I love second-generation Camaros. I do not like the 1978-81 Camaro. It’s not for a styling perspective so much, but instead it’s due to several rubber-nosed cars that showed up and gave me seven shades of hell over the years. Pick your poison…there’s the one my ex-wife bought that had something dead glued to the console lid, bled out transmission fluid like a stuck pig and drove so badly that the MPs pulled me over and performed a DWI check while I was on my way to morning PT on Fort Lewis. There was the car that we were going to replace my mother’s Olds Omega with, that had enough water in the rear footwell to keep a goldfish as a pet in, that stank and that we ended up shooting baby-blue in a hurry because somebody had mixed up the paint and didn’t want to waste it. I’ve got my reasons, but after watching values over the years, any running second-gen that isn’t a bondo buggy is worth the effort.
Derek’s 1979 example was found in a barn last year and originally wanted to restore it. But things have changed, priorities have shifted and the Camaro is going to be moved on down the road. But before that occurs, giving the car a little sprucing up and some love under the hood couldn’t hurt. Oddly…I’m digging this one, as plain as it appears. Stock 1970s rally wheels, a useable gleam to the paint for the time being, and a running engine equates to a driver while you start planning a restoration. Note: I didn’t say build. Build an engine, sure. Throw in suspension parts and brakes, sure. But it would be hard to change up the outward appearance of this car from what it is now. It’s not a dolled-up Z or your typical “mullet Camaro”. It’s a plain driver and that’s getting harder to find.
Oh…and we want to wish a happy birthday to a guy as well!
polish a turd