Gary Morris' (Zeebad1) Magnificent 1971 RS Z/28

[Xplantdad]

Bruce,
Here's a little background on my current Camaro, and how it came to be what it is today.


My dad was a Ford guy, and my first car was a '69 Torino GT (black w/gold stripe, and green interior, 428CJ.) I bought it when I was 15, and spent every dime I earned on performance parts for it. I was making decent money at the time, working on my grandpa's farm. I had to because the Ford parts were a lot more expensive than the GM parts. the local speed shop loved my addiction, but I still kept getting outrun by Chevys (small block & big block alike.) I finally jumped ship in the Fall of '73, buying a '71 Z-28/RS from a friend. It was #62 Burnt Orange w/black stripes, and #777 Sandalwood interior. Stock LT-1 w/400 Turbo.


I ran that for 2 years, and sold it to get a '73 Z that I built a 427 for. It too had a 400 Turbo & 4.88 gears in a 12 bolt. I painted it black, with an L-88 hood. I never did actually finish the car, but still had a lot of fun with it.


With interests changing, I sold the Camaro, and bought a new Chevy K-20 pickup, and drifted away from the car scene. Farming was consuming most of my time, and I met a wonderful girl, and we got married in 1980. Vehicles at that time were my truck, and her Monte Carlo (both black.) Interest in the wife led to 4 boys, all 2 years apart, and the 2nd Monte Carlo was traded for an Astro van. We went thru 3 of them with the kids growing up, and high performance wasn't even a consideration. I was working 3200-3300 hours a year for an independent ag-chemical/fertilizer dealer (running application equipment & fabricating facilities & maintenance work.) It was at work there one day when a friend, (and now my boss) showed up with a '95 Z-28 convertible with a 6 speed. That was the first time I had been anywhere near a 4th gen, and was pleasantly surprised by its performance. With my commenting that it probably wouldn't spin the tires with 4 passengers, I was quickly proven wrong. That's all it took to light a fire under me. The following spring, I went to work for his company, that manufactured the application equipment that I had been running & repairing for the past 10 years. I was hired as a service technician, doing field service in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, and Wisconsin. My working hours were cut in half, and I finally started to realize there was more to life than work. I came home one day in the fall of '98, and told my wife "I had been thinking." The usual "Now What?" was the response, and with the 4 boys, 16,14, 12, and 10, I told her I thought I would like to find an old car that the boys & I could work on together. I was amazed when her reply was "I think that's a good idea." That proceeded to set the wheels in motion for locating something to play with.


Mid-fall of 1998, I mentioned to a long-time acquaintance that I would like to find an early 2nd gen Camaro. About 2 weeks later, he called me to tell me of a guy that had a '71 Z, only 15 miles away, but didn't know if he still had it, or would consider selling it if he did. I called him right away, and he told me that his daughter had just dinged it with her bike, and the wife put a door ding in it, so he decided it was time to part with it. He had owned it for 16 years, had it all refurbished/painted, and driven it less than 800 miles. We went the day after Thanksgiving, 1998 to look at it, and fell in love. 1971 Z-28/RS, Mulsanne blue w/ black stripes, 4 speed, 4.10 gears, and a built 350. Things didn't work out at that time to buy it, but the thought never went away. Early spring of 1999 came along, and my mind got back on cars. My wife was tolerating my impatience, and finally arranged some finances, and said "let's go for it." It was now mid-April and I quickly called the owner to see if the car was even still available. He said it was, for the price we had discussed in the Fall. We proceeded to pick the car up that night, and have never looked back. The boys knew we were looking, but we kept getting the car a secret until we pulled in the yard that night. We wished we had captured the look on the boys' faces that night. It was priceless.


Let the fun begin. A lot of clean-up, and we were on the road. Middle of May, and the driveshaft broke, just shifting into 2nd gear. That took a week to get fixed, but I couldn't figure out why the rotor in the distributor broke. (It may have over-wound when the driveshaft broke.) Got that all fixed, and back on the road, until a funny squeak from the motor announced a spun bearing. A cam bearing had gotten pushed out of place, and #7 rod bearing lost lubrication. We had the car for 2 months, and were down for the count. Showing my disappointment, and talking to people, I stumbled onto a friend that had an old 350 sitting in a shed, and didn't even know if it would run. $110.00 and 5 days later, the car was running again. Most of the bolt-on parts were taken off the broken engine, so it didn't look any different. That motor would power the car until the original was rebuilt, and put back in, March of 2002.


The motor was rebuilt, using the original block, crank, rods, and heads. a lot of machine work was needed, and my machinist had a mild heart attack in the midst of the process, thank goodness he recovered, but it all got taken care of. The block was already .030 over, so it had to go to .040. SpeedPro hyper pistons fill the holes with about 10.5 to 1 compression. I smoothed up the stock heads, and had stainless valves installed. A Comp Cams XE-284 drives the valve train which includes Comp Cams springs & retainers under Cam Dynamics roller rockers. Induction included a Torker II intake with a Holley 700 DP on top of that. The original distributor provides the fire with a Pertronics ignition under the MSD cap & rotor. An MSD 6AL box & coil warm the spark a little, and a rev-limiter keeps things under control. Hooker ceramic-coated headers funnel the fumes to a Flowmaster American Thunder system, with a note of authority. On the back of the engine, holding a Centerforce Dual-Friction clutch setup, is a Lakewood scattershield, with the original Muncie M-21 directing the power rearward. A Hurst SuperShifter stirs the gears inside. The "new" HD driveshaft, now contained by a Moroso loop, connects to a '70 12 bolt with 4.10 gears on the factory posi. At the same time these parts were installed, I painted the firewall, subframe, and the front half of under the car. PPG acrylic urethane in gloss black. New ACC carpet was laid over 3/8" of underlaymentat the same time. Sometime prior to all of this, I had installed a Vette Brakes front suspension kit, which included a fiberglass monoleaf spring, tubular a-arms, and poly bushings throughout the entire suspension. Competition Engineering traction bars & Moroso subframe connectors were also added. After getting this combo fired up & running, I learned that the original radiator was inadequate, so it was replaced with a generic aluminum version with no modification to the car. That keeps the coolant at a tolerable level, even on the warmest days.


This combination was satisfying, and kept things rolling quite well, with a few minor problems. Vapor lock tended to be a problem, so I sumped the fuel tank, and installed an Aeromotive electric pump & regulator. Also added around this time were the front seats from a 2000 Camaro, adding to the comfort level on long trips.


We would average between 2000-2500 miles a year with the car, going to shows & cruising around. Sept. of 2004 would be a changing time for the car. A good friend and myself were headed to a cruise-night 200 miles from home. We had checked in at the hotel, and were headed to the show. We stopped at an intersection, and he thought I had pulled out, and proceeded to bump me with his '84 Z. He ended up with over $5000.00 in damages, and my estimate was just under $9000.00. No one was hurt, and the cars can be fixed. And, yes, we are still very good friends. We proceeded to the cruise night, and hung our heads the rest of the night. As long as we were that far from home, a bunch of friends talked us into still going to the show the next day. The hospitality of that bunch from Central Illinois is amazing. The judges of the show must have really felt sorry for me, because they still awarded my car a "Sweet Sixteen" trophy, out of nearly 1500 cars.


Back home to reality, and getting estimates for repair. My friends insurance company sent an adjuster out, who estimated damages at $3900.00. I wasted 3 months arguing with them, and finally turned it in to my insurance company. Before this, I had been turned down by 2 shops that didn't want to get involved in something that deep. One of those shops suggested a restoration/sales shop in Machesney Park, IL. that specializes in Mopars, but does other brands on occasion. I took the 65 mile trek one day to see what they could do for me. The office was more of a museum atmosphere, with one of the original "Hurst Hemi Under Glass" cars sitting in the showroom, awaiting restoration. After conferring with the owner, he told me he would get the "GM specialist" that works there. My thoughts turned to "whatever you want to call him!" This gentleman came out of the shop, took a second look at my car, and asked my where I got it. He guessed the city, and when I told him the previous owners name, he told me that he was the one that restored & painted the car for him, so many years ago. We had quite a lengthy conversation, but he informed me that they couldn't do the work, with things being twisted as they were. I had driven 65 miles to a city of more than 150000 people to met the guy that painted my car 22 years ago. What a small world! About the same time, we both thought of a shop back in my home town that could possibly do the work. I had repairs done there years ago, but didn't realize that he was into restoration of muscle cars. I proceeded back there that day, and got the ball rolling with them. My insurance company had a check for me within 2 weeks, and I dropped the car off before Thanksgiving, 2004. While it was in there, I opted for a steel cowl hood, and all new door/window/ trunk seals from GM. With a few minor bumps, and a couple of major ones along the way, I picked the car up on Sept. 9th, 2005. With all that had been done, the finishing touch was replacing the Centerlines with the Cragar SS's and Goodyear Eagle GT II's that I bought that summer. It was well worth the wait to have the car done the way I wanted it. I drove it hard for about 3 weeks, and it headed back to the body shop for some defect repairs.


I decided to pull things apart this winter, mainly for clean-up, but got a little carried away once I started. I always wanted to clean the undercoating off the rest of the car, so I thought this winter would be the best time to do that. I had pulled the motor & trans, and dropped the differential & springs. Then the subframe connectors and all lines came off. I'm now down to bare undercoating. I don't even want to recall that process, but just about done, I started cleaning up the front subframe. It only took an hour of that for me to decide that 6 bolts can be taken out, and that subframe will come off. That item, along with the control arms, sfc's, traction bars, sway bar & brackets, and hood hinges are now all powdercoated. hat also made painting the underside of the car much easier. Again, PPG acrylic urethane in gloss black. No better time to spring for all stainless steel lines & hardware. SSBC rotors & calipers finished off the brake system. Other things that were addressed at the time were new sliders & synchros in the M-21, a new clutch setup, and I found a GM Bowtie single-plane intake that I liked the looks of, especially after it was powdercoated with a glossy silver coating.


After a long 2 months, I believe we are ready to start enjoying the year with the car again, looking forward to meeting some new friends, and getting together with old ones too.
Thank you, Gary. (zeebad1)

[MosportGreen66]

Nice blend of performance parts... interesting combo and nice style!
Love the color combo... one sweet Camaro!

[Z-11 396]

<<< GARY >>> YOU HAVE ONE FANTASTIC LOOKING CAR. A GREAT STORY TO GO WITH IT AS WELL. YOU DID A GREAT RESTO ON THE CAR, LIKE THE COLOR....KASEY

[70-SS/RS-L78]

That is one sweet looking Z/28

[DarrenX33]

Very cool. Hoping to see it this summer.

[Justbad Joe]

What a small world. I was one of the guys that painted the 84 z that hit you. It's almost identical to the 71 paint scheme. Blue with back stripes. Both are sweet looking rides!

[Xplantdad]

Gary...awesome job on the Z/28. I love that color...and the detail work is just great. It's refreshing to see a car with non-stock items under the hood...

Thas so much for sharing your car and story with all of us. I enjoyed every minute of it.

[Mike67SS]

Love the car and the wheels!

[dkatap]

Top notch car and a top notch guy! Gary, your car is stunning. You gotta bring it back down to the Cruise for Charity.

Dennis

[musclecarjohn]

Love the Day 2 look...great car and story!