Choosing & buying a classic car is not as easy as modern cars. If you search for 1968 Camaro on any site (e.g. Hemmings.com), you’ll find many for sale at widely ranged prices ($4,000 to $200,000). So how to choose your classic muscle, will all depend on what you’re planning to do with the car. Do you want a fully built ready classic for a piece of mind, or Do you want a semi-restored classic to work on yourself?

As you know, I like to build and customize my own cars. So I was looking for a restored good condition running ’67-’68 Camaro, which is considered a Restomod. Restomods refers to classic cars being restored, including some modern upgraded parts. For First-Gen Camaros, I’ve seen the price range vary between $25,000 to $40,000. You would have to familiarize yourself with the work done to the Restomod car, and know what parts have been restored or upgraded.

Next, and most importantly is to TEST DRIVE, and make sure to look all over for rust, especially underneath the car. Don’t let a paint-job fool you. Try to find out what parts have been upgraded by the previous owner, this is important! Not knowing what parts have been upgraded might affect your build goal…Trust me, I found out the hard way when I started upgrading my suspension. (I’ll mention what happened below).

I found my ’68 Camaro SS on Hemmings, being sold by a Classic Car dealership. I test drove the car, and felt comfortable purchasing it. It was in an okay condition, the motor was healthy. I wanted a NOT-Perfect Camaro, so I can do my own full rebuild to Pro-Touring. The one annoying part is that the dealership did not have any upgrade part details that was done by the previous original owner. I had to do the research myself. Stay tuned for next posts on my Camaro project.