Have you always dreamed of taking home one of the highly-coveted, classic cars to cross the block at the Barrett-Jackson auctions? Yet you know that it’ll be quite some time, if ever, until you could possibly afford one? Well, this Craigslist find may be just for you – if you don’t mind the car being extra crispy.
Unfortunately, this once-Hugger Orange 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 suffered a fiery demise. Typically a car with such damage would not be used for a restoration, as the heat severely weakens and warps the sheet metal (hence the scrap title). That said, this isn’t just any car – it’s a first-gen Camaro Z-freaking-28. According to the listing, it came from the factory with the 302 V8 and a Muncie 4-speed manual transmission.
We’re not sure if we’d be the first ones to spend $5,000 on this Camaro, though. It’s not that it isn’t worth it, sentimentally speaking of course, we just don’t have the time or resources to take on something like this. But we’re not restoration experts by any means, so we’ll turn the mic over to you – is this Camaro Z/28 done for, or will someone breathe life back into it?
Comments
I think this is only worth something to someone with a ‘burning passion for cars.’
Z/28 or not, the body is completely unusable, the block and heads are suspect, and the Muncie is most definitely toast. Restoring this would not be worth the effort. You’d be lucky if the vin tag didn’t crumble into dust.
You have to be crazy or rich to drop 5k on a scrap junk shell or both Crazy and rich, lol A proper restoration would cost way too much
How did this happen? Was it a ford operation to toast the competition?? How did such A valuable car burn?? Anyone know?? DMD
Actually in this day and age the title and Vin of this car may be worth that much.
I have seen cars with very little left or another car used to transfer the Vin to and make a complete car out of it.
The 69 Z is worth $50K to well into six figures today so if you can do the work yourself you can make a buck on these and the cars will only appreciate in the future.
Hell you can build a totally new 69 Z from repo parts now and buy the complete shell. Take this car with the vin and try to salvage anything you can like the drive line and any other parts that could be reconditioned and you could easily make a profit on this car.
Now you would not want to do this on a 84 Z/28 bit a 69 have enough value you could pull it off.
There is enough determine there would be many buyers as long as the work was done well and the number match. Many restored cars today have so little left as it is now once the rust is cut out.
Today so many cars hold so little that is original but yet the market keeps eating them up due to demand. As of now a car is still considered a original car even with over half of it replaced.
Odds are the engine is very rebuild able. We have restored several engine fire cars and never had an issue with the block or heads. Also the vin tags are very durable and often protected under the hood.
All valid points. Based on my own experience, I would pass this up in search of a better example.
My first car was a 72 Grand Prix SJ with the 455. My dad bought it in 74 (two years before I was born) and my mother drove it until I turned 16. I drove it through High School and into College until a guy ran a red light and I tagged the back end of his pickup at the end of 1995. We started rebuilding the car and found a complete car and parts car during the rebuild. 4 years later, the car is at the painters and his shop burns down with my GP in it.
We were able to save the chassis, but the body was toast. The windshield VIN was not great, but looked better then the picture of this on the Craigslist post. The cowl tag was warped and rusted from the efforts to put out the fire. (I find it interesting that the cowl tag is not shown on the craigslist ad) My GP’s body was in about the same shape as this Camaro. Only because we had bought that second car did we rebuild it again.
After the rebuild, the engine developed a low oil pressure condition when it warmed up later found to be a crack that the magnaflux didn’t catch. The TH400 lasted another couple years until the bands wore out. I still have this car, but the only thing original to the car my dad bought 42 years ago is the frame.
So, given my own experience, I wouldn’t be interested in trying to rebuild this Z/28. Less effort and probably less money can be put into another Z/28. Sure, it can be done, but I wouldn’t consider it worth nearly as much as a fire free example.
1969 Z/28’s aren’t as rare as many would like you to think. They are popular and desirable, but over 20,000 of them were produced in 1969. If you want a ’69 Z/28 project, better to spend a few more bucks and actually have something to start with besides a VIN.
Hopefully it will go to a good home out in the country where it can quietly sit out in the back forty somewhere. It is “unrestored”.
Im offering 4000 grand. How do i get this car