Year one ships a Dynacorp body mounted on a Detroit Speed and Engineering sub frame and rear suspension. Crated and loose mounted it's 40k. Plus a Mast motor sport LS3 crate engine (rated at 580Hp), a good T56 tranny, and all the trimmings can bring it up to 100k easily. But it's all new and IMO a lot less work then cutting up an old '69 body and welding in new panels. At this point, any '69 body you find will require so much body work and welding, it's actually cheaper to just buy a Dynacorp body; not to mention the fact that they use a higher grade of steel, so the panels are actually thinner and the body lighter. At least then you are not having to worry about some one cutting and welding wrong, and bondo-ing the crap out of it. Not to mention, a quality body restorer will be 40k easily, at least one the is trust worthy. And a new build will handle 10x's better. (this has been discussed and planned out to the dollar in our house, should we ever be forced to live in the US again) And to be fair, the 2010 Camaro is distinctive. It's not meant to look like a '69. Rather it's supposed to look powerful and aggressive, with a few visual cues from the old Camaros. I think they did a rather nice job. It handles by far better then the Lumina CSV, and better then the Mustang does (at least the SS). So to put down the stock 430hp of the LS99 well and handle ok, I think they did a rather nice job. My biggest complaint is that the instrument cluster is a bit hard to read, but they kept the distinct feel of the '69 square cluster there. At least they kept it a 2 door, rather then the 4 door disgrace that the Charger ended up. If you don't like the way it compares to the '69 then don't bother looking at the new Stingray. But that, I think, will be a blast to drive if they keep the lessons learned from the Z06 and ZR1 innards.
It would be new, and it would be awesome. and it would be hand built. You'd have to apply to get a VIN, that's how new it would be.
http://www.bmh-ltd.com/minishell.htm £3817. for a brand new mini shell, not really that bad a price, but painted they are £6264, another £2400 ?! For £2500, i could get a fully fibreglass mini shell...which i DO want, no rot, no weld As for the new camaro (back on topic), the only colour id want it in is bumblebee yellow I really like the look of the new one, it just needs some nice wheels on it, looks a hell of a lot heavier than the original though, but that's because it probably is!!
Wow... 3800 GBP.... that's a bit excessive... around here, people sell old minis for next to nothing (think 500GBP... 1000 and they are 100% roadworthy). And we don't have rust or anything here. For that matter, my band's drummer just got an old British Leyland one for FREE from the one guitarist. all it's missing is a headlamp, some new cables and it has a dent in the front right fender... nothing too serious.
While fiberglass is light, and has many benefits, it lacks a certain je ne se qua. Steel still has a flavah that speaks in retro build.
I've got to think that with GM in bankruptcy and closing 40% of it's dealerships that these new cars might take some time to filter out onto the streets. Many people are wondering what GM will eventually look like. Might be a good time to seek out a nice older ride to restomod, Pontiac(gone) Le Mans mid-size, base Chevelle 300 series, etc. If I had my health I think a 66 or 67 Chevelle wagon(shooting brake) with a complete redo would make a nice daily driver and family car. I hate ALL soccer vans. I should learn to use my Gimp and model car restomods. john /edit An old Volvo 2dr station wagon with it's square looks sitting on new wheels and tires and upgraded to LS enigine and interior redo is different enough to be made attractive. Cheap too.
[Old] Mini's appreciate in value in this country. A friend of mine has one that he restored and "converted" to a Cooper and it's worth five times what it was when he bought it old and rusted out. I have been googling all day for ideas for what to do a restomod on. Been putting money aside for this project ever since I bought my first car, and still have no idea what I'd like to spend it on. If I lived in america I wouldn't have this problem because I would have driven straight to a local scrapyard and bought an old Mustang by now, but 'Stangs aren't so easy to come across in this country as I have mentioned before. John, you'd call the Mustang from Tokyo Drift a restomod, right? I suppose technically it's a muscle car converted to a tuner, but it was still nice bar the fact that it had a nismo engine in it. That belonged only in the wreck they pulled it out of
It seems to fit the unwritten rules. Older body with original looks intact - no body kits - and updated/upgraded running gear. Kind of unusual to power an American car with Japanese emgine but I guess it works. john
I'd never power a muscle car with a Japanese engine. Takes at least half the fun out of owning some American muscle
Check out my desktop I just uploaded. Gaze at these two links: http://www.hotrod.com/featuredvehicles/hrdp_0903_1969_chevy_camaro/index.html http://jalopnik.com/5167160/troy-trepaniers-notorious-will-steal-your-girlfriend Pretty much by definition - restomod. john /edit "Smooth as an android's bottom, Eh, Mr. Data"
To pull off Black and Black takes SKILL! Otherwise you have "The Car" from the James Brolin movie. john
Those are two beautiful Restomods, John. It's a dream of mine as well (after i bought a house with a garage... need space for this kinda thing) to import an old rustbucket (plenty of sites sell them. The hard part is not so much getting them into the country, but rather getting any LHD car into the country... if they were RHD, that'd be way easier) Mustang/'vette, pop a Nelson V8 in there (the "small/medium" 550bhp ones), then rebuild everything else... would cost me about 20000GBP (converted) all in all around here (that's including car, engine, reman everything, new suspension setup... ) in short - something that still won't corner like a eurobox, but it'll sounds SWEET and leave a lot of M5's/ M6's in a straight line.
I hate to break a mans dream, but restoring a Mustang or a Corvette in Namibia is going to cost a lot more then 20kGBP/40kUSD. Having costed out a '69 Camaro rebuild, the small parts (window cranks and door handles kinda stuff) alone will cost you 20kUSD and that isn't even mentioning the shipping/import costs. I'm fairly certain, after looking very hard around southern Africa, that Namibia doesn't have a blossoming restoration after market for American muscle cars. There are a fairly large amount of RHD Chevy pickup trucks around here, and having spoken to the guys; the import of windows/interior trim/chrome is what kills them. It's truly amazing that you'd make something that beautiful and put a 4L80E transmission into it. Why, oh why?
Yes, they'd cost a lot... possibly even more than i anticipate. But where there's a will, there's a way. Having family and friends i have helps as well. Turner and fitter brother of mine makes me spares/replacement parts/ invented new parts for my paintball gun on a regular basis. I am sure he could handle a door handle... My plan isn't so much to rebuild it to it's original state. Rather to make it sound and look like an old american car, but actually be good (which is, sadly something most american cars aren't) or bearable at more than straight lining it. It'd not so much be a matter of importing spares, and more of manufacturing them where necessary. Fibreglass body panels? i know people who could make them, given one or two test runs...
look here. It's not THAT bad, no worse then the Mustang. aside from the instrument cluster, that is. The SS certainly handles significantly better, and the LS99 makes living with an engine that big bearable.
The new Stingray was a concept only, emphasis on 'concept' by designers and engineers, emphasis 'only' by executives. The story about how it made it into the movies is that Bay was walking through some GM studio and was like 'Ooooh Shiny, what's that? fwoosh boom kapow'
