Quote:
Originally Posted by mprice
This is a real copo camaro. Jay Nixon restored it in early 80s. The car was originally orange and it was sold thru Queen City. Jay painted it black because thats what he wanted to do and in 82 who gave a crap. It did not have the original motor then but it did have a 435 horse Vette block. Jay sold it to Carl Dwiggens. Carl sold a group of cars to Reggie and this car was in the lot and at that time Carl had the protector plate for the car. I don't think Carl ever gave the protector plate up with the car. Chip Gerst worked for Reggie and I sold Reggie a pair of 840 heads for the correct engine because Reggie pulled the engine for a Vette he had. At the time of the engine swap Chip changed the original trim tag for a reproduction one with the black paint code, (bad move but its done and Chip has since passed away). The car then sold to Cecil and later to a collector in San Antonio who has passed away and his collection was sold to a local from San Antonio. It popped up on eBay as a clone and I was doing consulting work in Houston at the time when I seen it and recognized the front license plate as the COPO plate from Indiana when Jay owned it. I bought it later sold to Greg Nuge and so on. The car is absolutely real but unfortunately the trim tag was changed to match the color change. I can only assume that it was advertised as a clone when it was because there wasn't any paper for the car. I still have the Super Chevy magazine from when Jay had it featured there. April 1984 in memory serves me well.
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I knew Chip had been very sick and he didn’t look good the last time I saw him. He told me he wasn’t doing well, but I didn’t hear that he passed away. Quite the story/history with that car; some of the ‘80s resto stuff appears to still be present. Not many people knew or cared about these cars back then and the aftermarket was in it’s infancy with regards to parts availability. Very little support for some aspects of restorations, and I’m not 100% sure, but I seem to remember only one supplier for seat covers and carpet. As time went on, restorations and the quality of them flourished and the hobby grew into an industry in and of itself. Also, the “black web” of the hobby was taking hold as “numbers” were becoming more important as prices started to escalate for rare cars. Just think how many restorable cars (by today’s standards) were discarded back then....now we cherish untouched 307 Powerglide cars; back then we’d part ‘em out to build something better.