huggerorange99's 1973 Chevrolet Camaro Z28

About this Previous Vehicle:

The 73 was purchased in October of 98, and was in need of some major help. Like everyone else it seems I overpaid for the car, but hey it was a split bumper car right? In anycase, it was supposed to be a long term project..a few years ya know? Well, as luck would have it, a few days after I bought it, the manual choke cable froze up. I went out in the garage to repair the cable and a few hours later the entire car was dissembled. Needless to say, when my wife Jennifer got home that day, she was a bit surprised to say the least!

Well, the 4-year plan went out the window, and amazingly the car was torn down and restored in 8 months, the finished car finally driven in August of 99. In order to knock it out as fast as I did, I was lucky enough to have a lot of help along the way. Kevin Marian, Dave Bosak, and my very patient and lovely wife Jennifer helped more than you can imagine!

The tired and leaky 350 was lifted from the car in favor of a ZZ4 crate engine. And, while 355 horsepower is good…I had to have MORE! (A common gearhead problem!) In went a GM performance parts " hot " cam and Crane 1.6 roller rockers, along with a set of "Fast Burn" GMPP heads. Induction is handled by an Edelbrock Vortec Air Gap manifold along with a tweaked Holley 750 carb. The ignition system was upgraded via a Crane Hi 6 system & Taylor Spiro Pro wires. March provided the pulleys and trick power steering brackets. Exhaust exits via a set of Dynomax ceramic-coated headers & a Flowmaster American Thunder exhaust system. The torque runs through a TSI prepped TH350 with a 2800 stall speed converter before making it's way to the GM 8.5 10 bolt post rear end spinning Richmond 3:73 gears. The current set up's best numbers were 12.9@106!

The frame is held together with a set of Competition Engineering frame connectors. The car's stance is achieved with a set of Guldstarand front coils and lowering blocks. To finish the look I went with the wheel/tire combo of Dunlop SP Sport 8000s'(225/55/16 up front, 255/50/16 out back), mounted on a set of American Racing Torque Thrust IIs. (16 x 8 front & rear). To aid in the corners a 1" rear sway bay was added, along with a 15/16" front bar.

The interior was treated to a full makeover, despite the fact that is was so hard to toss out that bitchin crushed red velvet interior that someone had put in. With a little help from Year One the interior is now in it's stock form and looks far better! I also threw in a B & M Hammer shifter, a Grant GT steering wheel and a full compliment of Auto Meter gauges to finish it off.

The body was repaired and brought back to life by Kevin Marian and Dave Bosak of Supreme Bodywerks in Schiller Park, IL. A Goodmark steel cowl induction hood went on, and then the car was squirted with Sikkens base/clear urethane Hugger Orange. Dave then laid out the black skunk stripes and the look was complete. All the exterior trim and glass were replaced to match the first rate paint work as well.

As you have noticed, the car tags read BOX O ROT, and yes, as always there is a story behind it. When we first began to cut up the car, as with any Midwest project, we found that it was rusted far worse than we thought. Times like that can really frustrate ya because it's more work and more expense! Luckily we kept a sense of humor about it…Kevin had swept up all the rust and bondo into a box and said " Here ya go…A Box of Rot, just like the car! " So, that was it…from there the name stuck, and does make for some rather interesting conversations at shows and cruise nights!

I did all of the work on the car outside of the paint & body, with a few helping hands along the way. The car has won a few awards, most notably best in class at the 2000 & 2001 Super Chevy Shows in Chicago & 1st place at the Spring 2001 & 2002 Chevy/Vette Fests.

After several good years with the car, it was simply time to move onto something new, so in December of 2006, I sold the car....where it's now I haven't a clue!