'68 Camaro - Another one?! Again?! Really? - Lateral-g Forums

Leroy Rochester · #1 03-28-2014, 12:55 PM

All right... And with that, I'll start my project thread about my '68.

As some of you know, a number of years ago I built and infrequestly raced a '67 Camaro NASA AIX/Vintage car. I was a member of a number of other boards as "PAI Racing" although I don't recall being a member on here before and didn't find my user name in the list. So, I've newb'd up and here we go!

The '67 was painted to resemble my '68 street car and as a homage to the Penske "light weight" '67 that was ultimately re-assigned a '68 identity.

Ultimately the '67 will get it's own sort of retro-active built thread, but the long and short of it is the car was (regretably) sold to a racer in Australia where it lives and competes to this day. (https://lateral-g.net/forums/show...181#post544181)

As a formal introduction to Lateral-G, here they are together 10 years ago.

Leroy Rochester · #2 03-28-2014, 01:09 PM

I'll add a link here to the thread about the '67, once I finally get it posted up.

I love the '67, but I'd always had one hang up about the car... I didn't build it myself. And as awesome as it was, I always felt like I should have been capable of building my own car and so there was always that little pit in my stomach everytime someone complimented me on the car.

My '68 and I have very long history together. And in reality, I suppose I should have just turned the '68 into a race car in the first place... I can't sell the car, ever. So I would have been stuck with what I had and it would have kept me out of a lot of past and future trouble!

You see, I'm the second owner of the car. The first owner was my grandmother, who bought the car new and then passed away in 1969. I have had the car in my personal possession since I was 17, but never really did much with it, maybe out of "repsect" or maybe because I subconsiously new I'd make a mess out of it back then...

Anyhow, the car was purchase new in the spring of 1968 from Kennedy Cheverolet in Marcellus NY. It was the first non-big block, non-SS, non-convertible, non-B body, my grandfather had purchased for my grandmother since 1962. But she saw it, loved it and just HAD to have it!

According to my mother, it's the first car I ever crashed. Her version of the story is that when I was 4-5 years old, she left me in the car for "just a minute" to run into the store (that was totally cool back then, right?!) and when she came out, I'd put car in N and it rolled down a hill and into the back of another car.

According to my father, it's the 10th car my mother crashed and he never believed a word of the "rolled down the hill story" as he likes to call it (it was his mom's car).

Here's me with the car in 19741975-ish... Obviously I was pretty fond of it even then, even with a 250/glide power train with the deluxe interior and trim.

I will not put up the white tux with red tie and cumberbun photo with the car from my senior prom, but I will tell you that a) I did have a mullet, and b) I matched the car, not my date!

Leroy Rochester · #3 03-28-2014, 01:21 PM

When I moved to CA in 1997, I left the car with my buddy in NY. He stored it and took care of it for me until 2003-4 when I finally shipped it out to CA.

Hmmm, should I drive a whipped on old granny six '68 or a big block SS '69...

By the way, The '69 is nearly through a 6 year long nut and bolt resto now and it looks amazing!

**Ron in SoCal** · #4 03-28-2014, 01:25 PM

Awesome Lee-roy. Look forward to more.

Leroy Rochester · #5 03-28-2014, 01:26 PM

Thanks man! Got to end this procrastination session for a bit, but I'll get back on my horse a bit later tonight!

Leroy Rochester · #6 03-28-2014, 01:36 PM

Actually, one more thing I need to get off my chest early before I sign off...

The stripe.

Yes, it's horrible. I still have nightmares about it and I still hate it...

Not the fact that it has the stripe, but the B/S repaint version. In NY it seemed like everyone had a "body and fender guy" that would do little spring refreshes on your cars. Paint, rust proof, dent and ding repair.

For years my grandparents and parents used a guy named Willie Clemmons down off of Salina St. in Syracuse. Willie was a nice guy and hell, you get what you pay for right?! Over the years, the car took on sort of a multi-colored, wavy appearance as a result of this ad hoc annual bodywork.

When I was around 17 or 18, I talked my dad into trading some accounting work for a repaint from one of his clients. The car went to Hawk Frame and Collision in the south eastern suburbs or Rochester (can't remember exactly where) and was introduced to a concept that I've never fondly referred to as the "paint car wash".

It came home with many insteresting acts of aggresion that could loosely be referred to as "bodywork" but the real touchstone for how half-assed it was was that horrible, mis-aligned, unbroken nose stripe.

So now you all know that I know, and you all know why. Ahhhh, feels better to get that monkey off my back! Until a few weeks ago, it was a standing source of embarassment. As of now, the car is virtually stripe free, but that's a story for later!

67zo6Camaro · #7 03-28-2014, 01:44 PM

That's so cool. Great set of pictures.

intocarss · #8 03-28-2014, 04:41 PM

Very cool story. I love cars with history behind them.

**Flash68** · #9 03-28-2014, 04:44 PM

Killer cars. Great story and photos! Glad you're on board.

Leroy Rochester · #10 03-29-2014, 12:10 AM

Thanks guys! Yeah, feels good to get a little internet inspiration to keep moving on this thing!

Brett, I'm going to have to come up to your shop sometime and look around. So much interesting stuff on your website! And I'd have to imagine that in-cabin radiator really kept things comfortable and fog free on chilly Mojave mornings up at Willow!