Kyle Wenger started his Home-Built Hero’s submission by telling us that he has always been fascinated with the first-gen Camaro for as long as he knew what cars were. He vowed to own one before he graduated high school. He kept true to his word, “I bought this 1967 SS in 2002. That was my Junior year of high school. It cost me $4,000.”
When he found the car, under the hood was a tired small-block backed by a Saginaw four-speed. The 12-bolt rear end had a not-so-friendly set of 5.13 gears. The car needed a complete overhaul, but, according to Kyle, the body was in really good shape.
Every Home-Built Hero has a beginning.
“Throughout high school and into college, the money was never really there for me to get going on the rebuild, but every time I could save a little money from side jobs, I would go buy a part as finances allowed. Slowly but surely, the car started coming together. Here we are, fourteen years later it’s still not done. But, they’re never “done”.
Kyle says that he has spent more than 100 hours perfecting the bodywork on this car, and all of it has been in the backyard. He has installed new bumpers on the front and rear, new lights, new bezels, all-new emblems, new interior, new quarter skins, new 2-inch cowl-induction hood, new grill, and brand-new rally wheels wrapped in BFG rubber. The wiring has all been replaced with new from headlight to brake lights. “The old wire harness actually caught fire under the dash when we were breaking in the new engine,” Kyle stated.
Speaking of the engine, it is now a rebuilt 350 block bored .040-inch over with Dart Iron Eagle heads, roller rockers, and an Edelbrock intake and 750 cfm carburetor. Inside is a .519/.523-inch lift Comp cam with .306 degrees of duration. Remember that Saginaw? It’s been replaced by a rebuilt Muncie M21 close-ratio transmission, and the rear end of the car now is a Chevy 10-bolt with 3.73 gears.
The white and orange paint combo comes from his love of Tennessee football. At first glance, the interior might look stock but look a little closer and you’ll see a “monster tach” with shift light, and the absence of a heater control unit. The area is now filled with toggle switches and a push-button start.
“I wanted my car to look like it could have looked in 1967 with small, tasteful upgrades that make it mine. I feel like I was able to achieve this, for the most part, with the absence of a monster bank account and doing everything in the backyard – other than machine work.”
Do you want to read about more Home-Built Heroes? All you need to do is click here. If you own a Home-Built Hero, we want to hear about it. Since we’ve started the series, we have received more than a few candidates, but we still want to see more – we can never get enough. If you want to see more cars built by you the readers, send us a few pictures of your car showing the engine, interior, and exterior, along with all of the pertinent information, and we’ll make you Internet famous.
Author: Randy Bolig