Slideshow: This 1969 Z/28 Sat in a Barn Waiting to be Found

The Find

Chances are if you like Camaros, and who doesn't, the '69 variety is at or very near the top of your wish list. The style, the performance—due to an amazing array of available factory goodies, the history, they all work together to push '69s up to the top. But, as the saying goes, if wishes were horses...

Well, horses came home for Kent Kennedy when he found out about a 1969 Z/28 that had been stashed away, not hub-deep in mud in a swamp on the other side of the country, but on the other side of his very own town. One of his customers clued him into the existence of the Camaro, which had been sitting in a warehouse for a some, and to the fact that it was up for sale. Kennedy didn't have to be told twice. As he told Super Chevy, "It was truly a barn find, tucked in the back of a building. It hadn’t been licensed since 1981."

The Reveal

Though he jumped at the chance to pick up an original '69 Z/28, Kennedy had to hop through a year's worth of hoops before the car was his. It's one thing to find a car, it's quite another to arrive at an agreeable price, and there are few bargains to be had in the age of the internet. Once he extricated the car from its dusty home, it became apparent that the new owner's work was only beginning. "It looked like a pretty solid car but when we got it home we realized it was a mouse nest," Kennedy said. "I media blasted it ... it got a lot worse." To help with the reconstructive process, he took the Camaro to the folks at The Restomod Store, who set to work replacing every piece of sheetmetal—save the cowl, quarters, and roof.

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The Decision

During the years the Z/28 was gaining mouse droppings, and it lost something too—its engine. The original DZ302 was nowhere to be found, and along with it went the tach, though the car's Muncie M21 trans was still in place. Kennedy had a decision to make: to LS or not to LS. He chose to just say No. "Everybody does this LS motor stuff and I just wanted to stay so far away from that,” he said. "I kept it carbureted; an old-school, orange small-block like I wanted." The small-block residing in the Z/28's engine bay is a 400 ci unit out of a ’69 Chevelle (sorry Chevelle fans). Kennedy went for a mild build with iron heads and a 10:1 compression ratio. The 400 also features roller rockers, an old school 750-cfm Holley double-pumper carb, and a PerTronix distributor.

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Drivetrain

Bolted to the small-block is that Muncie transmission, a stock-spec flywheel, and a Centerforce clutch unit. Power travels back through a factory driveshaft to the original Chevy 12-bolt differential, fitted a 3.73 gearset and Moser axles. Though not sporting the lowest ratio available, Kennedy says the car still gets a little wound-up on the highway, but he doesn't mind.

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Suspension Mods

Since we've already mentioned that much of the car had been replaced, the purists among you might not take issue with this next bit. Kennedy tossed the Z/28's original suspension. "I left the original crossmember after cleaning up the welds, but everything else is modern," he said. Modern, in this case, means Detroit Speed tubular upper and lower control arms up front, QA1 coilovers all around, and a TCI torque arm suspension in the rear. The Restomod Store-tubbed fender wells received Nitto Invo tires on 19-inch Boze wheels in the rear, with 18-inchers up front.

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Interior

Kennedy wanted to preserve that '60s pony car driving experience inside the cockpit, though with the car's exterior covered in so much blue he wasn't crazy about the car's colorful interior: "I tried to stay as close to original as I could, other than converting it to black. It was just too much blue," he related. A classic white-ball Hurst shifter operates the M21, but the factory gauges have been replaced by a set of AutoMeter Cobalt clocks.

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Life with a ’69

Not counting the year of negotiations, the whole project consumed three years. The first show Kennedy took the Z/28 to was World of Wheels, where it scooped up a solid Second in Class. He confesses that it wasn't even finished in time for the show. "We just wheeled it in there and won," he said. Now that it is done though, he's taken it to several other shows and has been putting on the miles. Even though it's an honest-to-goodness '69 Z/28, Kennedy built it for one purpose, okay well... two: "I just drive it and enjoy it," he smiled.

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Specification

Engine
409 ci Small-block
Bore: 4.165 inches
Stroke: 3.750 inches
Cylinder Heads: Iron GM
Crankshaft: Stock GM
Carburetion: Holley 750-cfm carburetor on an Edelbrock intake manifold
Ignition: PerTronix distributor, Accel wires
Exhaust: Dynatech headers, MagnaFlow muffler

Drivetrain
Transmission: Muncie M21 manual
Rear Axle: Chevrolet 12-bolt

Chassis
Front Suspension: Detroit Speed tubular control arms, QA1 coilovers
Rear Suspension: TCI torque-arm suspension, QA1 coilovers
Brakes: Wilwood discs, Wilwood master cylinder

Wheels & Tires
Wheels: Boze (18x7 F, 19x12 R)
Tires: Nitto Invo (245/40 F, 345/30 R)

Interior
Seats: Procar By Scat
Upholstery: The Restomod Store
Steering Wheel: Leather-wrapped OEM style

Exterior
Paint: Custom, Axalta Blue
Hood: Classic Industries Cowl

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