The Intervention
10. Once the Camaro was starting to look semirespectable, the decision was made to prep it for Anti Tour. Jeff Smith has a few pet peeves: one is crappy wiring, another is crappy plug wires. The Camaro had plenty of both, but after Jeff made a few choice wiring improvements, the mammoth voltage drops between the battery and starter and the alternator and battery were all but gone. Smith then whipped up a set of Moroso Blue Max plug wires and demanded we observe the drop in resistance. | 
11. With the undercarriage sorted, we put the junk wheels and tires back on and headed to Johns Customz and Performance to get a suede paint job. Johns is a full-service shop that specializes in custom paint and bodywork but handles complete restorations and mechanical work as well. John Morrow is in charge of body and paint, and though we wanted the quick and dirty spray job, he refused to proceed without aligning our panels properly. Johns' crew descended on the Camaro in an attempt to get it done in time for the Anti Tour. Here, Morrow is block-sanding the passenger door while the other John (Barbera) fights with the remnants of the vinyl top glue. Paul Morrow, John's dad, helps out by straightening our should-have-been-replaced trunk lid with assistance from Denny Choi. Again, we were looking for quick, but the guys wouldn't butcher it, straightening out the door dings, decklid pitting, and even masking off the jambs. | 
12. In the booth, John Morrow put down three coats of DuPont Epoxy Sealer/Primer. This stuff isn't porous like standard primer, so rust shouldn't be an issue, and it acts as a high-build scratch filler, which really helped to smooth out the little imperfections in the Camaro's flanks. The primer comes in gray, but it can be tinted, so John added about 10 to 15 percent black toner to the topcoat to darken it to our liking. The finish has that perfect eggshell sheen. | 
13. One of the tricks we wanted to experiment with was the addition of a factory-style stripe over the primer. We thought about Z/28 stripes but then selected the original-style hockey-stick stripe, believing it would be simpler to lay out. Stencils & Stripes provided the stencil kit, patterned after the factory stuff, and the Morrows took their time placing it. | 
14. John sprayed GM Ivory paint for the stripe using a DuPont base/clear system. We worried that the multilayered approach would leave heavy tape lines when the stencil was pulled, but John assured us that the buildup would be kept low, and the DuPont paint would roll at the edges if we pulled the stencil at the right time. He was right; the trick is to pull the stencil just as the paint has flash-dried, before it starts to fully cure. | 
15. The stripe was usually applied at the factory with a break adjacent to the marker lamp for the engine-size badge, but we weren't going to install those this time around. Instead, Freddy Chicon of Afterdark Signworks, located at Johns Customz, saw Angeleri's illustration and made these decals to fill the void. Using computer-generated graphics, he was able to size them just right. | 
16. Once the paint was dry, we hauled back to the shop to get the car back together since there were only a few days before the Tour. Like we'd done with other aspects of the project, we elected to reuse parts that were in decent shape and replace only the stuff that really needed it. To that end, we rubbed on the original taillights with Meguiar's plastic polish and bolted them in before framing the rear with a new bumper from Goodmark to replace our semi-mangled original. | 
17, Up front it was more of the same, though less of the original stuff was salvageable. Goodmark provided the grille so the Camaro would have one for the first time in nearly 20 years, and we installed it using the original stiffening brace and headlight bezels. Another new bumper, also from Goodmark, was installed, while the original parking lamps were polished up and reused. For a few extra bucks we also ordered a factory-style chin spoiler from Goodmark. | 
18. We hadn't really thought much about the interior, figuring if the car would run and drive we'd sit on whatever to go to Phoenix. But as the body was getting better, the interior started looking worse. We cleaned up the original white seats, but the door panels were still at the folks' place in New York, and not worth shipping costs. A call to Year One and we had a fresh set of assembled white door panels and installation hardware. We also picked up a set of window felts while we were at it. |
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