I am looking for the photo card with engine photos, but it is MIA right now. The tranny will be finished next week and I'll take some good photos of the engine compartment and post them on here then. The main differences that I can see are the lack of a kickdown rod from the carb to the trans shifter rod (don't know exactly what it is called...goes into the left side of the trans), and no cooling lines from the radiator to the trans. The factory assembly manual says the '69 Torque Drive was to use the same trans case as a liquid-cooled Powerglide, was supposed to have the VIN stamped into the driver's side of the case, and that the hole where a vacuum modulator would go on a regular PG was not supposed to be machined. But on this car, it obviously has an air-cooled PG case, has no VIN stamped into the case, and the modulator hole is machined with a metal plug screwed in to block it off since there was no need for a modulator. My impression is that since this is such an early '69 (it was the 1,439th one built at Norwood) that GM might have been trying to get rid of leftover '68 air-cooled Torque Drives. GM already knew that TDs were susceptible to overheating, and I believe it was their intent to install liquid-cooled PGs that were modified to become TDs, but I don't know since there don't appear to be any other '69 Camaros with this tranny. I found a '68 Chevy II 4-door for sale on Craigslist in South Dakota that had its original 230 6-cyl and TD trans and asked the seller to send me some good close-up photos of its engine, but received nothing back. It was an air-cooled TD from a May '68-built car, so I think that probably all '68s with Torque Drives were air-cooled and (maybe) later '69s had liquid-cooled TDs.
I was able to locate this car's original owner through an excellent website called "Familytreenow.com" and found out some interesting stuff about this car. Heidi S. was 20 years-old in Sept. of '68 and 5 months pregnant, unemployed, and unmarried. Her father Bill worked as a mechanic at Ft. Wayne, IN's largest Chevy dealer, Hefner, and wanted to get his daughter a new Camaro or Nova to help her through a tough time in her life. He had seen this car (yes, it was the 1st '69 Camaro sold at Hefner) in a storage building that the dealer owned, and decided to try and get it for Heidi. The official new car introduction date for '69 Chevys was Sept. 26, 1968, and Bill and Heidi were at the dealer's showroom that evening to try and buy the car. Heidi said there were probably 100 people there that evening, and this Camaro was the prettiest car in the showroom. They wanted to test drive it, but that was out of the question. Bill did not receive much of a discount since this was the only '69 Camaro that the dealership had, and there were many other people interested in buying it. Bill was told that it could not leave the showroom until the 2nd Camaro arrived (it showed up a week later...a yellow convertible with a black top). Bill signed the papers that night and he and Heidi waited impatiently to pick it up. It wasn't until they took delivery of it that Heidi realized it had a funky automatic transmission that wasn't really automatic, and no power steering or brakes (it also had no radio...Bill had a factory Delco AM radio installed shortly after they picked it up). I believe that Hefner ordered it with a Torque Drive tranny because GM wanted to market the car to women and draw them in with its lower cost. Heidi loved the way the car looked, but hated the way it drove, and she traded it in on a 'red '71 Nova coupe that she ordered from Hefner. It originally came with the white hockey stripe, and it is coded "52 E" on the cowl tag (Garnet Red with a parchment top) with a "712" red standard interior. It did not have many options...larger 250 engine, TD trans, tinted glass, hockey stripe, vinyl roof, full wheel covers, WSW tires, and floor mats.
I am a good acquaintance with Phil Borris, the author of the excellent book, "Echoes of Norwood" (he has seen my '70 Camaro and '74 Nova cop car prototype), and I sent him pictures of the '69. He invited me to bring it to the big indoor "Cavalcade of Customs" show in downtown Cincinnati back in January, and it won a 3rd place award in competition with many beautiful and in my opinion more worthy cars. It sat next to Mark Hasset's beautiful Hugger Orange '69 Yenko Camaro that was once owned by Otis Chandler (the owner of the LA Times newspaper), and received probably as many looks as his car.
My intention is to get the car (which Heidi named "Cherry"...the name I now call it) up to the Camaro Superfest in Ypsilanti, MI once this Chinese Virus garbage is gone, and maybe get it into the Vintage Chevy Club of America's G&D magazine. In a couple of years I'll yank the drivetrain and make it into a Z28 clone (just kidding!). I know the steering wheel shroud is supposed to be completely red, and those gawd-awful repop door panels are going to be replaced by the best red ones I can find (input on this would be most helpful...brand and source).
It is nice to be back on here, and thanks to all of you for your kind words...
