Jerhofer, what's the deal with the underside of the car? The rest looks so great but that belly has some horrible scars? Did you replace pans or tie the sub frames together?

I like every you've done, but I like the front ends the 91's have. So hard a decision for me, but I have to go jerhofer.

 

A maintenance guy at a printing company in northern Indiana bought my car new and owned it until 2006 when he died of cancer at the age of 49. The math says he was 20 years old when he bought the car. He showed the car for the first three years but soon became bored with that scene.

He then turned to drag racing and the car was raced for 25+ years. I have numerous time slips from 1/8th mile tracks in northern Indiana. He kept meticulous records of each event where he recorded his times, the temperature, the relative humidity, tire pressures, etc. As happens with race cars, numerous modifications were made over the years. At some point the rear suspension portruded into the car. The rear part of the pan including the rear seat area has been replaced. Based on the lack of rust in the rest of the car, I would assume something broke at some point and damaged the pan. If for some reason the body ever comes off the car, I would address that area as well as the plates for the roll cage that are still present under the carpeting. At one point, the frame connectors were tied together.

After his death, his best friend and drag racing buddy took possession of the car for about 18 months. He never titled the car. He sold it to a guy in Texas who had the car for about nine months. I bought it from the guy in Texas a little over two years ago. I have talked and had e-mail conversations with the original owner's best friend who filled me in on the details.

What is kind of weird is that the original owner lived about five miles from where my wife grew up and about 30 miles from where we lived for 25 years, as we are both Hoosiers. For a summer job before my she went to college, my wife worked in the same factory where he later worked.

Back in 2002, his best friend began restoring the Chi-Town Hustler and now does nostalgia racing with this car.

 

Well with the history of the car it would almost be a shame to repair the proof of it. I must say that I would be torn if a situation like that.

 

That's another reason I haven't really worried about repairing it.

There are other signs of racing modifications in the doors. To save weight, parts of the inner door panels and the side beam have been cut out. Doesn't look very pretty when the door panel is removed but the plus side is there is less weight on the hinges which may be why my doors do not sag yet. I have not seen any evidence of modfications in the engine bay.

This also explains why the car has C-Clip eliminators and Strange 31 spline axles.

The car has earned its time to rest which it will get as my plans are to use it for cruising and running the Power Tour. Once the LS1 installation is complete, it should be perfect for that scenario. I fully expect it to get 25MPG on trips with my Richmond 6 speed's .68 sixth gear and a 3:08 rear end. It turns about 1800RPM at 80MPH.

 

i like the hot blue beast. clean old school look with that great blue paint.

 

I'm liking mr blue's ride... cool gauges too.

 

Jerhofer – Cool history with your Camaro. The original owner must have been running ladder bars or maybe even 4-link rear suspension back in the day. It’s great that you were able to track down the history of the car. Great job getting it back on the street.

 

Thanks.

Here are some pics of some of the timing slips and logs of events that the original owner kept.