Author Topic: Wanted: Photos/Info of Bob Mcginty/ Don Smith Sungro Camaro  (Read 14035 times)

bobs67

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Wanted: Photos/Info of Bob Mcginty/ Don Smith Sungro Camaro
« on: January 07, 2015, 07:38:42 AM »
I am restoring the Bob Mcginty Camaro that was yellow and black #78, 48. When I got the car in 1983 it was painted Lime Green and Yellow saying "Sungro" owned by Don Smith. I would appreciate if any one can supply any info or have any pictures of the car.

Jon Mello

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Re: Wanted: Photos/Info of Bob Mcginty/ Don Smith Sungro Camaro
« Reply #1 on: January 08, 2015, 01:38:00 AM »
Bob, thanks for signing up and joining the forum. I'm excited to hear about you restoring Bob McGinty's old car. Maybe 12-15 years ago I was looking at the Firebird/Camaro that Rick Titus owned. It was at Chuck Beck's shop near Phelan, CA. While I was there, Chuck Beck told me that he was the one who built the car for McGinty and the work was done at an Oldsmobile dealership that had gone out of business. It was somewhere in the LA area but I don't remember the exact town. Here's a little blurb about Chuck Beck... http://www.examiner.com/article/chuck-beck-celebrates-75th-with-another-atlanta-garage-party . If you look at Chuck's website, http://www.beck904.com/ , you'll find a phone number for him. It appears that he is now located in the Atlanta, GA area.

I've got a few pics of the car. Here's a very lousy one from the Finish Line publication in late '72. It appears that it may have the same paint scheme as the lower picture you posted above.
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Jon Mello

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Re: Wanted: Photos/Info of Bob Mcginty/ Don Smith Sungro Camaro
« Reply #2 on: January 08, 2015, 03:13:46 AM »
The earliest photo I have seen of the car was taken in March '68 at Willow Springs. It looks like it was an RS/SS originally.

Photo by Jack Brady & Associates


The car was repaint green and black by the time it was entered in this support race for the USRRC event at Laguna Seca in May '68.

Photo by Jack Brady & Associates


It got sponsorship from Clippinger Chevrolet in Covina, CA by the time it ran in this Riverside A/Sedan race in July '68.

Photo by Jack Brady & Associates


Here's another shot from the same 7/68 Riverside event.

Photo by Jack Brady & Associates


Here's McGinty's car and Donohue's Penske Camaro in turn 7 at the Riverside Trans-Am race in September '68.
The car has switched to a flat hood and standard Camaro grille by this point.

Petersen Publishing photo


Here's another shot from the '68 Riverside Trans-Am.

Photo by Jack Brady & Associates
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bobs67

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Re: Wanted: Photos/Info of Bob Mcginty/ Don Smith Sungro Camaro
« Reply #3 on: January 08, 2015, 04:42:57 AM »
Thanks for the pictures and info, I really appreciate it. I wish I could find more pictures if any of the Don Smith version of the car as I have no images while running in those colors. As of now I just sent the car off to a guy in Pomona to get new quarters installed and flare them. In regards to Chuck Beck involvement, I knew he had a hand in the car and I saw his shop at cable airport in Upland, Ca. I saw the Titus Firebird in the background at the time, but I can't recall when this occurred. I can only date this event when Beck built the Lister with the crate engine with 58 mm Crossed Webers on the engine.

bobs67

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Re: Wanted: Photos/Info of Bob Mcginty/ Don Smith Sungro Camaro
« Reply #4 on: January 08, 2015, 04:55:29 AM »
Here are some current pictures of the car in Dec 2014. I have all kinds of pictures of the car as a work in progress, but the biggest thing is to get the quarters and back end fixed up to move on from there.

bobs67

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Re: Wanted: Photos/Info of Bob Mcginty/ Don Smith Sungro Camaro
« Reply #5 on: January 08, 2015, 05:03:54 AM »
In the Last few years I have started to concentrate on finishing the car and redid the firewall (involving lots of welding up pin holes and all over interior of car) :( I painted interior after sanding off rust and painted firewall and inner fenders and underside of car. I finally installed the front sub frame and assembled most of the suspension pieces. Redid the fuel cell to hold my future to be determined fuel cell... I installed the dash from stock panels I found at a swap meet since it was missing when I bought it. I will be glad to get the car back and continue more of the installation process and body work.

Jon Mello

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Re: Wanted: Photos/Info of Bob Mcginty/ Don Smith Sungro Camaro
« Reply #6 on: January 08, 2015, 05:14:31 AM »
Bob, thanks for posting some current pics. Nice to see and hear of the progress being made on it. I don't believe I have any pics of it when owned by Bob Smith. Is that the paint scheme you're going with or are you going for the earlier look?
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bobs67

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Re: Wanted: Photos/Info of Bob Mcginty/ Don Smith Sungro Camaro
« Reply #7 on: January 08, 2015, 05:39:36 AM »
I have been meaning to get around to posting some info and pictures on the car for a while and I am glad I finally got around to doing it. I want to get in contact with Mcginty while I can to further discuss about the car. I appreciate what you do have, since I have so few pictures. I really would like to have the car painted back to the black and yellow paint scheme, but my son would prefer the black and green colors so I don't know which direction I will go for now.. I have not fully looked into the full history of the car as to what it started out as from the factory. From my knowledge, the car was acquired from Mcginty from a bank repo to which I figured the car was a standard Camaro and not an RS/SS, but from the early pictures it sure looks like it was an RS/SS. I know the factory colors were a bright blue from digging down through all those layers of paint. The doors gave the most info to all the colors it has been over the years. I don't believe the hood nor the lower valance have blue on them, which was another reason why I thought the car was standard from having a flat hood and a standard lower valance. I have kept every panel and part I bought the car as, which were pretty damaged and pretty crude in how things were cut, drilled and designed.

wolfmin

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Re: Wanted: Photos/Info of Bob Mcginty/ Don Smith Sungro Camaro
« Reply #8 on: January 08, 2015, 01:59:23 PM »
I found this picture on facebook.

bobs67

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Re: Wanted: Photos/Info of Bob Mcginty/ Don Smith Sungro Camaro
« Reply #9 on: January 08, 2015, 07:59:18 PM »
Ahh, I just happened upon that image just browsing the web the other night, which spurred my interest in searching for more images. Its a very good image and I was surprised when I saw it. I messaged the guy, Jerry Britain on facebook about the car since he briefly discussed the car. He has not replied back yet.

Jon Mello

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Re: Wanted: Photos/Info of Bob Mcginty/ Don Smith Sungro Camaro
« Reply #10 on: January 09, 2015, 12:56:49 AM »
I found this picture on facebook.

     That's a nice shot of the car in color. Thanks for posting it, Mike.
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vtfb68

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Re: Wanted: Photos/Info of Bob Mcginty/ Don Smith Sungro Camaro
« Reply #11 on: January 09, 2015, 03:23:54 AM »
The car also sports a RS tail panel.
    VT
68 05C LA RS/SS U2 712 L34 M21 BR
68 08E LA RS Y2 749 L30 M35
67 11B LA  RS/SS M-1 797-Z L48 M21  Convertible

Jon Mello

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Re: Wanted: Photos/Info of Bob Mcginty/ Don Smith Sungro Camaro
« Reply #12 on: January 09, 2015, 05:16:37 PM »
One of the things I remember Chuck Beck telling me about the car was that he made solid bushings to put between the subframe and body and then wrapped black electrical tape around them so they would look like the stock rubber bushings.
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oldtransamdriver

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Re: Wanted: Photos/Info of Bob Mcginty/ Don Smith Sungro Camaro
« Reply #13 on: January 09, 2015, 06:11:50 PM »
Solid sub frame bushiings not allowed?  I thought that was ok.

Robert

Jon Mello

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Re: Wanted: Photos/Info of Bob Mcginty/ Don Smith Sungro Camaro
« Reply #14 on: January 09, 2015, 08:12:46 PM »
I thought so also but it helped me remember the story as I thought, "why bother?".
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