The more I see these photos, the better this car gets!

Awesome!!

Headlight bezels are also black. I'm guessing the owner was going for a "look" and painted both the grill and headlight surrounds.

Thanks....that's cool as heck!:cool2:


Congrats again! :)

Early Van Nuys cars have been observed with the "short stripes". Has nothing to do with vinyl tops or stencil shortages. Take the time to make sure that they are original.If they are take as many pictures and measurements as you can. As little as 10 years ago many experts believed these "short striped" Z/28's did not exist, they do! Awesome car!!!
Doc

Not only on early Van Nuys cars. Some later ones as well. Definitely a real thing that happened at Van Nuys but for unknown reasons.

Wow - amazing. Congratulations - please accept Bob's invitation to bring it to MCACN.

Same thing on the 70's for some reason.

The Hot Rod/PHR magazine test '69 Z/28 was built with the '68 rear stripe layout.

Cool car. Thanks for sharing. Can you share a photo of the engine pad and vin tag? You can email me also at the one in my sig. Thanks!

Beautiful original Z, you don't find them like that too often. Congrats!

Amazing!

Only thing I would want different is VE3. Great find.

Awesome!

Great car and nice work - thanks for sharing!

What's the story with the black grille? Was there front end damage or something else? Also if you decide you wanna run that Mallory and need any parts etc lmk as I might have what you need but inventory is dwindling.

As of now, I’m not sure the story behind that. The paint seems to be all original upfront but something that will be investigated once the car is in our possession in a few weeks.

As for the Mallory, there is no intention to reinstall any of the day to parts. We feel the car is best to be kept as original as possible.

very nice - congrats!

----If you look closely at all the fasteners around the grille they appear untouched. I don't know why the grill is black either, but I think the car was born with it!.....Bill S

Hope to see this car at MCACN being Vintage Certified.

Great car! Congrats!

This is definitely something I am very curious about. I haven’t spoke to either the seller or original owner yet but definitely intend to do so. I was looking at the hardware as well and it does look pretty untouched….if it wasn’t black originally, it’s been black most of its life but as of today it is silver…

That is most likely the plan. Once we get the car in our possession, we will make that decision one way or the other.

this is the first chance ive had to up load some pictures. the car came last week finally!!

the grille was painted silver by the fellow we got it from. the original owner painted it black at some point apparently. i received his contact info and im planning on reaching out to him this weekend.

some of the coolest finds in the documents were the time slips from Lyons back in the day in southern CA. fastest time was a 12.46 @ 108mph!!

some other items save in the clean up were the original leaf spring tags, back plate sticker, and he save the fan shroud label that was earlier talked about in the thread.

in the few minutes ive had to spend with car and the boxed parts, ive found the following off the car but still with the car. these items were removed out of caution to get the car running and driving again:

upper and lower radiator hoses
heater hoses
heater core
pcv hose
motor mounts
spark plug wires (originals gone)
distributor cap
radiator was recored but preserved the top and bottom plates
rear end cover (original had a hole brazed)
battery
oil filter
air filter
gas tank (original one had too many pinholes)

if the car goes for vintage certification, some of these parts will be put back on the car.

Speaking of the "documents" looks like the old newspapers in post #35 were from 1983 if I make it out right. Notice the offer 0f 9.5% VA/FHA Mortgage?
Makes it seem not SO bad right now....I guess....
that would be 40 years ago. that tells a story right there...

Good investigation! The news papers are still with car. I will have to check out the dates! They were probably from when the car went to the storage unit. Last registration was 1973.

Thanks for the new pics, Mark. The car looks nicer with the grille redone in silver. I just got this pic sent to me. It was a local Santa Barbara car to me, another December '68 Van Nuys car that was still in original paint and owned by a lady who worked at the Danica House furniture store in town. Same rear stripe pattern as your car. This pic was taken about 1980.

The date on those concert tickets was also a tragic event in SoCal.

Wondering if you can see bone color of grill on areas of back side ? Congrats on car , original paint rally green looks so much better than even the nicest repaint . Could be wrong but I think if you have original parts with you if vintage certified that is almost as good as reinstalling them .

Cool picture, I can see the Washburn license frame.

wow... youre not kidding! and the story still continues to develop til this day.

Great picture Jon, interesting that the right side stripe looks too inboard to completely encompass the deck lid emblem. Also interesting that it has wheel lip trim and none of the other typical trim package bright work. I wonder if they were a dealer or owner install after purchasing? These cars all have a story to tell!!

Hard to know for sure, Mark. The car has deluxe houndstooth and remote side mirror. Might have been ordered with style trim and somehow got built without it, hence an owner addition of wheel lip trim later? If only the cars could talk!

I found some identical Lions time slips in my 70 Z28,But mine were about a 1/2 second slower than your's. My Cars OO was from San Pedro

well, today i was able to speak to the original owner of the car. here's the story....

after graduating high school, chuck wanted to go but a muscle car. his dad insisted he buy an amc or amx (he couldn't remember)but chuck really wanted to get a yellow z28 camaro like he had seen in all the latest magazines. after getting a summer job working in a business that made large steel dumpsters, chuck had enough of a down payment saved to buy a camaro and he told his dad it was his money so he was getting what he wanted. his dad conceded and helped with the hunt. his dad came across a rally green one about 45 minutes from their house where they had lived at courtsey chevrolet in los angles. they went down there, negotiated a price and chuck drove home in his brand new z28 at the age of 18. his dad was nice enough to let him park the car in the garage while living at home. for the next three years, chuck began to take a liking to street racing and racing at the drag strip. with the money earned he made his car payments as well as bought plenty of speed parts. being in southern ca, chuck knew TRACO was the place to go when it came to speed. so he took his cylinder heads down there to get a nice port port match to them. then with welders at his disposal, he made his own traction bars. during the first couple years, chuck got a few speeding tickets in the car and even got two in one day. with all the abuse he put it through, the only thing he ever broke was the rear end. he was running a 4:56 gear in it and at a launch, he sheared all the ring gear bolts and sent some parts through the rear end cover. after three or four years of working and racing, chuck decided it was time to go to college so he did. the camaro sat safe and sound in his dads garage. once out of college, chuck moved to the san diego area and eventually bringing the car to his house but never putting it back on the road. fast forward to the late 80s, chuck put the car into a storage unit where is sat until 2020 when he decided it was time to pack up and move back east and let the car go. to this day he still carries a photo of the car in his wallet.

i told him today at end of our conversation that this will always be your car. we are just the caretakers of it for this next chapter of its life.

i was so curious about the TRACO work done and knowing TRACO usually stamped their work, i had to see if the heads were stamped. so after work, i went straight to where the car is stored and sure enough my suspicions were correct!!

below is the traco stamp as well as the photo from his wallet.

Man, what a story!
That is one good looking car!

Such an awesome story Mark! What a special car. It is in good hands for this next stage of its life :beer:

So awesome you were able to speak with the OO! He must have been ecstatic that his car is still around and will be preserved for a lifetime. Thanks for sharing the story!

Such a great story! Thank you for sharing.

‘

Awesome update, so cool you’ve connected w/ the OO also Traco thing simply icing on the cake!
The 08/09/69 concert tickets were indeed a tragic date as Lee noted above but on a happier note, may’ve been for the Led Zeppelin show at the Anaheim Convention Ctr?:hmmm:
:beers:
~ Pete

.

Ask Chuck what concert they were for.