Big Block Camaro Reborn

I bought a 1968 RS/SS big block Camaro in Aug.1975, and paid $990 for it from the teenage owner. I drove the Camaro a few years until my son came along and my priorities changed. So I bought a house, then my son’s little sister came along a year later. With family, house, bills, and other things, I parked the Camaro in the garage.

Thirty-nine and a half years later, I received a Workers Compensation claim check from my job of $23,000. I told the wife that this check was going to restoring the car! Of course, she had other ideas for the funds! But I persuaded her and contacted a body shop that was local and had a reputation of producing very good work.

The restoration was supposed to take 4 months. But with a heavy workload of repairing other vehicles, my car took 18 and a half months. The end result was totally beautifully restored Camaro! I spent the next 10 years and thousands of hours and money putting it all back together. My son, son-n-law, brother and many friends were the biggest help to see it finished. Finally, in June 2019, I started the rebuilt engine. Working all the bugs out until it was finally backed out of the garage for the first time in 41 years!

Today, everyone wants to talk about it and how beautiful it is! My daughter calls it my “Chick Magnet”! Just driving it now, takes me back to high school in 1967 when cars were cooler than some today!

Walter Watson