Mods
GM factory parts, Edelbrock performer intake, Edelbrock carb., No named Amazon headers, and imaginary parts that I don't have the money to afford so I just pretend they are there.
Build story
Found this 1 owner, numbers matching junk on Autotrader Classics and drove from Arkansas to Ft. Worth Texas to haul it home. When I met the seller at a gas station adjacent to the Texas Motor Speedway he pulled up in said Camaro with coolant vomiting all over the concrete and a horrendous "TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP" coming from the engine compartment. He said "do ya hear that tapping sound? It just starting doing that yesterday". Hahahaha. Yeah right! So while he found ways to talk it up I just thought about the leverage that I now had to take this car home and love it the proper way. Got the rig back to Arkansas and within the first 2 days I tore the top end apart to find a rocker stud that had pulled a pressed fit stud out of the head. Reason being? Bad gas that had turned to varnish and froze up 2 valves to the point where they locked up tighter than my wife's purse as soon as I brought the car home. Thermostat had rusted shut which is an effective way to blow the seals out of a water pump in 3.5 seconds. Found an intake, valve covers, and headers from a local guy who let me have them for $125 bucks. Cleaned them up, did a valve adjustment. Slapped an Edelbrock carb on her that my brother gave me as payment for pulling his engine out of his 69 Mustang. I started tearing into the interior to replace the dashboard which had been soaked in enough Amor All to slick Trump's hairdo back. Upon the disassembly I found rusted floor pans, rusted pillars, rusted windshield cowl, and a whole lot of nasty. This led yours truly down a twisted rabbit hole of money, labor, swear words, and new founded skills. Almost a year later I have redone the fuel system, the braking system, the cooling system, almost the entire interior, floors, cowl area, and the list keeps on going. I am finally able to drive the thing around (granted it still has open headers and pisses every neighbor I have off) but I love it. I love the skills I have learned from this. I love that no matter what it looks like it is mine...a part of me now. I will never get back a monetary value that will equal the blood, sweat, and curse words that I have thrown at this junk but that's okay. I've learned far more about myself and what I am capable of achieving. I'm proud of my junk. It brought me to a respectable group of YouTube folks who challenged me to document my progress and allowed me to share a little bit of myself back to the YouTube community that helped inspire me to tackle this steamy turd to begin with. Although it isn't quite done yet, and probably never will be, it has now officially become a "running and driving project". Someday soon I will teach myself how to paint the thing so it is at least a 5 footer. Sometime next year I will pull the 136k mile engine, subframe, and transmission to do a proper rebuild on them. However right now, in this moment in time, I'm going to beat the living hell out of this thing with a shit eating grin on my face and a middle finger in the air until it takes a dump on me and leaves me walking home with a lasting sense of accomplishment for hellish payback I've unleashed on this old gal.