First generation Camaros are usually on the short list of many collectors. Their styling is timeless, aftermarket parts are plentiful, and it is relatively easy to modify one into the car of your dreams. Yet, they do have one drawback. Rust is a real problem with many of these cars. Fortunately, our eagle eyed pal Rocco B. has located probably one of the most well preserved Camaros left on the planet. Feast your eyes on this 1967 Camaro he found on Craigslist in Los Angeles, California. Owned by the same woman since 1975, this garaged and seldom driven Camaro has just 51,000 miles on the odometer and is in very good condition. The only real hang up with this beauty are the bumps and bruises the owner knocked into the original panels. Could you look past these blemishes for an $18,000 asking price?
While it took Chevrolet until 1967 to respond to the wildly successful 1965 Ford Mustang, the response was an instant classic. The smooth and flowing lines of the Camaro contrasted will with the somewhat busy but beautiful in its own way Ford design for 1967. The Camaro was an instant hit. Just over 221,000 cars were built for the 1967 model year. Buyers could build up any variation they wanted using Chevrolet’s large list of options. Power could range from a lowly inline six all the way up to a monster 396 cubic inch V-8. While the Mustang offered coupe, convertible, and fastback body styles, the Camaro was offered in only coupe and convertible form.
The buyer of this Camaro didn’t go too crazy when it came to options. The drivetrain appears to be a plain 327 cubic inch V-8 with 210 horsepower backed by a two speed Powerglide automatic transmission. A lack of badging and other options indicate that the car was a base model as well. Nice transportation for 1967, but fairly vanilla considering all the go fast goodies that you could get on a Camaro that year.
Other than the lack of fun options, the bumps and bruises on this car really detract from what would otherwise be a perfect car to just drive and enjoy in original form. While it is hard to tell using the provided engine pictures, I do believe this car was equipped with power steering. It does not, however, have power brakes. Combine those informational tidbits with the tight confines of the garages shown in the pictures, add the lack of a passenger side mirror, and the declining abilities of an aging driver and you can see how this otherwise nice Camaro ended up looking like a mechanical piñata. Fixing the damage will certainly require refinishing the car and taking away the originality. A tough dilemma.
Inside we see that there haven’t been any real changes since 1967. The only glaring problems are the holes unceremoniously cut into the door panels for speakers. Too bad, as the door panels look to be in very good shape otherwise. The vinyl upholstery has a good amount of wear for a 50,000 mile car that was garaged for much of its life. Time and honest wear combined with shrinkage no doubt. A glance inside reveals no exciting options. A column shift car with an AM radio and a heater. Modern manufacturers wouldn’t sell their lowliest car with this lack of accessories, but for 1967 this was perfectly acceptable transportation.
Under the hood, we see that most of the original equipment remains. The smog pump is still connected on this California car, and the hoses are still routed as if it just rolled off the assembly line. Often discarded, these original pieces are highly desired by restorers looking to make a car factory perfect again. The alternator, however, looks to be an off the shelf parts house replacement, as does the master cylinder. If you wanted to restore the car to original, there is a lot to work with here.
The biggest thing missing is the rust. There simply doesn’t seem to be any corrosion damage, and that is a great thing. The problem is that the lack of rust and relatively low price of this car make it ripe for a high end build that would veer far away from the originality we see here. This running and driving Camaro, plain as it is, may end up being a top dollar resto mod at the hands of one of California’s many builders. I think that would be a shame. Camaros of this vintage are rarely found in rust free original condition. It seems like this one should be used and enjoyed as it is. Dents and all.
What would you do with this time capsule Camaro?
I’d want to do the minimum but the dents would need attention as well as the upholstery.
A real good cleaning and a sympathetic repair to the interior bits would be a good start . In the hands of a talented bodyman , those dents could be massaged back to original shape and still preserve most paint .
A clean old car for sure. The asking price seems high IMO.
The engine is blue… But it looks like rattle can blue, so I find that confusing on a 51,000 mile car. The interior does need quite a bit, but this car would be a great, “Drive it while you fix it” car. As far as the dents, and dings go, that’s what EVERY body shop does. But if it were rusty, it takes a real pro to resolve that.
I doubt this car stays for sale long at this price. Somebody is going to pick it up soon, I’m sure.
Nice original car…that are getting harder and harder to find!
true ,this is what most Camaros ( and other cars ) looked like – just your ever day type car , and not a muscle car by any means. I hope it gets redone, but stays stock ; theres way to many clones around !
Yeah, pretty much a plain jane early Camaro, middle of the road power but more than enough for the average driver back then. Much like the vast majority of the Mustangs from those days..maybe a little more with the 327 compared to the small 289. High performance sporty versions were not the big sellers some want to believe.
The trick here would be to preserve as much originality while increasing performance, braking ability, handling, and even things like listening to a better sounding radio, haha. But without the SS or Z28 wannabe mods or street racer impression…. plenty of those around still.
I really like this car. If I had it, I would find an original bench seat with armrest for this car & install that while I reupholstered the interior, then take it to a painless dent removal guy to massage as much of the damage out of the body, and just drive it with a big grin on my face. Sweet little car! Wish I had the funds.
I am a PDR guy and a pretty good one. Older cars, the metal is much more difficult to manipulate than newer cars. The dents on this car are really not, for the most part PDR candidates….in my professional opinion.
The passenger fender, the dent in the fender will come out but the front of the fender at the headlight as well as the valance corner are cleanly & completely bent in = not good. Pushing on these dents will definitely be a “paint cracker” so as a PDR guy, if I get the dent out but the paint cracks and fails, is that better? Is say no. We call that “a different version of bad”. The LR quarter is in very bad shape from a PDR perspective as is the LF driver fender. That dent at the front of the fender is not a good PDR candidate. This car needs a repaint. I would not waste the time on PDR ONLY unless all the dents were good PDR candidates. PDR the dents to get the body much straighter then do some body work and paint it.
Oh, check the market folks, this car for being a SUPER base model really is WAY overpriced. This car is a GREAT place to start to build the clone of your dreams and it WILL be worth more when done than restoring this base model to its build sheet.
If it were me, it would a Z28 !! Only 602 built (if I am right) in 67.
Nice car, but it’s weird how the right and left quarters have mirror image damage. Nice car never the less.
Long time owner probably hit door jam on left and on right as she entered garage.
Front clip is a darker shade of red
And shines alot more, think owner tried to clean it up just to see what was under that oxidation.. maybe
These cars look great with good paint. I’d do that, put a good exhaust system on, and go out and let folks wonder what’s under the skin. Got a hot shoe at the stoplight, just bump up against the torque converter a bit and let him figure it out. Nice find. Comet… We restored a ’57 Chevy that came from a 91 year old woman who said her garage door was getting too narrow for her. Managed to put dings on both sides.
I wonder how much grandma or her kids got from the flipper. A brand new Dynacorn body is $13-14k. You’d probably spend more in the end but you’d have a way better car.
Unless you had a rusty Camaro to transfer over the front subframe, suspension, rear end, rear suspension, interior, seats, wiring harness, glass, etc., etc. You are going to be spending some BIG money.
It’s clean, as far as rust goes, non desirable motor or trans, or color, or options, it would come apart, clean slate, become a 396 or 427 car, great basis to start with, but I wouldn’t pay more than 8000.00 for it, cause nothing there is nice enough to save
I had a 70 Camaro, 427 4-speed, but it was an Ohio car and had way to many problems for my skill level. Now this, it’s perfect, lil rust and a few dings, but it’ll be a perfect car for someone just starting out. The 327 can be one wicked lil engine, a set of heads a four barrel and maybe a 4 speed !
Good luck to the new owner !
Nice car but not a low mileage one..
Gary is right, front clip (except the header) is darker than the rest. Maybe not all original, but maybe it is.
My grandparents bought a new car in 1982. It was never hit, but over the years the paint faded everywhere except the left front fender.
I inherited the car & by then the difference was very noticable, but I saw my grandparents daily (my Mom’s side of the family, Italian & VERY family orientated) and the car was always present.
When I inherited the car, I asked a friend who owned a body shop why this might have happened (old friend, knew my grandparents too).
He told me that there might have been some damage or a defect on the line & the panel was replaced or repaired.
That could be the case here. I would suspect accident damage, but the nose is faded with the rest of the car. Makes me wonder, but does not make me question whether or not I want the car.
This, to me, is still automotive porn.
The blue engine is a bit of a mystery, but years back, GM had their line of “Target Master” replacement engines, and from what I remember they were painted blue. Maybe a replacement engine? Maybe a previous owner just decided on blue for something different. Overall, not a bad car!
Looks like a rattle can application of GM Corporate Blue on top of the correct original orangish red paint.
That body on an International Scout chassis with 44″ Gumbo Monster Mudders . I’ll leave it at that .
Someone in the above comments explain to me why you would do anything to this car other than make it look good and drive it. “Sub frame to another car” ,”nothing left nice enough to save”. Give me a break.
Looks like a pretty special car to me. I have a 69 in original paint and it has faded the same way, and have seen others with the same affliction. Have a good paintless tech spend a few days with this one. Leave the paint alone, you can’t get this again. Anyone can paint it, it takes somebody with skill and patience to make this look the best it can….warts and all. The engine appears to have been orange and some artist decided they could make it look new again with some blue paint on the valve covers. I don’t think the price is out of line for original. They don’t make these anymore , and everybody else has one with new paint, catalog interior and a crate engine.
I doubt 9 miles a week is all this car was driven!
Brake pedal looks like metal showing on left side of it.
Seats way to worn for that.
Probably bought it with 50 k with a non functioning speedometer, and they just fixed it. Way too much neglect on this basic Chevy!
If you are a person who likes to maintain then you’ll get what I’m saying. You change your oil filter and oil to keep your engine running you replace your brake pads when there worn out so you can stop. You replace your transmission fluid when it’s dirty to keep your transmission working. And on and on and on like that. So why wouldn’t you change your paint when it’s worn and faded? It just paint and it’s sole function is to protect the metal from rusting. The fact that it comes in different colours is a bonus and not the reason for it being on the car. So why is paint so different in our minds from oil filters, wiper blades, alternators. You get where I’m going. The fact is the first time you service your new car it is no longer original meaning as it was when it left the factory. This whole I got to save the paint is total nonsense. And from what I can gather far to much emphasis is put on it. I live in the land of rust buckets I see them every day what has always impressed me is an old car that has a well done shiny new paint job. I my opinion a car with new paint better represents the way it looked when it came out of the factory then a car with a tired old paint job that needs replacing, just like your spark plugs or your seat covers or your headlights. Personally I find it kind of childish to dwell on things like saving old paint. It’s just paint. It’s a rust prevention sealer. Rant over.
I think people look for original paint cars for many reasons but probably the best one is that original paint will not hide any horrors such as rust and inch thick bondo. As we all know, rust is the real enemy when restoring a car and body work to address rust and bad previous repair work can be the single most expensive item in a restoration. So an original paint car, even if it looks somewhat worn and tired, will allow the new owner to more accurately assess its needs with a level of confidence that she could not have in a repaint situation.
As to the rest of the car, a sympathetic restoration to original without going overboard would be the best course of action imo. How many original 67 camaro everyday drivers can there be 52 years on? There are tons of modified cars and l don’t find them very interesting at all.
That comment above from Canadainmarkseh makes a lot of sense. I’ve never looked at paint as a simple maintenance item before. Well put.
When you have a car that has survived this long with many of its original visual cues in place it’s refreshing. It’s like your old favorite faded pair of jeans. Like that pretty girl that doesn’t need all that war paint to look good. Like that piece of furniture that was your grandfather’s leather chair and it doesn’t look new anymore but it has a comfortable charm. Those marks, scratches, dents and worn areas all tell a story. The quality of the paint, the grain on the interior, size and imperfection of the gaps show you what these cars were really like. Haven’t we all seen enough of the cars that are done to the owner’s vision of what they should of been, or better than they left the factory? There are things that can be done to stabilize the original finish other than sanding it off and throwing thousands of dollars at it. But it takes some effort and some vision to make that happen.
Hi twistednipple I have a leather couch that is quite worn, in fact it’s got duct tape holding it together I was wondering if you’d like to buy it. I have two dogs that bounce all over it every day that’s why I still have it. It looks like a junk pile but with charm your welcome to buy it though.
My feelings about paint at he came as Candinmarksen (probably screwed up spelling his name)
At a asking price of 18k and considering that this Camaro is kind of plain the only way (in my opinion) to make it worth anything is to make it into a clone SS. Especially if one wants to flip it for a profit. I will say that it is in nice restorable condition for being a first year model Camaro.
This may be the 2nd 1st gen f-body i ever seen with no tinted glass. Owner seems to have added an aftermkt yellowish plastic across the top of the windshield.
You must not have seen many over the years when they still had original windshields because many more did have tinted glass than came from factory with tinted glass……like most cars of that era.
Good candidate for another Z28 clone. Of the 600 plus Z’s built in 67, thousands are still on the road.
I’ve never been a big fan of first gen F-bodies, but, if I was looking for one, it would be a 67 Camaro. The reason being the wing windows. I wouldn’t give $18k for this. However, if it was mine, the 327 would come out for a rebuild along with some mild performance upgrades. The ‘Glide would be either stored or sold off to a fellow racer looking for one. I’d replace it with a TH700R4 from the aftermarket. Assuming it’s equipped with a one legged 10 bolt and super high gearing, that would also be gone through. For my purposes, a 10 bolt would be good enough, but, I’d want some sort of limited slip differential and around 3.55 or so gear ratio. A friend of mine owns a body shop and he’d love to get his hands on something simple and rust free like this. I’m not big on red so a color change would be in the plans. The interior obviously needs work, but, I’d do it stock, I’d probably add a console and floor shifter though. I’d also add a full set of gauges. Then, suspension and brake upgrades, a set of Corvette rallye wheels, modern rubber, and, of course, a good sounding dual exhaust. To me, that would all make for a nice weather driver. I also like the RS package on these cars, but, that’s a lot more work and parts that probably wouldn’t NEED to be replaced. A lot more money too.