Did Bill Thomas build Camaros outside NICKEY??

[COPO_Anders]

Jeffrey, is the engineblock painted yellow ?

[beater68427]

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Jeffrey, is the engineblock painted yellow ?

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Interesting you say that, the block is faded black now but you can see it was orange originally then yellow now light cruddy coat of black, the heads are bare aluminum, looks like it has had its share of abuse, I know I can save the heads but a little worried on the short block, I really do not have the money to build a new engine now well I have enough for a new coat of paint on the car or build a engine, I think (when I get a title) I will do a clean up on the car and put the other bigblock from my impala in it for now and have some fun. I started to get curious on the car, but reading some of the threads here, all the real cars were built from SS 396 cars, I think it was some guys street-bracket car form that era. I will get some pics up when I get the title back from the state, I am a paranoid sort and bought it from a younger guy and just a little worried, so far it came black clean no wants no warrants so I'm sure its all good, just me being paranoid.

[PeteLeathersac]

WW...this car sure sounds interesting so far!.
Can you report what stampings are on the block?.
And before going too far w/ the title, have you confirmed the hidden Vins do match the 6 Cyl. tag?.

Welcome Jeff...your L34 factory 4:10 '67 rag sounds great too!.

~ Pete

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I like real cars best...the REAL real ones!

[beater68427]

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WW...this car sure sounds interesting so far!.
Can you report what stampings are on the block?.
And before going too far w/ the title, have you confirmed the hidden Vins do match the 6 Cyl. tag?.

Welcome Jeff...your L34 factory 4:10 '67 rag sounds great too!.

~ Pete
The Chevelle is a good car full docs makes it nice also, The vin is a 6 on the camaro and all seem to match on body, thats where im confused, the block has been surfaced years ago, no numbers there casting is a 5439, the rear seems to have 4:56 or 4:88 gears in it now and some previous weld marks on the tubes, I will need to do some cleaning there, and a gear change I think I'm going to put 3:73's in it, as far as the body it is very clean no undercoat car, very small amount of rust in quarters, Floor pans are great bottom of car is still black and quite clean, I was just going to give it a detail with whats there, and touch up the black in a few spots no dents or dings on the car, has had one repaint, There are no marking on the car at all no Camaro no engine size no marking at all did have a black stripe on hood plus Ribbon around nose? also manual steering manual brakes. What ever the car is I am just going to mildly restore it to what someone had made it.

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I like real cars best...the REAL real ones!

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[sixtiesmuscle]

Did you say it was an "east coast"/Orange County built car? Any idea when it went west? Just as an aside, the whole "yellow engine" thing is way overblown IMO. Yes, both Nickey & Bill Thomas might have painted an engine or engines yellow, but, so did many others back in the day. One yellow engine on the cover shot of one of the first Nickey/Bill Thomas cars has created a false idea that all of them were yellow.

You are correct in the idea that, most of the conversions were done on V-8 cars at least, and, L78 cars once available. That doesn't mean that someone didn't take a six cylinder car to Bill Thomas for work to be done at some point. If you can prove that, it would be a very cool car.

[beater68427]

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Did you say it was an "east coast"/Orange County built car? Any idea when it went west? Just as an aside, the whole "yellow engine" thing is way overblown IMO. Yes, both Nickey & Bill Thomas might have painted an engine or engines yellow, but, so did many others back in the day. One yellow engine on the cover shot of one of the first Nickey/Bill Thomas cars has created a false idea that all of them were yellow.

You are correct in the idea that, most of the conversions were done on V-8 cars at least, and, L78 cars once available. That doesn't mean that someone didn't take a six cylinder car to Bill Thomas for work to be done at some point. If you can prove that, it would be a very cool car.

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As far as engine color, I take that with a grain of salt, the engine has been painted a multitude of times and once was yellow over orange, I did not think color ment anything I figured they were all orange, I'm sure the car is just someones old hot rod, it has had a serious time of racing but never a cage, the vin shows it was a Norwood car, and production number seems late, but has black CA plates hence 68-69 last reg shows 78 on them. nothing after that nothing in system. The glass over steel stinger hood made me wonder where it is from? and some of the items on the car, The guy I had purchsed it from seemed to have "Chemical Problem" and made we a little leary on no title.

[Stefano]

Nickey advertised that they would paint your 427/Conversion any color that you wanted. Yellow was one of the options and a color that no other MFG was using at that time.

The only other Builder that we have found to use Yellow on a regular basis was Ed Pink.

[sixtiesmuscle]

My point is that too many people place way too much weight on an engine being, or not being, yellow to try to determine if there was a Nickey/Bill Thomas connection to a specific car. I'm sure this comes from the well known cover shot of Bill Thomas techs installing a yellow painted engine into a red Camaro.

[COPO_Anders]

It COULD be the real deal, the colour is just one little sign, not proof. It always takes proof to be certain.

[beater68427]

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My point is that too many people place way too much weight on an engine being, or not being, yellow to try to determine if there was a Nickey/Bill Thomas connection to a specific car. I'm sure this comes from the well known cover shot of Bill Thomas techs installing a yellow painted engine into a red Camaro.

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On this car I have no reason there is any Nickey association, I find alot of parts on it interesting, I know it has some form of past to find it would be great, and for engine color being a factor on anything is really no credit, Like I said in the past it has been painted and painted rebuilt and blown up but was yellow once, I just find as I dug into the car and era of the parts find it interesting date codes etc, and with parts on the car makes me wonder if this ever went on. on the other side of things found out the block is 4.350 overbore (not good) and rusty at that....