anatomy of a basket case

[Steve Barndt]

chopped up console. Its what I did to keep the guage cluster and make room for the super shifter. I picked up another console decades ago just in case.

[Steve Barndt]

I got a deluxe interior at a yard sale quite a while back. It has the flip down seat. Its dirty now but intact. I find that amazing. The original interior was literally falling apart by 1972. It wasnt torn but the stitching was failing on all the seats. That didnt bug me too much as I really had grown to dislike the bright blue and used it as an excuse to dye most of the interior black and have the original seats rolled and pleated in white....that kind of job shows my age.

[Steve Barndt]

my car has no hardware or mountin locations for the flip seat. If I use it no doubt I will be making parts.

[Steve Barndt]

block

[Steve Barndt]

the original engine was taken out in 72. By 72 the car was coming apart as I mentioned before. The quarter panels were extremely cancered. The interior stitching was failing. I had the quarters switched out along with the rear panel. That was a mistake because in 72 already the rear panel with the holes for the reverse lights was unavailable. The hardest to get parts for it actually were parking brake cables. The car had a couple design changes on parking brake setups and the drum cables on mine were the odder design and a pain to get.
I have a 4 bolt main engine that went back into the car at that point.

[Steve Barndt]

a distributor. I dont know if this belongs in it or not. I didnt use factory ignition after 72.

Out of pictures for now. When I dig deeper in to it I will post more if anyone is interested.

[bertfam]

Great pictures Steve. And going by the casting numbers and date codes, everything you show is original to your car (with the exception of the transmission of course). That includes the heads and the distributor. I also see a Muncie main case in post number 11. Is that your original?

I can't explain the lack of "SS 350" on the steering wheel or the lack of "350" on the fenders. Do you have any pictures of the car when it was new (or newer)?

Ed

[69z28302]

I love that Deep Water Blue

[Petes L48]

Looks like red showing through, under the blue steering wheel?  I need to start going to yard sales if they have rear foldowns for sale!

[x77-69z28]

the orig owner of my 12D 67 rs/ss stated that he had to take the car back to the dealership to have the traction bar installed. it was not on the car when new! makes sense too, because it is the square traction bar, not the round one that was supposed to be on the small block cars. cool project. get to work!!!

[Steve Barndt]

Ed,
I know somewhere there are pictures. It had the 350 flags on the side. What it didnt have is "SS350" insignia anywhere, just SS.

69Z I know about the blue. Cant imagine it being another color. Just hate the bright blue interior though. What I think I will do is return the interior paint to bright blue but go with the white gut.

[bertfam]

It had the 350 flags on the side. What it didnt have is "SS350" insignia anywhere, just SS

That's what you should have. SS on the front of the fenders and then "Camaro", "350" and the crossed "flags" emblems on the rear of the fenders.

Ed

[Petes L48]

Did it have the SS 350 fuel cap?

[Steve Barndt]

Ed
yes thats the original main case. It has my initials stamped in it. Bad things happened inside that box and it needs to have the countershaft bores sleeved. Back in the day trannys were stolen regularly. If you were a guy with a big body low hp car and started doing any modificiations to it you soon discovered what a weak link a saginaw trans was and the cheapest way to repair a saginaw was to steal a muncie. It was good to look closer up there. Found an original shifter and a 30 across cam in a tube.

Pete. I wore some heavy jewelry back in the day and if you cut into that blue wheel you found red plastic. I carved a nice gash in it with a ring over time.
also it did not have an SS350 gas cap. The only 350 designation was on the flags.

X77 This never went back for the factory mod. It didnt work anyway. I broke a set of ET bars off it and got a set of original Lakewood lift bars on it. They worked and I never replaced them. I think I'll use Caltracs today though if I stay with that suspension. The one Lakewood is long and clips the road surface under hard braking if the front retainers are off.

[MyRed67]

I read somewhere the early SS's, (before BB's started in late Dec.) only had the SS Emblem front and rear.  They started the SS 350 Emblem sometime after the BB cars went into production.