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General Discussion / "Old Yeller" 69 featured on home page
« on: April 06, 2014, 04:53:49 AM »
I had to take a double look. There it was and is, my Daytona Yellow 69 featured on the home page, wow! This is a rough car mind you, but it does have a story. I bought the 2 69's in 79 at 18, many here know, fast forward to 1985. I had been married 3 years now, no kids yet. This is before internet and the plethora of reproduction parts. Every week, here in Ohio, a publication called the Trad'in Post came out on Thursdays. This and swap meets where the primary way of finding cars and parts for most. I would always pick one up and go over it through my lunch break. There were many sections, as it was like a modern Craigslist. There was a section for cars sorted by year, an engine and drivetrain section and body/interior section. I always was on the hunt for Camaro parts. In the body parts section was an ad for a dash pad and a factory tach for 69 Camaro. I called, although skeptical as many times it would be a goose chase only to find it was not what the seller said. The owner, after some talk, told me he had the whole car. He had removed the engine and trans,glass,interior and had them in his house. I made arraignments to look at car after I got off work. it was dark by the time I got there and the car was under a tarp. To make matters worse, the guy did not have any keys and had a legal name change as he was now a black Muslim. I began to wonder if the car was stolen, but he presented the documents to show his legal name change and to show his old name on title. He wanted $200 for the car, $200 for the engine. At the time automatic tellers where fairly new and there was a $200 limit of withdrawal allowed. I went and got the $200 and loaded all I could into a station wagon I brought. Friday we got the title tranferred. Saturday, a buddy with a trailer went down and helped me get the car. I was going to part it out. I did not need another 69, I figured. My buddy convinced me to put it back on the road and I drove it to work for a few years after putting it all back together. I did not buy the engine as that was not important at the time(Uhg). The car was unusual as it was ordered with 307, 4 speed, U17 guages, rear antenna, manual N44, 76 paint and 711 interior, blk vinyl top, D80 stripes. I hastily put together a flat top 350 I had (we called them grenade motors as you never knew when they would go boom) A piston skirt broke and it made a lot of noise. Out came that engine and a 307 I had out of a 70 Camaro went in. It ran ok, but the first night home(2nd shift) the lifters got real noisy. I checked the oil and it was empty. It did not hurt the engine and I kept a close eye on the oil from there on. I kept jugs of used oil in the back floor as the rings must have been stuck. It did not smoke. I ended up putting another 350 together and that is what is in it today. It is fitting the car is in this month's feature. It is a 3E Norwood car, but clearly by the vin, and some components (rear dated 1st week of April) that it was in my guesstimation completed around the 7th of April. The car still has most of its original paint and like the others, is part of the family. With the exception of the engine and master cylinder and hood, most everything else is as born with. It is kind of a turd, but my turd and a lot of folks at the couple of shows I do attend, flock to it and look it over and pass by the shiny restored ones including two COPOs that friends of mine have. In hindsight, I wish I could have bought them all back then. We were struggling, money wise, being newly weds and having a house, but it was a bargain at $200, even then, and I knew I couldn't pass it up. I never had the extra funds to do much with it, so it stays as is for now. The 350 has blackjack headers, General Kinetics .483 lift solid, 2.02 heads. At one point, I had a tunnel ram on the car and it would flat bury the 7k tach! Thanks CRG for the feature.
