Truckin’ – October 2019

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The Eleventh Hour EDITOR: JEREMY COOK

No Sleep Till

Bakersfield


3 This is not an editorial about trucks. It is about successfully reaching a goal with a project vehicle and a little father and son bonding.

• TRUCKIN.COM [1 0 ] OCTOBER 2019 -

J

ust when I think I have too much on my plate, I always find

a way to slow down, take a deep breath, and add a couple

more things to that plate. Case in point, a ’68 Camaro that

my dad and I own. It is one of the most recent purchases

by my pops, but it does have a cool history. His neighbor across the

street, Joe, purchased the car new, just a few blocks away at a now-

long-gone Chevy dealership. Other than a couple of cheap repaints,

an engine rebuild, and a TH 350 swap (which my dad did for him), it

remains pretty damn original. After Joe and his wife, Dorothy, passed,

their son-in-law hung onto the car until my dad bought it nine years

ago. We drove it to breakfast and around the neighborhood, parked it,

covered it up, and there it sat.

My dad and I have been members of the Vintage Chevrolet Club

of America since I was born. But we have not been to a meet or a

meeting since the ’8 0 s. My dad was the “young guy” back then, so

most of the guys he hung around with have passed. Even so, we had

talked regularly about bringing something to an event somewhere,

even if it was my ’64 just to piss off all the purists—as VCCA is strictly a

restoration-based (or survivor-based) club.

When reading the VCCA monthly magazine (cleverly named

Generator and Distributor), I realized the All California meet for 2 019

was just a couple hours away in Bakersfield. And, by the time I noticed

it, it was just a few weeks away. We talked about it a bit, and one day

my dad called and said, “The only way we’ll ever do it is if we just drop

everything and do it!” Soon, I was making calls and ordering parts. The

parts list included a complete front-end rebuild with all components

from Classic Performance Products, a new wheel and tire setup from

Coker Tire, a bunch of hoses and ignition parts from the local mom

and pop, and some replacement shiny parts from Classic Industries.

When we started cleaning up the driveway and uncovering the

Camaro, it was exactly one week from when we would have to leave

to make the welcome banquet on time. The first day consisted of

draining the fluids, flushing the coolant, and replacing the heater and

radiator hoses. Day two saw a new cap, rotor, plugs, wires, battery,

and battery cables. At this point, the engine was running and only

needed minor tweaking once we started driving it. The next day, we

testdrove the Camaro to Pete’s Auto Glass for a new windshield and

to have the back glass resealed. With two cheap repaints, the paint

was rough at best, but I made it look blue again with a bucket of soap

and fine steel wool. Sounds crazy, but when the paint is shot, what do

you have to lose? Once that step was checked off, I ran the DA buffer

over the whole car with a cutting pad and heavy-cut compound from

Meguiar’s. It was still rough, but it was a night-and-day difference. We

were running out of time, so we picked up the front-end parts from

CPP, and the wheels and tires from Coker, and headed to see our

friends at New Century Tire. There we replaced the entire front end

with new control arms, spindles, calipers, and rotors, and all steering

components. We mounted and balanced the factory rally wheels with

red stripe Firestones and added the new trim rings and disc brake

caps. On the night before our trip, I headed to the shop and installed

new mirrors, wipers, an antenna, and a front bumper and got all the

lights working before returning to NCT for an alignment, packing up

the car, and hitting the road.

Out two-hour trip consisted of 85-degree heat and terrible

traffic, followed by heavy rain while driving over the grapevine on

I-5. But we made the meet with no issues to speak of. Not only that,

we drove another 2 00 miles the next day through the Kern County

mountains as part of the club’s reliability run! My dad was surprised

to see a handful of people he knew from the old days, and we made

friends with a whole bunch of new people, including the owners of

the other two first-gen Camaros at the meet, which were also father-

and-son projects. We even attended the big finale car show at the local

dealership before heading home and parking our ’68 Camaro back in

the driveway with more than 8 00 trouble-free new miles on it.

It’s the type of week we should all be doing more often, but life

usually gets in the way. I took a week off of trucks, but after some rest

I realized was more motivated than ever to jump back on one of my

own projects.

Keep on Truckin’

-JC