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Lakeroadster's 1969 Olympic Gold Super Sport Camaro Coupe

Lakeroadster

Lakeroadster

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I hope you fellas don't mind me putting a build thread for my old Camaro here in the 60-66 forum.

I really like the format here on the Classic Parts site and how the site allows members to modify old threads.

Here goes:
 
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1969 Olympic Gold Super Sport Coupe

My wife and I bought the Camaro back in October 2006. It has been in Colorado its entire life and is a numbers matching car, a true factory Super Sport.

The Camaro was purchased new on 12-14-1970 from Vidmar-Mathis Motor Co. in Pueblo, Colorado for $2.542.00. The purchaser was the chief mechanic at the dealership. Interestingly Vidmar-Mathis was an Oldsmobile dealership and not a Chevy dealership. I contacted the grandson of the dealership via email and he said his grandfather was well known for doing dealership swaps to help his employees to get whatever vehicle they wanted.

Decades roll on, it continued to be a one owner car, and the Mechanic took it to have it repainted. Sadly he never got to see it finished, he died while it was at the body shop. They finished the paint job, put it back together and it sat in the mechanics home garage. I believe this was in the mid 80's as it had 14" rally wheels on it date coded around that time. A family friend bought it from the widow in 2006, and that's who I got it from.

The Camaro still had its original spiral shocks on it. In fact, the only non-stock pieces I noticed that the car had when purchased were finned aluminum valve covers, an open air cleaner and some rusty headers. The Olympic gold re-paint has more metallic than stock and the grille surround is painted flat black. I like the original owners style, sure would have been neat to meet him. All signs point toward the fact that he took really good care of his Camaro.

Here is how it looked the day I drove it 100 miles to our home from Colorado Springs, Colorado.











 
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Old School Updates

My plan was to make a few bolt on changes that were period correct from the days of my youth, circa the 1970's. A set of American Racing Original Torque Thrust wheels and some BFG's that reflected the big & little's look that were mandatory hot rod fare was the plan, that and a new set of headers with header mufflers.

The OEM rear multi leaf springs were sagging from their 38 years of use so I ordered some new springs from Eaton Springs. I purchased 1" raised springs to give the Camaro that classic rake that was popular back in the day.

I also purchased a set of Competition Engineering S/S Traction Bars, also popular back in the day.





I built some shock extensions to compensate for the extra spring arch.



I ordered the American Racing TTO wheels (2) 15 x7's and (2) 15 x 8's May 2007 and they didn't arrive until September 2007, literally on a slow boat from China.

So while waiting on the rolling stock I contacted Summit about a set of 376Y1C Thorley Tri-Y headers. The Summit tech. made me a sweet deal on a set of Thorley 375 Y's that were some scratch and dent ceramic coated headers they had in stock. I had to do a little R&D on them, persuading them with my BFH to clear the steering box pitman arm. I had a set of 3" Purple Hornie Mufflers that I welded header flanges and turn down to, thus making header mufflers.








These photos show just how rust free the Camaro is:


 
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70's Era Old School Cool

And here is the Camaro with the (4) American Racing Series 309, P/N 309-5761 15" Dia. 7" wide
w/ 5 x 4-3/4" Bolt Pattern, (2) BFG Radial T/A 255/70SR15 RWL & (2) BFG Radial T/A 215/70SR15 RWL.







Other additions are 2" seat relocators for the drivers seat (moves the drivers seat back, much more comfortable than stock), a NOS Realistic FM Converter, column mounted tachometer and a repro. front spoiler.







My wife and I just love this car. It transports us back in time every time we take it out for a drive.

I've resisted my Hot Rod urges to hack and cut on it. Everything that has been changed can simply be unbolted to restore it back to it's factory lineage. But we won't be doing that... maybe the next proud owner will want that look.
 
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Thanks for sharing the story, John.

I'm glad you posted the story and the history of the car. I did a little bit of math to compare then and now. When I was 7, my dad bought a 1967 Chevy C-10 fleetside longbed w/283, 3- speed, HD susp., and custom cab with all the stainless lower side trim. He bought it at Ace Crum Chevrolet in Martinsville, Indiana and I remember riding home sitting on the rear inside fender, on the highway. The truck cost him $1725.00. At the time, he was making $4.15/hour at his job,(he keeps records of everything). This means he had 416 work hours in a new pickup.
So, back to your COOL 1969 Camaro. You said it cost $2542.00, brand spanking new, and lets say a working man probably was commonly earning $4.50/hour by 1969. This means he could buy a NEW SUPER SPORT CAMARO with 565 hours of work.
A SS Camaro today costs somewhere around $42000.00, I think. This means the American worker of today needs to be making around $74.00/hour to have the buying power of his dad in 1969. Don't know about the rest of you, but, I'm a LONG WAYS from that. The standard of living in the US is slipping, no matter what the criminals in DC keep telling us.
Oh, and personally, I would rather have a '69 like yours than a 2014.
 
Cool analogy Steve.

Things in general are so far askew compared to back in the day. Granted the technology today in vehicles is leaps and bounds above what the 1960's muscle cars were but their function is basically the same. Transportation from point A to point B.

Traction control, anti lock brakes and computer controlled everything.. the thing is I'd rather have one without all that. And if they sold 'em like that they'd sell a ton of them and they'd be much more reasonably priced.

But... what do I know? I am just some old gray haired guy driving an old Chevy.

John
 
BULLITT65 said:
Nice Camaro. can you post a pic of the firewall tag? Also were those hood scoops on your truck before you got the Camaro?
Click to expand...

Firewall tag...... Are you a member over at Team Camaro? http://www.camaros.net/ That's the best place for Camaro related technical Q&A.

I installed the 1st Gen SS Camaro hood louvers on my truck. One of the first modifications I did.
 
Thanks for sharing the Camaro stuff John. I also learned something, I didn't realize it had a 3 speed trans. Your car is just beautiful, I can appreciate the time machine aspect every time you go for a ride.
 
Transmission Shifter Hole

Thanks Mark. There are a lot of interesting tid-bits a fella can learn about these early Camaro's.

I just found out this morning that the 1967-1968 shifter hole in the trans tunnel was stamped, and the 1969's were torch cut by hand?

So some fella's job was to stand there on the assembly line and when the build sheet called for it he cut a shifter hole, with an oxy-acetylene torch.

Who'd a thunk it? http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=340330
 
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Installed some new shoes on the old warhorse... and did a photo shoot.
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John In The Camaro.jpg
 
We took the Camaro out for a spin on Friday.

We did our normal backroads wandering and then headed into town for some fuel.

As I'm fueling up a guy about our age comes up and he is asking Teresa and I questions about the car. Another gal comes up and says: There's something green running out of your car.

Antifreeze. I pop the hood, everything on the passenger side is good and slimy. I crawl under the front and there's a stream running out of the fan shroud, but no leaks at the hoses.

We jumped in and made the dash for home! It was only about 3 miles. The leak was slow enough that it made a mess, but once we got into the barn and I got everything drained it still had about 2 gallons of coolant. Still though, it's times like these when an actual temperature gauge would be better than an idiot light.

The radiator bolts to the core support with (4) bolts. (2) are mounted with really small rubber nuts (drivers side) and (2) are solid (passenger side). The mounting brackets attach to the side tanks of the radiator. My '70, 72 & 77 Nova radiator was cradled in (2) rubber supports lower, and (2) rubber upper supports. No metal on metal anywhere. A much better design. Oh, what a difference a year makes.

But, we still had the radiator out in about an hour and a half. The local radiator shop says 2-3 weeks to repair it. UGH. At least we have a local radiator shop.

Quite the adventure. It seems the old warhorse is getting needy and wants attention.

Just as an FWIW: A new steel radiator is about $500. And they are out of stock.
 
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