I am selling my import (98 spyder) and ready for a muscle car. Can anyone give me a hand on where I might find a 67-69 Camaro. I am not picky about the motor, tranny, or interior since I plan to replace them all. I would like one that has a good body and decent paint job. Any pointers or tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

As with all muscle cars, the more stock and unmolested the better if you want to rebuild. There are more '69 Camaros on the road now then there were in 69-70! At least it seems so. I would look for a car with hubcaps and faded paint. Traction bars, long wheel studs, a driveshaft loop, a 5" tach, electric fuel pump and wide tires are a sign that it has been used as a Camaro should and may be bent, tweaked or worn in problem areas. It depends of course on what you're willing to spend and what your goal is. An inline six car isn't going to be represented as an SS, Z-28 or other higher value car that would command a premium, even if it a fake. You're going to take it all apart anyways. Some options can only be verified by the nearly always missing Protect-O-Plate that was shipped with the car when new. With the vin and body plate you can verify if it is a 6cyl or v-8, Z-28, Pace Car, SS396 and some other SS variations. You can't necessarily verify if it was a big block car or other engine diplacements such as 307, 327 or 350. Heater core outlet position can verify if it was a small block car. The outlets will be next to the cylinder head. BigBlock and 6 cyl will have the outlets in the center of the box if the box is original.

Look for a car in the southwest US. Good luck.

 

Got lots of money?

To find one that hasn't been hackup up into a race car is hard enough. Finding one that's still in good enough shape to drive is not cheap. Finding one to become a project rebuild will be hard enough because even complete junkers can fetch a 5 digit number. One of the car shows on TV showed a completely gutted 69 with no powertrain and it sold for just under $7000. It needed a lot of rust repair.

Because of the unibody construction, if there's too much rust, it can cost more to repair all the rust that it is to just buy a new body from Year One.

Good luck. You're only one of many thousands of people looking for the same thing.

 

Try autotraderonline. They have a collector car section that's pretty good.

 

There is a few for sale in the classifieds at www.camaros.net I bought a '68 recently local that needs paint, interior, and some metal work including quarters for 4K. They don't get much cheaper but do go a lot higher. I will have a total of 10K in it before it's ready for the drivetrain. To get one in the condition you want, you can expect to pay 10K+ and it will need work.

 

I have about $12,000 to spend. I plan to do the ls1 swap but will need the car to be at least driveable until I gather the parts for that. I would also be willing to trade a 300hp import that gets good gas mileage for one!