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What an awesome journey.
Actually teared up a few times reading this.
I inherited a 99 c5 vert from my brother who passed aug 1 2014
and im keeping his dream alive as well.
I'll be watching this thread. kudos to you and your pops sir.
ps..i love the pic with your dad driving and you in the pass seat, great shot!
What an awesome journey.
Actually teared up a few times reading this.
I inherited a 99 c5 vert from my brother who passed aug 1 2014
and im keeping his dream alive as well.
I'll be watching this thread. kudos to you and your pops sir.
ps..i love the pic with your dad driving and you in the pass seat, great shot!
I'm going to be following you closely... I also own a 1969 Fathom Green L46 which I bought new... also in the process of restoration... good luck to you..
Well, the car has been put up for the season since mid November of last year; so I figured I'd give a season recap.
Around mid August, the fuel pump took a dump on me with fuel leaking past the crimped diaphragm. This turned into a bit of an ordeal for me as I found the car was not wearing the 'correct' pump but a factory service replacement. After some digging around I decided to go with an OEM AC pump vs a replica type replacement - to the tune of around $200 difference in cost. Normally I wouldn't really care, but the car is so original; I felt the need to make sure it's correct. It's also unlikely I'll ever have to replace it again anyhow and the AC pumps have breather holes to prevent fuel mixing with oil the case of a failure.
It took just under 2 months to get the correct pump in just to save a few dollars with a different vendor. I will only use Paragon from now on as their customer service was spot on and their efforts despite my initial order cancellation were exemplary. They even sent me a full color catalog in the mail for cancelling an order. They are worth the extra few dollars by a long shot.
I also ended up replacing the rubber fuel hose and ordering new stainless lines (through Paragon this time lol) as my one original steel feed line developed a pinhole while removing. Turns out this was all a big blessing in disguise. I had mentioned before about not being to get timing in the car and I had since tried multiple spring configurations with the weights.
Well, turns out the issue was that fuel pump wasn't feeding enough anymore and the car was leaning out up top. I ended up redoing everything with the new numbers matching 40658 pump feeding correctly. I went back to my big CV secondary needles and heavier springs and was able to get 12 more degrees total timing in the car! To say it liked it would be an understatement heh.
I didn't really get to do too much more with the car aside from short trips before the weather went bad. Limited my driving as I still have the old tires. I can't wait to get a proper height tire on it and get some gearing back. Threw the plug heat shields back on since I'm done messing with plugs and got rid of the stupid Prestone filler.
Probably not the kindest lighting for the engine pic, but its night and day from when I got it back. That old fuel pump was a bear to clean on the car, so I made sure to tidy that whole area with the pump removed.
The rest of the pictures are just me out and about with the car. Most of em just snaps off the phone. Good ones coming up next.
Back to Mill Creek Park for a fall cruise with the leaves turning. My favorite drive of the season.
Sorry for massive photos
Also took a little video, but the GoPro totally jacked up the sound and just came out like buzzing. Will need to get an external mic and stick it in the car somewhere. I added some music overtop to make it enjoyable. No horseplay, just cruising and the beautiful scenery.
Also, while I realize I have been quite the story teller tonite ; I would like to share the coup de grace to this story...this story is going to be epic.
I'll preface it with these pictures.
So my story goes per my facebook page:
Holy crap am I freaking out right now!
So I'm putting together a little backstory on this 1969 Camaro slotcar tribute project that I'm working on and I decided to do a Google search on the original car. I'm literally beside myself right now.
In 1969 my father and close friend Ken Stoddart went new car shopping for the latest in the American sports/muscle car marketplace. My father ended up buying the 1969 Corvette Stingray from Martin Chevrolet in Warren Ohio which if you visited my facebook page in the last year; have seen hundreds of pictures of as I drug it out of barn and got it back on the road. But you never heard part 2 of this story...
Ken purchased a matching color Fathom Green 1969 Z28 with the DZ code 302. After a short while of owning the car, he decided he was going to race and compete on the then all new Trans Am circuit. This is the basic modern equivalent of getting a new car and deciding you are going to race on TV in GT2 Lemans. It is unheard of and not only improbable, but impossible. Then it was total grass roots.
My father (Dave Hank) , my uncle (Aaron Hank), and Ken Stoddart decided they are going racing and start tearing this brand new camaro apart. They didn't have a truck and trailer so they had to drive to the local races at Nelson Ledges off US Route 422 - which is right past the OSHP Barracks. I've been told stories growing up of them flying through traffic on slicks, with drilled out soup cans as baffles wired over the mufflerless exhaust - and getting up enough speed to coast by the barracks with the car shut off to not get caught.
My father drove his Corvette all across the country from late 1969 through 1972 following the Camaro; though eventually pulling it with a truck. Ken got to compete with the big dogs; Donahue, Penske, Parnelli Jones etc. in a freaking homebrew z28 from Warren, Ohio. The stories, oh man the stories...
Although he never ranked extremely high; he was always in the mix. One thing 'racing man' was known for though was wrecking. So it warmed my heart seeing the only found image of the car on track had the rear wheel torn off. I'm still grinning while typing this.
So by the mid 70s- he was done with racing and the car. He sold it to a local hoarder and his at the time race mechanic Denny Battles. Denny stuffs this car in an old barn and leaves it...for 40+ years!!
I remember the once and only time being @ 14yrs old and walking around Denny's property with my uncle Aaron. It was; and probably still is, filled with old racecars and abandonded projects left to rot. Denny is the eptiome of 'I'm going to fix that someday' where cars get clung to until they errode into the dirt beneath them. Still, I can recall peering through the open barn doors and seeing the car and its white roll cage, and wondering who would cut out the fenders so poorly. I can only assume it was wrecked and that was the best option at the time, as these guys were not high dollar in the least.
Nearly 20 years ago is when I last saw that car. I assumed it would be dismissed to all only to live in the memory of my family and Ken. A page in history left to rot. Until tonite.
Someone tracked down that car and exhumed it unbeknownst to me! A random follower of vintage racing wanted to know what happned to the car. I found threads dating back to 2008; with people pleading to get ahold of Ken or any information. JUST THIS YEAR, the car was featured in Hot Rod Magazine as a barn find!! The car is being restored to its original heritage and put on display! I cannot wait to tell my dad; he's going to lose his mind.
I need to make some calls because there is SO MUCH untold story of this car and its literally family history. NO ONE in the world knows the background and what went down outside of their small motley crew. I literally cannot believe it. Something written off as a joke to us, just a few friends going racing is making actual history. I am absolutely determined to get both cars reunited for pictures and some publishing. What an amazing thing to find at 1am... just unreal to me right now.
Long story short, I ended up tracking down the new owner, the editor of the article and Ken and will be getting the cars together for pictures and maybe some publication once the Camaro is done! Insane that both cars were ordered within weeks of each other, and pulled out of barns within weeks of each other 50yrs later!
They were even purchased from the same dealership! I talked to my dad and he was with Ken when they filled out the build sheet. Just such a cool story.
Car is currently being restored here. These are from 3 weeks ago, the car is now totally 'de-skinned' with new quarters, floors etc going in
(Car was repainted red sometime in the early 70s. It's being restored to original green and white racing livery)
I have always loved the dark green color used back then. I have 2 gals of the Fathom Green from Eastwood I was going to use on a truck project. Sitting in storage waiting on a project....lol.
I always wanted to change color of my 67 Camaro to that green but the car is long gone.
Txs for reviving some great cars and some great memories!
Figured I'd toss up some new pics. Not a whole bunch of changes this past year. I put some new shocks on the car, ended up redoing the distributor with a brass insert and plenty of messing with springs and shafts (car actually likes the factory springs best with the aggressive vaccum advance. The Lars method is pretty crap for an early smog car. Biggest visual change is a fresh set of BFG's in more correct size. Just slowly plugging away
A little yeah. The car got torn down to the basic hull. I think they kept the original roof and most f the drip rails/surrounding rear valance. The cage has since been refurbished and the car is slowly piecing back together.
I wish I was able to save it myself, but the gentleman who bought it is doing a full, correct and extremely high dollar resto. Can't wait to see it done.
Great looking car. My 70 convertible is also a green L46. I've owned it 45 years now. I'm relying on my 69 year old, sometimes faulty, memory but I seem to remember the L46 was the only Corvette 350 that didn't have a smog pump. You have one pictured in your number 4 post among all the other pics. Jushttps://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/images/smilies/iagree.gift a thought to consider if you're attempting to recreate a totally stock vehicle. I never realized the 69 green looked so much like the 70 green. Donnybrook Green was a one year only color for 1970.
I have a 1969 L46 (fathom green also) I bought it new in Dec, 1968. It had a smog pump.
07-17-2016, 12:05 PM
