[68camaroz28]

We purchased our 68 Butternut Yellow Z/28 in the early 80's and for all the good, bad, and ugly reasons the restoration process just sat. Now the time has come to start the process and thought it might be beneficial to someone (including keeping me on track) to update the restoration process via this thread. A little background first: 01B built Camaro with black std. interior, original born with engine, M21 trans. and rear. Fall of 2008 I found the original owner (Eddie M.) with an old 1972 Phillips 66 charge receipt that was under the front bucket seat carpet. Eddie was a great person to talk to along with being a car guy so he told me a lot about the Z/28. Purchased at Roger Dean Chevrolet in Charleston, WV in late March or early April, 68 according to Eddie. He told me he was the one who purchased and added the air cowl plenum and headers as he was into the trans-am scene and Mark Donahue. Verified as well that the Z/28 had come with 302 fender emblems but he later added the Z/28 emblems to the fenders. When my wife and I purchased the car way back when it had most of the things original except for a few items like the water pump, starter, exhaust manifolds (remember those headers) but most of the hard to find (high $ stuff today) was there.Some might ask since the car sat so long what prompted the recent start up? Well, for many years it was "I'm going to get to it one of these days" but it never happened and the reason became obvious to me that to do the car correct it was beyond my skills hence Lonny Gordon and his team at East Coast Muscle Cars were chosen. Their workmanship is just fantastic along with being just great people. So the journey begins but would not have without the support of my wife For those of us married, we know how important that is, right?

Here is the car in the late 70's!


The Z just before it left for East Coast Musclecars!

[Mav68erick]

I like your front wheel... maybe when im done I wont put my subframe on, ill just do one of the trailer tongues to tow it not put seats in it and make a tear drop style camper out of it = P

only reason I say that at the car show someone had a fiberglass back half of a vet that they towed behind there vet as a sleeper... just slighter smaller in scale but it was cool

[68camaroz28]

Good one Mav68erick, but it does make it easy to move around.
Some painted stripe dimensions off our Z/28 that I took back in the early 80's!


Note the holes in the deck lid. Eddie (1st owner) also added the spoiler after purchase.

[68camaroz28]

Interesting what you find under the carpet sometimes
Carpet info and then how I found the orig. owner. Very lucky find

[fordpowerjoke]

can't wait for more! thanks for starting the thread to follow....jeff

[68camaroz28]

Might be of interest to see some pictures of some of the orig. parts like the air cowl plenum, etc. Original owner Eddie purchased a air cowl plenum and installed it.


Orig. air filter still in the unit. Dirty elememt but it's the original one!

Now a NOS one I have but notice the white stencil vs. the embossed raised numbers on the orig.

[Davisalmound]

Make sure they remove that seam sealer between the quarters and tail! One of my pet peaves on "restored" cars.

[68camaroz28]

A few days ago I spent a day blowing out and vacuuming over and over again after being blasted to bare metal to prepare for epoxy primer before any rust can set up. The good (great) news was the floor boards, doors and in general looked great. Lonny at East Coast Musclecars told me it is one of the best overall condition cars they have had as many need floor boards replaced, etc.... But with the car in a garage for the past 35 years I guess it should be.

[68camaroz28]

And the doors!







Looks like its painted silver now with the paint all off!

[68camaroz28]

Some stampings on body parts:
H51R Not sure what that is?????


H52 Anyone know what these stand for?



Vin stamp in body

[stamatisg1977]

those are the factory sheetmetal stampings. i believe those are the dates that they were made. some one with more knowledge can give you more info.
here is a link from the CRG
http://www.camaros.org/numbers.shtml#sheet

[foreverlookin]

You are one lucky guy! Looking forward to more pics

[prostreet69camaro]

Great car. My buddy has one and has been sitting in a shop since 1980. Now in the last year he sold his shop and it is sitting outside looking bad. I get on his butt about it all the time but he is stubborn. All original 68 Z.

[1968 Z28]

Originally Posted by prostreet69camaro

Great car. My buddy has one and has been sitting in a shop since 1980. Now in the last year he sold his shop and it is sitting outside looking bad. I get on his butt about it all the time but he is stubborn. All original 68 Z.

Hey Mike...could you get him to post some photos....love to see all original '68Z's for some reason.

[68camaroz28]

Originally Posted by stamatisg1977

those are the factory sheetmetal stampings. i believe those are the dates that they were made. some one with more knowledge can give you more info.
here is a link from the CRG
http://www.camaros.org/numbers.shtml#sheet

Was aware of a sheetmetal stamping date code used but these made no sense at the time but we be good to go now. Now it does thanks to you Looks like many of the panels were made during the 51 & 52 week of 1967.