Muddytazz said:
My very first car was my moms old 69 SS 396. Had it for about 3 years until it got stolen and was never fully recovered. Chop shop thought they needed it more than me
Bastards.. I hate theives.
I lost my first car, also a 69, to an accident. I was leaving school, on my way to work, when I got rear ended by a kid that I knew.. he would always drive up fast on people, then swerve around them. I was waiting for traffic to clear so I could turn left, I saw him in my mirror, and traffic was such that I couldn't do anything but hold on.
He hit the rear drivers corner of the car, right on the tailight. crushed the quarter, buckled the roof, and messed up the door pretty good. Only consolation was, I still drove home, he went home on a flatbed. ( it was his moms Dart swinger).
I fixed it so the door would at least open. ( a come along and a tree are wonderful things), and I drove it for about another year, until the tranny gave out. By this time, I had my first truck. ( 77 gmc longbed, straight 6 - 3 on the floor) so I just parked the camaro.
After awhile, my mom was bitching so much about the car being in the yard we had to do something, as my dad didn't have thie time to work on it, and I had no idea what I was doing yet.
We stripped everything we could get off of it, and I kept the 327 too. We couldn't find anyone that wanted a shell, so we just cut it up with a torch, and scrapped it. I hate the fact that I didn't save the firewall / cowl, or the front subframe, as they were very clean. As a matter of fact, If I knew what a backhalf was, I would have saved the car that way.
ANYWAY, fast forward a couple of years, and I ended up with another 69, this one with a straight 6, also a rusty POS. ( both 69's came from my neighbor, who's adult kids left them parked in the street after they moved away. we got them both for about 200 bucks each. my dad used em as work cars, and since I was the only kid in the family who knew what they were, I was given the V8 car when I turned 16, and I was about 21 went I got the six banger). I finally got serious about making the 6 banger car into what you see in the picture.
I had the 327 rebuilt first, then I went nuts and had the frame & floors done, found some doors and quarters, and did all of the paint and final bodywork in the garage. the interior was perfect, thank god, so that didn't cost me anything. most expensive was having the firewall replaced, and the floorpans under the backseat were made by hand. this was done just before you could get everything out of a catalog. Also used rear framerails from S & W racecars, an tied the frame.
It's not fast in the quarter. It's best time was a mid 14. all of it's power comes in over 3,000 rpm, so when I'm on the freeway and rolling, I've got plenty of pedal left.. she'll turn 4 grand all day long, and the furthest I've taken it is a 6 hour one way trip to woodstock ontario for a big show there.
I did have it dyno'ed, at it turned 247 hp at the rear wheels, max torque was 257 at about 3500 rpm.
Anyway, sorry for the length. thanks for the discussion.
T
