Thirteen years ago I moved to my current home that is situated in a horseshoe shaped neighborhood with 50 homes, each home on one acre of land. While I still do not know all 49 neighbors by name, I have waved at them all at one time or another as I have driven by…. except one, which, in 13 years of living here, I have never seen.
Three weeks ago a friend and fellow car nut that lives 317 miles to the west (but still in Texas, y’all) called me to pass on a lead he had on a ‘67 Camaro. This guy is a serious “first Gen” Camaro hunter and can track down hidden Camaros like a bird dog does hidden quail. Every now and then he calls to pass on a lead. Needless to say, I am always happy to hear that friendly west Texas accent on the phone. I was told the car was in a barn somewhere in my city and given a number and a name along with the few vague details that were known about the car; “….. project car with motor missing, but the car might be an RS, and it might even be an RS/SS, and it’s even possible it was a big block RS/SS…..”.
Project cars with missing motors are not something I would normally fool with, but, given that it was somewhere in Keller, I thought I would at least make the call. Within 10 minutes I was speaking to the fellow who confirmed he had an old Camaro sitting in the barn behind his house. When I asked him where he lived, instead of telling me the exact street, he told me the street that his neighborhood was off of. What a coincidence, my neighborhood was off the same street. When I informed him that I was also located off that street and told him the exact street I lived on there was a long silence on his end. Perhaps you have guessed by now – the guy who had the Camaro stashed in his barn lived on my very street only seven houses down. The neighbor I had not seen in the thirteen years that I lived here had a ‘67 Camaro stashed in his barn behind a house I had driven by a million times. The Camaro had been stashed back for that someday restoration that never came. I met my neighbor and a deal was made. Below are the pictures of the Camaro the day I pulled it out of the barn. Turns out it was an RS/SS. Too bad the motor was missing, too bad it wasn’t a big block car and too bad I bought it …. now I have to figure out what to do with it.
