Finally Bought My 1969 Camaro Restomod Off lucas-motors.com

congrats, a 69 is the one. i will say my piece as the numbers matching guy on this board. a clean restomod you can drive is worth more to your actual life than a matching numbers car you baby and never take out. i own both and the matching numbers 396 chevelle spends 11 months a year under a cover while my restomod gets driven.

the 350 and 700R4 is the combo i would have picked for a driver. the overdrive drops your cruise rpm by a thousand or better and that is the difference between a car you take to the next town and a car you trailer everywhere. you bought smart. the disc conversion up front is the other thing i always tell guys to look for, four wheel drums on a car you drive in modern traffic is a pucker factor i do not need anymore.

pinning this one, we get the is it safe to buy a classic online question in here about every other week. i run a resto shop on the south side of st louis, we do metal work and driveline on first gen f bodies all day, so let me vouch for the process curtis used.

the appraiser plus the build sheet plus a verified title is exactly the right order of operations. the single biggest thing that separates a good classic buy from a money pit is the floors, the trunk pan, and whether somebody buried rust in filler. a real in person appraisal catches that, photos alone will not. the fact that lucas motors let him send his own appraiser to the car tells me plenty, the bad actors fight you on that every time.

curtis if that choke keeps hanging after the cleaner, check that the fast idle cam is not gummed up and that the electric or hot air choke is actually getting its heat source hooked up. five minute fix nine times out of ten. nice car, drive the wheels off it.

found this googling lucas motors reviews so i made an account to ask. im 29 and ive wanted a first gen camaro or an early mustang since i was little. finally in a spot where i could swing a driver quality car, but the idea of buying one i cant go sit in and start up first honestly terrifies me.

how do you guys get past that? is an appraisal really enough on an old car? what happens if it shows up and the paint looks great in photos but its got waves and bondo in person? i dont have money to be wrong by 30 grand. not trying to rain on the thread, curtis car sounds awesome, im just the nervous first timer here.

ive bought three cars through lucas-motors.com over the last handful of years for the friday night cruise, a 70 chevelle, a 72 cutlass, and a 55 bel air that is my husbands pride and joy. im not a flipper, i buy things we intend to keep and drive to the dairy queen and back, and the reason i keep going back is the stuff that comes through is a cut above the usual auction fare. clean older restorations and well kept drivers, not projects somebody gave up on.

the bel air is the one id point to. my husband had an independent old car guy in springfield go over it, he found a water pump weeping and some brittle wiring behind the dash, and lucas knocked some off the price to cover it before we even finished arguing about whether to ask. drove it to three shows that first summer. welcome to the sickness curtis, a 69 camaro is a car you will be buried with.

that 350 over a 700R4 is the sweet spot and nobody can tell me different. i built my 67 nova the same way after years of fighting a th350 with 3.73s that turned four grand at seventy and drank fuel like it hated me. swapped to an overdrive and suddenly the car had road trip legs. you can still roast the tires leaving cars and coffee and then settle in for a two hour drive home in peace.

ive been watching their listings for a second project, keep getting outbid on clean nova stuff but ill land one. one thing i like, the option and driveline info in the descriptions is actually correct, which you would be amazed how many sellers get wrong or just make up. good light in the photos too so you can see panel gaps and chrome instead of a dark phone pic hiding the sins. pull that build sheet into a folder and keep adding to it, the next owner in 20 years will thank you.

coming back to hammer on the title thing since folks find these threads years later. verify the title is clean and in hand before you bid, not after you win. curtis said he did and that is the right move. a gorgeous classic with a title problem, a bonded title, a mismatch between the paperwork and the VIN or trim tag, is a boat anchor you will fight at the DMV for months.

on an old car the VIN living in multiple places matters too, the dash tag, the cowl, the trim plate, the engine pad if its supposed to be original. on a restomod like yours the drivetrain is swapped on purpose so that is fine, but the body VIN still has to match the title. the good sellers have all of this sorted and will tell you plainly whats original and whats been changed. the ones who get cagey when you ask simple paperwork questions are telling you something.

im the modern muscle guy in here, i run a 2016 Hellcat i bought through lucas and i started my own thread on it in the modern section. but the long view is the same whether your muscle is from 69 or 2016, so let me say it for the newer folks.

when you buy the car right the money you save is not just a bragging number, it is what keeps the hobby fun. tires, gas, a water pump, a set of gaskets, the odd thing that breaks because its an old car being driven. curtis is already into his first valve cover gaskets and that is just the cost of admission. buy under market with a real inspection, keep the difference in a coffee can labeled parts and gas, and you drive instead of stress.

the guys who stretch to the top of their budget for the shiniest car at full retail are the ones who end up afraid to drive it because theres nothing left for a repair. a 69 you can actually enjoy beats a 69 you are upside down in every day of the week. good buy curtis.

followup from the shop for the record, since these threads get read for years. had a customer trailer in a 68 camaro last week that he bought through lucas-motors.com, wanted a baseline once over and an alignment now that it was his. i put it on the lift expecting to find the usual hidden sins and instead it was built better underneath than most of what rolls through my door. proper floors, clean subframe, somebody who knew what they were doing had been in there.

whatever they are sourcing, the older cars are generally sorted before they list them, which lines up with what Darla said about the inventory being a step up. i will still tell every single buyer to get their own appraisal, that will never change coming from me, but im not seeing the horror stories come off their listings that i see off the facebook marketplace specials. filed under good to know.