My wife, Amy, and I had purchased an '86 Buick Grand National for her to drive with me to cruise nights, and just to have a mellow sidekick to the rowdy brute of the family. (my 540 big block powered '71 SS Chevelle) I've always loved how a blacked out GN looked with dark tint and polished wheels. The Buick was very clean; having only 32,000 original miles. Everything worked including the factory stereo. We both loved driving it, although I found myself wanting to preserve the value and the mileage on the car, and that made me want to drive it less. And the whole reason we purchased the car was to drive it. I don't have the budget or desire for a "real" show car or "trailer queen". I don't even have a trailer. I like to drive my cars... burn rubber... hang out with my fellow "car buddies" at cruise nights. If the car can't stand up to the abuse of my foot being occasionally smashed to the floor.....then I don't want it.

So, long story short, I decided that I would sell the GN. Cashing out was also the only way I could entertain the idea of a protouring project. The protouring motivator was my friend Jeff Washington at "JW Performance". He had just finished building a Protouring Camaro with minitubs, LS7 Power, stick shift, 4-link suspension, the whole works. It was beautiful and inspiring. His build wet my appetite for something protouring. I was thinking of a '66 hardtop Nova with LS power, minitubs, the works. My wife, however, made it very clear to me that she would not be seen cruising in "that granny looking car". I couldn't believe she thought a '66 hardtop nova was "granny". The '66 is the perfect nova for a protouring machine.

Meanwhile, the GN was sold, and we were on the hunt. At that point, I brought home a 6.0L Lq4 shortblock that I found from a local junkyard. From my research, it would be a very nice budget built LS powerplant that should make 500 or more streetable horsepower, and sound like a purring kitten. Just the idea of 500 horses that sounded like a purring kitten gave me big goosebumps. So while I was figuring out how to make my wife like the Nova, The 6.0L went to the machine shop. It was given the full rebuild treatment. With that, a complete L92 top end (basically LS3 stuff), with a 224/228 duration torque cam from SLP, stock rebuilt rods and polished crank, and .020 over speed pro pistons with 10.7:1 compression. The block bore came to a conservative 4.020 inches. The new LS3 is only .040 larger at 4.060. I figured i'd call it the......."Ironman LS3". That was good enough for me. I didn't need an aluminum block.

So, the motor was in the garage all finished, and we still didn't have a car to put it in. I could not make my wife like a '66 nova. She did however, really like the first gen Camaro. And when I showed her a ralleysport version, She said, "That's it!". Lucky for me, all the transplant R&D had been done on that car. It was just a matter of buying the parts and installing them.

Ok, so it's a Camaro. My wife would have been happy with any first gen year. I already knew I didn't want a '69. You've heard the expression about the dead cat, right? I've swung my way through several litters, killing many, and my two daughters love kittens. You do the math. The cars weren't mine either. (No '69 Camaros were harmed in any way by this.) The next desirable year would be a '68. And it had to be an RS. I love the hideaway headlights, grill, and taillights. After a couple of months of scouring the internet and magazines looking for something, I found an overpriced black on black '68 rs/z28 with white stripes. The nice part was it already had DSE minitubs, quadralink, and SSBC four wheel disc brakes. Did I mention that it also had a houndstooth deluxe interior?!? I loved it and wanted to pull the trigger, but thought it was too expensive. All that was left was for my wife to agree......and she did!! We bought it using the money from the sale of the Buick, (plus some) and immediately worked out a game plan. It needed paint, which I was not excited about. It also needed alot of trim, chrome, and TLC.

I almost had buyers remorse after really seeing what it needed. But when my wife said "Just give it a chance", I was all in. She had just given me her blessing to build the car. Once it was apart, we realized how little rust it had. Someone had already installed new floors, trunk pan, and sub-frame connectors. The window channels were in great shape, as was the hidden body sheet metal under the fenders. I just wasn't sure how I could afford the paint that it needed.

I knew I'd have to sell the existing old school 350 and 4 speed to afford more parts and convert it to an automatic. I like automatics, and my wife would be better at driving it too. In the process of trying to sell the old drivetrain, a barter was struck to fix the paint, and smooth the firewall. Jackpot!!! Now God had blessed the project. There is no way I could have afforded to build the car and paint it. Lopez Sheetmetal Fabrication to the rescue. Mr. Lopez, (we call him Edgar!) kept the original motor, 4 speed, tires and wheels, and some other parts that I found to give him in exchange for a paint job. He did a great job, and did it in 4 months! That is unheard of in the hotrod paint world.

By the end of Fall '07, I had the car in my garage with beautiful black PPG paint minus the white stripes that where on the Z28 originally. My wife and I discussed whether we should put the stripes back on or not. We thought of silver, ghost, and white, but decided on just black. Plain black was much "sexier". We loved it, and thought Darth Vader would approve too. So I dubbed her "Stealth Vader".

Building this kind of car on a budget is not easy. Deciding where to save money and where to spend it was a little harder than I thought. We are two middle class working folks with kids, and that means finding deals on Ebay, GM parts direct, and of course some new stuff from Firewheel Classics. The Budniks were not up for negotiation. The minitubs would take nothing less than a 335/35/17. Nice and fat. The factory tank almost stayed. It already had a sump, but was ugly. The Ricks stainless tank was a much better choice. The in-tank pump and baffling made it worth the money. Add some '97 Camaro seats, ZS motoring steering wheel, and some help from my friends at Alamo Hot Rod Parts, and you've got something special. Thanks Ian and Rusty! And while i'm thanking people.......Dennis Auto Trim for the front seat upholstery, Clinton Carlile for the 4L65E trany/converter, Pete and Matt at "Kotzer Racing Heads" for the machine work and engine assembly, Alan Nelson at "Nelson Performance" for the engine harness/computer, Jeff Washington for the inspiration, Billy Mitchell at "The Max" for the Budniks, and Hot Rod Air for the penguins. My wife won't ride without penguins. We do not have a stereo........yet. So technically the car is not finished. I want a bluetooth deck for my wife's cell phone habit, a single 8" or 10" sub in the trunk and a couple more speakers in the front kickpanels. Money permitting, it will be complete real soon. For now, it burns rubber with the a/c on and sounds (and looks) good doing it.