Hemmings

Brad Shawger was like most other 18-year-olds looking for cheap transportation as his first car. Unlike most other 18-year-olds, he landed on an Isuzu Impulse. Designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro (famous for the first-generation Volkswagen Golf and BMW M1, among many others), it was an important car stylistically, and quite a reach for the Japanese car manufacturer best known for making trucks.

The Impulse —a replacement for the handsome Isuzu 117 Coupe (also a Giugiaro design) that was never sold in the U.S.— owed its existence to the mundane Isuzu Gemini, itself an adaptation of the Opel Kadett, or General Motors’ T-car. Launched in South America in 1973, the T-car platform was first sold in the U.S. as the Chevrolet Chevette for the 1976 model year, and quickly became a huge seller for GM and Chevrolet.

How the Impulse came to be

The Impulse started out as the final ace in Giugiaro’s ’70s-production-based concept-car deck. The “Asso” (Ace) series started with 1973’s Audi 80-based Asso di Picche and 1976’s BMW 3-series-based Asso di Quadri preceding it. They were never produced. Small-scale Japanese car builder Isuzu, a former Giugiaro client, came calling for a replacement for the long-in-the-tooth, personal-luxury 117 coupe that had been in production since 1968. Italdesign was given free reign with the style —the only requirement was that the chassis was based on the Isuzu Gemini, a car sold here as both the Buick/ Opel from 1976-’80, and the rear-drive Isuzu I-Mark from 1981-on. The result was Asso di Fiori: the Ace of Clubs.

The clean wedge shape was largely unadorned, with flush glass and cleverly hidden seams. The hood wraps around atop the fenders and helps form a body-length character line; the A-pillar is rendered invisible by the leading edge of the full-framed door. Inside, the instrument cluster adjusted with the steering column, and featured a pair of pods, located within fingers’ reach from the steering wheel, that incorporated lights, wipers, and more. Launched at the 1979 Tokyo Motor Show, it caused such a stir that Isuzu management green-lit the design and fast-tracked its production.

The Impulse makes its way to the States

A few concessions were made for US federalization: the nose was raised slightly so that the headlights would be at legal height, the windshield was steepend by four degrees, and the whole package was enlarged an inch all around to accommodate American-sized buyers.

The production car was named Piazza. Assembly of the four-cylinder, rear-wheel-drive coupe began in September 1980 with varying trim levels available in Japan, Europe, and Australia. Both a five-speed manual and four-speed Aisin automatic transmissions were available. U.S. deliveries did not begin until the 1983 model year, where the stylish vehicle was re-named the Impulse. Cars featured everything as standard equipment, including air conditioning, power windows and door locks, four-wheel disc brakes, and some rad-looking “waffle” alloy wheels. The only option was a choice of manual or automatic transmission.

Stateside, all Impulses came standard with Isuzu’s 90-hp SOHC 1,994-cc inline four-cylinder engine with I-Tec fuel injection for the 1983 and ’84 model years; later, the engine was upgraded to a 110-hp 2,254-cc four-cylinder (for U.S. cars only). A 140-hp 1,994-cc MPFI turbo model was introduced for 1985; the turbo model was given the RS designation for 1987. The 1988 models received interior and exterior changes, most notably the addition of a rear spoiler and slimmer headlamps allowing for the elimination of the pop-up covers.

Remember Joe Isuzu?

The car was never a sales success. Even a clever ad campaign with character “Joe Isuzu” (played by actor David Leisure), a pathological liar who made outrageous and over-inflated claims about Isuzu cars, didn’t boost sales.

Isuzu gave it one last shot by sending the car to “finishing school” for the 1988-’89 model years. Impulses went to Lotus (then owned by General Motors) for suspension tuning and the all-important “Handling by Lotus” badges. Underneath it all, the Impulse remained a GM T-car—this, from a company best known for making small, economical trucks like the Chevy LUV. The final year for the rear-drive Impulse was 1989, though it re-appeared in front-wheel-drive form one year later as Isuzu’s version of the Chevrolet-sold Geo Storm. It’s estimated that some 13,000 first- and second-generation models were built for worldwide consumption.

A schoolboy’s crush

Brad, now 42, looks back to when he was 18. “My first cars were two VW Beetles, a 1969 and a ’71. I thought they were the coolest. The plan was to fix one up with the help of my dad, who was a diesel mechanic, and sell the other. I sold one car and needed something to drive while I worked on the other Beetle. Our neighbor had a car that was sitting under a tarp for a long time and my dad said, ‘Why don’t you ask him what he’s doing with that thing?’ So, I did. It had drivetrain issues, but $500 later it was sitting in my parents’ garage.” Brad was now the owner of a five-speed 1985 Isuzu Impulse, black with brown interior. “I quickly fell in love with that little car and had lots of fun through high school and college,” he adds.

Despite doing lots of work to his Impulse, including a paint job and an engine rebuild, it fell victim to four years of salt and Pennsylvania winters where Brad grew up. “The rear end went out and it rusted badly… and I was going away to school,” he says. “It sat behind my dad’s shed for a few years until he finally said it was time to get rid of it. Even in 2000, it was tough to get parts and I could not find the rear end pieces I needed. The heater core leaked, damaging the interior, which also housed a few mice. I stripped it down to save everything I could and put the parts in bins. There they sat in my dad’s shed for 20 years,” Brad laments. “I always hoped I could find another one day.” Turns out, this was one of the best things he could have done.

The search for another Impulse begins

“About 2020, I thought it was time to start looking for an Impulse. I hadn’t seen one in nearly 20 years. I got on forums and Facebook groups, including isuzone.org, where I found lots of great folks who were eager to help,” Brad says. “I had just missed a Florida car that was exactly what I was looking for, and shortly thereafter, I landed on a pair in Tennessee, which were in about as good of shape as the one I parted out, so I bought them both. At a minimum, I thought they would be good for parts. I still have them,” he adds. “I was able to find a bunch of stuff on clearance, too, on rockauto.com: a brake master cylinder for $1.25 and brake calipers for $10! I replaced everything I could on my gold 1985 and got it running, but it still needs a lot of body and interior work.”

In 2020 Brad moved to Maryland and parked the two cars in his friend’s backyard in Pittsburgh. Lo and behold, the car he missed out on previously reappeared on Facebook: a silver 1984 five-speed, one-owner, Florida car with 67,000 miles.

The right Impulse comes along

“The car ended up with a dealer in Ohio, and I stayed in touch with the guy. He said he wanted to hold onto it. In the summer of 2021, I was visiting my parents in Pennsylvania, and Ohio is just over the border. I conveniently brought my truck and trailer, paid the guy a visit, made a deal, and came home with the car! It had great documentation, including a detailed mechanic’s log going back to 2000 that has proven invaluable when working on it,” Brad says.

It was clear that the Impulse had been well-maintained and cared for, especially on the exterior. “There was some paint fade on the bumpers and everything rubber needed to be replaced, but it was obviously garage-kept. It came with the original Guigiaro waffle wheels. I saved those and put on a spare set that I had refinished from one of my other cars. There was some surface rust at the base of the rear window at the wiper arm and some minor dents and dings. I’ve had it repaired and the bumper painted, but otherwise, it is an original car,” Brad says. “When I take it to shows, reactions are mixed. Most people don’t know what it is. Others say ‘Wow, I’ve heard about these, but I’ve never actually seen one!’ A small percentage of people know the car and the history and get excited about it.”

Keeping the Impulse on the road

The biggest challenge in owning the Isuzu has been parts. “If I had not had my stash of parts, I would have been in big trouble. Some years ago, I bought [and installed] a brand-new muffler off the internet. Virtually everything on the car that could leak, did. Everything has now been updated and replaced —radiator core, hoses, gaskets, ball joints, shocks, clutch slave cylinder, fuel line, vacuum lines, and rebuilt master cylinder—to make it a dependable driver. I’ve gotten some parts from Japan —it took four months until they arrived!” Brad says. “I found an ’83-’85 parts book and spent many hours researching part numbers and bought many parts online,” he adds. The only thing Brad has not been able to find: a heater core —a common problem among all his Impulses.

Among Brad’s arsenal is a 2009 six-speed Dodge Challenger SRT8, a 1995 Jeep Cherokee five-speed manual that’s been lifted 6.5 inches with mud terrain tires, and a truck and trailer to haul his toys. “I don’t discriminate. I like all kinds of cars,” he says laughing. What’s next? Brad has his eye on a Mitsubishi Starion. Regardless of what he’s driving, Brad Shawger is an Isuzu guy who became immediately hooked —thanks to an “Impulse” buy years ago.

John Voelcker, our resident EV expert, joins us on this episode of the Hemmings Hot Rod BBQ Podcast for a 2022 year-end update on what’s happening in the world of electric vehicles. We talk about favorites like the Lucid Air and Hyundai G80 Electrified, along with some of his not-so-favorites, which we’ll let him tell you about. He then recounts a hilarious ride along experience in the Porsche Cayman GT4 E-performance race car, and even touches on that new Toyota Prius that everyone seems to be talking about.

Resident Electric Vehicle Expert, John Voelcker, Talks the Best and Worst EVs of 2022

www.youtube.com

So, grab a beverage or sit back in your favorite easy chair, because the BBQ is about to begin!

What at first looks like a fairly typical late-twentieth-century street rod is anything but, as we see once the engine swapped into this 1928 Ford Model A roadster pickup listed for sale on Hemmings.com is revealed. To begin with, it’s been converted to a mid-engine setup using a Ford 4.6L Cobra dual overhead-camshaft V-8 and Pantera transaxle. Then, to accommodate the drivetrain and to make it accessible, the entire body and chassis have been re-engineered so the former can tilt forward and reveal all the work done to the pickup. One would expect such an extensive undertaking to still have a few loose ends, but from the pictures it appears nothing here has been overlooked, from the finished interior to the folding top. From the seller’s description:

Model A pickup with a Ford 4.6 Cobra four cam engine behind the cab. Its transmission is a DeTomaso Pantera ZF 5-speed transaxle and is located directly behind the engine. The truck’s body is an original Ford Model A cab and bed that is mated to a custom fabricated tube chassis. With the touch of a button, the entire truck body pivots up with hydraulics to reveal the engine, drivetrain, and chassis. Power disc brakes all around. Concourse paint and leather interior. Custom billet aluminum wheels. Top shelf craftsmanship. More than 3500 shop hours are invested in this truck.

The top of a mountain is an inhospitable place. The higher the peak, the less accommodating the climes. When the brothers of the Order of Carthusians purchased 7,000 acres at the top of Mount Equinox in Sandgate, Vermont, the men of peace were headed into war with nature—including the building of two hydroelectric dams to power their monastery, the Charterhouse of the Transfiguration. To subdue their new home, which opened in 1960, they would need not guns and bombs, but at least military-spec equipment to match the elements atop Vermont’s tallest mountain.

Luckily, previous attempts at investigating the hydroelectric potential of the Vermont wilderness meant the brothers had already visited the Dodge dealer in Greenfield, Massachusetts, where they ordered up the latest version of a one-ton, 4×4 truck Dodge had been producing nonstop since 1942: The Power Wagon. Originally created for the military during World War II, the Dodge Power Wagon was treated to glossy paint and civilian equipment after the war, but retained its no-nonsense, no-frills workhorse nature to an even greater extent than the Willys Civilian Jeep.

Consider that, by 1956, the Jeep already had softened its styling and introduced an overhead-valve engine. Dodge offered a “Power Wagon” to customers like that, based on its civilian trucks, but hadn’t compromised the original one bit—including the retention of a cab that debuted back in 1939. The essential differences of this military-style 1956 Power Wagon from its 1945 equivalent boiled down to the 12-volt electrical system (a late-year introduction not present on all ’56 models), additional gauges, some tweaks to the bed sheetmetal, and a New Process SM 420 four-speed manual transmission that was synchronized in its upper gears.

You would not have mistaken the brothers’ Power Wagon for a military model when it was new, however, as its original finish was Bermuda Coral—pink. That oh-so-‘50s hue would be a hoot to see on a Power Wagon today, but given that owner/restorer Gerald “Jerry” Mattison, of Glastonbury, Vermont, is a Vermont State Fire Warden, it’s easy to understand why he chose Pontchartrain Green, another 1956 Dodge color he had mixed up in Mason single-stage urethane and sprayed on one piece at a time by the obliging Bodywerks in Shaftsbury, Vermont. The green-and-black scheme perfectly complements Jerry’s mania for Forest Service collectibles, including a period axe, Pulaski and water pump he mounted to the truck, and a passion for the heritage of Smokey the Bear, USFS’s long-time mascot for forest-fire prevention.

“I spent countless hours sourcing the period-correct Smokey Bear image and USFS logos which were painted and installed by White Rocks Design, in Bennington, Vermont,” Jerry says. The color change was a relatively easy deviation to make since Jerry’s restoration of the truck was mostly cosmetic. Brother Michael, the young monk of 1956 who had been entrusted with operating the truck and who had used it for the next 53 years to haul hundreds of cords of firewood to keep his fellows warm, had been devoted to maintaining the mechanical systems of the truck. Initially, the original 94-hp, 230-cu.in. flathead six-cylinder engine, for example, wasn’t even rebuilt—just torn down and treated to new seals, though a bad cam subsequently called for a full rebuild to be performed by Vermont Engine Works in Williston, Vermont.

It was Michael who suggested to Jerry that he purchase the truck. “He said it would be nice if someone could give the truck a good home, then stared at me until I took the hint,” Jerry says. He was at the time mountain manager and business director for the Carthusians and was shocked at the retirement of what he called “an icon on the mountain.” Although he’d never before restored a vehicle, he nevertheless hauled it home and at least stored it until the mild winter of 2016 persuaded him to give it a shot. He had, at least, long admired the Power Wagon, attracted to “its stance and look; its simplicity and utilitarian style” and noting how its “mechanically strong engineering comes through no matter what vantage point.”

Even restoring “just” the cosmetic side was no small effort, however. Even though it had been garage-kept from 1956 to 2009, and rust was limited to one driver’s side cab mount, a half-century of hard work had resulted in a body that was faded chalky white and covered in dents and dings.

“The biggest hurdle was getting it all apart,” Jerry says, recalling the restoration efforts that started in 2016. “Being bolted together so many years, as you can imagine, it was all Sawzalls and hammers.”

A local bodyman welded in a new cab mount, and Jerry ordered up new bedsides and running boards from Tisdale Coachworks in Winslow, Indiana.

To complement the green paint and USFS graphics, Jerry has collected various period-correct Forest Service items to display with the truck at shows, including a canteen, backpack, portable telephone, and a vintage map of the service area he covers now as a Vermont Fire Warden.

To complement the green paint and USFS graphics, Jerry has collected various period-correct Forest Service items to display with the truck at shows, including a canteen, backpack, portable telephone, and a vintage map of the service area he covers now as a Vermont Fire Warden.

To complement the green paint and USFS graphics, Jerry has collected various period-correct Forest Service items to display with the truck at shows, including a canteen, backpack, portable telephone, and a vintage map of the service area he covers now as a Vermont Fire Warden.

To complement the green paint and USFS graphics, Jerry has collected various period-correct Forest Service items to display with the truck at shows, including a canteen, backpack, portable telephone, and a vintage map of the service area he covers now as a Vermont Fire Warden.

To complement the green paint and USFS graphics, Jerry has collected various period-correct Forest Service items to display with the truck at shows, including a canteen, backpack, portable telephone, and a vintage map of the service area he covers now as a Vermont Fire Warden.

While Power Wagons themselves are somewhat scarce due to the hard lives they often lived, and certainly in demand among the retro-oriented in today’s 4×4-centric marketplace, they remain rather easy to get parts for. In addition to Tisdale’s offerings, Jerry got items from DCM Classics in Zeeland, Michigan, and Vintage Power Wagons, in Fairfield, Iowa.

Today, the old Power Wagon lives an even more sedate life than it did in a monastery. Jerry takes it out for moderate cruises “a couple times a month” and adds about 1,500 miles to the odometer yearly. He’s only had it to three shows and says that the real pleasure he gets from it is “the smiles and stories it brings out in people of all walks.” Want a Power Wagon yourself? Then you may want to take Jerry’s advice.

“They are harder and harder to find, and becoming expensive. Save money, find the right one, and have patience.”

On this episode of IROC REHAB, presented by Edelbrock, our new drivetrain is prepped for install in our 1987 Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z. After removing the original engine from the stock cradle, we degrease, and inspect it for imperfections before coating the cradle with POR-15 protective sealant. The original front accessory drive system is then removed and tested for proper fitment on our 380-hp Edelbrock-supplied crate motor.

Finally, it’s time to mate the engine to the American Powertrain Tremec TKX 5-speed transmission, install our new headers from Summit Racing, as well as the clutch master cylinder and pedal assembly. This is a great episode you’ll not want to miss!

Sources

American Powertrain • 931-646-4836 • americanpowertrain.com

Bendpak • 800-253-2363 • bendpak.com

Blacktop Yacht Club • blacktopyc.com

Classic Industries • 800-854-1280 • classicindustries.com

Covercraft • 800-274-7006 • covercraft.com

Edelbrock • 888-799-1135 • edelbrock.com

Griot’s Garage • 800-345-5789 • griotsgarage.com

Summit Racing • 800-230-3030 • summitracing.com

U.S. Radiator • 323-826-0965 • usradiator.com

Date: May 1974

Location: Richmond, Vermont

Source: Donald Wiedenmayer, via Vermont Landscape Change Program

What do you see here?

Pulling a distributor can be intimidating the first few times you do it. The distributor, after all, is where the delicate dance between spark and compression is choreographed. Put things back wrong and the engine may not run or may run so badly it’s at risk of damaging itself. Then, even if things are put back together more or less in the correct way, they still require fine tuning.

To get yourself as close as possible to the right starting point, pull out something virtually everyone has, a test lamp (12V or 6V, as appropriate to your car), and use it to find the exact moment your points make contact inside the distributor. Then, when you go to actually start the engine, you’ll already be within a degree or two of the proper static advance.

I recently had to do just that on my ’62 Corvair after combining the worn-out original distributor with a much nicer one salvaged from a 1965 110hp engine. It made getting the car re-started a snap.

The Problem

For quite some time, I’d noticed my car had diminishing power on hills. Because it wasn’t that great to start with, that was a real problem. Although I’d installed a new distributor cap, plug wires, and rotor some time ago, I figured it was time to replace the points and condenser. Yet, imagine my surprise when I discovered they were both nearly new! It was clearly a deeper problem.

I turned to one of the best Corvair resources I’ve found yet: How to Keep Your Corvair Alive! by Richard Finch. The late Mr. Finch was a devotee of the raced and daily driven Corvair and offered up his book as a supplement to the GM-supplied shop manuals (which I also own—I insist on owning a shop manual for all my cars, otherwise I feel I’m just groping in the dark when I work on them).

In his initial tune-up instructions (which, of course, I’d never really gotten around to following until now), Finch describes testing both the vacuum and centrifugal advance systems. One problem, I quickly discovered, was that rust had formed between the centrifugal-advance weights and the plate on which they slide inside the distributor. I pulled them, gave them a gentle cleaning with sandpaper, and then reassembled things—confident I’d be back on the road shortly now that my mechanical advance was working again.

Except when I went to give it the test, the distributor shaft no longer moved when I turned over the engine with a wrench. That was a new and unpleasant development. Down inside the engine, the roll pin that holds the distributor gear had sheared. Something I only discovered once I pulled the distributor to investigate why it no longer interfaced with the engine.

The Solution

Getting new roll pins off the generic-parts rack at the parts store is thankfully no problem. But when I got my old distributor cleaned up for repair, I noticed that the cam inside was really showing its mileage. I think it was probably run without lubrication for a long time. It occurred to me that I actually had a second distributor from a parts engine I’m slowly disassembling. To my delight, it was like new inside and still even wearing what may have been its original points, condenser, and dust shield.

I pulled the rusty, crusty vacuum advance unit off, replaced it with the unit from my original distributor, and swapped in the advance weights for good measure. Then I installed the Frankenstein distributor and went to set the initial timing using another of the Finch tricks: using a test light to know exactly when the points open and close.

Getting the Car Started

No project like this can begin without knowing for certain that the engine’s number-one cylinder is at top dead center (TDC) on its compression stroke. That’s the moment the spark is timed to and thus the zero-degree spot when we’re talking about advancing or retarding the spark. Because the spark cannot instantaneously burn all the fuel in the combustion chamber, we’re trying to light it off just far enough ahead of time that maximum explosive effect occurs just at the moment the piston can be pushed back down in the bore.

Spark the mixture too far ahead of time and the piston is pushing down on a crankshaft that can’t yet turn in the right direction. It beats up the innards of an engine, can blow holes in the top of pistons, and definitely doesn’t help move the car forward. Retarded spark is safer for the engine, but because the explosion is kind of chasing the piston down the bore, it leaves a lot of power on the table.

The main method for determining whether the engine is at TDC is to remove the spark plug (removing or loosening all the spark plugs will make the engine turn over a lot easier) and then to place a finger over the hole to feel compression building—showing that the valves are closed in that cylinder. If no compression builds, the piston is likely coming up on the exhaust stroke instead.

Some people “bump” the engine with the electric starter for this. I prefer to have the battery disconnected and to use a wrench. It seems safer and more precise.

Once you know the engine is on the compression stroke, you can use the timing-alignment marks on the engine to put the piston at the proper advanced moment—a value found in your shop manual. For a Powerglide-equipped ’62 like mine, I needed 13 degrees. This requires too much precision to do by bumping the starter. With the piston in the right spot, now you can twist the distributor so that the points are opening at just that moment.

This is where the test light comes in. It is connected to the negative lead on the ignition coil and to the engine ground. The ignition is then switched on at the key (careful not to bump the starter). If the light is on, the points are closed; advance the distributor just until it goes off. If the light is off, the points are open; retard the distributor just until it comes on.

And just like that, you’ve gotten the engine within a degree or two of proper timing without a timing light and without cranking it over, twisting the distributor at random until it starts firing. I put my timing light on the engine afterward and it was essentially spot on, though I ended up dialing in a bit more advance just because my engine seems to like it.

But Then…

The result was incredible. The car has never had this much power. Despite the extra advance, it doesn’t ping on hills (a friend has suggested that’s because I have stuck rings and thus no real compression) and it’s downright exciting to drive now.

Or it was, the two times I got to drive it. Then the starter bit the dust… Tune in next time!

Over the years, off-road capable SUVs and trucks have become complex machines. From electronic differentials and transfer cases to full-time all-wheel drive systems that are easy to operate but difficult to understand, these new 4x4s are supposed to be better in every way, but are they?

On this episode of the Hemmings Hot Rod BBQ Podcast, Mike Musto sits down with Ryan Douthit and Nick Cappetto of Drivings Sports TV, two guys who make a living reviewing OEM off-roaders, to see if newer is actually better, or if the older analog systems from yesteryear are the way to go.

So, grab a beverage or sit back in your favorite easy chair, because the BBQ is about to begin!

Ever lock eyes on someone and, though you’ve never met, you’re sure that you know them from somewhere? Celebrities have stories like this all the time—particularly when they’re mistaken for another celebrity. But it happens to us plebes in the weeds as well. Unsurprisingly, it happens with cars, too. And sometimes it all works out for the best.

Sadly, little is currently known about this ’69 Camaro SS/RS convertible’s former life or owner(s); the only information that’s come to light is that it was built in the Norwood, Ohio, plant in December of ’68, was delivered in or near Memphis, Tennessee, and was owned by a schoolteacher. “Paperwork was lacking,” its restorer, Shaun Price, of Shaun Price Restorations in Gilbert, Arizona, tells us. This may well have been because Shaun’s client, owner Al Serrato of Temecula, California, bought a car that was essentially in pieces— torn down by a previous owner who either misplaced or chucked its records.

Photo by Jeff Koch

And like that person you feel you know but you can’t remember from where, this Camaro also looked strangely familiar. “We saw the Camaro for sale online in 2011 and ’12; the seller had it up there for months as an unfinished project at an exorbitant price,” Shaun recalls. “It wasn’t abandoned—I think he ran out of money and/or interest, and that was probably the catalyst for sale.” Al and Shaun were interested—a factory red Camaro SS/RS convertible is bound to get the interest of quite a few collectors. But at the $85,000 asking price, it sat. And sat. Every now and again, the price would drop by ten grand. “And one day,” Shaun says, “it disappeared from the site. Either the seller had given up, or it had sold.”

Now, Shaun has a neighbor who occasionally flips cars for fun and profit, so haulers dropping cars off there is never a big deal. “He came over and asked if I’d help the transport driver get the car out—it was just a rolling chassis and had no brakes. We get it out of the transporter and the lightbulb blinks on.” No fair guessing whether it was this very Camaro they’d been watching—it was. “My neighbor bought it in… let’s call it an emotional moment. He’s known for paying too much for things. But Al and I had watched this car for months online, and now it’s here in front of me in my neighbor’s yard. I mean, what are the odds?”

Rally Sport package included unique taillamp lenses with horizontal split and separate reverse lamps.Photo by Jeff Koch

Shaun now had a chance to look first-hand at the car that he was hemming and hawing over previously. “I could see what we had and didn’t have, unlike reading a description in an ad and having to hop on a plane to go look at it. What we saw was a rolling car, fairly complete, but it needed a correct restoration in order to be finished. It had been painted and that’s where it stopped. Everything on it was date-coded correctly. All of the panels had original date-codes stamped when we got them, so everything was in line — nothing we found was a service-replacement item. Anything that had a date on it lined up with the car. The trunk floor was original, but I bet someone put floors in it; I can’t confirm that, though. Whoever did the work on the body and the paint did a nice job.”

It was a Camaro like one Al had been looking for. It was all there, all correct and complete. At Al’s urging, Shaun pulled the trigger. “I told my neighbor, ‘You paid how much? I’ll give you ten percent more right now.’” The deal was done, and they rolled it into Shaun’s workshop across the street. The goal, as it was with all of Al’s cars, was to get it as close to showroom-correct as could be managed.

Super Sport package included a special domed hood with chrome inserts.Photo by Jeff Koch

Combining the SS and RS packages got a respectable amount of equipment and trim goodies. The SS included the special hood with simulated air intakes and an insulation pad, the standard grille would be blacked out with most body colors, as would the rocker panels below the moldings; SS emblems would appear on the grille, fenders, and rear panel. The SS also included 14 x 7-inch wheels and F70-14 Wide-Oval tires, and the all-important chrome air cleaner lid for the standard L48-code 300-hp 350 four-barrel engine.

Meanwhile, the Rally Sport option provided the “hideaway” headlamp treatment with an alternate grille design, and the taillamp lenses had a single horizontal split, rather than the standard twin vertical segmentations. Reverse lamps moved down into the rear valence panel on the RS.

Chevy’s base engine for the Camaro SS was a 10.25:1 compression, four-barrel, 300 gross horsepower, 350-cubic-inch small-block. Plenty were built with “nice car” options like automatic transmission and air conditioning.Photo by Jeff Koch

When the SS and RS packages were combined, the SS emblems bumped out the RS pieces on the grille and tail panel, and the “Rally Sport” badging that would be found on the fenders of a regular Camaro RS (or a Z/28 RS) was also left off in favor of the standard “Camaro” scripts with “SS” emblems beneath, just as they would appear on a non-RS Camaro Super Sport.

This example of the SS/RS was a highly optioned Garnet Red convertible with red interior. Shaun reports, “It has the matching-numbers engine, transmission, and rear. Well, it has the driveline it was born with, anyway. It’s got a 12-bolt 3.55:1 with Posi, because with air and automatic you couldn’t get anything as high as 3.73:1.” Also included were a plethora of options: air conditioning, tilt steering column, a power convertible top, power windows, space-saver spare, Endura front bumper, console, gauges, fiber-optic lamp monitoring, Deluxe interior, whitewall tires (which were a factory upgrade), and… an AM radio.

Photo by Jeff Koch

“When you ordered the AM radio, you had the option to order a rear-mounted antenna,” Shaun explains. “The AM/FM radios had a fixed manual antenna on the front fender. That antenna on the rear fender would make the D80 spoiler package unavailable. I mean, it could have had the stereo 8-track, cruise control, and some other foo-foo stuff, but overall it was well-optioned, despite being a base 350-powered car.”

All of this was above and beyond the RS goodies (fender striping, hideaway headlamps with washers, the Style Trim group to add a variety of brightwork and black sills, et al) and what was mandated with the SS package (300-hp 350, floor-shift, Turbo HydraMatic in lieu of Powerglide, power front disc brakes and lots more).

Factory red Comfortweave interior was remade with possibly the last NOS bolt of original fabric from the burned-down factory; there are options galore in here like gauges, tilt wheel, air conditioning, and more.Photo by Jeff Koch

What was missing? “Let’s put it this way: we had parts, it wasn’t missing much, and all of the important stuff was there, but the condition of the parts needed to be updated from what we acquired with the car. The quantity of NOS stuff we had to come up with to finish it was staggering.” Shaun says.

For example? “The dashpad. It needed one, and the air-conditioned cars have a specific dash pad. Lo and behold, I heard about a guy just three miles north of me who bought an NOS dashpad in the late 1970s — and it was still in the original GM box. And it was for an A/C car! Things like that happen occasionally, but it’s not that common. NOS parts are getting ever-more-difficult to find.”

Photo by Jeff Koch

And the lug nuts! “They’re correct assembly-line lug nuts that were used on those 14-inch SS wheels in 1969 and ’70 only. Those things are unobtainable. We paid $50 for each lug nut — that’s $1,000. For lug nuts! The guy who sold them to us had a few left afterward, and he ended up selling them for $100 apiece,” Shaun notes.

There’s more — even in places you wouldn’t think would matter. “The alignment shims are actually GM assembly-line items. Between the shims and the lug nuts, man, that’ll send you over the edge. We found what was likely the last NOS red Comfortweave material anywhere, in Detroit. The original plant that made it burned down years ago, and reproduction stuff doesn’t have the same pattern. The seatbelt webbing was tough to find NOS, too.”

Photo by Jeff Koch

Shaun continues, “Ultimately, every component had to be disassembled and redone, or else replaced. Stuff that the previous owner had done was junk — most of it either didn’t work right or simply hadn’t been addressed. This car was one of those where you had to sit there and go through everything piece by piece for it to work correctly in the end.”

Even the decent paint was given the once-over. “I had to disassemble the car, then painted both underneath and the firewall; the previous painter painted the firewall and chassis the same glossy red as the body, and I had to re-do it the way the factory did it [in black]. I also fixed some body chips and deficiencies along the way. Also, doing the blackout on the rockers, I made sure that it faded with a fuzzy line, like the factory did on the assembly line. I replicated that off an original car too, another Norwood car. We also repainted the hood and decklid thanks to poorly stored parts, where something nicked or chipped the paint.

Photo by Jeff Koch

“On the original convertible top rear window, there should be a manufacturer’s logo and a date code that the reproductions don’t have. I found an original-top car, photographed that logo, and had that and the build date reproduced on the rear window,” Shaun says. There are even factory-style markings on the treads of the tires, which you’d think would be the first thing to wear off. Except…

“Al keeps this car in the lobby of his office,” Shaun says of the Camaro that has taken pride of place in its owner’s eyeline. It’s been there since 2014. The good news: this as-new SS/RS ’69 Camaro convertible is being enjoyed, even if it’s not wearing those tire markings off.

Photo by Jeff Koch

SPECIFICATIONS

PRICE

Base price: $2,852

Options on car profiled: Super Sport package, $507; Turbo Hydra-Matic automatic transmission, $585; Rally Sport package, $131.65; air conditioning, $376; tilt wheel, $45; power steering, $95; power brakes, $42; whitewall tires, $32; console, $54; AM radio, $61; power windows, $105; front disc brakes, $22; tinted glass, $31; gauges, $90.

ENGINE

Type: Chevrolet “small-block” OHV V-8, cast-iron block and cylinder heads

Displacement: 350 cu.in.

Bore x stroke: 4.00 x 3.48 in

Compression ratio: 10.25:1

Horsepower @ rpm: 300 @ 4,800

Torque @ rpm: 380 lb-ft @ 3,200

Valvetrain: Hydraulic lifters

Main bearings: Five

Fuel system: Rochester Quadrajet four-barrel, mechanical pump

Lubrication system: Pressure, gear-type pump

Electrical system: 12-volt

Exhaust system: Dual exhaust with transverse cross-flow muffler

TRANSMISSION

Type: GM Turbo Hydra-Matic 350 three-speed automatic

Ratios: 1st/2.48 … 2nd/1.48 … 3rd/1.00 … Reverse/2.08

DIFFERENTIAL

Type: Chevrolet 12-bolt housing, Positraction

Ratio: 3.55:1

STEERING

Type: Recirculating ball-nut, semi-reversible with hydraulic power assist

Turns, lock-to-lock: 2.8

Turning circle: 37.5 ft

BRAKES

Type: Hydraulic disc/drum with vacuum power assist

Front: 11-in disc / Rear: 9.5 x 2.0-in drum

SUSPENSION

Front: Independent, unequal length A-arms; coil springs; telescoping shock absorbers; anti-sway bar

Rear: Parallel leaf springs, telescoping shock absorbers

WHEELS & TIRES

Wheels: Styled stamped steel, drop center Front/Rear: 14 x 7 in

Tires: Bias-ply, white-stripe Front/Rear: F70-14

PRODUCTION

Chevrolet produced 16,519 Camaro convertibles for the extended 1969 model year. Chevrolet also produced 37,773 RS and 36,309 SS Camaros for the year, but no records of how many SS/RS cars exist, regardless of body style.

PERFORMANCE

0-60 mph: 6.4 sec

1/4-mile ET: 15 sec @ 93 mph

Photo by Jeff Koch

Hemmings Motor News has long served as the publication for those in the know about the collector car hobby. You see a copy of the latest issue in the barber’s shop, and you know that this guy gets it. And while it doesn’t require a secret handshake to become part of that cadre of in-the-know hobbyists, we are giving you a sneak peek at our Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.

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