I have some original photos from the early 80's from Hi-Line Kustoms for Camaros

Does anyone know anything about these cars?

From the pic it appears to be an 85 or 86 Z28, THe tailights are the grid style...

JOhn

 

i do not know anything about them but have you tried to contact them and see if there still in buessiness?

 

Nothing, someones answering machine her name is "Helga"...

JOhn

 

this may be of no help what so ever. but when i see old stuff on here with address and phone #'s i copy the address and go to google and see if anything pops up then i go to the map section just for curiosity sake Google Maps

this poped up when i searched on google "Car Dealerships in Valley City, North Dakota" so this might be a start.
heres the link
Car Dealerships in Valley City, North Dakota

 

91rsowner...
THat was a good idea, when I get some time I might try calling them.

John

 

cool glad i could be of help. if you get any info be sure to post it here. that burgundy one looks rather nice but i am not crazy about the white walls.

 

I find it odd, I am not a huge fan of ground effects on 3rd gens, probably why I own Formulas... Anyways, I think on a VErt the ground effects look so at home, it may be that almost all verts have them so its what I expect. On the other hand a Vert w/o the ground effects looks really unique and stands out.

UR right about the White walls, but I think there 14's and some of them came that way from the Assy Plant.

John

 

This internet is crazy. I have been trying to track down some info on my mom's 1985 Camaro vert. I originally thought it might have been Custom Cars of Minnesota, since it was originally bought from a dealer in ND. But after seeing this thread and opening the first picture I realized it came fro Hi-Line Kustoms. In fact it is the maroon 1985 vert on their sales literature. It still looks exactly the same as the picture, except 4 years ago the white walls were replaced! It's still a great car to drive, it's in great shape with just over 30K miles on it.

 

Post pics man!!!! And lots of them

 

I had a chance to take a picture of the maroon 1985 today. It has just under 23k on it, runs like a dream.

 

Here is a pic of the interior. It's 100% original and everything works perfectly.

 

This is AWESOME. ...and why I keep researching these coach convertibles. When someone is able to unravel a mystery on one of these cars, it makes my day. You really have a beautiful car....and now some great documentation about it's origin.

Your car would be the first known Hi-Line Kustoms conversion that I have been able to document (beyond the original brochure photos). When you have time again, please photograph a few more areas of the car:
1. A couple shots of the car with the top up (does it have a power top?)
2. Shot of the back seat area, preferably without the fabric cover over the stowed top to see the interior conversion.
3. a photo of the trunk lid (not open). Some were big, others small.
Thanks! You can post them here or email them to me at kcdesoto1(at)hotmail.com. I want to compare the Hi-Line conversion to all the other conversions to see if it looks like a full custom by them or a kit that they installed.

Thanks again for posting here to let us know your discovery. Kudos to okfoz for posting the original brochures.

 

I have a couple more pictures of the maroon 85. It has a manual top, not power. It has a small truck lid, the picture shows it pretty well. I asked my dad what he remembers about buying the car, he believes Hi-line built 5 convertible Camaros, they all had different options and were varied models, sport coupes or Z28's. He said the parts from used in the conversion may have came from a company in Minneapolis, probably Custom Cars of Minnesota. After looking at this thread

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/conv...le-custom.html

and seeing that Camaro on ebay, the top and interior top frame look similiar to the Hi-Line. If you have any other pics of a CC of M conversions let me know. I will take some more detailed pictures this weekend of the requested areas. Thanks for the reply back slimwhitman and another thanks to okfoz for the original brochure photo. Hopefully there is more info that can be shared and uncovered about these 80's verts.

 

I will say it again....beautiful car. That CC of Minn thread was posted by me and that is the only car by them that I have documentation on. Your car is different than that one (smaller trunk lid). I need to re-assess all the conversions I know about, now that I have many more cars to evaluate. 4 out of 5 that I find have no labels and no known history. My assumption has been that many of these smaller converters (like Hi-Line) bought their kit from Straman or someone else. American Custom Coachworks and Matrix3 had the larger trunk lid.

 

Thanks for the compliment on her. The car is pretty special and I have many memories growing up with it. I am fortunate to have it in the garage. I need to give it a very good detail and fix the rear output seal. Good to know about the Straman kit. I will look closely at the top frame for any numbers stamped on it. I did notice a part number on the trunk lid, it looks like it's the original part from the hatchback? Maybe the fiberglass piece in front of the trunk lid has some markings on it? I see the difference now in the trunk lengths from the CCofM and mine. I thought it may have been a CCofM because of the velcro strip securing the top to the body running behind the doors.

 

As for the Straman connection, it is purely speculation. I have no knowledge that Straman sold thier conversion as a kit....or that they used a kit from someone else. I will dig a little deeper.

 

 

You probably would have to go to an upholstery shop to have them custom make the top for you. You should inform them that the car is not a factory or and ASC convertible, as they might try to just order the top. You can get for the ASC cars but in your case it will not fit.

John

 

 

It kind of does... I have never seen one in person... Those that are on the top of my head are
1) ASC - By far most common, also made factory cars
2) Autoform - The 2 seat roadster
3) Hi-Line - top is completely on top where it meets the the quarter panel (like yours)
4) Matrix3 - Similar to Hi-Line, but the convertible top comes down further on the quarter panel.
There are some others out there like a company from Buffalo, and Greenwood, I think there was about a dozen companies out there doing them.

 

 

The metal work on the Hi-Line convertibles is far, far above the hack-job that ASC did on the top of the rear quarter panels. They (ASC) should have just copied what Hi-Line did but I'm sure it was a cost vs time business decision and covering it up with a plastic wrap-around spoiler won.

 

One thing about the ASC conversion, I am sure they could have done that like what Hi-Line did, however keep in mind that 1) ASC was doing full production, so that means as many as a few hundred cars a week. 2) I would imagine that they wanted to keep the parts as streamlined as possible, could you imagine repainting every car that came down the line, and trying to blend it in with the existing paint? 3) ASC did whatever they could to keep the costs down, and have the conversion be simplified and within the scope of a manufacturer, get too complex and the costs could be astronomical.

It was all about simplicity of the conversion within a manufacturing environment.

 

 

slimwhitman knows a lot more about the other convertibles than me.

I know of the following:
CAR "Custom Automotive Restyling"
ASC - Made the factory Convertible
Autoform - 2 seat roadster
Buffalo Conversion Corp
Coach Conversions Inc
Custom International Coach
Custom Spyder
Greenwood
Hi-Line
Matrix3
Straman
Others?

 

Hello -

I think I found a Hi-Line Kustoms car, is there any way to verify it? The company number no longer works and the internet has little to nothing on them.

I really want to buy it, but want to make sure I know the history.

Here's a couple pics of the car:

 

Nope, there is no data on the hi-line cars... Honestly I would not spend more than what a coupe goes for. They are impossible to find parts for, and they do not hold their value like an ASC who made the factory convertibles...

John

 

What John said....
Assuming the car is an '86 because of the brake light on the trunk, that would eliminate most of the builders. Most closed shop by 1984. Could be a Straman, which does hold its value. Look for a etched number on the top frame above the driver side window that would read "ST10xx" The "xx" is the Straman sequence number. They didn't all get the etched number, but most did. The other advice is to look in the glove box, under the hood, under the trunk lid and in both door jambs for a label. I have seen coach builders place a label in all those locations over the years. Good luck.

 

Hi All- I know that this is a really old thread, but I wanted to revive it because I recently bought a car that appears to be a Hi-Line Kustoms convertible based on the pictures that were shared earlier in this thread. It's a five-speed TA (not a GTA) that I found at a used car dealership in Michigan. The dealer seems to have bought it from a different dealer in North Dakota. Which makes me think it's likely a Hi-Line car. There are no markings or serial numbers anywhere, so it's a bit of a mystery.

I live in NC, so I bought the car sight-unseen and I'm having some regrets because the top and fiberglass body panels are in worse shape than I was lead to believe. The rest of the car is in solid shape and I like it a lot, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the top. The interior body panels were butchered up by whoever worked on them and will likely need to be replaced. There's a place near me that can make me a new top, but the convertible frame itself has a bit of surface rust, so it would need to be blasted and painted if I want to save it.

I'm considering making this a permanent convertible and having a custom fiberglass tonneau cover fabricated for it. Not sure yet.

Anyway, i'm not sure if anyone will see this, but I wanted to share it. I'm a little overwhelmed by the amount of work that might be in front of me on this one, but I'm committed to finding a way to make it work.