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In the summer of 1968 while living in New York, I ordered the new 1969 Chevrolet Camaro. I was only 21 years old. The car was delivered to me on December 18, 1968. It became my daily driver through college and work.
The original Saginaw 3-speed transmission wore out in 1975, and I changed it to a 4-speed Muncie with a Hurst shifter. The 327 engine was rebuilt in the mid 1990s, and an all stainless exhaust system was installed at that same time. About every five years I do some rust removal and painting, since it gets damages because of road salt.
Around 2002, I finally bought a Chevy SUV to deal with the snow and lack of a/c in the Camaro. Up until then, the Camaro had been driven almost continuously for about 34 years.
In 2005, the rear quarters, wheel wells, and trunk deck were replaced and I repainted it blue. We retired in 2007 and moved to a new home in Florida, where the Camaro has become a car show queen and always gets lots of attention. We are often invited to local concours events, and are pleased to occasionally win prizes.
Almost everything under the hood is still original. It has the exact same motor, starter,
alternator, carburetor, master cylinder, and power steering units that it came with. However I do fix them when necessary. We continue to drive it every weekend, and my Camaro now has about 350K miles on it.
–Pat M., Florida
The 1969 Camaro was my all time favorite. I’m about 9 years younger than you, but when I was in high school my friend bought a used Hugger Orange 1969 Camaro RS with an orange and black houndstooth custom interior. It was the 255 horsepower 350 V8 and oh how I loved that car. GM never made another Camaro since 1969 that I l liked anywhere near as much.
To: Dave Crawford, from Pat M:
Dave, my Son is 45, and waiting for me to die, so that he can get my 69 Camaro. But, his Son is 22, and third on the list of people waiting for me to die, to get at my car. I’m not ever going to sell it, at any price. -pat m.
Cool