Asking about my brothers old Camaro, from WI, "skunk" JL8 car

[Gilly]

JUST wondering if this would ring a bell with anyone in the upper midwest.

My brother had a 69 JL8 car in "skunk" colors as I guess it is called (Tuxedo black with white stripes). He sold it to a guy in probably 78-79 or so to a guy in West Allis, WI. Last my brother heard of it, about 15 yrs ago, was a guy from Beaver Dam WI calling him just asking what the car was like when he sold it. He has no idea if the guy calling purchased it or not. The guy also said it seems like it was in the same shape as when my brother owned it, kind of scratched on the top surfaces from the previous owners kid getting ice off it during a big ice storm we had in WI in 1976.
So this was about when my brother got it, 1976 or so as I believe the 3rd owner, and again sold it probably 2 yrs later for get this, $3500 or $3800! I had the chance to buy it at that price but was still living at home and knew my parents hated that car, for various reasons. PLUS my brother could NOT keep air out of the brake system, he found out later I guess the thing needed DOT4 brake fluid, so when he found that out he was sure the reason was the DOT3 fluid he kept using.

So we might go to the DMV and see if they know the ID number (my brother never kept a record of that) and see if it is still around, but thought maybe a diehard Camaro guy from this area might know the car, I know JL8 cars are rare.
I don't have every detail, but it had the cowl hood and no trim on the 1/4 panel on the "gills" in front of the rear wheels, also had a set of gauges on the dash in front of the driver, a large tach and 3 smaller gauges, very 70s. It had a cross ram intake (!) in the trunk(!)(worth more than he sold the car for now!), factory headers, and also he had a set of black sidepipes he put on the car, were those a factory thing? No heat sheild, just plain, nasty looking (as in wicked) black pipes. I think he said they were factory headers and sidepipes anyways, you guys know more than us I'm sure.

Gilly

[william]

That virtually has to be the car I looked at many years ago in the Milwaukee area. I did some digging on it as it had no paperwork. I recall it was originally Burnished Brown and sold new at Hult Chev, Madison WI. The former owner of Hult was working at another dealership by that time and no longer had any dealership records. I passed on the car because it was nasty even for that time, did not have the original engine and was modified.

It's a small world so I do know who bought in Beaver Dam; Jeff who owned a body shop. Did some trading back and forth with him; moved a lot of Camaros. Unfortunately he was killed in his shop a few years ago when a jack failed. He still owned it but I do not know what his family did with it. Don't know the VIN.

[Gilly]

Different car. Are you sure it was a JL8 car? This was definitely originally a black car.
In that same time period my brother had a friend who had a Brown 69 Z28. One odd thing about it was someone did sort of a gold lace spray job over the stripes, from a short distance it looked like gold stripes, but as you got closer you saw the lace design. Hults or Thorstad Chev would make sense though, we are from Middleton, WI originally (including the guy with the brown one). Although you are piquing my curiosity because of the trail from Milwaukee area (West Allis my brother said) to the call from Beaver Dam. I am just SURE it had the original black paint on it. My brother knew a guy who checked out the car and said yes it's really rare, assuming it was an orig JL8 car from what this guy said. There at one time was a big time Corvette collector on the east side of madison named Tim Startup (yeah Startup) and he really wanted the car when my brother wanted to sell, but I think he wanted to swap for a Vette so wanted some extra money to even it out and my brother wasn't interested in that. I remember him stopping to look at the car and was driving a really rare big block Vette, pre 1968 style Stingray.

[restore-z28]

A '69 in Tuxedo black with the JL8 rear end, that would be something to see. Best of luck Gilly and hope you track the car down. 

[IZRSSS]

I'm pretty sure JL8 refers to Power 4-Wheel Disc Brakes.

Agreed, good luck in your search!

[Gilly]

Right, it was a 4 wheel disc car

[Gilly]

I did take some pics of the car back in the day which my brother has, I should see if he can dig those up and I'd post them.

[69z28302]

Yeah, we love Old Picture's!

Mike

[william]

The car I saw was black but was originally burnished brown. Had a super shifter so the floor was cut and deep-tint windows. Think it had some speed-shop 350 in it.

It had been advertised as a JL8 car but I don't recall verifying. Jeff in BD always said it was. 

[sam81663]

A friend had one. Mid 70s out of Oshkosh. Had it about two years. Oddly enough his name was Jeff also. Black/ white /black houndstooth. I do remember the car needed a brake job and it was so expensive to get it done I think is the reason he sold it. Also, the car ran like crap all the time. I remember him talking about  the insurance price on it too. I am thinking around 1974. Everyone have a safe and happy holiday,   Ron

[Gilly]

Not sure where this car was in 74, but it didn't have a cloth interior, it was black vinyl.

[william]

The Oshkosh JL-8 car was sold to a very good friend of mine although I did not know him at the time. He sold the car to Jim, a Milw police officer who stored it in our building for several years. It was originally Fathom Green, then Daytona yellow with black standard interior. Jim sold it to a flipper and it was in MI last I knew. I spoke to a guy at Jefferson who turned out to be the original owner and had paperwork for it. Do not know if they were able to get together on it.

[Gilly]

Thanks to all. I asked at WI dmv if they can help with the ID number and they daid no, only 5 yrs. The person who replied did say that they looked and saw no 69 Camaro for my brother, so must be purged already, which is understandable if they say they only keep 5 yrs worth of records.
I have a few other ideas, like seeing if he wants to contact the prior owner, I think he still knows him (to see if he has a recod of it at all).
Gilly

[Gilly]

test

[Gilly]

Previous post was a test. I am not all "that" handy with computers but get along OK. I was doing basic sort of fixes (what Picasa calls "I Feel Lucky") to improve the pictures. I have a couple more. My brother said if it wasn't for me taking these that he would have had no pictures at all of the car.
This is from right around 1977 or so. It was probably a year before he sold the car. He noticed the sidepipes I previously mentioned were not on the car yet, although he did have them, he got them with the car. I have a few more pictures I will post.
Gilly

PS notice you can't read the rear license plate, he kept it pretty slimed up with oil to pic up road dirt to keep it dirty for some odd reason

Now that I have them all up, a few personal notes. The truck in front of the Z is my dads old 66 Chevy. The small lettering on the back of the slide-in camper says "The Dog House" which I guess he put on there as a joke (us kids rode back there a lot on family trips). The old blue Chevy across the street was my older sisters 68 (I believe) BelAir, almost has to be a 67 or 68. My younger brother eventually bought the 66 truck from my dad and heavily modified it, it was pretty cool when he was done with it, although he kept the inline 6 cyl he did some weird induction thing to it, like 3 1 barrels or something, and also the exhaust he did something weird like headers or a split exhaust or something.