68' Camaro RS
This page is dedicated to my 68' Rally Sport Camaro. It's a California car that was driven across the country to reach the great state
of New York. The first time I saw the RS it had a Mr. Gasket Bug Catcher (left pic) sticking out of the hood and a set of Weld Drag Lites
at the 4 corners. The aluminum slots in the right pic are from before I saw it for the first time.
I didn't see that car for awhile until I bought the Camaro that is on another page. The previous owner was spending quite a bit of money
in replacement parts on it and it looked like it was going to be a really nice finished product looking at the quality of parts that were being
bought for it. As luck would have it I was working on the other Camaro and the owner of this car comes by and asks if I want to buy it. It
seems that the final straw was drawn when he was reinstalling the windshield. It cracked. We made a deal for it and I moved it home,
about 300' or so :-).
It had some minor problems with the sheet metal (or so I thought). We replaced the rear tail pan and the corner of the right side corner
where it meets the tail pan and the trunk before I bought it. It was rear ended sometime in the past before my friend bought it.
I started by stripping the car down to its original base primer using a chemical stripper. I recommend this method over sanding everthing
away as it leave much less mess that is easier to clean up and dispose of properly. This is how I found the res of the body work that was
previously done to the car. It was considerable, but the people who did the work were artists. Both quarter panels are beaten up to no
end. The person who was using the hammer and dolly was an expert to say the least. A little much on the plastic but the actual tin work is
supurb. Notice the dent puller holes and the shrinking divots. Both quarters look like this. I will have to replace both at a later date but at the moment they will be fine with what I can do with them.
I put all the sheet metal back on and aligned everything. The left front fender is a reproduction that I picked up at the Englishtown swap meet.
The right is an OEM one that came with the car. I stripped it of the yellow paint. Do not use any garden and home type paints (i.e. Rustoleum)
as they are brittle and can be removed with just a razor blade or scraper.
I installed a motor and transmission next. The motor I installed came out of an 81' Z28 that left the road on a rainy night. It was not the
original motor for that car either. It has some rather large domed pistons in it, a Competition Cams 280H, Pete Jackson gear drive,
stock heads (for now),the 81' Z's intake (have a Torker ready to be put in), Speed Demon 750 cfm vac sec. carb, MSD 6AL ignition,
MSD billet distributor, Blaster2 coil, and a Carter fuel pump. I picked the tranny up through my local paper ($250) a freshly rebuilt Super
T-10 4 speed with the factory Hurst shifter that came out of a Vette. I put in a Zoom 10.5" clutch and a 168 toothflywheel. Rear end is the
factory 2.73:1 open. The tunnel ram is no longer on the motor though with the help of the MSD parts it started right up and ran great. I left
it dormant throughout a winter without starting and the carbs gummed up. I'll probably put it back on sometime in the future. The bottom
pic is what is under the hood now.
The interior is black houndstooth deluxe. The original factory option run... power windows, houndstooth deluxe interior, A/C, power 4 wheel
drum brakes, speed warning indicator, Rally Sport, 327- 210hp, and powerglide transmission. I found the build sheet above the fuel tank.
(nice) I will have to replace the door panels eventually but they are expensive and at least the ones I have now are functional even with the
speaker holes in them.
That's all I have at the moment. Thanks for taking the time to look. I've done more to the car but haven't scanned the pictures into my
computer yet.
...Ron