29 May Wife Approved: 1987 Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Creemore Valley Classics Stories #52
My story is a simple one. When I was in my teens I had a 72 Mustang which I loved but later to go to college I could not afford it, then in my 20’s I had a 1984 Toyota Supra that I also loved but being young and starting a family and career and not having the money to afford that car and also a winter beat that car became my year round driver and it got beat up quickly, then the wife took it in the divorce (this is starting to sound like a country song).
After that for many years just did NOT have the money to afford another classic car let alone a good daily driver but always wanted one and admired 2 friends that did. One still has the car he owned as a teenager to this very day.
Got remarried and with a blended family that now included 3 kids the priorities where just not in my favour to get a ‘classic’ car.
Jump many years forward and my kids are all in the their late teens and early 20’s and not dependant on me as they where when they where kids and they all own had their own cars and we do NOT need the dreaded ‘family car’. Also now I have the expandable income to get the car I wanted.
What car do we get as the wife also wants a say in the car and also drive it. She wants a older 1970-73 Vette which I do not like, I wanted and early 1980’s Vette which she hated. The compromise was a Camaro….at least it is still a Chevy.
I enjoyed my time during the 1980’s being a teen into my mid 20s and 80 music is still my favorite decade of music…so why not a 1980’s 3rd Gen Camaro…..to me and wife nothing says the 1980’s more than a Camaro. And being Italian I had to intentionally go with the IROC-Z.
I wanted a specific colour, blue and it had to be 5.7L with T-tops for the summer….Loved the way Burt Reynolds looked as the ‘The Bandit’ driving down the highway with the tops off….If only I could grow a mustache like Burt. Wife could be Sally Fields. Also wanted it to be an 1988 as that was the year my first kid was born but then I learned that with an 1988 you would have to do emissions testing every other year….hell with that, just backed up my want to a 1987.
Took me a few years to find one with all those requirements that was not a complete wreck. It had to drive well and no rust the rest could be fixed. 5 years ago I found it and have been restoring it since. Engine work, suspension work just to get it to run right. Fixed drivers doors sag and bad window alignment and switches that did not work. Replaced 90% of the interior with a stock interior which was hard as the seats and door panels to the 1987 IROC where the upgraded seats and where available only that 1 model year. I found them in black which looks great with the gray interior. New carpet, headliner, center console, steering wheel, shifter…all stock mostly NOS. You know how hard NOS is to find and how expensive it is.
This year it is a new custom touch screen stereo with bluetooth and phone, have to have a little modern in the 1980’s plus sometime have to take conference calls for work on my way home. Also refurb rims and I’m going to start chroming out the engine parts. Got to make it shine.
Looking forward to the Creemore Valley Classics in July. We’re going to make a weekend trip out of it
Owner: Andy Verra
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