1972 Chevrolet Camaro

The story

Well it all started back in 2001 on a 40th birthday. My wife decided she wanted a classic Camaro, which surprised me. Being an old gear head, part of me was happy that she had such interests, but it had been 15 years since I had my last muscle car and therefore, part of me was apprehensive. She said she wanted a 68 or 69, but all I could think was you see those everywhere. And although that was a generation of Camaros to be admired, I wanted to try to be a little set apart and stand out from the crowd, once our project was underway. I started researching, checking prices, and availability of the several options that was out there. And ended up deciding on early 2nd gen, which, I thought when finished would easily turn as many heads as a 1st gen project. So I started watching E-Bay and looking in all the classifieds I could find. I didnt want someone elses restoration, but on the other hand I didnt want a basket case either. So my goal was to find a currently drive-able car that had been taken care of, but no attempt at restoration had been started. Therefore, in the end I could say that it had all been a certain way because that is the way we wanted it done.

Beginning in February 2001 I found a car in Clinton, Missouri, enlisted some help and drove up there and pulled it back to Texas, its new home.

First came the new exhaust. Someone had decided in its past that glass-packs were cool. Needless to say, I disagreed. So we went back with a 2.5 inch system with Dynomax Super Turbos, and an X-pipe which not only made it sound better, but it ran much better as well. Then I started on some engine changes by switching the points out for an HEI ignition system and the old quadrajunk for a new Holley. All the while these changes were being done my wife insisted on keeping it drive-able so we could enjoy it during the process. Well now it ran much better, but still lacked the drive-ability we were looking for. I started investigating drive-train changes and what appeared to be the best route. We ended up deciding on a Bow-tie Overdrives 700 R4 swap. Mainly because it came with everything needed to make the change including information about how to modify the drive shaft for the correct length. At the same time we thought it best to get our final drive gear in place for the sake of comfort and performance, this came about in the form of an Auburn Posi unit, Strange axles and Richmond 3.73 gears. Now we had the best of both worlds.

Next on the list was the replacement of all suspension parts. Thirty years is plenty long for any bushings, ball joints, or springs to have to do their job. So we went with the folks at Performance Suspension Technologies (PST), and replaced everything from bushings to springs, all four corners received "QA1" 12-way adjustable shocks, all of the steering components were replaced, an upgrade was made to both sway bars and a quick ratio steering box was installed.

The entire brake system was replaced with a smaller booster, late model master cylinder, SSBC calipers and slotted rotors, all new stainless steel brake lines and finished off with pure silicone "DOT 5" fluid, so there would be no chance of paint contamination in the future.

So far all of the work that had been done was done in the garage with the help of family and friends. I have always been a "hands on" kind of guy and in the end I want to know that each part and piece was replaced correctly and that no one was cutting corners.



The new 72 model body for the car was rescued from the crusher in April of 2003. In the next two years, a complete frame off restoration was done to the body which included new quarter panels, outer wheel houses, trunk pan and side rails, tail panel, a new GM Goodmark 3" cowl induction hood, doors from a 78 Z/28 were added (power Windows), the firewall was smoothed over, fiberglass inner fender wells, and rear bumper were added, to lighten things up a little, and then 3rd gen Corvette tail lights to give the appearance a custom touch.
The paint is GM Millineum Yellow, and the stripes were painted to match the factory appearance, and the short spoiler was picked for the rear deck lid.



The interior of the car was very important to us, that's the cockpit or the control module and we wanted it to be especially comfortable and feature packed. Started out by insulating everything, including the roof with R9 value insulation. Then the floors and some of the side panels got sound deadening treatment, with new carpet. The wiring harness was provided by Kwik Wire and is their 24 circuit deluxe kit. The door panels are Year correct with the exception of the addition of electric windows donated from a 78 Z28. Seats were specially picked, they came from a 97 TransAm and feature all the power goodies that you could want. The original console didn't even come with a cup holder, much less any other niceties, so we opted for a unit out of a 94 Camaro with welded brackets and all. We topped it off with a B&M Mega Shifter to accommodate the overdrive transmission. Most of the dash is OEM except the dash bezel is a carbon fiber piece from Covans Classic and it houses all Autometer Ultra-light Pro-Comp gauges, to include a hide-away shift light. Didn't have quite enough room for all of the gauges needed, so I hand fabricated a Dual A-pillar pod (they don�t build them for a 2nd gen Camaro) to accommodate the O2 sensor gauge and the Tranny Temp gauge. Then all New Factory Tinted glass was added to finish off the Interior. And a Code Alarm alarm system was installed that also gives the Car aRemote Start feature.

And last but not least is the power plant. Balanced and Blueprinted 434 SBC It features a forged non-twisted eagle stroker crank, held in place by ARP studs. Eagle ESP-H beam rods with ARP Cap screws. Wiseco 10.6:1 forged NOS pistons with file to fit Mahle rings, High volume melling oil pump inside the Hamburger stroker Oil pan with trap door and crank scraper. A custom ground Hydraulic roller bumpstick from Cam Motion, rollmaster TRU roller gear set and Cloyes timing cover with Cam button. and Comp Roller lifters to follow its curves. SFI approved flywheel and Pro-comp internal 8" balancer cap off the ends of the short block

A match ported, polished and helicoiled set of AFR 190" heads with 2.05/1.6 Manley stainless valves, 7/16 screw in studs and guide plates, Comp Beehive springs, and Comp Pro magnum roller rockers work together the match ported Super Victor intake to send signal to the Quickfuel Technologies Pro-950 with annular boosters and fully tunable main body and billet base plate and metering blocks.
All of this is fired up by MSD Pro billet Distributor with composite Dist. Gear, and HEI style cap and wires. Receive fire thru the firewall from the MSD-6AL box, and an MSD pro coil. Finally Hooker 1 3/4" Super comp headers dump into 3" Dynomax super turbos for a mellow yet throaty voice.


All in all this car was hand built with lots of parts from E-Bay, help from friends and the never ending patience of my wife to allow me to spend the time it took to bring this salvaged car back to life. If it hadn't been for folks like Ed O'Neil, Troy Adams, Ric Brown, Chris Simons, Keith Wiley, Grant Banta, Todd Kay, Alfonso Campos, and many others I think I would have gone crazy long ago. Until you have truly built a car ......from scratch..... the detail that it takes is unimaginable. If it hadn't been for friends and family, this one would probably still be in piles...thanks to everyone, I couldn't have done it without you! — stroked72ss