Fortunate the rear is still with the car - god would that be a difficult one to find!

Is the bulkhead wire fitting on the firewall for the reverse lights?

Awesome car, factory 4.56 gears, I'm looking forward to reading about this restoration.

Congrats! What a great find!

Any luck on finding past owners or history?

I'm helping a friend research a day2 L34 Nova that purchased from Nickey, we might have found the name of a long time owner.

Great car ! Wow, good luck on your drivetrain search !

No updates on drivetrain or ownership history but here are more photos of the car. I did make use of my son's chalk to reveal some stamps/castings as best I could.

Looking closer the front drum backing plates are not original. Who swaps backing plates? The subframe is a '67 only unit.

The master cylinder is coded for manual drums and dated 206.

The booster appears to be stamped 8515 and dated 82 which would be March 23rd 1967.

Also, I found a "P" Ink stamp on the front LH cowl panel and what appears to be factory markings inside the lower front valence. (not sure why images flipped)

I'm still gathering sheetmetal and glass dates.

I have the OE front brakes off my 67. I’m never going to use them, I was gonna Chuck (no pun intended) them. They’re yours, just pay the shipping.

The 8515 brake booster is for disc brakes, not drums. That's a rare and desirable piece. Maybe your car had power discs when new.

I think that is what Jose was saying. It looks like the car originally had power disc brakes. Later, it had drums swapped from a manual drum car. Is that right Jose?

Jason

Yes. That would be my guess.

The booster seems to be the only part of the front brakes that would pass as original to the car and like Jon said is for disc brakes. It is clear the current master cylinder and front drums are not original to the car.

As much as I wanted the car to have factory disc brakes all along, it is nice to find evidence it could have been a disc brake car from the beginning.

I've been patiently waiting for a response from Alan who may be able to confirm what brakes were on the car in 1980.

I did find the contact information of Ron Perry who worked at Bobb Chevrolet who may have sold the car when new, but I haven't had a call or message back. I tried calling again and it went straight to his personal voicemail greeting. Oh well. He stated on an old Facebook post he worked at the dealership since the 60's and that's when I tried to make contact. I also found a Bobb Chevrolet Pace car image with his name on it.

I like that shot of the pace car. Here is a photo of a '67 Z hillclimb car, a '67 A/Sedan road racer, both with Bobb sponsorship, and a Bobb dealership emblem.

Those pics are great! Thanks!

Here are a few more discoveries from the car:

I've discovered the front drum brakes are actually first gen Firebird.

The steering box/pitman arm is from a 1969 Z28.
Date B309B (I've seen one other box with the 8 misstamped as a "B")
Pitman 3953227

It's just under 4 turns lock to lock so my guess it's the standard Z28 box with mismatched steering arms/idler arm.

The crossmember/frame stands are correct for 67/68 396

At least you crossmember isn't a Firebird unit, looks almost identical to the BBC unit but the holes are in a different position.

Believe it or not, disc to drum (I know, who would’ve thought) was a common swap on drag race oriented cars back when these cars were new, or close to new. Seen many early Z/28s converted to drum that were drag cars.

Yeah, were the drums lighter... That's hard to imagine.

Drum brake shoes don't drag as much as Disc brakes pads do and slow the car down,thus why Drag racers like Drum.

It’s really about the staging where the drums have an advantage.

I have found complete ownership history of my 1967 Camaro SS L78. I spoke with the original owner today while he was at a bar and boy did it make his day to know the car is still around.

I'm going to write this with the best intentions and with my notes I have written down and the notes I gathered from Bentley (bbbentley) who spoke to Dean Rooker, Jenkins, and Todd. There will be updates as I'm now in constant contact with the first 3 owners and their families.

After returning from home from Thailand where he was stationed while in the military, Bruce Cremean (now 79) from Logan Ohio worked a well paying job in Columbus in 1967. During his off time after work, he would go to National Trails and check out the races. One day he spots a Gorgeous Black on Black 1967 Camaro SS 396 L78 Bobb Chevrolet drag car and decides he wants to buy it. When asked if the car was lettered up, Bruce said the car coming down the track was , "Brand New, it still had the window sticker in it!"

Later he walks into the dealership to buy it but the salesman (who was driving the car at the track) doesn't want to sell it, after all, he was the one who custom ordered the car with all the goodies including the 4.56 rear, disc brakes, style trim package, console and gauges, white stripe, and the list goes on. Bruce goes to the higher up at the dealership and the higher up tells the salesman that if he didn't sell a certain Corvette within a specific time frame, he would sell the 1967 Camaro to Bruce. That is exactly what happened and Bruce says the salesman was not happy about it.

Bruce enjoyed racing the car mainly at National Trails and making changes to help the car go faster at the track. He fabbed his own plenum air cleaner "to pull air right below the windshield" and even made custom wheelie bars for the Camaro at one point. He said "that car ran 12's all day with that HiPo 396". He he married his girlfriend and life happened. He kept the car and removed the original 396 so his wife could drive the car with a 283 in it. He was still commuting to Columbus and at one point his other cars broke down and he commuted to Columbus daily with the 4.56 gears which explains the miles on the car. Eventually with a growing family he sold the car to a young John Goss Jr. Bruce kept the 396 in his garage for years with the hopes of eventually buying the car back but he never found it. He also still has his custom plenum air cleaner and will get it down for me. He sold the original 396 to a friend to use in a restoration who owned an insurance company. His friend -REMOVED- has unfortunately passed but his daughter still owns the car to this day with the original 396 from the Camaro.

As previously mentioned, Bruce Cremean sold the car to a young John Goss Jr. in the 70's and installed the 396 from his wrecked tow wagon. I was able to make contact with John's younger brother Shane who said John went to the prom in the car and has a photo with his date. John then blew up the 396. The car sat in his parents driveway with a blown 396 and while John was away in Germany serving in the army, John's dad parked the car out in front of their house with a for sale sign on Maysville-Williams road. John was not happy that his father sold the car while he was gone.

High School senior Alan Mason bought the car with the hurt engine and took it apart to see if it could be fixed, he invited his close friend Richard Buckley to check out the car with the heads off it. After seeing it was too far gone, Mason installed a 350 small block and ran the car. Mason removed the original SS hood and bought a White fiberglass cowl induction hood that was a lift off design, he screwed the hood to the car. Him and his friend Richard Buckley from down the street would often trade their cars on weekends. Richard had a 69 Swinger and Alan the 67 Camaro.

They traded so often that one day Richard says, "how about let's trade for good". Thus, Richard got to keep the 1967 Camaro. I spoke to Richard and his younger brother Charley and they had some great times in that car. In 1980-81 The car was MINT with white cowl induction lift off hood, Mickey Thomson N50's on the back, skinnies up front, and the interior was original and cherry. The only blemish Richard had to fix was on the LH quarter where Alan blew a tire. Alan was known for driving his cars hard and went through a few muscle cars over the years.

Richard installed a 400 small block in the car, "Man that thing would SCREAM" and according to his younger brother Charley, the car would "SHIT N' GET BOY!... John NEVER lost a street race". The car still looked pristine. They would even race guys in reverse! Richard took the 400 small block out of the Camaro and installed it in his truck. He sold the car for 500 dollars without an engine to two guys who came to pick it up James Rooker and Dean Rooker. Then 14 year old Charley says "man.. I CRIED when my brother sold that car I wanted it SO bad".

James Rooker owned the car, sold it to his brothers girlfriend (Judy). Judy and Dean were married for some time and sold it after a divorce to a Mr. Baxter who sold to Mr. Jenkins whose name appears on the title in 2013. Mr. Jenkins sent the car to Florida to a body shop it was there 18 months and gave them $10,000 and they did nothing to the car. He got disgusted and sold it to Howard who sold it to Todd, who sold it to Bentley, who bought it on my behalf. THANK YOU BENTLEY!

Bruce has original documents and photos to the car and says he will get them to me.
Shane also has photos and is going to have his brother John call me in the next few days.
Shane has been a tremendous help and when he called me the first thing he said was, "I KNOW THE ORIGINAL OWNER TO THIS CAR!" After our conversation he drives to the local bar where he and Bruce hang out and has Bruce call me right then and there.
Mason has been very hard to get a hold of but the Buckley's say they are going to get a hold of him.
Charley and Richard Buckley also said they have photos and will gather them up. Charley, Richard, Shane, and Bruce were all great guys and fun to talk with.
I previously thought my original block was in a restored pace car but the current owner of that pace car got back to me and the VIN on the pad is 7N212552 No match for my car.
However that car (124377N212552) may still be around in Georgia. Bruce clarified my born with block 7N212598 IS still around in the -REMOVED- car mentioned (different than pacer).
Charles Buckley helped me get into contact with Charley Buckley so thank you!

After I got off the phone with Bruce the original owner I could hear him laugh in the bar and say "We'll I'll be damned" before hanging up.

that's so awesome Jose!

'

W:headbang:W, big congrats also hats off to you and Bentley for such an awesome job backtracking!
To confirm, the engine in the Pacer you were hoping was yours is Owens' daughter's car you noted above?:hmmm:
Thanks for sharing all this great stuff, looking forward to more also resto updates!
:beers:
~ Pete

.

Yes!! AWESOME!

Pete, thank you!
To clarify my block 7N212598 is still around in the REMOVED car according to Bruce (different car than pacer).

I previously thought my block was in said pacer but after the current owner of the Pacer from Washington state texted me yesterday the vin was 212552 no match. I thought my block was long lost until Bruce told me today where it is.

Yay!!

The vin on the Pacer is 7N212552

Great job researching all the history and good luck on getting some vintage pics from the various owners!

Well done Jose. Like a damn soap opera for car guys. When's the Netflix documentary coming? Seriously great job.


https://y.yarn.co/2680afe8-c028-4a5e...5c5bb_text.gif

Wow, what an update. Hat's off to all the folks who spent time to track down the owners.

That's every car guys dream, congratulations Jose!!!

Get your block
 

It would be great to get the original block back with your car. Good detective work, hats off to you Jose.

You absolutely have to get your original engine. Even if you buy the owner a new crate engine it’s worth it.

Amazing detective work Jose. Thank you for sharing the story with us. My favorite part of the story is the original owner calling you while at a bar HAHA

Yep, hell of a story, and detective work. I need to hire you guys to track down the history of my '67. Not because it's anything special, but I would like to know who the knucklehead/s were that kept crashing this poor car...:rolleyes2:
It truly would be a great addition to the story if you could acquire the original engine. Maybe have to buy the whole car and put another engine in it to sell again, but that may be what it comes to.

It was a LOT of work and many dead ends I thought were promising leads. Not sure I want to go through it again. After contacting the names on the title, Bentley was able to contact Rooker who was able to give the name Allen Mason spelled "ALLEN".Those contact numbers were found using Google and choosing names to call based on age and location. I believe Bentley was able to speak to Rooker after calling his son.

I had to use a classmates.com account to "look" for Allen Mason around Junction City OH where Rooker said he bought the car.

Turns out, his real name was Alan Mason and I only found him because classmates.com provides a list of names as a close match when searching the area. He went to Logan High School.

Next I had to use a whitepages account to call the numbers associated with that name, and it was just by chance his ex wife picked up the phone and was able to talk to Alan on my behalf. The one name he mentioned was a Richard Buckley who I attempted to make contact multiple times. Months later I gave it another shot this time calling his nephew Charles and he picked up and put me in touch with Charley and Richard (4th owner) who were essentially neighbors to Alan.

Richard and Charley were able to contact me at that point. Understandably, Richard says he thought I was spam the entire time, even though I left a clear message about his Black 67. Once I was able to contact Charley and Richard, they gave me the name John Goss whom I still haven't spoke to directly. They advised me to call his younger brother Shane Goss, who I found and messaged on Facebook and he called me immediately. Shane happens to be the brother of John the 2nd owner and good friends with Bruce the original owner.

With that being said, there were plenty of dead ends, wrong people called etc. I even found an original owner to another L78 but turns out it was Blue and the car was still around sold to the guys neighbor. I also thought the Black L78 car was repossessed at one point after finding this clipping in the local newspaper. Turns out it wasn't the car but the funny thing is, one of the owners laughed and said they know whose car it was. Those are some of the leads that can throw you off for weeks. I got lucky. Keep in mind that finding the current owner of another car I thought had my original block and getting the complete vin off the pad was a journey all in itself.

Some of the tools used were:
Google.com
Classmates.com
Whitepages.com
Newspapers.com (Didn't help in this case)
Facebook.com


I hope this helps!

Awesome!

Amazing sleuthing, thanks for sharing.

A six week old Camaro getting repossessed? I bet it lived a hard life for the last few weeks

67- l78
 

Wow, now that was a fun story to read. That got interesting. That will be great car to restore.:biggthumpup:

Richard and Dorothy provided the following photos and have given me consent to post. Dorothy was a senior in High School at the time and these photos were taken around 1980 about a year before they were married. They went on their first date in the Camaro and went everywhere together in the car. They are still married to this day. The Dart in the photos is the car he traded to Alan for the Camaro.

Speaking with Richard today on the phone he remembered adjusting the brakes on the car with Alan and only touching the rear brakes not the front, so he says the front brakes were most likely disc (Although Alan remembers the car having drums).

Richard said he installed the rear spoiler and the CB radio in the car. He also said the Camaro had an 8-Track player.

When he sold the Camaro he told the guys (Rooker) it had a bad steering box, which could explain why the car has the 69 Z box on it now. He thinks it was a power steering box.


Enjoy the photos!

So cool you are finding this info and the pics!

Very cool Jose'. Just how I remember those street-fighter cars looking back then.