It’s always a little startling to see a car that was considered quite desirable back when new in sorry shape today. The Chevrolet Camaro 30th Anniversary edition combined a generous standard equipment list with a few subtle touches paying tribute to the model’s historie past. Hugger Orange stripes, a houndstooth interior, and an LT1 V8 under the hood make for a rolling “Greatest Hits” album as it relates to equipping a Camaro in just the right way. However, this limited edition package was not enough to keep this example listed here on eBay from falling on hard times.
Right off the bat, this Camaro has significant rust issues. Even though every new car can rust these days if exposed to road salt, it’s usually limited to surface corrosion on the suspension components. This Camaro, while not a new model, still hails from a point in time when cars didn’t turn to Swiss cheese after a few years of winter’s worst. However, this example must have experienced extreme winter conditions, because the seller lists rust in the right side rocker, frame rail, and quarter panel, and also notes that rust has started to appear under the front hood seam. It does make you wonder since it’s limited to one side if there was a poorly-executed body repair that ended up trapping water.
The fabric choice was intentional, along with the Hugger Orange stripes, in that they paid tribute to the iconic pace car edition from the 1969 model year. The seats also sport attractive embroidery notating it as a limited edition model. The seller confirms the interior is faring better than the outside, identifying the driver’s seat and the hood pad as the main sources of concern. The automatic transmission was apparently rebuilt fairly recently, so someone was still showing this Camaro some love despite its awful cosmetics. And really, with 161,000 miles, it seems that the previous owners were actually driving it, rather than letting it sit inside on jack stands.
The LT1 produced respectable power, generating 285 horsepower and 325 lb.-ft. of torque. While the manual transmission would likely trigger significantly more interest in this project-grade Camaro, the asking price seems fair for the work involved in restoring it: the seller is asking for a Buy-It-Now of $3,900 with an opening bid of $3,300, so it won’t take much to bring this one home. Patch panels and junkyard Camaros abound for grabbing the clean sheetmetal and rockers you’ll need to correct the failing bodywork, so what do you think? Is this 30th Anniversary Camaro desirable enough to deserve restoration?
If one is just looking for a fast running beater to drive hard until dead then the price is okay.
Full restoration with all the miles and abuse on this is a no go for me.
It’s got the Illinois tin worms 🐛 in many places.