[JOE58]

There is a 1969 COPO Camaro on e-bay with a 9E (Sep69) build date and has two dashs on the trim tag for 'paint delete'. I know some of the COPO Chevelles were paint delete in order to get Monaco Orange or Daytona Yellow which were special order colors for the Chevelle. I have not heard of many 69 Camaros with paint delete. Is there any record of how many 1969 Camaros that had 'paint delete' trim tags?

[Rich Fields]

No.

And a better name for it might be "special order paint", of which "paint delete" is a subset.

Rich

[YenkoYS100]

Are you talking about the one on eBay with the $40,000 starting bid, and the fender braces to the core support are not installed? Rick

[This message has been edited by YenkoYS100 (edited 12-22-1999).]
No need to correct me. I just edicated myself on COPO 69 Camaros by looking a little closer at what appears to be a lack of room for the pass. side brace above the battery, because of the width of the radiator? Damn those hot running beast BBC's anyway!
Rick
'68 Camaro SS 427
'66 Yenko Stinger #YS-100
http://infoweb.magi.com/~gaube/corvair/yenko05.html


[This message has been edited by YenkoYS100 (edited 12-22-1999).]

[68SS396]

Yenko, Maybe someone could enlighten us but all the Camaros came with both fender braces regardless of options. I had a 69 with the big block curved neck radiator (same as in pictures) and the car had both braces. No interference with the radiator. I have the same radiator in my 68 now and it has the fender braces. He just doesn't have that one on for some reason but it should fit. What does your 68 SS 427 have for a radiator and do you have both fender braces?

[70 RS/Z-28]

Looked like nobody thought it was even worth the opening bid of $40K as the auction ended with no bids. I thought a matching number restored COPO would be worth more than that.

[This message has been edited by 70 RS/Z-28 (edited 12-23-1999).]

[YenkoYS100]

'68SS396> I have only had my car for 2 months now. It was purchased as a project and needs quite a few parts. I have been saving the '69 Vette 427/400hp. engine for 15 years. My car is an original SS 396/375hp. car. I bought it less engine,trans.,and front clip. It was a drag car for alot of years. It was originally Corvette Bronze (color available on Jan. and later built '68's) with the black tailpanel. I have the fender braces for the car, but have not decided if I will go with a factory type radiator, or a custom aluminum one? There has been alot learned in the last 30 years about what works more efficiently.
I got to thinking about that missing fender brace and came up with this opinion : I had a friend back in the 1980's that did a full blown frame up resto. on a '70 1/2 Z/28 RS. The car sat alot. The battery always crapped up the tray and inner fender (where were gel cells when you needed them?). I think the owner of the COPO doesn't leave the battery installed in that car while it sits. If the brace is left out, it's easier to remove.
Rick

[68SS396]

Rick, I love those stories about cars like yours. Stories like that are always more interesting than the pampered its whole life stories. Mine is originally Corvette Bronze also. Good point about leaving the brace off if you take the battery in and out. That is probably the case and makes the most sense. Currently my battery is in the trunk so I didn't even think of that. I would love to find another project like yours even though mine isn't done. Mine is similiar as it sat in a field for fifteen years. It was my father in laws at the time and when I was younger I used to always drive by it and could see it from a distance. I knew my father in law long before he was my father in law because he has a rather large supply of Camaro parts. Then one day after we were family he asked for help to move this car because he was keeping it on his friends land and had to me moved. He pulled the 427 4speed out (not origianl) and sold the car to a friend of mine. My friend bought it because he used to drive by it also and now was the chance to own the car after driving by it for years. He bought a bunch of parts, lost interest and sold it to me for the same price.

[YenkoYS100]

68SS396> That's great that you know the history on your car for alot of the years. I really like the Corvette Bronze color. The guy I bought mine from didn't even have it advertised as an SS396 car. I had been away from my Camaro books that I have had since the early 1980's. It wasn't until we towed it home 400+ miles and I started reading my books again, and I found out what it was. I'm slowly gathering good parts that I need.
Rick

[clill]

The COPO on Ebay with the -- paint code was orig. a ugly green color. Everyone wants a Yenko, COPO's don't bring as much because going down the road nobody can recognize it as anything special. YenkoYS100, how did you determine that your car was a 375 hp car ?

[YenkoYS100]

I talked to the original owner. The car was bought for drag racing, and that is the engine they wanted. It also has the 6000rpm tic toc tach, and alot of excess rubber in the wheelwells. )

[70 RS/Z-28]

You've got a good point there Clill about a COPO looking like a run of the mill '69 camaro certainly compared to the bold graphics of a Yenko. Then again, ZL-1's look awefully plain.......until you pop the hood.

[clill]

I bought and restored a Cortez Silver Copo about 10 years ago, don't want to say how much money I had in it. I got tired of it and put it in a collector car showroom for sale about 3 years ago for 45000.00. It sat forever. At one point it got a 17000.00 price tag on it by accident, still had nobody interested. This was a #'s matching complete frame off car with paperwork. Column shift auto didn't help either. Ended up trading it toward the US Camaro Clubs giveaway ZL1.