After 27 years of doing absolutely nothing with this Camaro, another friend and I shamed Brian into getting the thing off to the body shop for body work, and paint. We hauled it down to a shop near Springfield MO, where the work was done, and they did a really nice job. That's the good news.....the bad news is, once back home, it got pushed into Brian's shop and buried with absolutely nothing else done to it in the 15 years since
Not long after Brian bought it from me, he was able to do a title search with the State of Illinois (back in the good old days when you could do things like that without people getting their panties in a bunch) and he got in touch with the original owner. He confirmed that it was indeed an original L89 car and that he blew the engine under warrranty, which explained the "CE" block in the car. In late 71 or early 72, his lower level garage flooded in a heavy storm and the Camaro was inundated. His insurance company would go either way, fixing the car or totalling it. He said the car needed brakes and tires and had some rust showing, so he decided to let them total it. That's how it ended up at the salvage yard where my friend Bruce bought it.