Re: undiscovered cars
Well I think I told the story of this car once before,but it is worth retelling.One of my friends who I have race with for a long time purchased a 68 camaro a few years back from his engine builder.The car sat in this engine builder's shop for over 20 years after it was abandoned in there in 1972,and the shop owner had the car on a trailer under a canopy behind his shop.The only paperwork on the car were dealer papers from a dealership in what he said was New York,but later was repored to be in PA.{Maybe York PA?}.it is a 1968 camaro SS 327 which I belive was originally a 4 speed car but the shop owner put a glide in it.The car was origianlly white but had been repainted orange and then purple.I was at the body sop when the car was stripped and the owner thought it was a rare car because it was hugger orange,but was bummed when it turned out to be white,but there was race car lettering on the original white paint.It was never titled and had 425 original miles on the clock,but the odometer had ben disconnected for a while.It had a 12 bolt with 5.13 gears and GM bolt in axles,the spring perches were re enforced with plate steel and it had J bolt lakewood bars on it.The car is now legally titled as street car in New York,and had about 700 something miles on it the last time I saw it.The certificate of origin and dealer papers were turned over to the DMV,but looking back on it there is a suspicion of what this car might be.The shop owner claimed it had a bad purple paint job on it and cragar rims when it was left at his shop by a few street racers that were looking to have an engine built.The current owner refuses to allow anyone to take interest in what history the car might have since there is also history that the car changed hands back in the early 70's under illegal circumstances,and might have been stolen back then.The current owner has a clean title and doesnt want to get involved with anybody who might want to give him a hard time.There are however reports in the New Jersey Area that this car might have been Grumpy's 68 camaro.
Another one which I have been working on for some time is a car that has been sitting on a local car dealer's storage lot for almost 15 years now.It is a 1975 camaro that the last time I looked at had all the makings of a Motion conversion bigblock car.It was purchased at a police auction on Long Island back around 1989 along with the flat trailer it was loaded on and some crazy jacked up 4x4 that was towing it.It was confiscated in a drug raid and sold without a title at a police auction.The truck was retitled with a state issue VIN,and sold,but the Camaro was in a partial state of assembley so the state wont issue a title for it,and they also had probelms with the numberless engine that was in it.The state issues a different VIN so that the last owner cant attempt to reclaim the car with the cold title.This may be a good thing though,since the state left the original VIN on this car.The car has a CE code iron head 427 in it along with a dual plane intake and 3 barrel carb.One head and the intake/carb are in the trunk,and only damage looks like a bad head gasket and a lot of rust in the engine.The body is mint with heavily oxidized orange paint and a Motion glass L88 hood.Only over the last 2 years have some round surface rust spots popped up on the car.The windows are never fogged which makes me think the inside is tight and the floors are good.It has a 10 bolt with a gold cover and traction bars that dont totally go up to the spring eye,and it has 3 keystone mags on it.I would love to look into this car further but the current owner seems to not want to do anything with it.I have contacted him a few times over the years and back in the early 90's he said he would sell it for 10 grand,but I didnt think it was worth it,now he wont sell it at all because he doesnt want to get involved with selling a car with no paperwork.I havent been in the yard to get a closer look since about 1992,but I drive by it every day about 5 times a day during my travels in work,and have stopped to peek at it through the fence 3 times in this year alone.I dont know if it is the real deal,and I know that it isnt a Baldwin car anyway,and big bumper camaros arent hot now anyway,but it is the solidest 2nd gen I have seen,and I know that I could puff that 427 up and have it on the street and cruising with 1 good winter's worth of work.I will try and get some pics of it to post tommorrow.
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