69SSRSL89's Way Cool Camaro!

[Xplantdad]

My name is Jesse Gunderson and this is my 1969 SS/RS 396 Camaro. I bought this car in the fall of 1996 as a rolling basket case (the motor and transmission were unfortunately missing). I was only 21 at the time and had a good imagination. Thank goodness for that, because it was a lot of work to get it to look like what you see here.

One of the things that fueled the fire to buy and build this car was that my family was into old cars. My parents had a bunch of great bowties and other General Motors cars, along with a lot of my uncles and cousins. I was around cars at an early age. I can remember helping my dad work on his 67 big block Chevelle and my mom’s 69 427 Caprice. We would go junk yard shopping now and then hunting for parts for the Chevelle and during all of this is when I remember my dad telling me about Camaros. I remember him telling me that some of them could break their tires loose at highway speeds. As a kid this was one of the most awesome things that I had ever heard of and knew that from that point forward that I had to have a big block Camaro some day.

Which brings us to today, this X22 needed a full restoration. The car was originally fathom green with standard dark green interior and a black vinyl top. For the longest time I was going to do the car back the way it was originally, but I had always wanted to have a hugger orange car. So, after a friend of mine gave me enough grief saying that it was only paint and I could always repaint it someday. I decided that I was going to change the plan a bit and have it done in hugger orange with black houndstooth interior (keep in mind that I was only about 24 at this time and Camaros hadn’t made the huge jump that they have in the past few years). I also added a fold-down seat to the car to set it apart and be different from most of the other cars.

The car did originally come with the rear window defogger though. Some of the other options on the car are power brakes, power steering, endura bumper, headlight washers, spoilers, SS wheels, console with gauges, tach, center clock, space saver tire, kick panel speakers, comfort grip wheel, tilt steering column, 140 speedo with speed minder (some of these are reproduction items that I added). Under the cowl induction hood you will find a date correct 396 – 375hp L89 with a M21 and a 12 bolt with 3.73 gears. I also installed a Gardener exhaust system to give it that factory correct appearance on the underside not to mention give it that awesome big block sound (you got to love it).

I had the body work and paint done by a professional body shop and the engine was built by a local engine builder. Otherwise, the rest of the re-assemble was done by my family and myself. I drove it for the first time on July 2, 2001 at that time I had more of a hot rod type 396 with headers in it which I changed out the fall of 2004 to the L89. It was a lot of fun to restore and a great learn experience. I have met a lot of great people that have helped me with pointers for restoring it, much like the people on this site. I get a lot of complements on the car and the hard work that I put into it, but I feel most fortunate to have been able to own an American Muscle Car. I hope to one day restore another Camaro. I’m looking to go with the topless option the next time around.

69SSRSL89