant on the underside but, I'm not betting on it either until I can get a look at it. I can't do anything until we get our own place though. Right now we're staying with my wife's parents because I was put out of the military on disablity. I should actually be working on the car (when I can) but I can't help myself. I can be in pain doing nothing or I can be in pain accomplishing something. Unfortunatly though, it will take me much much longer to work on then before I was injured. Its something I'm determined to do though and I'm sure I can do it. I may need my father in law to help here and there (especially putting in the engine) but most anything else I can do.

I'll pm you 1971. I have 2 people on that end that may be able to act as temp storage until I can get over there.

 

what part of eastern WA are you from?

 

We're kind of right between Medical Lake and Cheney.