THE TEARDOWN

Earlier this year, I went outside my usual realm of Japanese cars and purchased my first American manufactured car; a 67’ Camaro. I’ve known about this particular car for some years now, because my good friend Jared used to live down the street from the previous owner. We used to have regular conversations with the previous owner (Rich) because we were always tinkering on something and he had old school Chevy’s (Bel Air’s, El Camino’s etc.). Sometimes we’d need to borrow tools from him, so it was good to have a fellow car guy a couple doors down.

One day I was working in the area of this car and Rich was outside, so I took the opportunity to ask if he’d sell it, and his response was, “To you? Yeah I’m sure we could work something out.” I wasn’t him expecting to part with it, but now that I planted the seed, it was time to start working out numbers. I told my girlfriend about the car and the potential price, and she basically encouraged me by threatening me haha. Soon after discussing the finances with my girl, I began setting up days with Rich to check out the Camaro in more detail. He expressed that I’d be able to drive it home, and that was a huge deal to me. Rich agreed to put ALL of the interior he had back in the car, fix the leaky brake cylinder, and get the car drivable before I take ownership.

With this being my first ‘classic’, I did some research to decode the vin, and it was an original V8 car, but that’s as far as I could get. It’s unfortunate, but the original firewall tag that decodes the specifics was missing. In a way, I didn’t care simply because I wasn’t planning on keeping this car in it’s original state, but It would’ve been cool to know what it was/is.

Soon the day came, the set price was established, and its was time for the test drive. Everything went smooth and I was happy with the car as a starting platform for what I had intended. She was now mine.

Months go by…and naturally all the bugs start to show; wiring gremlins! Who knows how to battle these gremlins better than my buddy Trent Musser? NOBODY! Trent has been a wealth of knowledge for many years, and has had a helping hand in most of my vehicle projects. Trent’s portfolio is very long, and his hands have blessed not only street cars, but World Challenge spec racing cars as well. His abilities are endless, and I consider myself privileged to be working with him on this project. I told Trent that I wanted this car to be a driver that I can confidently take out, blast some tunes, and have Jaime (my girl) drive with no problems. Trent and I started putting a plan together a few months prior to my birthday to get this baby road worthy, and this weekend it was time to put that plan into action!

Greg and I loaded up the Camaro bright and early Saturday morning to get it to Trent’s before he had work.

Who doesn’t like wide hips?

With the Camaro now cozy in Trent’s garage, we wanted to get a better look at the disaster of wiring, routing, hoses etc. under the hood.

Yep. It’s a disaster just like I said haha. Here are just a few shots of this messy engine bay, before Trent works his magic. Get a good luck, because it’s going under a huge transformation!

The interior is actually in fairly decent shape; the seats have been reupholstered, new carpet, and new headliner. The rear deck-lid, kick panels, and radio bezel have been hacked so these will be issues that will get tended to while at Trent’s. We have a full stereo system and new bezel to clean this up + give this car some sound!

This is the beginning! I look forward to sharing the build process with all of you. Thank you for reading.