Keeping A Pro-Touring 1969 Chevrolet Camaro From Being A Trailer Queen

As long as there have been car shows there have been trailer queens – the spotless, meticulously detailed rides that have neither bug bites nor stone chips. They’re the cars with cubic potential under the hood, but not a speck of rubber on their hind quarters. It’s easy to dismiss those cars and even deride… The post Keeping A Pro-Touring 1969 Chevrolet Camaro From Being A Trailer Queen appeared first on The Online Automotive Marketplace.

KendallJenner

Dec 30, 2024 - 08:35

4878

Keeping A Pro-Touring 1969 Chevrolet Camaro From Being A Trailer Queen

As long as there have been car shows there have been trailer queens – the spotless, meticulously detailed rides that have neither bug bites nor stone chips. They’re the cars with cubic potential under the hood, but not a speck of rubber on their hind quarters.

It’s easy to dismiss those cars and even deride the owners as enthusiasts who’d rather wipe down a fender than bang gears. Dennis Stiffler used to think like that, but then he found himself on the other side of the velvet rope.

His freshly built 1969 Camaro Pro Tourer was immaculate; that’s when the trailer-queen thing washed over him.

“I never thought I’d be that guy, but there I was—reluctant to drive my car,” Dennis says. “It cost more to build than I anticipated and when it was finished, it was like a reflex to protect it. I didn’t ever think I’d have a trailer queen, but it happened.”

He found himself driving the car sparingly, worried about every suicidal insect or wayward stone on the highway, but then he had an epiphany behind the wheel.

The Epiphany: Drive The Car

“One day, I just got in the car, and it felt so good that all those concerns melted away,” he says. “From that moment on I haven’t shied away from putting miles on it. The car drives so well and is so much fun that it makes no sense to leave it in the garage and worry about it.”

That driving experience is derived from all the latest in restomod/Pro Touring technology, from a complete Detroit Speed suspension makeover and LS power to the creature comforts of modern audio and air conditioning systems. They’re all packed into a first-gen F-body that is a far cry from the rough project car Dennis purchased online in 2015.

“I’m in Michigan and the car was in New Jersey,” he says. “It was a roller and looked okay in the photos, but it was a lot rougher under the skin.”

After having the car delivered to his home near Lansing, Michigan, Dennis sat on it for a while until he found the right shop to help with the resurrection.

“In my mind, I had the entire build worked out,” he says. “It was just a matter of finding someone who could make it happen.”

He went with Dutchboys Hotrods, outside of Kalamazoo, and it’s there where the car’s underlying sheetmetal issues were exposed. Surprisingly, rust wasn’t the big issue—instead, it was a litany of bad body repairs.

“There was lots wrong under the skin, and it probably would have been easier and cheaper in the long run to find a different project car, but we stuck it out with this one,” says Dennis. “A lot of the sheetmetal ended up being replaced. It was a lot of work. Much more than I expected.”

Dutchboys installed the new metal and straightened what could be salvaged, while also installing a cowl induction hood, front spoiler, rear spoiler, and all-new glass. Second-generation-style outside mirrors were also installed. It’s a clean, largely unadorned, and undeniably timeless look.

In addition to the sheetmetal surgery, Dutchboys also handled the installation and necessary fabrication when it came to the Detroit Speed chassis and suspension upgrades, including replacement of the original front subframe with the company’s stronger hydroformed version, which incorporates coil-overs and a rack-and-pinion steering system. Additionally, Detroit Speed subframe connectors, mini-tubs, and a Quadralink rear suspension system were installed.

It was all state-of-the-art Pro Touring stuff, along with a Moser 9-inch rear axle and Baer-supplied four-wheel disc brakes based on a Corvette Z06 system. There’s big rubber at all corners, too—335-series in the rear and 275s up front. They’re Nitto NT555 tires, all mounted on 18-inch Fikse forged aluminum wheels.

Original plans for a traditional big-block were shelved in favor of an all-aluminum 416-cu.in. LS making 650 hp.

The Camaro’s Potent Heart

Dutchboys also installed the powertrain, a Katech-built LS3-based 416-cubic-inch engine and a Tremec Magnum six-speed manual gearbox. Dennis initially favored a 427 big block for power, but with their experience building more than a few Pro-Touring Camaros, the Dutchboys crew helped steer him towards an LS solution.

The blueprinted engine features a Callies forged crankshaft and forged rods, Mahle pistons, and a Katech “K501” camshaft, with .657/.660-inch lift, 235/251 degrees duration, and a relatively wide 113-degree lobe separation angle. Katech also worked over the cylinder heads, while a Holley Sniper EFI sheetmetal fabricated intake manifold, an electronically controlled throttle body, and Holley Sniper EFI fuel rails and 44-pound/hour injectors handle the air/fuel distribution. Rick’s Tanks supplied the custom, baffled fuel tank and in-tank pump to round out the fuel system.

There’s also a set of Hooker Blackheart headers and complementing dual-exhaust system and a thick C&R Racing aluminum radiator fitted with a big electric fan. A Howell Engine Development ECU and wiring harness keep it all running harmoniously. On a chassis dyno, the car put down 586 rear-wheel horsepower. That’s something around 650 horses at the crankshaft.

It takes a plasma cutter rather than a shoehorn to get a Magnum six-speed to fit in a first-gen Camaro, so the original transmission tunnel was cut out and a new one fabricated. A custom driveshaft was also created to link the Tremec with the Moser-built rear axle.

There are loads of additional details under the hood and throughout the car, including the decidedly all-black appearance of the engine compartment, including the radiator and most of the engine accessories. Most of the wires and hoses are hidden, too, while the engine’s ignition coils are also tucked out of sight. The bare appearance of the intake manifold stands out, along with the customized Katech valve covers.

“I really wanted a clean, unobstructed look under the hood,” says Dennis, who handled most of that detail work himself. “Your eye goes straight to the engine when the hood is raised.”

The interior seems mostly
stock, apart from the custom
instrument panel; less obvious
is the reworked transmission
tunnel accommodating the TREMEC six-speed.

Inside, the cabin appears largely stock in appearance, but virtually everything has been updated, including leather-trimmed Recaro front seats, a Momo steering wheel, a Vintage Air climate control system, all-new pedals and a Detroit Speed instrument panel insert filled with Speedhut gauges. They include a 160-mph speedometer that measures the car’s velocity via GPS. Additional interior features include a discreet roll bar, while the modern audio system includes a Pioneer head unit and a JL Audio amp and subwoofer.

Bohde’s Custom Auto Interior took care of the upholstery, but Dennis assembled most of the cockpit. When it came to the car’s paintwork, Dennis took the car to Wing’s Auto Art, where Nyle Wing laid down a Mercedes Iridium Silver that deftly bridges the decades between Chevy’s original Cortez Silver and today’s modern hues.

Wing is known for his rabid attention to detail and the prep work prior to painting and the subsequent color-sanding resulted in a finish so smooth, the paintwork still looks wet more than five years after it was sprayed. Dennis got one of Wing’s last paint jobs, too, as he retired shortly after this Camaro rolled out of his paint booth.

After the paintwork was finished, Dennis completed the majority of the car’s final assembly.

“It was hugely rewarding, because it was important to have some sweat equity in the build,” he says. “There were things I knew were beyond my talent and that’s where I relied on the professionals for the bodywork, fabrication, painting, and so on, but I made sure I put my own time into the build, too.”

The Camaro was finished minutes before Dennis and his wife took to the 2019 Goodguys event in Columbus, Ohio, where it was part of a special display of 1969 Camaros. From there, the trailer queen mindset took root, and Dennis admits it was hard to shake.

It was the quality of the build and the driving dynamics it delivered that drove away those tendencies.

“It literally drives like a late-model car,” says Dennis. “It’s not just powerful, but it’s comfortable and reliable—and it turned out much better than I thought it would.”

That’s made this reformed trailer queen cruiser a bit more philosophical.

“I’ve been all the way around with the thinking about it,” he says. “I didn’t want a trailer queen, but after finally having that perfect car, I can understand the rationale to protect it. I’m enjoying every minute behind the wheel, but I certainly don’t judge others for doing what they want with their own cars.”

In a more spiritual way, that’s the automotive equivalent of saying “judge not.” We can respect that—and we certainly respect the vision and execution of a Camaro that now puts the “tour” in Pro Touring.

Owner’s View

“I’d wanted a 1969 Camaro since the first time I saw them on display in front of the local Chevy dealer, in the fall of 1968. That was before I could drive, and I fell in love with them immediately. I have owned several other classic cars over the years, but building this car was the fulfillment of a very long dream and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.” —Dennis Stiffler