Just Bought a 69 Z28 Project
 

Pretty excited and am really trying to resist digging into it before some other projects are done! Have known about the car for years, and finally got my greasy hands on it. Norwood x77 car. Marina Blue top and bottom with white stripes and a dark blue interior. No spoilers and though the original hood is missing it looks to have been a flat hood car. Does have console with gauges, tilt column, 8k tach, and rosewood wheel. Been off the road a long, long time. Original motor is MIA - car was drag raced in the late 70s. Does have a 327 350hp motor from a 65 Vette in it now. Haven't checked the transmission for #'s yet. Rearend is coded BV. Pretty solid car - floors and trunk look good though it has plenty of dings, dents, lower front fender rust, and will need a new drivers side quarter panel from damage.

So far the only surprise bummer is the power brake booster and front disc brakes were removed and replaced with drums.

And now to hunt down a DZ motor......will post pics after I get it out of the trailer and find a home for it. Currently, no room at the inn so some shuffling is needed!

Congrats!

Your car, but you would get style points if it remains flat hood, no spoilers, X77.

Also consider a CE block.

Like he said...Joe

I like where you're going with that! Thoughts on also painting a cowl hood and deck lid with spoiler? You know, just in case a guy likes to mix things up a little and not get bored.

Only my 3rd 1st gen Camaro and first Z, so it's going to be a learning curve.

Doing something similar with my COPO. Original no spoiler car, but those items added in 1970. Having two trunks and two cowl panels (gauges) painted.

I am with William on the CE block. I don't see the point in using a DZ block. JMO
Cool car

Keep the flat hood. All of our z28s are flat hood cars so far. And kept that way! I like a flat hood car better. It speaks to the honesty of the car and how most of them actually came! The cowl hood is hard to resist though!! If I had a non matching motor car, I would build a CE LT1 350 if you plan to drive the car. Looks just like a 302!!

Congrats on the acquisition and enjoy the build

69 z28...
 

Let's see the photos...

Don't be in a hurry to replace a 1/4 panel, unless it is really gone.

The 327 could get a solid lifter cam, bigger Holley and a little refresh...most folks wouldn't know the difference.

Sounds cool ...:3gears:

Congrats on the purchase. Marina blue wasn’t a 69 color. Is it Lemans Blue?
Or possibly Glacier Blue?

Trim tag on cowl will have paint codes on it. 71 is lemans Blue.

You're absolutely correct. It's Lemans Blue - I'm more of a Chevelle guy, so Marina Blue is stuck in my brain. :)

I snapped some pics of it in the trailer. The gentleman's kid started taking things apart and it's a bit of a mess, but the dash is there and good. So is the console.

Some extra parts along with it - good flat hood in addition to an SS hood that's on it, header panels, new grille, etc. There are some things missing too - some window chrome and I think the upright part of the back seat, and one of the bumpers.

The panel is rough, and someone tried to fix it when they should have left it alone. It looks like hamburger. lol

A great color combo and a very good interior group with deluxe blue comfort weave seats. Looks like you've found a great project car.

Al Knoch Interior can redo those door panels. Nice project. I like the blue deluxe interior. I also like that it doesn't have ducted hood or spoilers. Not common. So many of these cars look like different colored clones of each other now days. Can't wait to see more...Joe

Nice project! I also love the blue comfortweave - something you don't see very often.

I also have to agree with many of the other comments on the cowl hood. Leave it as a flat hood car and resist the temptation to add the cowl hood. There are so many cowl hood cars out there now that I am personally sick of seeing them. In fact, the car I am restoring right now is a factory cowl hood car and although I have the hood and have restored it, I swapped it out for an aftermarket fiberglass hood and have set the original cowl hood aside.

As for the motor being gone, no big deal. Have some fun and build a hotrod LT1 motor for it. You can make it look dead on stock but will have a lot more power with the added cubes. Pick a good solid lifter camshaft and it will also sound every bit the part. I'd recommend you look at the Comp Cams Nostalgia 30/30 Plus #CCA-12-673-4

Sounds like this.

In the pic with the hood, it looks like it has an SS hood on it.
716 Deluxe Comfortweave Blue interior is really nice with Lemans Blue.
You dont see that interior very often

Thats a great project car you picked up. very desirable colors.

Blue Z
 

69 Z28 Lemans Blue with blue interior, doesn’t get much better. Build that small block that’s in it and save a bunch of money. Drive it and enjoy it. Nice ride.

Richard

"the power brake booster and front disc brakes were removed and replaced with drums..."

I'm sure there are other reasons but that is an old drag racers trick. Awesome tread pattern on that front tire. Great car, thanks for posting.

Be sure the flat hood is a '69. Only year that has the tabs at the rear. Hood pad covers them but good to know.

Also when replacing the seat covers be advised the REPRO covers are a pressed pattern VS the original which is an actual woven piece of material. The feel when sitting in the car is WORLDS APART!

SMS fabrics in Oregon has NOS COmfort Weave material in various colors for $150 a yard - takes 3 yards to do a car.
Send them your old rear and one bucket and they will pull the threads and make patterns from your originals and will sew new covers with NOS weave for you - we had a set of Neutral Comfort weave covers done by SMS last year - charge was $1300 for the front and back- it took us 8 months to get them done, so plan accordingly.

PERSONALLY If I had a car going to need it- I would buy the material to have for the car - if SMS runs out there will not be a source other than someone randomly having 3 yards of Blue Comfort Weave. I bought a couple yards of red and couple of bright blue because I plan on doing a 69 -70 Corvette with bright blue and maybe a Pewter over Red 72 LT1.

Got the car unloaded and went over it in a little more detail. Found some good, some bad. The bad first - doesn't appear the transmission is original though it is a 68-70 case. Also, the 4.10 gears were changed out at some point as there's no posi. The housing is original. Now for the good, the original blue dashpad is in great shape, the original console is complete and really pretty nice with only one crack on the bottom half that should be an easy fix, and the floors/rockers are super solid. It was undercoated. The trunk floor is spotty in a couple places and will probably need replaced. Also I believe the heads are original.

According to the prior owner, his son "blew it up" but he had no details. I'm going to spend an evening draining the oil, cutting open the filter, and seeing if it will turn over or fire. Might as well try to get it running before pulling it.

Here are a couple more pictures. There is a faint name on the passenger side door and I'm going to do some digging on it to see what if any race history it had. I'll also be seeing the previous owner tomorrow on another car deal so will try to get some more info.

Thanks everyone for the advice and pointing me in the right direction on restoration approaches. Much appreciated!

Yeah, gonna need a left quarter panel for that mess. The rest looks good.

Congrats on the purchase. That hood ought to help you recoup a few bucks of the purchase price. Looks like a solid start to a beautiful Z.

Sent you a PM about the SS hood....

Hard to beat a Lemans over Blue deluxe 69 Z with factory 4.10's....

So things just got significantly more interesting about this car! There was a faint name on the passenger door, Ron Thorson, that was vaguely familiar. I googled it and a car I recognized from western South Dakota popped up. I spoke with a buddy of mine out there and he knows Ron's brother.

So we spoke today. Ron had a black with white stripe '68 442 called Mother Skunk that he raced in 68. He was a salesman at an Olds dealership, so was always buying, selling, and racing cars that came through the dealership. He raced all over the upper midwest - South Dakota, Nebraska, and Montana. Sadly Ron passed away a couple years ago, but his brother still owns the 442.

He thought his brother raced the Camaro in 73/74. He sold it rolling with no motor/tranny. He kept it to put in another Camaro race car. And, he came up with some pics of the car at the track!

The placement of Ron's name on the passenger door is spot on to what I see on the car. Kind of different to see Spyder wheels too, and his brother said he was sponsored by Motor Wheel. From the SS/LA class he had put an automatic in it. And, now I know it had rear bumper guards on it too.

Well, this gets a lot more interesting to me as well. I have an uncle who I used to make tell me all of his handful of street racing stories from back in "the day". He spent the summer of 1969 running back and forth between home in St. Paul MN and training at Ellsworth AFB in Rapid City SD. He had a 1968 Coronet R/T 440/auto that had enough torque to handle most comers and was geared tall enough to do top end runs (I'm guessing 3.23s) He only recalled getting soundly beaten a couple of times. Once was by a girl in a new big block Stingray on the highway, and the other was by a 442 with "Mother Skunk" written down the side. When he told the story, it sounded like he was beating the locals and then got "hustled" by a car that seemed to pull the wheels at launch. I just found a picture of Ron's black 68 W30 and sent it to him, thinking it had to be the same car. He just sent me a text and replied that the car he raced was white, not black:

"Wow that is weird. The “Mother Skunk” that I remember was owned by an airman from somewhere in the southern US-I believe Alabama, or Georgia. It was a white 442 with a Mother Skunk decal ( a mom and 2 baby skunks) behind the front wheels. I can’t remember the name of the guy who owned it, but he had it trailered up to Ellsworth Air Force Base, outside of Rapid City. He smoked my 68 Dodge Coronet R/T 440, on 8th street. I remember we called the owner Everclear Andy, because he only drank everclear stingers, which I think was everclear and creme de menthe. That’s funny, good memories. That would have been summer of 1969."

Gotta be a connection. Two ripping 442's in the state of SD in the summer of 69 both named "Mother Skunk".

Great story! That is definitely the Mother Skunk car I've seen at shows through the years, and his brother did tell me he used to prowl 8th Street in Rapid City. I also believe he had a couple different 442s he raced using the Mother Skunk name. Here's one I found on the interwebs, a 72 convertible - and it also has the Spyder wheels.

Bit of an update on the Z/28. The last time the car ran was around 2005. The gentleman who owned it for the last 20+ years told me his son had "blown up" the 327 that's in it. He couldn't give me anymore detail than that, so I thought I'd figure it out.

After draining about only 2 quarts of oil from it and not seeing any metallic in the oil or after cutting open the filter, I put in some Rotella. Checked all the valvetrain, used a remote button to bump the motor over a number of cycles to make sure there wasn't an issue with valves or rocker arms. All looked good. Pumped it twice, it fired right off on crappy gas, and settled into a decent idle with a couple lifters making a lot of noise.

So, I put some tune up in a can seafoam in the crankcase and dumped the rest in the tank. Lifter noise is gone! Tightened a few header bolts eliminating the exhaust leaks. The lights, turn signals, brakes, and tach all work. Heck, still have to even depress the clutch to start it!

Three of the 4 wheels only have 2 lug nuts....the other one has one. Thinking about putting some lug nuts on it, fresh go juice, and taking the ole beater out for a drive to the next cruise night! Car keeps getting better and better!

I love it when that happens. I've bought a couple of "basket cases" with, supposedly bad engines, and gotten them running and driving with a bit of work...:biggthumpup:

Video or it didn't happen :)

Larry, not sure how I missed this thread. Cool car and history!! Looking forward to updates!

Old thread, but he got a notification of your post. He was on here at 4:23 today. Hopefully, he is working on a full update...:smile: