Author Topic: And yet another Antwerp 68  (Read 2088 times)

Matthias68

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And yet another Antwerp 68
« on: December 27, 2022, 04:42:53 PM »
Hello there,

I'm Matthias, from Germany.

I am in the process of buying this 68 Camaro.
VIN 12437HX101437

Original 84k kilometers
Off the street since 1982, sitting dry on a lift.

Car was rotisserie sandblasted. Only rear right quarter, rear window frame and a spot on the right B-pillar needed welding.
Matching numbers L30 engine ("fuelie"-heads and "EE" stamping)
Powerglide
Rear window defrost
Fold down rear seat
Deluxe interior
Center console gauges
tic-toc-tach
power brakes (4-piston)
power steering
Single leaf spring and as far as I can tell a 10 bolt

My questions:
Seller claims it is an original "SS". Also says German SSs did not have a special hood nor the nose stripe....and of course not the "SS" badges.
My research tells me, that there were no 327 SS cars. Only 350.
Is it possible GM sold 327 cars as SSs overseas?










bertfam

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Re: And yet another Antwerp 68
« Reply #1 on: December 27, 2022, 06:24:52 PM »
Quote
My research tells me, that there were no 327 SS cars. Only 350.

Your research is correct. There weren't any SS 327's produced. Not even overseas.

Ed

KurtS

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Re: And yet another Antwerp 68
« Reply #2 on: December 28, 2022, 04:53:03 AM »
The car should have an Antwerp tag on the right firewall. I don't see it in the pictures - it is with the car?
Kurt S
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Matthias68

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Re: And yet another Antwerp 68
« Reply #3 on: December 28, 2022, 07:45:32 AM »
Hi Kurt,

yes. The workshop which did the work to this point, took it off.
There were 2 tags, as it should be, according to your research. One for Germany, too. :-)

I only have a picture of the non-German one:



The car's history is more or less known.
Only 2 owners are stated in the "Fahrzeugbrief" (German title). Either the same person twice, only two different addresses (normal procedure when your address changes) or father and son, with the son having the same first name.
The seller told me the car was used first by father, then by son, which would hint towards the latter option.
The car allegedly was used as a company car for a bakery, of which the guys in the title were the owners.
After the son seized using the Camaro in 1982, allegedly some of the staff of the bakery wanted to restore/repair it. They started disassembly.
I have seen pictures of how the car looked when the workshop got it in 2014: All the underbody and the subframe, complete with front end and the firewall with heater box, was painted bright red. Just sprayed over everything....nuts, bolts, bushings.
I assume, that this was part of the "restoration" work those bakery dudes did.
Allegedly the lead bakery dude lost interest at some point because he became too old. So the car sat high on a lift, dry from 1982 till 2014.

According to the seller, only the rear lower quarter behind the right wheel well, both rear wheel well lips, the rear window frame on the right side and a spot on the lower B-pilar needed welding. I have seen pictures, taken during work, that proof that. Also looking at the car now, this appears to be correct. The front fenders also were very rusty, so they replaced them with reproduction fenders.

The "mileage" of this car is documented by a fully stamped "Scheckheft" (German maintenance record book). All services done by an Opel dealership, which was the usual way to do it to those German/European US-GM vehicles.

KurtS

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Re: And yet another Antwerp 68
« Reply #4 on: December 28, 2022, 06:46:14 PM »
That's a relief that both tags are still with the car.
Yes, I noticed the shiny red trunk - never seen that in a production car! That said, Antwerp painted the cars differently than the US. If you want the original appearance,  I'd suggest asking around to find one. There are a few cars still around unrestored. It doesn't have to be a Camaro, just a 67 or 68 CKD car.
Also curious on the axle code, whenever you get that.

Thanks!
Kurt S
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Matthias68

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Re: And yet another Antwerp 68
« Reply #5 on: December 28, 2022, 10:22:41 PM »
The trunk, interior sheet metal and fender inner sides have actually been painted by the workshop that is selling the car to me.
It is the original Matador Red.

I saw many pictures of how the Camaro looked when they got it and it must have been resprayed in a kind of orange even before those bakery dudes started their work. The orange outside paint was clearly weathered.
Whhat those bakery guys did is respray the complete underbody, firewall and subframe, obviously without disassembling anything, in a third kind of red. Kind of a fire red.
All of that fire red is gone now.
Underbody is black.
As is the firewall. Which is, I learned that, wrong because the Antwerp cars had the firewall in body color. I think I read that on CRG. Also I have seen pictures of an unrestored Antwerp car today and the firewall is body color.

I really don't like red, my wife neither.....so as hurtful as it is to me to deviate from the original color.....I think I will change the color. Sequoia Green is my favourite at the moment.
When I do that, I will also delete all red.
And the trunk will get its original splatter grey.

Matthias68

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Re: And yet another Antwerp 68
« Reply #6 on: May 01, 2023, 10:48:49 AM »
Hello,

the 68 is now in my barn.

Sorry for the many pictures. I'm the documentary kinda guy ;-)


Picking up the Chevy in northern Germany.
This was a very exciting day for me. I dream of owning a muscle car for 35 years now.































The paperwork is complete.

Old German title. Rarely seen these days.
Only two previous owners. Alledgedly father and son. Alledgedly owners of a bakery chain near Stuttgart/Germany







German "Scheckheft" (maintenance booklet). Fully stamped until 70.000 km. Odometer shows 82.000km now














German "Betriebsanleitung" (owner's manual)
Obviously, it is from the 69 model year.
Based on my experience with Opel (another GM brand), it would not surprise me if the following scenario happened:
Car was registered in June 1969 --> produced most likely as one of the very last sixtyeights.
Because of the limited production numbers, only a very limited amount of 68 manuals were printed and they ran out before the 68 model year production was done. But the 69 model year manuals were already printed and in....so they just put one of the 69 manuals in the car saying: "Who cares, same car anyway"







VIN tags








And then, time for the inventory:



































































































Matthias68

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Re: And yet another Antwerp 68
« Reply #7 on: May 01, 2023, 10:59:06 AM »
More pictures






















Matthias68

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Re: And yet another Antwerp 68
« Reply #8 on: May 01, 2023, 10:59:38 AM »





















Matthias68

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Re: And yet another Antwerp 68
« Reply #9 on: May 01, 2023, 11:00:15 AM »




















Matthias68

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Re: And yet another Antwerp 68
« Reply #10 on: May 01, 2023, 11:00:51 AM »




















Matthias68

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Re: And yet another Antwerp 68
« Reply #11 on: May 01, 2023, 11:01:24 AM »




















KurtS

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Re: And yet another Antwerp 68
« Reply #12 on: May 05, 2023, 06:30:08 PM »
That did not work well. :)
You have to limit the picture width to about 1600 pixels, elsewise you only see part of the picture.
Kurt S
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Matthias68

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Re: And yet another Antwerp 68
« Reply #13 on: May 06, 2023, 06:13:34 AM »
Yeah....figured that noone would bother looking at those pics and stopped posting 'em.
I have to figure out a way to reduce the picture size in batch. I don't want to individually shrink each picture.
The current size is how they come from my phone.

As soon as I have a minute, I will research a program that can handle that shrinking-in-batch.