Hi all,
I have been on the hunt for information on a 1969 Z-28 my dad owned back in the 80's. I truly understand that this is quite the long shot given the time line and the limited info I have but I'll keep throwing it out there and see if anything sticks! This car is very important to me and my family, and it would be very cool to know it's still out there and still being enjoyed. A little backstory on the car and our connection to it below.
My dad was a dyed in the wool bowtie guy, I grew up in what felt like a used car lot. He was always restoring a car (sometimes 2) and then selling to buy the next project. We had Chevelles, El Caminos, Corvettes and Camaros, but one Camaro in particular is the one I'm after. My dad bought this car in Northridge CA in December of 1979 and spent years restoring it back to stock while adding some options like a cowl hood (with functioning cowl) and rear spoiler. This car was featured on the cover of Car Craft in November of 85, the month after I as born. This is the car that I came home from the hospital in when I was born and it was the only car my Dad ever regretted selling. But it launched him into Corvettes so that was always how he justified it. He sold the car sometime between Nov of 86 and March of 87, but I don't have a concrete date on that.
Unfortunately, my Dad had been battling Lymphoma since Dec of 2016. He had been able to beat it back into remission but it reared it's ugly head again this year. It was a tough year and as time went on it seemed like there was less and less that he was interested in or enjoyed, but one thing we could always talk about was cars. The last conversation we had was about cars and how many he had (49), and of course the Camaro. He was struggling with cognitive issues, but when I could get him on cars he was sharp as a tack and I could tell he enjoyed talking about them. He passed on the day before Thanksgiving and it's become my mission to try and hunt this car down. It's been an almost cathartic experience and in its own way still makes me feel connected to him. I've met and talked to a lot of like minded car nuts over the last few months just looking for leads or who to talk to. At the most recent cars and coffee in my area someone recommend reaching out to Jerry MacNeish. I was able to get in contact with Jerry and he was kind enough to dig through his databases but came up empty. He gave me some recommendations along with coming here and seeing if anyone here had a hit on this car.
I went digging through the boxes of old car receipts my dad had to try and find any paperwork or identifying info on this car. I have pictures of it, but unfortunately they're limited and from the early 80's so you can't make out any stampings under the hood. I was able to find the VIN from the car when my dad put a personalized plate on the car (which I also found to go with the original emblems off the car that he gave me years ago). So the VIN is the only hard identifier I have on the car, I've tried to run it but I keep running into pre-81 errors so maybe I'm just not looking in the right place. Vin # 124379L512990. Anyway, sorry for the long first post but if anyone knows anything about this car or remembers seeing it in the valley way back when I'd love to hear from you!
