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Congratulations, alan91z28, you and your car are TGO's February 2020 Car of the Month!
This month was the first ever theme of "cars SAVED from the GRAVE", and boy was it good! All the contestants brought forward great cars and fantastic stories of how they reclaimed their cars from very unfortunate conditions. Some wrecked, some literally stripped by professional theft ring, and some abandoned and long forgotten. Each car was loved and brought back by it's owner. Bob88GTA, daferris, customblackbird, THANK YOU for helping to make this a great event!
But one story in particular captured the fascination of the entire field, and the TGO community stood in awe of a father-son build that seemed to reclaim a car from the dust of the earth.
Originally Posted by alan91z28
This 1988 Camaro Sport Couple was my first car I bought brand new when I finished my sophomore year of college at the age of 20 in the spring of 1988. I had been saving up all my summer jobs, etc money for years at this point with the purposeful intent to by a third gen. I originally wanted to buy a 5.0 liter with a 5 speed but my father wisely insisted I first call about insurance and in the end there was no way I could afford the insurance at that point on a new V8. However, this was a wonderful experience and even with only a 2.8 V6 I had an amazing time over the next two years with this Camaro even driving it to Baltimore during my engineering co-op assignment for a semester at Lockheed-Martin.
Long story short when I graduated from college in spring of 1990 with good paying engineering job in hand, I was determined to get my V8 5 speed Z28... I ordered from the factory a brand new 1991 Dark Red Metallic Convertible Z28 5.0 5 Speed which arrived in August of 1990. As part of the deal I traded in my 1988 Sport Coupe and that was the last I saw of it for the next 22 years.
Over the next 22 years as with most people, life is full of changes and as I got married and had children I drove my 1991 Z28 very little for several years. However I always wondered what happened to my first third gen and day dreamed sometimes about getting it back. The interesting thing is I had the VIN number memorized in my mind and it became a running joke with my wife and friends that some day I would just walk up to a Camaro and insist that it was mine. As my children began to grow up we started enjoying my Z28 and by 2008 I was determined to get a second third gen to drive daily in the summer (my Z28 vert only had about 5000 miles on it). At this point I was actively looking for my original 1988 for the last several years doing Carfax searches etc but nothing ever came up with any recent clues... we would drive around the small towns in the area listed on the Carfax during the summer hoping to spot it, what a crazy guy my wife and children thought! However I did start acquiring third gens and doing swaps, etc... once that bug ware re-ignited look out!
Long story short is I kept searching and finally on labor day weekend 2012, Carfax showed that my 1988 had a salvage title just issued against it at a new nearby town. Knowing that there was a salvage yard near that town I drove over the day after labor day. The guy at the desk who was real nice didn't seem too encouraging when I asked if they had recently gotten in any red third gen camaros. He said they hadn't got a third gen in the yard for the past 5 years or so and in fact didn't have any red ones, the only thing close was one that was maroon that had been there since 2006. My expression immediately went to well my Camaro was actually maroon and could I just go double check even though this one had been sitting in the yard for a long time. When we went out to the yard as soon as I saw it from 100 yards away I knew it had to be mine, and sure enough when I looked at the VIN on the door (the vin under the windshield was already rusted away) it was clearly mine, I knew my full 17 digit VIN by memory! I had found the treasure at the end of the rainbow!
It was in rough condition, but I was ever the optimist telling my friend I don't think it really is that bad! The rebuild with my son would take a couple years including needing to fully cut the car in half, but it was quite a fun and rewarding project!
I just want to say a big thank you to the entire thirdgen.org community and while i really appreciate this recognition, it is the camaraderie of all the members and the passion that we have for our third gens by helping each other that makes this forum so special. there are so many wonderful stories and projects that go on in this community, it is truly an incredible resource. i can't thank everyone enough for all the help and assistance i have received from our members in this community to help make my projects possible.
big shout out to all of the projects this month... each one is a great story onto itself! also big shout out to qwktrip for putting the effort into these topics and especially all the knowledge he has contributed to our forums especially in his ls swap thread!
thanks again for all the support and i will continue to strive to contribute to the knowledge and passion of this forum
What a contest!!! A very big CONGRATULATIONS going out to Alan and his incredible save. A truly awesome work of art. Congrats to all who where nominated.
