Michael Riley's Blog: Hemmings Find of the Day

Friday, October 2, 2015

Hemmings Find of the Day – 1973 Camaro Type LT Z/28

The allure of original-owner and original-condition cars in part comes from the honesty of the cars: What you see is what you get; there’s not much to get in the way of the car’s story. Which is not to say that non-original cars are all dishonest. As an example, take a look at this 1973 Chevrolet Camaro Type LT Z/28 for sale on Hemmings.com, a lightly refurbished third-owner car with a complete history and documentation of everything done to it, including the removal of the Type LT badges and the reupholstering of the rear seat. From the seller’s description:

The original owner bought it with every available option except the vinyl top (power windows were late availability). The dealer installed dual-point ignition, an Edelbrock intake, Holley carburetor and a local muffler shop installed Hooker headers. It was a second vehicle for him, so he only put 13,000 miles on it between 1973-1982. The person that I bought it from was searching for a Corvette in 1982 when he stumbled across an ad in the Wheeler Dealer magazine for this car. He fell in love with it and took it home. He gave me the original Wheeler Dealer Magazine from 1982 with the car listed in it. It was also a second car for him, and like the first owner would only drive it in sunny weather. He put an additional 48,000 miles on it between 1982 and when I purchased it. It now has 62,676 original miles.

I was very skeptical when the person that I bought it from told me that car had never been driven in the rain until I looked under the hood and read the original paper oil change sticker from the selling dealer on the radiator support from 1973. Any rain under the hood would have destroyed the sticker. The car was maintained by the same shop for the past 33 years. It has received hoses, belts and other general maintenance items, but it was never altered beyond the original dealer-installed components. It still has the entire original interior down to the floor mats, with the exception of the rear seat back that was professionally recovered using factory fabric. The carburetor, ignition and headers were replaced in 2008 instead of restoring the old ones, and the car was repainted in a base/clear version of the dark red metallic. The owner hated to repaint it, but the original lacquer paint was starting to checker badly from age. He turned it over to one of the best painters in his area for a year and told him to take his time and do it right. He took the liberty of removing the LT badges from the car when it was repainted, but they come with the car if you want to have them reinstalled.

It is a no-excuses, unrestored and unmolested car. The original motor and transmission have never been removed or rebuilt, as the car was adult owned and never abused. The original Firestone Wide Oval spare tire has never been removed from the trunk. The car still has all of the original glass, including the windshield. It is very hard to find one that hasn’t been modified with a different radio, speakers, drivetrain, etc. It still has the original center caps and trim rings on the wheels, which have the correct rough textured paint instead of ones that you commonly see that are restored with darker grey and too much sheen to them.